Local schools prepare for budget cuts

Havre Public Schools will be one of the hardest hit districts in this part of north-central Montana as Montana public schools will receive $19.1 million less in the next two years due to low state revenue projections triggering budget cuts.

“That’s $100,000 we’re not going to get,” Havre Public Schools Superintendent Andy Carlson said. “That is for this fiscal year.  Next year will be as large or potentially larger.”

Other superintendents said they are dealing with cuts caused by the Legisature’s budget, but not as severe as Havre.

The Montana Legislature passed a budget earlier in the year projecting $2.2 billion in revenue. The Legislative Fiscal Division released a new calculation July 26 for 2017 state revenues. The calculation came in about $74.5 million below projections. The statewide cuts are the result of triggers the 2017 state Legislature put into a budget bill, Senate Bill 261.

SB 261 comes as the effects of another school bill, House Bill 647, are still reverberating, Carlson said.

When HB 647 was passed, it eliminated general fund block grants and the Natural Resource Development payment, local legislators had said.

“The removal of these two sources of nonlevy revenue will leave a greater hole to fill in general fund budgets that is statutorily filled by state Guaranteed Tax Base aid for eligible districts and local property taxes,” Rep. Jacob Bachmeier, D-Havre, Rep. Jim O’Hara, R-Fort Benton, and Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, said in a letter to the editor about HB 647 last month.

The budget cuts means decision have to be made, Carlson said.

“We’re not going to put additional burdens on local taxpayers. We have to make some tough decisions,” Carlson said. “We’ve tried to be responsible with our finances.”

Apart from losing the student progress tracking program Data for Achievement, Carlson said, staff development travel will probably be curbed. The reductions might also permeate the secretarial, custodial and para professional department. Renovations of the bathrooms and science rooms will also most likely be put off, or at least, delayed longer. And future plans to refurbish the old ventilation system at the high school, Carlson continued, will have to be pushed further into the future.

The problem with the high school building was that a secondary roof was put on the school without upgrading the ventilation system, a problem that needs to be addressed, Carlson said last year.

For Havre district leaders, there is no sign of relief on the horizon. The budget cuts come at a time when enrollment has, again, hit another low. Last year, Carlson said, Havre schools had 1,800 students. This year, that number, for the first time, is less than 1,800.

“You need growth to generate,“ he said.

Most regional school districts are smaller than Havre, and they will lose a fraction in funding that Havre will see, said the superintendents, or clerk, of those school districts.

Rocky Boy schools, with its approximate 550 students, will lose about $17,000 for the upcoming school year. Chinook schools and their nearly 270 students will have to do with $20,000 less. The 170 students at North Star Schools will have a tad more than $19,000 less to work with this upcoming school year. Chester-Joplin-Inverness, a district with about 235 students, will receive $11,600 less this year. Box Elder, whose rising enrollment in the past years has brought the student population to about 450 students, will have to do with $16,000 less. Harlem Schools will lose $20,291 as a result of SB 261 alone.

Like in Havre, HB 647 has already started cutting into Harlem schools’ budget. The Natural Resource Development payment — $32,800 — will be eliminated because of HB 647. So will the General Fund Block Grant, which totals to an additional $91,688, Cornell said. To make up for some of those cuts, district clerk Teresa Cornell said, there will be Guaranteed Tax Base Aid.

“Ours will increase by approximately $84,000. This will leave us with a $40,000 decrease in revenue that we will have to get from our local mill levies,” Cornell said. “It means that our local taxpayers will be hit harder.”

Cornell said travel will be curbed and the district is going to try to get by on reserves.

Big Sandy schools, with about 170 students, will lose about $13,600, a reduction that didn’t sneak up on anybody, district superintendent Brad Moore said.

“This cut was not totally unexpected and we were prepared. In fact, we will use some of our reserves to absorb the reduction without impacting programs for our students for this year,” Moore said, adding, “Our reserves will not be able to absorb this reduction for an extended period of time and it could potentially lead to cuts to our programs in future years.”

Jeremy McDonald, who will begin his first year at the helm of Box Elder Schools, said years of fiscal responsibility in the past has put the district in a place where they are able to absorb cuts without having to make any drastic changes. He credited former superintendent and current Chinook schools superintendent Darin Hannum for years of financial astuteness.

“We’re not anticipating reduction on positions or services,” McDonald said.

Hannum said the cuts “makes things tighter” and the Chinook schools might have to skimp on updated textbooks, end of year maintenance, supplies.

Tim Bronk, also new to his position as superintendent of the CJI district, said the nearly $12,000 in cuts will affect multiple areas, but most notably, Data for Achievement and the Budgeted Fund. Bronk said SB 261 is compounded by the effects of an earlier 2017 bill, Senate Bill 307, which addressed school facilities.

Data for Achievement, Rocky Boy Schools Superintendent Voyd St. Pierre said, happens to be where Rocky Boy Schools will be hit hardest.

But, St. Pierre said, there are few good options but to look ahead.

“We’ll move ahead,” he said. “We’ll be creative enough to absorb the cost.”

Echoing the concerns of Carlson, North Star schools superintendent Bart Hawkins said SB 261 is coming as the heels of HB 647 are still in stride.

“We’re going to be pretty well affected by the change in funding,” Hawkins said.

The other impacts come out of the Legislature’s funding scheme change for this year, stemming from their Guaranteed Tax Base for Block Grant substitution with a four-year phase in, he said.

“For North Star, that means about $212,000 combined for our two districts will come from local taxpayers instead of the state general fund,” Hawkins said. “Eventually the state funding mechanism known as GTB is supposed to replace much of that, but for schools like ours that get very little GTB there will be very little change to that over time.  To be clear, we will still have that amount in our budget. It will just have to come from local taxpayers instead of from the state.”

The new superintendent at the Hays-Lodge Pole schools — John Bach, who occupied his office July — said there appears to be no impact from SB 261. He has other concerns.

“What is really affecting us is Impact Aide,” Bach said, referring to a decades-old federal assistance program meant to fill a funding void created by a lack of a tax base typical to Indian Reservations.

Bach said Impact Aide is slated to be reduced by $150,000 — maybe up to $200,00 — in the Hays-Lodge Pole district. He said he will try and lobby legislators to try and figure out another way to get the much-needed resources.