Bonneville weighs staff cuts, upping levy request amid stagnant K-12 funding outlook

Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on March 5, 2026

by Kaeden Lincoln, IdahoEdNews:

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — The Bonneville School District is weighing staff cuts and could ask patrons for more local funding amid a budget shortfall leaders peg at some $6 million.

Leaders could cut up to 15 certified positions and 25 classified positions next school year in an effort to save around $2.5 million. A reading program priced at around $500,000 could also be on the chopping block. Adjustments could include upping the East Idaho district’s two-year supplemental levy by $8 million.

Superintendent Scott Woolstenhulme presented a budget outlook to patrons over Zoom Monday, detailing possible changes resulting from depleting savings and the Legislature’s K-12 funding outlook.

The district’s savings, or fund balance, reached a historic $17.3 million in 2024, thanks to one-time funds from the Legislature to make up for a shift from enrollment-based K-12 funding to the state’s normal attendance-based model after the pandemic.

“We knew back in 2024 that those one-time funds were finished and things were about to start looking drastically different,” Woolstenhulme said Monday.

At the current rate of spending, Bonneville’s fund balance would plummet from $6.6 million this year to $110,000 by 2027, Woolstenhulme said. Three years of shrinking enrollment contribute to the district’s shortfall.

Meanwhile, lawmakers this session have pushed to avoid cutting state funding for K-12. But public schools will still have to slash budgets in the coming year even if state funding remains flat. Local leaders like Woolstenhulme hope to counter messaging from the Statehouse that they’ve been held harmless by the other belt tightening this session. They say increasing costs for utilities, food and employee health insurance are weighing on schools.

Woolstenhulme signaled cuts last week during meetings in Boise. “We are cutting our budget. I think that’s probably true of almost every district in the state,” he told school trustees during a presentation on overseeing budget reductions.

On Monday, Woolstenhulme also floated increasing the district’s supplemental levy to help cover costs for employing paraprofessionals, purchasing classroom supplies and supporting programs for gifted and talented students, full-day kindergarten, P.E., music, student well-being and career-technical learning.

Voters approved the district’s $11.6 million, two-year supplemental levy in 2024. Woolstenhulme proposed increasing the measure to $19.6 million over two years to help absorb costs — something trustees would ultimately have to approve before going before voters.

That discussion will likely happen Wednesday, March 11, Woolstenhulme told EdNews. An increase would cost local property owners.

“I’m currently paying just over $210 per year,” the superintendent said of his house with a roughly $300,000 taxable value. “If the (new levy) were approved, that would go up to $360 a year.”

'We really didn't know'

Woolstenhulme also blamed part of the district’s shortfall on the state’s shift back to attendance-based funding after the pandemic. Idaho shifted temporarily to an enrollment-based model but went back to a formula that uses students’ average daily attendance to carve up funding. As a result, state funding for schools fluctuates along with districts’ attendance numbers.

The attendance-based model decreases the district’s funding by about 7% compared to an enrollment-based model, Woolstenhulme said. “We really didn’t know, coming out of the pandemic, whether we would continue to be funded on enrollment or attendance.”

But one lawmaker pushed back on that claim.

Woolstenhulme said Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, told him he should have anticipated returning to attendance-based funding after the pandemic.

The superintendent said Monday that a 2022 bill would have made enrollment-based funding “permanent.” That measure passed the House and Senate before Gov. Brad Little vetoed it.

“We had every hope that we would continue to see enrollment-based funding, a much more stable source of funding,” Woolstenhulme said.

But the bill Little vetoed would have only extended enrollment-based funding through the 2023-24 school year.

After vetoing the bill, Little said he would support a vote by the State Board of Education to continue it “only if attendance drops warranted it.”