Mineral schools nearing budget crunch
Unless the Montana Legislature intervenes, the Mineral County school districts are months away from facing serious budget shortfalls.
According to Lance Melton, the executive director for the Montana School Board Association, all three school districts are anticipated to fall short of the funding necessary to preserve their current programs and services the next fiscal year, beginning July 1, 2008. The Alberton School District is projected to fall short of inflation by between $52,939 and $64,789; the Superior School District between $43,266 and $63,490; and the St. Regis School District between $18,023 and $29,185.
This problem is not unique to Mineral County, and districts across Montana are struggling to make ends meet, said Melton. On a statewide basis, schools are anticipated to need voted levies of between $14.5 million and $19.6 million just to maintain current programs.
It is because of these shortfalls that Sen. Sam Kitzenberg, D-Glasgow, tried to get a special legislative session called to mitigate the budget shortfalls in districts across the state at a joint Education and Local Government Interim Committee meeting Dec. 14.
Even though Kitzenberg's push to get a special legislative session called failed in a 9-3 vote, Melton said that members of the committees wanted to hear more about school funding and will reconsider calling a special session.
Melton said declining enrollment in many districts, coupled with a drop in state funding in 2009, is creating a situation where many districts will have to cut programs, lay off teachers, or ask the taxpayers to shoulder the burden once again.
Melton said that the current system to fund schools is "completely flawed." He said it doesn't address the cost of the current programs and is "completely useless" for districts that are seeing a drop in enrollment. "The formula is not built to address school districts who are seeing a reduction in numbers." he said. According to Melton, St. Regis will be the only district in Mineral County that will have an increase in enrollment next year. He said Superior will see a decrease of eight students in their enrollment, which will mean a drop of nearly $35,000 in their state funding.
State aid to schools increased by 7.3 percent in 2008, but will only increase by 1.9 percent in 2009, said Melton. He said that there were a lot of misconceptions amongst the public that the 7.3 percent was some sort of windfall for the school districts. He said the $47 million increase of state aid represented a 7.3 percent increase in state funding. The state, however, only funds 63 percent of the districts' general fund budget, so the 7.3 percent increase really amounts to a 5.6 percent increase. Of the 5.6 percent increase, roughly two percent was only available to districts that expanded their kindergarten programs from half time to full time, which left only 3.6 percent for existing programs and services. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the inflation rate in the last year was 3.2 percent, so districts received only .4 percent of an increase over inflation for existing programs and services, Melton said.
"We're not facing a crisis, but there will be a definite impact on our budget," said Superior Superintendent Bill Woodford. He said to add to the budget problems, next year two of the district's employee's pay, which had been funded by grants, will have to come out of the district's general fund. Woodford said the district has been trimming the budget as much as possible, but will have to tighten their belts even more. "We will be fine-tuning it even more so," he said.
The St. Regis School District has trimmed over $77,000 from their budget over the past two years, but will still have to find ways to cut more, said St. Regis Superintendent Becky Aaring. Aaring said the district has already gotten rid of everything unnecessary and doesn't know where the cuts will come from. "It's extremely tight. We have balanced the budget, but there's no fluff," she said.
Aaring said the district will be starting a budget development process in January to try to come up with a solution for the budget. She said they will be identifying and prioritizing all of their programs.
Aaring, Woodford and Melton all say that levies aren't the solution to the problem. "Year after year we've been asking the taxpayers to shoulder more of the burden and they've came through for us,. At some point there's going to be a break," Melton said. He said before long the taxpayers are going to rebel and expect the state to pay their share.
"I do think an unfair burden has been put on the local taxpayers," said Woodford. He said the past years Superior has asked for a $50,000 levy for instructional material and the voters have always came through for them. He said last year the levy only passed by 11 votes, which was the slimmest margin since he became superintendent.
Teachers are also paying the price from the lack of state funding, said Melton. He said last year , teachers' salaries in Montana ranked 47th in the country. Aaring has firsthand experience in trying to find room for teaches' pay in a tight budget. The St. Regis School Board of Trustees and teachers have had no success in trying to negotiate an acceptable base salary for teachers since May. "It's unfair. The school board has to deal with the hand given to them by the state," Melton said.
"Something has to be done relatively quick," said Woodford on teachers' pay in Montana. He said that Superior has several veteran teachers who will be retiring soon. He said he doesn't know how the district can attract new teachers when the yearly pay for a starting teacher in Montana is $24,000, compared to Wyoming's $38,000.
Woodford said that education is a "political football" that gets kicked around each legislative session, but not a lot gets accomplished. He said it is time that people draw attention to the inadequate state funding and the legislature legitimately addresses it. "We have to do something that is concrete," he said.