Lake Pend Oreille budget outlook: district plans to draw on reserves, advances CTE facilities project

Lake Pend Oreille School District officials said the district will draw on reserves to maintain current programs and pay for planned facilities work while moving forward on a career-technical education project funded largely by a grant and state facility dollars.

The district’s chief financial officer, Brian Wallace, told the board that the district ended a prior year with a roughly $22 million general fund balance and that the district expects to spend down a portion of that balance this year to cover planned costs, including facilities work and design fees. Wallace said the district is budgeting roughly $6 million for design and pre-construction costs this year and that a separate larger project that includes those costs is on the order of $18 million.

The district is also advancing a CTE facilities…