Soda Springs Joint District vs New Lothrop Area Public Schools
ID · 843 students • MI · 903 students • fiscal year 2024 • swap sides
In one line
- New Lothrop Area Public Schools spends 6% more per student than Soda Springs Joint District after adjusting for local price levels.
- Soda Springs Joint District directs 5 more cents of every operating dollar to instruction than New Lothrop Area Public Schools.
Are these even comparable?
Establish the shape of each district before reading a single dollar figure.
| Soda Springs Joint District | New Lothrop Area Public Schools | |
|---|---|---|
| Students enrolled | 843 | 903 |
| Schools | 4 | 2 |
| Grades served | PK–12 | PK–12 |
| Setting | Rural | Rural |
| County | Caribou County | Shiawassee County |
| State | ID | MI |
| Local price level (US = 100) Above 100 means a dollar buys less here than the national average. | 95.5 | 96.2 |
The headline dollar
Current operating spending per student, shown three ways. The first is what each district reports. The second and third are the honest ones for comparison.
| Soda Springs Joint District | New Lothrop Area Public Schools | |
|---|---|---|
| Per student, as reported | $11,953 | $12,713 |
| Per student, price-adjusted Divided by the local price level, so both figures are in the same money. | $12,517 | $13,213 |
| Per student, price-adjusted, excluding transport Transportation provision varies enormously between districts and states. Removing it compares the parts both districts actually do. | $11,901 | $12,866 |
| Capital spending per student Buildings and land, never folded into the operating figures above. It is lumpy: a district mid-build looks expensive for two years. | Locked | Locked |
Soda Springs Joint District
New Lothrop Area Public Schools
Where the money comes from
The funding mix determines how exposed a district is to local property values, to state politics, and to federal programmes ending.
Soda Springs Joint District
- Local 19.7% Locked
- State 72.8% Locked
- Federal 7.5% Locked
New Lothrop Area Public Schools
- Local 19.3% Locked
- State 75.9% Locked
- Federal 4.8% Locked
| Soda Springs Joint District | New Lothrop Area Public Schools | |
|---|---|---|
| Local share of revenue Mostly property tax. A high share means school budgets track local property values, up and down. | 19.7% | 19.3% |
| State share of revenue | 72.8% | 75.9% |
| Federal share of revenue | 7.5% | 4.8% |
| Total revenue | Locked | Locked |
How ID funds its districts
We have not yet written up ID's funding formula, so nothing is claimed here.
How MI funds its districts
Proposal A foundation allowance: a per-pupil grant largely funded by the state, with limited local enhancement.
Where the money goes
The same slices in the same order for both districts, plus the differences by function — because two pie charts side by side hide exactly the thing you want to see.
Soda Springs Joint District
- Instruction 64.7% Locked
- Instructional staff support 4.4% Locked
- Student support 4.3% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 8.9% Locked
- Transportation 4.9% Locked
- Food service 3.5% Locked
- School administration 5.4% Locked
- District administration 3.0% Locked
- Other support 0.9% Locked
- Other current 3.5% Locked
New Lothrop Area Public Schools
- Instruction 63.6% Locked
- Instructional staff support 0.9% Locked
- Student support 4.3% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 7.4% Locked
- Transportation 2.6% Locked
- Food service 5.1% Locked
- School administration 5.0% Locked
- District administration 4.5% Locked
- Other support 6.5% Locked
- Other current 5.1% Locked
What is actually different
Share of each district's operating dollar, Soda Springs Joint District minus New Lothrop Area Public Schools. Two pie charts side by side are almost impossible to read against each other; this is the same data as one chart.
| Soda Springs Joint District | New Lothrop Area Public Schools | |
|---|---|---|
| Cents of each operating dollar reaching classrooms Instruction plus instructional staff support, as a share of current spending. | 69.1% | 64.5% |
| Administration share District office plus school administration. | 8.5% | 9.6% |
| Transportation share | 4.9% | 2.6% |
What the money buys
Staffing levels are the most direct thing a budget converts into.
| Soda Springs Joint District | New Lothrop Area Public Schools | |
|---|---|---|
| Students per teacher This is a staffing ratio: total enrollment divided by teaching staff. It is NOT average class size. Actual classes are larger than this number in every district. | 17.6 | 17.4 |
| Students per counselor | Locked | Locked |
| Students per administrator | Locked | Locked |
| Total salaries All staff, not teachers alone. | Locked | Locked |
Who they serve
The answer to "but they serve different kids" — which is usually a fair objection.
| Soda Springs Joint District | New Lothrop Area Public Schools | |
|---|---|---|
| Child poverty rate Children aged 5 to 17 in poverty within the district boundary. Used instead of free-lunch eligibility, which community eligibility has made unusable for comparison. | 7.9% | 6.6% |
| English learners | — | — |
| Students with disabilities | — | — |
| Enrollment change, 5 years | -10.8% | -2.2% |
Results, and results for the money
Stability and risk
The homebuyer’s real question: what is likely to change after I move in?
Soda Springs Joint District
- Declining enrollment Enrollment fell more than 5% over five years. Enrollment decline is the single best predictor of school closures and programme cuts.
New Lothrop Area Public Schools
- High debt burden More than 10% of total spending goes to interest and debt retirement, money that cannot reach a classroom.
| Soda Springs Joint District | New Lothrop Area Public Schools | |
|---|---|---|
| Enrollment change, 5 years | -10.8% | -2.2% |
| Long-term debt per student | Locked | Locked |
| Debt service share of spending | Locked | Locked |
Enrolling a child
The same checklist for both districts. Every "required" below links to the sentence it came from.
Soda Springs Joint District
https://ss.powerschool.com/public/formbuilder/form.html?formid=1268771
Almost nothing could be read off this page — usually a portal that builds its content in the browser. Treat the column below as "we could not tell", and open the district's page yourself.
Registration runs through PowerSchool. Read August 23, 2026.
New Lothrop Area Public Schools
Enroll with Us - New Lothrop Area Public Schools
Almost nothing could be read off this page — usually a portal that builds its content in the browser. Treat the column below as "we could not tell", and open the district's page yourself.
Registration runs through FinalForms. Read August 23, 2026.
Is a seat at your zoned school guaranteed?
Soda Springs Joint District
We have no such statement from this district — which is not the same as a promise that your zoned school has room. Most districts never publish the policy in either direction. Ask the school office directly whether your address’s school is enrolling at your child’s grade level before you sign anything.
New Lothrop Area Public Schools
We have no such statement from this district — which is not the same as a promise that your zoned school has room. Most districts never publish the policy in either direction. Ask the school office directly whether your address’s school is enrolling at your child’s grade level before you sign anything.
- This is the district’s own published wording, not our summary of it. Policies are rewritten between enrollment seasons and a page can be out of date the day after we read it — the school office is the only authority on whether a particular grade at a particular school is full right now.
- A warning here is about capacity, not about your address. It does not mean your child will be moved; it means the district has told you in writing that it may move them.
- Required the page says so, and the sentence is quoted.
- Mentioned only it comes up, but not as a requirement — often a sentence saying the district cannot demand it.
- Not mentioned we read the page and it was not on it. That is not the same as "not required".
- Page not read we have no enrollment page for this district.
Documents to bring
| Soda Springs Joint District | New Lothrop Area Public Schools | |
|---|---|---|
| Proof of residency | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Proof of age (usually a birth certificate) | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Immunisation records | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Physical examination | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Dental, vision or hearing screening | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Tuberculosis test | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Records from the previous school | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| IEP or 504 plan | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Custody or guardianship paperwork | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Parent or guardian photo ID | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Home language survey | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Emergency contact information | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Proof of income | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Social security number Asked for by some districts. It is not required to enrol, and a school may not refuse a child who does not provide one. We list it because districts ask, not because you must answer. | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
How enrolling works
Locked 11 steps of the enrollment process — deadlines, appointments, proof of residency — are not shown. What to bring is above, and stays free.
- A blank row means the requirement did not appear on the district’s page. It does not mean the district will not ask for it — published lists are routinely incomplete, and the registrar has the final word.
- Requirements change every enrollment season. Check the district’s own page, linked above, before you gather anything.
- A district cannot condition enrollment on your child’s immigration status: under Plyler v. Doe (1982) every child resident in the district is entitled to a free public education. If a district asks for something that would reveal status, you are not obliged to provide it.
- If your family is in temporary or shared housing, the McKinney-Vento Act lets a child enrol immediately without the residency and records documents listed here. Ask for the district’s homeless liaison by name.
Comparability notes
- Cross-state comparison. Dollars below are shown both as reported and adjusted to a common price level, because a dollar buys different amounts of teacher in ID and MI.
- At least one district sits outside a metro area with its own published price index, so its cost adjustment uses the statewide index. That is a coarser adjustment.
What these numbers are, exactly
Who decides, and what it costs you
Every band above this one asks what a district spends. This one asks who chose to.
Soda Springs Joint District
The district levies its own school tax
This district raises property tax in its own name. Who sets the rate varies by state — an elected board in some, a public vote in others — but the levy is the school system’s own, and it is the part of a tax bill that school politics moves most directly.
New Lothrop Area Public Schools
The district levies its own school tax
This district raises property tax in its own name. Who sets the rate varies by state — an elected board in some, a public vote in others — but the levy is the school system’s own, and it is the part of a tax bill that school politics moves most directly.
| Soda Springs Joint District | New Lothrop Area Public Schools | |
|---|---|---|
| School property tax levied, per student Only for districts that levy in their own name. Blank where the county or town levies instead — see the cards above, and read the next row. | $1,844 | $2,200 |
| Appropriated by the county or town, per student What the parent government handed the schools, for dependent systems. This is a general appropriation, not solely property tax. | — | — |
| Property tax as a share of all revenue How much of the budget rides on local property values, and therefore on local votes. | 12.8% | 13.4% |
| Long-term debt already owed, per student The balance at the end of the year, for scale. Repaid over decades, so it is a commitment made by earlier boards rather than a bill arriving now. | Locked | Locked |
| Debt service as a share of spending Interest plus principal repaid this year, against total spending. This is the part of the debt that is being paid now, out of money that would otherwise reach a classroom. | Locked | Locked |
| New long-term debt issued, per student Money borrowed during fiscal year 2024. What this figure does and does not tell you is set out under the table. | $0 | $0 |
- Soda Springs Joint District: issued no new long-term debt in fiscal year 2024. That is a reported zero, not a gap in the data.
- New Lothrop Area Public Schools: issued no new long-term debt in fiscal year 2024. That is a reported zero, not a gap in the data.
- A figure in the borrowing row is not a bond voters approved. It records debt issued, and that includes refinancing existing debt at a new rate — which changes nothing about what a district owes — as well as certificates of participation and lease-revenue debt, which in many states a board can issue with no referendum at all. To find out what was actually on a ballot, check the county election office.
- Debt is repaid over decades. A large balance per student is a commitment made by earlier boards and earlier voters, not a bill arriving this year. The debt service row above it is the part being paid now.
Who sits on the board
Soda Springs Joint District board of education
- Sally Jensen — Vice Chair
- Ben Goode — Trustee
- Myra Leatherman — Trustee
- Galen Wilson — Trustee
- Steven Barker — Chair
Read from the district’s own board page on 2026-08-24. Boards change; the district’s page is the current record, not ours.
These seats are elected, and what this board decides — the budget, the attendance boundaries, the calendar — is decided at a meeting the public may attend. The district’s own board page, linked above, is where it publishes the schedule and the agenda. We do not hold meeting dates or contact details for these people.
New Lothrop Area Public Schools board of education
- Wendy Vincke — Board President
- Richard White — Board Vice President
- Ashley Krupp — Board Secretary
- Adam Green — Board Treasurer
- Tim Birchmeier — Board Trustee
- Jennifer Otter — Board Trustee
- Joseph Toma — Board Trustee
Read from the district’s own board page on 2026-08-24. Boards change; the district’s page is the current record, not ours.
These seats are elected, and what this board decides — the budget, the attendance boundaries, the calendar — is decided at a meeting the public may attend. The district’s own board page, linked above, is where it publishes the schedule and the agenda. We do not hold meeting dates or contact details for these people.
Funding measures on the ballot
Soda Springs Joint District
| Election | Measure | Amount | Yes | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-11-05 | BondShall the Board of Trustees of Joint School District No. 150, Caribou, Bear Lake and Bonneville Counties, State of Idaho (the "District"), be authoriz…Shall the Board of Trustees of Joint School District No. 150, Caribou, Bear Lake and Bonneville Counties, State of Idaho (the "District"), be authorized to issue general obligation school bonds of said District in the principal amount of up to $55,165,000 for the purpose of financing the costs of acquisition, construction and equipping of (i) a new high school on existing District land, (ii) projects at the existing elementary school, including additional classrooms and upgrades to the existing facilities and site, and iii) a new gymnasium at the existing elementary school, together with related supporting infrastructure, furnishings and equipment necessary to operate the foregoing buildings and improvements, such bonds to become due in such installments as may be fixed by the Board, the final installment of such bonds to fall due not later than twenty (20) years from the date of issuance thereof, all as provided in the Resolution adopted by the Board on August 28, 2024? |
$55.2M | 43.3% | No outcome published |
One measure has no outcome in the state’s file. We show the vote share and stop there.
From the state’s own election file. Latest election on record: 2024-11-05.
What this state publishes: School district ballot questions from the Idaho Secretary of State's elections database, which states its own span as 1990 to 2024 and holds 713 questions across every local taxing body in the state. Only even-year May primaries and November generals appear: Idaho school districts may also vote in March, in August and in odd-numbered years, and none of those elections are in this file, so a district shown with no measure in a year may simply have voted on a date the state does not archive here. Local school questions begin in practice in 2014. Two things this source does not supply are left out rather than guessed at. It publishes no outcome — the winning choice it marks is the majority recomputed for display, and Idaho bonds need a two-thirds supermajority, so a measure with 60 percent support is marked a winner and failed — and so no Idaho measure here is shown as passed or defeated. And it files each question under a single county, district or the state without saying whether those votes are the whole district's: for a district lying across county lines each county canvasses its own part, so a question is published only where the source files it under the school district itself or where every county named on the ballot reported.
New Lothrop Area Public Schools
This district appears in none of what we read from MI’s source in its current ballot window (2026).
What this state publishes: Michigan's Voter Information Center publishes sample ballots, not results. Every question here is the text voters were given; the Secretary of State's ballot preview records no vote counts and no outcome, so nothing on this page says whether a Michigan measure passed. The preview also carries only the elections in its current window — recent and upcoming — so a Michigan district's older bonds and millages are not here. And one precinct is read per township or city: where a township is split between school districts, a question that appeared only in another precinct of that township is not here either. A Michigan district with no rows has not necessarily left its taxpayers alone.
- A vote share is not an outcome. What it takes to carry varies by state and by measure — in some states a bond needs a supermajority and a minimum turnout while a levy on the same ballot needs half, so a clear majority can still lose. Every outcome shown here is copied from the state’s own election file, and the rule that applied is stated with the coverage above. Where that file stated no outcome we show whatever count it published and no verdict, rather than working one out from the percentage — and some states publish the ballot question without ever recording a count, so a blank there is a number nobody printed.
- These are the measures a district put to its voters, not its whole tax bill. A property tax bill also carries county, city and state levies that have nothing to do with schools, and in most states a school board can issue some kinds of debt with no vote at all.
The detailed figures for Soda Springs Joint District and New Lothrop Area Public Schools
The verdict, the headline dollar, the funding shares, who is served and every comparability caveat are free above, and stay free. What is behind the lock is the detail you would want before acting on any of it:
- capital spending per student
- total revenue and total current spending, and the funding mix in dollars (the percentage shares stay free)
- the ten-line per-student breakdown of where the money goes
- counselor and administrator ratios, and the total salary bill
- the debt behind the risk flags — per student, and as a share of spending
- the enrollment process — deadlines, appointments and proof of residency
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Soda Springs Joint District on its own · New Lothrop Area Public Schools on its own