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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Facing a financial emergency, Lakeland School District considers a reduced levy in May

The Lakeland Join School District Board of Trustees discuss budget setbacks on Wednesday at Timberlake High School in Spirit Lake.  (James Hanlon/The Spokesman-Review)

The Lakeland Joint School District will run a $7.52 million levy in May after its $9.52 million levy failed in November.

The school board approved the language for the May 20 ballot measure in a 3-2 vote at Timberlake High School in Spirit Lake on Wednesday. A motion to OK the levy initially failed 2-2, until Trustee Bob Jones, who has had health issues recently, called in to break the tie.

Even if the levy is successful, the $2 million reduction will force the district to make substantial cuts, mostly to support staff. The list of 40 full-time employees will include clerks, custodians, bus drivers, paraprofessionals and a principal assistant, according to a proposal prepared by Superintendent Lisa Arnold.

Trustee Randi Bain moved to change Arnold’s recommendation slightly, proposing to save two counselor positions and the district’s garbage service by asking each of the district’s two high schools to cut a staff position to the tune of $85,000. When Bain’s motion failed, Chair Michelle Thompson, who voted against Bain’s motion, suggested that Arnold cut three staff from the district office.

Arnold and Chief Finance Officer Jessica Grantham told the board they did not know which administrators they could feasibly cut.

Jones called in at that point to support the original motion.

After the levy failed, the district attempted to the cut the full $9.52 million from the budget, but the impact on student education was too great, Arnold said.

“We have worked to cut an additional $2 million from the general fund budget in such a way that we are not impacting class sizes and not eliminating the supports we currently have in place,” she said.

The remaining $7.52 million from the reduced levy would support $2 million for co-curricular activities and athletics, nearly $2 million for 25 teachers, $828,000 for resource officers and school safety, $614,000 for eight elementary special subject teachers, $500,000 for transportation, $434,000 for 10 librarians and $172,000 for two nurses. The levy would also maintain the advanced learning program at elementary schools, an alternative middle school program and access to the Kootenai Technical Education Campus.

Because of an anticipated $2 million of property tax relief, the actual tax burden would be closer to $5.5 million, Thompson said.

About 4,500 students are enrolled in the mostly rural school district covering northern Kootenai County. The November levy narrowly failed with 49.4% of the vote.

In recent weeks, the school board discussed the process for declaring a financial emergency and indicated it would consider doing so in early May when it has more information. A formal financial emergency gives the board extra powers in union negotiations and reduction in force procedures, attorney Megan O’Dowd explained at a board meeting last week.

Voters approved the district’s current $9.5 million levy in May 2023, after rejecting it two months earlier. The levy expires in June.

Despite increases in costs from inflation, the district decided to renew the levy for the same amount in November. Because of those increased costs, even if the levy had succeeded, the district still would have needed to make cuts, Arnold said.

Jason Bradbury, president of the teacher’s union, said in an email before the meeting he hopes the community can support the levy so that an emergency declaration is not necessary.

“The Lakeland School District has always been such an integral part of what makes our area so desirable, the community so successful, and a lot of the pride that people have who live in this area,” Bradbury said.

If the levy fails again, it will devastate the district, he said.

“I can’t even imagine what cutting $9.5 million dollars will look like,” Bradbury continued. “It’s inevitable, though, that programs and staff would have to be cut.”

If salaries are cut, many teachers will have to leave for better-paying districts, he said.

Amy Peterson, an administrative assistant and a parent of a high school senior, said she is glad her son won’t be in school next year because many of the cuts would affect programs of which he is part .

“As an employee, I’m nervous,” Peterson said.

James Hanlon's reporting for The Spokesman-Review is funded in part by Report for America and by members of the Spokane community. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper’s managing editor.