Helena schools grapple with looming budget shortfall

The Helena Public School District Board of Trustees will ask voters to approve new taxes this spring to lessen a budget shortfall that could result in the closure of some district schools and the reduction of positions. 

The trustees voted 8-0 Tuesday night to call for an election this spring that will allow voters to weigh in on the significance of the budget strain. 

Before the vote, the district’s Budget Consensus Committee shared a report with the board that prioritizes potential budget cuts, including closing schools, and eliminating programs and positions, although the committee was adamant that specific recommendations haven’t been made and will depend on the results of the upcoming election. 

The committee is made up of about 40 members from the community and schools, as well as a few board trustees, and is led by Rob Watson, the director of the School Administrators of Montana. 

“What was really important for me as the facilitator is that the committee had an understanding of what sorts of numbers we were talking about like how much do we have to cut,” Watson said during the meeting Tuesday night. “It’s a factor of student enrollment, it’s a factor of levies if you’re gonna ask for levies [or] if you’re not gonna ask for levies.”

There are six levies the district voted to add to the ballot for the school election on May 7. The K-8 elementary and high schools will each have a technology, security and general fund mill levy. According to school officials, an amount for the levies has not yet been set, a step the trustees will need to take at an upcoming meeting.

More than 100 community members, both online and in person, attended Tuesday’s meeting, with about 25 people addressing the trustees. Parents, grandparents, school staff and students shared their concerns over the different avenues the district may choose to combat the budget shortfall.

“This shouldn’t be in your job description to basically choose the best of terrible options,” said Sam King, a district parent. “It certainly shouldn’t be something that our kids should have to face. It is a constitutional guarantee and it’s not fair that we have to stand up here and scream at the top of our lungs just to have that recognized by the state Legislature.”

Also presented to the board Tuesday was a master plan that includes numerous options for how the district could tackle its burgeoning maintenance backlog. Presented by SMA Architecture, a consultant hired by the district, the options include closing Hawthorne and Broadwater elementary schools.

Many who spoke during the meeting expressed their frustration and concerns about the options that were presented to the board, especially on possible school closures and program cuts. A few students also came prepared to share their thoughts.

“Neighborhood schools are important because you know the people that you can go to school with and you can walk with them. When Ray Bjork school closed last year, I felt very very sad, and I cried for the teachers that would lose their jobs,” said a fourth grader at Hawthorne Elementary. “Please do not close Hawthorne.”

According to the budget consensus committee report, the school is looking at $2.68 million shortfalls between the high school and elementary districts, not including teacher salary and insurance increases.

“We have levies coming up, we have a master facility plan that’s coming to reality, we have our budget consensus that is really finalized,” said Superintendent Rex Weltz. “I don’t think this is the end of the game for us, trustees. This really starts us out into the opening, this starts over, and this really is now an opportunity for us to really roll up our sleeves and where we’re going to go with our district.”

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