School districts look to Helena for help with funding

As Legislators returned to Helena earlier this week following Easter break, they will confront several education-related bills in the last few weeks of the legislative session, some of which could have a significant impact on school budgets around the county.

For most of the county's larger school districts, the 2004-5 school year was similar to years past — declining overall enrollment coupled with rising health insurance, fuel and other costs. The result is that most school districts are faced with a potential budget deficit next year, depending on what the Legislature does — or doesn't do — over the next few weeks.

Under the state's current school funding system, the average of each district's enrollment in October and February largely determines the amount of money the district will receive next year. Known as the "ANB" count, which stands for "average number belonging," it factors in student enrollment, and then deducts teacher workdays and half of a district's kindergarten enrollment because kindergarten classes are currently funded only as half-day programs.

With the exception of the Charlo School District, most of the county's larger school districts are faced with declining enrollment, many for the fourth year in a row.

In Arlee, the elementary district's ANB count is at 218, down from 254 last year, while the junior high and high school counts — 83 and 139 — are largely unchanged.

The district's total enrollment has declined by about 15 percent over the past few years, superintendent Gordon Friberg said.

"When I started four years ago, we had an enrollment of almost 500. It's been a steady decline since then, most of it at the elementary level. That's a significant drop for us," said Friberg.

St. Ignatius had similar results, going from an ANB count of 540 students overall last year to 527 this year, although superintendent Tim Skinner emphasized that next year's projected budget cuts weren't too drastic — perhaps $36,000 out of an overall budget of $5.2 million.

"We've had a very steady decline from 1996, when we had 634 students. It (the district's enrollment) almost exactly mirrors the student population trends in Montana," Skinner said. "Usually it's a small kindergarten class, but this year we've lost students at almost every level, which makes it difficult to ensure proper staffing levels."

Charlo school officials were more optimistic after watching their enrollment increase for the past couple of years. The district's overall ANB count is 365 this year, up from 346 last year, according to district clerk Sara Vaughan, and all signs are that that trend will continue, she said.

"The middle school grades moving up to the high school are larger next year. Those classes have been larger than normal for the past few years, and we have a large kindergarten class, as well," Vaughan said. "Our enrollment has grown over the past few years."

For the county's smaller school districts — Valley View, Salmon Prairie, Camas Prairie, and Dixon — enrollment was largely unchanged, except at Dayton, where enrollment jumped from a precarious eight students last year to 28 this year, according to data provided by the county superintendent's office.

In Ronan, the elementary budget was hit hardest, declining from an ANB count last year of 945 to 902 this year. The high school saw a smaller drop of 12 students.

"Enrollment has declined over the past four years. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Enrollment is tied directly to the economics of our state," Ronan superintendent Andy Holmlund said. "You have to look at who is moving to Montana, and why."

For Ronan, the decline is particularly hard because the district has 109 students that live within the school district who attend school in other districts in the county, including 54 students enrolled in the Polson school district, 27 in Charlo, and 15 in St. Ignatius. Inter-enrollment agreements are common throughout the state, and Ronan has 45 students from other districts attending its schools, but an outflux of students can have a demonstrable impact on a district's budget.

"The beauty of democracy is based on choice, and as a citizen of the United States, we have the opportunity to make those choices," Homlund said of the Ronan students who attend school elsewhere. "And education is the cornerstone of democracy."

"You can't say it's a matter of poor programs, because that's not the case in Ronan," said county superintendent Joyce Decker Wegner. "Ronan is providing very good opportunities for its students."

In Polson, the outlook was improved by a healthy high school population, which offset a decline in the elementary enrollment, but board members were informed that the district's health insurance costs could go up by as much as 20 percent next year, after seeing a 25 percent increase last year.

As a result of a projected budget deficit, board members voted to approve a mill levy election for later this year, but held off on determining just how many mills to ask for pending several bills before the Legislature.

"It's extremely frustrating to be put in a position to ask for a levy and not know if you need it," Polson superintendent Sue McCormick said earlier this week. "The only thing we can do right now is set the mill levy with the current funding formula that is in place, and hope that the Legislature comes through for us in the near future."

McCormick, Holmlund and other superintendents around the state traveled to Helena last week as part of the annual meeting of the Montana Association of School Superintendents. The group meets in Helena each year the Legislature convenes in order to lobby for school-related bills and to stay abreast of legislation that will affect them.

Last fall, the state's Supreme Court ruled that the state's method of funding schools was unconstitutional, and did not fund a "quality education" as mandated by the state constitution. However, defining just what a quality education is, and how to fund it, has been left up to the Legislators.

There are several bills that could have a positive impact on school districts' financial outlook for next year, but their status is up in the air.

HB 124 would provide a $200 subsidy to go toward health insurance for each school district employee in the state, but is currently tabled in committee after failing to receive the two-thirds vote needed last week to move it to the Senate for approval.

"That's probably one of the best bills to help school districts. This would be a big help," Wegner said.

SB 152, which was scheduled for its third reading Tuesday, attempts to define a quality education, but more importantly, would have the Legislature develop a funding mechanism that relies on other factors beside student enrollment, although that would still be taken into consideration under the bill.

SB 177 would re-define much of the state's school funding mechanism, and would increase "basic entitlement" funding for elementary and high school districts - a key portion of their budgets. An earlier version of the bill included an increase of $250 per student, but that was later scratched out. The bill is currently in committee but is probably the one educators and lawmakers are most optimistic about passing.

"This bill would help all of the schools, but the (Montana) school board association is opposed to it because they see it as a stop-gap solution," Wegner said.

Wegner said per-student funding will go up slightly next year as a result of an inflation-based increase already factored into the state's funding formula. Funding for students with special education needs will also increase slightly, she said.

Throughout the legislative session, dollar amounts of $70-80 million have been tossed about as immediate stop-gap solutions in an effort to help school districts next year. Although the increased funding would help, local educators said they're more interested in a long-term solution.

"We were told by the Legislature last week that there's going to be a short-term fix for what's wrong with the school funding formula," McCormick said. "But there's the short term, and then there's the long term. I'm much more interested in what will happen in the long run."

Holmlund said he was especially disappointed that efforts to fund all-day kindergarten will probably fall through.

"Research has proven that those programs work, but I'm not optimistic about it (being approved) at all," he said.

For now, Holmlund, McCormick and other superintendents around the county are left to take a wait-and-see approach. Many of them said they're still optimistic, but emphasized that a long-term solution might be months or even years away.

"If SB 177 is the model used (for school funding), then our funding would be about $30,000 higher next year at the elementary level than it was this year," Friberg said. "If the Legislature does nothing, the elementary district is looking at approximately $63,000 in funding cuts."

Friberg said the district might have to consider reduction-in-force measures as one possibility, although that's not written in stone, he said.

"I feel like the Legislature is beginning to address some of the needs, but I'm not sure they understand the severity of the current situation," Friberg said.

"If SB 177 passes, we will be in better shape. The bills that would affect statewide health insurance (for school employees) and to fund full-day kindergarten would really help," Skinner said. "I'm cautiously optimistic, and I'm betting we won't do any cutting (to programs or staff) this year. I think the Legislature will work in a way that will impact our budget in a positive manner. We're just not sure how much yet."

Holmlund said Ronan trustees will not ask local taxpayers for help because they're still paying for the Ronan Event Center.

"The community is already faced with paying off the bond on that incredible facility we are blessed to have," Holmlund said. "We're not going to ask people to pay more."

McCormick said it's frustrating to ask the public for financial help in the form of a mill levy without knowing whether that money will ultimately be necessary. She said it's possible for the district to "return" the money if it's not needed if the levy does in fact pass this spring, though.

"That's not the best way to work with the public's money. I'm a steward of the public's money, but this (funding) arena is fraught with uncertainty," McCormick said. "We're doing our best to predict what our needs will be while the Legislature holds us to a high degree of uncertainty."

Holmlund said regardless of what the Legislature does, local educators have to move forward and continue to do their best next year, regardless of the financial outlook.

"We're going to open up in the fall, have kids in their seats and teachers in front of them, and we're going to provide the very best education we can," he said. "That's our role."