WHATCOM COUNTY, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – A local school district may be receiving some necessary funding from a controversial timber sale in Whatcom County.

On Oct. 1, the Washington State Board of Natural Resources approved the sale of timber from Little Lilly. The property is a four-unit, 89-acre site located near the Van Zandt Dike.

The Mount Baker School District is named by the state as one of the main beneficiaries of the sale.

District leaders wrote a letter to the Whatcom County Council in September explaining the significance of timber revenue to the district in light of its current budget deficit. It named recent delays in timber sales as a major contributor to the deficit, which caused the district to lay off 23 teachers earlier this year.

Council member Jon Scanlon says those budget problems were made evident when he met with the district’s top leadership.

“The biggest thing I came back with is just how tight their budgets are right now,” Scanlon said at a committee meeting on Oct. 8. “They’re operating with maybe a month or two in the bank, things are really tight there.”

Several conservation groups had previously urged the council to delay the sale so the county and DNR could work on a shared approach to best manage the forest. But the county’s Forest Advisory Committee voted to support the sale last month after finding no problem with the DNR’s plan to harvest the land.

Little Lilly is set to be auctioned off on Nov. 20 with bids starting at just under $1.6 million.

Mount Baker School District leaders say the sale will bring the district nearly $300,000.