Lake Pend Oreille School District, ID

Original Research by School Decision on Lake Pend Oreille School District

Lake Pend Oreille School District covers a broad stretch of Bonner County in northern Idaho, from Sandpoint north toward Clark Fork and out to communities like Sagle, Hope, and Cocolalla. The district runs thirteen schools across that footprint: six elementary buildings feeding into Sandpoint Middle School and Sandpoint High School, plus Clark Fork Junior/Senior High School serving the eastern end, and a set of alternative options including Lake Pend Oreille High School, the Sandpoint Juvenile Detention program, and an LPOSD Home School Academy. With roughly three thousand six hundred students spread across pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, this is a mid-sized rural district whose schools anchor small towns separated by long stretches of lakefront and forest.

The student body is largely white, with a Hispanic population making up a modest share and a small number of students identifying as two or more races. Other racial and ethnic groups each represent a sliver of enrollment. The district did not report free-or-reduced-price lunch counts, special education rates, or English learner figures, so families looking to understand the economic and linguistic makeup of the classrooms will need to ask the district directly. Those gaps matter because they are the numbers that often contextualize academic results.

On state assessments, the district shows a clear pattern. English language arts is the stronger subject across the board. Proficiency climbs steadily from third grade through the middle grades, with sixth, seventh, and eighth grade ELA results sitting comfortably above the halfway mark. By middle school, a solid majority of tested students are meeting or exceeding state standards in reading and writing. Math tells a different story. Third grade starts at a majority-proficient level, but fourth and fifth grade dip closer to the midpoint, and eighth grade lands at roughly half. The pattern is consistent enough across grades that a parent might ask the district what is driving the ELA-to-math gap and whether intervention efforts are concentrated in the upper elementary and middle school math years. Science results, available only for fifth and eighth grade, sit in the same middle band as math.

We looked for graduation rate data and did not find it in the available sources. The same was true for civil rights reporting, course access, staffing ratios, attendance, discipline, and program offerings. None of these appeared in the data provided. The district also did not surface a strategic priorities document or a record of recent parent-relevant changes, so there is little here to describe program breadth, AP or dual-credit availability, or career pathway offerings. A family considering this district should go to the district website and individual school pages for that information.

The housing market across the district is expensive relative to both Idaho and national benchmarks. Weighted home values across the district's zip codes sit well above the state typical home value, and rents, where reported, reflect a market where housing costs absorb a large share of household income. Some communities within the district, like Sagle and the Athol area, carry particularly high home values, while Clark Fork and parts of the Sandpoint zip code come in lower. For families moving into the area, the cost of entry into this school district is a real factor and varies considerably depending on which end of the lake or which side of the highway you settle on.

What the data does show is a district with solid literacy outcomes that outpace its math results, a broad geographic reach across communities that range from relatively affordable to quite pricey, and a student population that is homogeneous by most measures. The missing pieces are substantial enough that they shape the picture. Without FRPL, graduation, program, or staffing data, much of what a parent would want to weigh about academic fit and student support is simply not in this record. The district office would be the next stop for anyone trying to fill in those blanks before making a decision.

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District Context

Officially reported figures, 2024-25.

Enrollment

3,647

Grades

PK–12

Schools

Student body

Hispanic 7%

Black 0%

White 88%

Asian 0%

Two+ 4%

Am. Indian / AK Native 1%

Hawaiian / Pac. Isl. 0%

Schools in this District

13 schools are officially reported under this district.

CLARK FORK JR/SR HIGH SCHOOL

SANDPOINT HIGH SCHOOL

KOOTENAI ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

SANDPOINT JUVENILE DETENTION

HOPE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

FARMIN STIDWELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

SOUTHSIDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

WASHINGTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

SAGLE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

NORTHSIDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

LAKE PEND OREILLE HIGH SCHOOL

SANDPOINT MIDDLE SCHOOL

LPOSD HOME SCHOOL ACADEMY

Academic Performance

Percent of students meeting or exceeding state standards, by grade.

Mathematics

6 grades reported

60%

Grade 3

50%

Grade 4

47%

Grade 5

61%

Grade 6

55%

Grade 7

49%

Grade 8

English Language Arts

6 grades reported

55%

Grade 3

57%

Grade 4

60%

Grade 5

68%

Grade 6

70%

Grade 7

68%

Grade 8

Science

2 grades reported

52%

Grade 5

56%

Grade 8

Housing & Real Estate

Data as of April 2026 | District-weighted from constituent ZIP codes

Home Values

Typical home value$650,325

Year-over-year change+2.0%

Range across 12 ZIP codes$486K to $802K

vs. state typical1.36x

vs. national typical1.77x

Home value trend (12 months)

ZIP code home values (12 ZIP codes)

ZIP	City	Value	YoY	Weight
83864	Kootenai	$649K	+2.0%	34.4%
83803		$502K	+3.6%	13.9%
83860	Sagle	$802K	+2.8%	13.9%
83811	Clark Fork	$487K	+0.9%	12.7%
83836	Hope	$731K	+0.1%	11.1%
83801	Athol	$797K	+2.0%	6.7%
83813	Cocolalla	$683K	+3.9%	4.9%
83809	Athol	$697K	-1.4%	2.0%
83852	Sandpoint	$494K	-5.3%	0.3%
83825	Dover	$763K	+1.5%	0.1%
83840	Kootenai	$486K	+1.2%	0.0%
83856	Priest River	$556K	+1.8%	0.0%

Rental Market

Typical monthly rent$1,805/mo

Rent trend (12 months)

ZIP code rents (1 ZIP codes)

ZIP	City	Rent/mo	YoY	Weight
83864	Kootenai	$1,805	—	34.4%

Affordability

Est. monthly mortgage (20% down at 6.48%)$3,282/mo

Home price / national median income7.8x

Annual rent / national median income25.9%

Est. mortgage exceeds rent by$1,476/mo

Comparison

State typical home value$477,506 (+1.1% YoY)

National typical home value$368,198 (+0.6% YoY)

State ZHVI trend (12 months)

National ZHVI trend (12 months)

Economic Context

30-year fixed mortgage rate6.48%

National unemployment rate4.3%

National median household income$83,730

CPI: Rent of shelter (index)447.05

30-year fixed mortgage rate (12 months)

National unemployment rate (12 months)

National median household income (12 months)

CPI: Rent of shelter (index) (12 months)

Sources: Zillow Home Value Index and Zillow Observed Rent Index (Zillow Group), Realtor.com via Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED)

Data Currently Unavailable

Civil Rights Data (CRDC)

This profile is derived exclusively from publicly available federal and state datasets. It may not reflect the most current information available. We encourage parents and families to supplement this data with information published directly on the school’s website, which may include more recent figures, additional programs, or updated enrollment data.