Coalition files grievance against school district over LPOHS campus relocation

Complaint alleges financial misuse, attendance data fraud

By Soncirey Mitchell
Reader Staff

The Concerned Citizens for LPOHS Coalition, led by former-West Bonner County School District Superintendent Jackie Branum, lodged a formal grievance against Lake Pend Oreille School District on July 30 over plans to move Lake Pend Oreille High School from its historic Boyer Avenue campus. 

The complaint, filed with the Idaho Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs, demands that the district cease all relocation efforts and engage in an independent, third-party forensic audit of finances and student attendance and graduation records, among other requirements.

Among numerous claims in the 31-page document, the coalition alleges the district has violated Idaho Open Meeting Law and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, as well as falsified “district-wide attendance data” and misallocated public funds.

The district announced its intention to close LPOHS’s 117-year-old facility in February due to dwindling attendance, state funding cuts, and the cost of maintenance and renovations. Though the school board has yet to vote officially, the district plans to keep students in the century-old building for core classes during the 2026-’27 school year, giving them the option to bus to Sandpoint High School and the Career Technical Education Center for electives or attend class online. The school will then move into the portables behind Sandpoint Middle School for the 2027-’28 school year.

Renovations to SMS are ongoing and will continue through the coming school year, when students will use the portables as temporary classrooms. The portables will also undergo major renovations using some of the same funds to prepare for LPOHS’s student body.

The coalition has taken issue with the use of the portables, arguing that they do not provide a large enough separation from SHS and that “there is zero record of any funded, code-compliant plan or engineering layout” to add indoor plumbing and bathrooms.

“At-risk youth enroll at LPOHS precisely because they struggle with intense social anxiety, overwhelming crowds, and the rigid, high-stimulus structures of traditional campuses,” the complaint stated, later adding, “The superintendent [Becky Meyer] is attempting to solve a financial math problem, while this community and its taxpayers are fighting to protect a psychological safe haven mandated by law.”

According to an official response from the district, shared with the Reader on July 30, the portables’ classrooms will be code-compliant and include upgraded plumbing, meaning students and teachers will not have to leave campus during the school day.

“The foundational building at the new LPOHS campus is currently being remodeled this summer with the addition of student and staff restrooms, which are necessary for the SMS use of that building during next school year’s SMS renovations,” District Community Relations Liaison Shelby Struhs told the Reader. “Further remodeling will continue on this campus next summer prior to LPOHS relocating, which includes additional plumbing.”

The coalition further claimed that allowing LPOHS students to take SHS classes and positioning the campuses directly next to one another will have the unintended consequence of reducing LPOHS from an alternative school to a program in the eyes of the state. This would eliminate $314,770 in funding over three years; however, the district argues that LPOHS will “still be considered a separate campus” and generate At-Risk Student funding, as it only needs to meet three of five criteria to qualify as a separate school under the Idaho Administrative Procedure Act. 

According to LPOSD’s release, these criteria include, “Enrollment of at least 36 students, full-time enrollment, [an] instructional model different from the traditional high school” and that it “awards its own diploma or receives its own federal accountability rating.”

As for the current campus, the district’s 2023-’24 Building Condition Evaluation rated both the SMS and LPOHS facilities “unsatisfactory,” along with the Homeschool Academy and Northside and Washington elementaries. For the century-old facility, the evaluation recommended installing “structural reinforcement” to the masonry; adding a fire suppression system and ADA elevator and emergency exits; and replacing the roof, electrical services, plumbing and fire alarm system.

Unlike SMS, which has received necessary funding for renovations, the alternative high school has a projected enrollment of only 56 students for the 2026-’27 school year. According to the district, enrollment at LPOHS has steadily declined from 94 students in 2023-’24 to 76 in 2025-’26, which had a graduating class of 29. Still, the coalition argues that attendance has historically fluctuated between highs and lows. Graduating classes of 44 in 2007 and 39 in 2019 similarly diminished enrollment for brief periods.

Reduced state funding due to low enrollment has meant LPOHS has been operating at a deficit, costing the district $528,042 over the past five years. LPOSD has recently cut costs by eliminating culinary arts, art electives and P.E., and combining the positions of principal and counselor, which the grievance calls “a deliberate strategy of resource attrition.”

LPOHS is not the only school to lose full-time employees. Sagle Elementary lost two positions this year, and students at Clark Fork High School have lost multiple electives over the past five years, necessitating online coursework.

The grievance attributes budgetary shortfalls, in part, to alleged misuse of funds and “premium public investment” in executive leadership salaries and benefits.

“While defunding classroom resources and targeting alternative tracks, the administration quietly leveraged restricted federal [Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief] pandemic relief funds through the bulk consent agenda to fund a luxury renovation and modernization of the central office executive boardroom,” wrote the coalition.

The group further alleges that LPOSD routinely buries “systemic staff cuts, curriculum reductions and facility alterations” within consent agendas, allegedly violating Open Meeting Law, to avoid school board deliberation and public oversight.

The administration labeled the ESSER allegation as “false” in its official response, stating that the money was removed from the general fund via a school board vote and was used “to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements as well as space and security concerns.”

General payroll expenses for the district’s administration, which total more than $2.6 million, have also come under scrutiny, with some questioning why Meyer is the third-highest-paid superintendent in the state after those of the West Ada and Boise school districts, which manage 40,000 and 21,000 students, respectively. Meyer earns $209,139 for her oversight of approximately 3,600 students.

According to Struhs, the district has already reduced its administrative costs in recent years, having consolidated two clerical positions and chosen not to replace an elementary assistant superintendent and an operations specialist following their departures.

Finally, the official grievance alleges that the current administration and schools throughout the district have been artificially inflating daily attendance metrics and graduation rates to increase state funding, which, they claim, could result in “catastrophic, multi-million dollar state funding clawbacks.”

The claims largely center on area high schools, which utilize “Flex Fridays” — optional online work days for students with a cumulative grade of at least 75%. The grievance claims that any student not on campus on a Flex Friday, regardless of whether they are in contact with a teacher, is marked with an E-code (“Excused/Educational/Working from home”) and therefore counts as present for funding purposes. The administration has disputed this, saying that students who fail to work with a teacher on Flex Fridays are marked as absent.

The coalition also alleges that to preserve graduation rates, the district transfers failing students — or anyone in danger of dropping out — to LPOHS in the fourth quarter before graduation.

They further claim that upon “initial enrollment or at critical performance thresholds across all district traditional and alternative high schools … students are routinely directed or coerced by administration to sign an undated, standardized state ‘Intent to Homeschool’ withdrawal form to be held on file.” 

According to the grievance, these forms are then backdated if a student drops out or stops attending class.

The administration called both accusations false, adding that if students were forced to sign homeschool enrollment papers, “we would have a 100% graduation rate at LPOHS. Two years ago the graduation rate was 50%, and last year it was 80%.”

Based on these accusations, the coalition has asked for remediation in the form of an independent fiscal analysis, a forensic attendance and state revenue integrity audit, and supplemental information on the proposed relocation, including an independent fiscal analysis of projected state funding changes, a change of occupancy permit, ADA accessibility audit, state operational inspection on the portables, public evaluation of maintenance data and an administrative overhead review. 

They further request that the district cease all current relocation efforts, present proposed changes at the next school board meeting for a vote and hold a formal hearing on the relocation, among other demands.

“The Board retains the exclusive corporate authority to resolve this crisis locally and transparently,” wrote the coalition. “Failure to act will result in mandatory state intervention, public regulatory scrutiny and direct civil liability.”

As requested, the school board will vote on LPOHS’s relocation at the regular public meeting on Tuesday, July 14 at 5 p.m. Attend in person at the district headquarters in Ponderay (365 Triangle Drive). Meetings are not streamed, but all recordings are available on the LPOSD No. 84 YouTube page after the fact.