Idaho Passed $2 Billion in Funding for School Building Repairs. It’s Not Nearly Enough.

by Becca Savransky, Idaho Statesman

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Idaho Statesman. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

Last year, Idaho legislators approved a 10-year, $2 billion funding bill to help school districts throughout the state whose buildings were crumbling and sometimes dangerous.

But early reports from districts and a new state cost estimate show that even after passage of the historic funding bill, districts are still struggling to meet their most dire needs. That has put local school officials in the same position they have long faced: asking voters to approve additional funds.

School districts in Idaho rely heavily on taxpayers to approve local bonds to pay for school construction and repair. The state’s unusual policy, however, requires two-thirds of voters for a bond to pass, a threshold many superintendents say is nearly impossible to reach. Most states require less.

The Idaho Statesman and ProPublica reported in 2023 how the bond requirement, combined with the Legislature’s reluctance to invest in school facilities, has forced students to attend schools with faulty heating systems, leaking roofs and broken plumbing. Idaho has long ranked last or near last among states in education spending per pupil.

Much of the new money from the funding bill is being distributed based on the number of students attending school in each district — a big problem for smaller and more rural schools. An analysis by ProPublica and the Idaho Statesman shows that most of the state’s school districts will get less money than it would take to build a new school. Around 40% of the districts will receive $2 million or less, which some administrators said wouldn’t be enough to cover their biggest repairs.

District officials in Boundary County, wedged along the Canadian border with a population of just over 13,000, were grateful to receive about $5 million from the new funding bill.

Voters there in 2022 twice voted down a $16 million bond to replace an elementary school with failing plumbing, frigid classrooms and a roof that drips into buckets secured to the ceilings. One of those times, 54% of voters supported it, but that wasn’t enough to surpass the state’s required two-thirds majority.

After the state kicked in about $5 million from the new funding bill, the district in November asked voters to approve the remaining $10.5 million to build the elementary school. But the lower cost was not enough to convince residents to approve the bond.

An analysis of data from the Idaho Department of Education provided to ProPublica and the Statesman shows that the problems in Boundary County may be widespread. As of Feb. 3, all but one district had submitted the paperwork needed to receive the funds. But the demand far outstripped the supply. It would take more than $8 billion over 10 years to fix and maintain every Idaho school, according to state estimates generated from condition assessments provided by each district.

Department of Education officials say the situation isn’t quite that dire. The $8 billion figure assumes replacement of systems rather than repairs or upgrades. For example, if a school rated its electrical system as poor because its breaker panel wasn’t functioning properly, but its wiring was fine, the state might predict the entire system would need to be replaced in a year and tally the cost of replacing both parts of the system.

That could be a cost difference of millions, said Spencer Barzee, a deputy superintendent at the Idaho Department of Education.

One part of the funding bill will raise a little more than $1 billion for the School Modernization Facilities Fund. Districts can take the money as a lump sum, and every district that has applied said it would, according to funding applications submitted to the state Department of Education. That money can be used to build new school buildings or for major long-term repairs like replacing a school’s air conditioning system, but due to federal regulations on bond funding, the money can’t be used for routine maintenance, like repairing damaged walls in a single classroom. Districts can also invest the money and use it later.

School Modernization Facilities Fund Allocated Only 12% of the Estimated Cost to Fix or Maintain Every School Note: Figures are state estimates at the time of publication. Source: Idaho Department of Education. (Lucas Waldron/ProPublica)

The other part of the bill takes $250 million in new funds and adds $500 million from state lottery money — previously directed to school districts for routine maintenance — for districts to pay off existing bonds or levies. Any remaining funds can go toward other projects. The remaining funds, around $250 million, will cover financing costs.

The smallest districts in the state will receive less than $1 million each from the modernization fund to be used over 10 years, according to state data, while the West Ada School District, the largest in the state, is expected to receive about $140 million.

In many cases, the amount of money a school district will receive is less than it would cost for it to build a school or make major renovations. Cassia County Joint School District, which is expected to receive around $21 million, said its most pressing needs include adding 13 classrooms and building a gym, which it estimates will cost around $30 million, according to its application materials. The Council School District needs a new elementary school that it estimates will cost around $8 million. It received just over $1 million. The Grace Joint School District said a new high school would cost around $40 million, but it will receive around $2 million.

Republican lawmakers recognized the new funding bill passed last year wouldn’t solve the problem.

Gov. Brad Little said in his State of the State address last month that he wants to add an additional $50 million per year, in part to help rural districts fix their buildings. That money would be split to go toward rural facilities, mental health and school safety, and literacy initiatives. The governor has not said how much of that money would go to rural school districts or how it would be distributed. Those questions will be up to the Legislature.

District administrators say they are grateful for the funds they’ve received from the $2 billion bill but warn that even with the additional funds, it won’t be enough.

“The money is helpful, and I appreciated the effort, but our needs exceed the amount we received,” Joe Steele, the superintendent in the Butte County School District, said in an email. “Even spread out over several years to address issues, it won’t be enough to cover all the needs.”

Many School Buildings Rated Fair, Poor

When the Legislature proposed new school facilities funding last year, the state had not conducted a comprehensive assessment of school buildings — during which building experts physically inspect buildings — in three decades.

To fill in the gaps, ProPublica and the Statesman in 2023 surveyed every district in the state on the condition of its facilities and found nearly every one struggled to fix and replace facilities. Superintendents told the publications they were often left putting Band-Aids on issues they didn’t have enough money to fully fix, creating even more problems further down the line.

Then last year lawmakers went further, mandating in the bill that school districts submit a plan that included what it would take to bring every student-utilized building up to good or perfect condition. The Idaho Department of Education asked districts to assess each building in 42 categories, including plumbing, heating and cooling and electrical, and to grade each part as “replace,” “poor,” “fair” or “good.” Then the department used software to predict when each part of a building would need to be replaced and estimated the cost based on the square footage of the buildings.

At the end of the assessment, the program produced an estimate for how much it would cost to bring every building into “good” condition over the next 20-plus years. ProPublica and the Statesman requested all data on how districts rated their schools in the assessment, the state’s estimate of each district’s monetary needs and how much money each district received.

In more than a third of the assessment categories, districts rated a majority of buildings as “fair,” “poor” or “replace.” These include some critical parts of a building’s infrastructure: roofs, heating systems, exterior doors, walls and windows. In other categories, such as security systems and cooling systems, around one-third of buildings were marked as N/A, meaning they don’t have those systems to rate, according to state officials. In around 40% of buildings, foundations, water piping and fire alarm systems were rated as “fair,” “poor” or “replace.” On average, one-third of all of the ratings were “good.”

Less Than Half of All School Buildings in Idaho Were Rated “Good” on Heating, Cooling, Windows and Roofs Note: Ratings are self-reported by individual schools. Source: Idaho Department of Education. (Lucas Waldron/ProPublica)

Some districts want to use the money for major upgrades, according to the applications provided to the Statesman via a records request.

But the money has to last 10 years, and plans submitted by state school districts show a single project could quickly deplete the funds.

Even smaller upgrades can prove costly. Replacing a sprinkler system could cost over $500,000, according to estimates from the Basin School District; in one of the districts that got less than $1 million, such a project would significantly reduce what it has for future needs.

In Swan Valley, a small district of 50 students in eastern Idaho, Superintendent Michael Jacobson said the lump sum of about $200,000 will allow the district to finish addressing a big need: replacing its heating and air conditioning system, a $1 million project. But it’s nerve-wracking to think the district might not get any more money for its facility for nearly a decade, he said. The conditions assessment survey estimated the district would need $3.3 million over 10 years to fix and maintain its building.

“How are we going to continue to take care of all of our day to day needs? What if there is a major facilities situation at our school? How will we take care of it?” he said in an email to the Statesman and ProPublica. That’s a question many superintendents are asking.

Superintendents Worry About Losing Maintenance Funds

The new funding bill adds money to school budgets for big projects, but that money can’t be used for routine maintenance. With the loss of maintenance funding, districts said they will now have to find money to pay for smaller repairs like fixing a few windows in a school or paying maintenance staff.

Scott Woolstenhulme, the superintendent in the Bonneville School District, a larger district of over 13,000 students in eastern Idaho, said the funding shift left the district with about a $1 million budgetary shortfall — money it had used, in part, to pay maintenance staff. The district is drawing from its general fund to make up the difference, but that is a short-term solution: If the money isn’t restored, he said, the district will have to ask voters to approve a tax increase to pay for these operating costs. “This is a significant issue for us,” he said in an email.

The Twin Falls School District also used the funds to pay for its maintenance staff, “critical staff members who take on everything from plowing the snow and mowing lawns to repairing roofs and replacing bathroom fixtures,” spokesperson Eva Craner said. The district asked taxpayers for more money to make up for the loss in the November election, and the increased supplemental levy passed, but Craner is hopeful the Legislature will restore maintenance funding. “Without this kind of manpower, our buildings would not be the community assets we are proud of today,” she said.

Jan Bayer, the superintendent in Boundary County, said now that the district’s bond has failed again, trustees worry that Valley View Elementary, with its deteriorating plumbing, freezing classrooms and cracking walls, will soon be in such disrepair that it will no longer be safe for students or staff.

For now, the money the district has received from the state is sitting in an account accruing interest. The funds are a lifeline, Bayer said, but they’re not enough to meet the district’s most dire need.

“It’s getting to the point where we’re just getting nickeled and dimed to death,” Bayer said.

The Idaho Statesman and ProPublica are working on a new project focused on special education in Idaho. If you or a loved one has experience with special education in the state, we would love to talk to you. You can reach reporter Becca Savransky at bsavransky@idahostatesman.com.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Becca Savransky, Idaho Statesman.