The Helena School Board of Trustees approved about $2.5 million in budget cuts, including the elimination of nearly 40 positions, for the upcoming school year during a meeting Tuesday night.
The finalized cuts came nearly a month after Helena voters rejected five levies proposed by the district to alleviate the school’s $4 million budget shortfall.
In addition to the funds saved from the cuts, the district will spend the remaining $2 million of its interlocal budget, which is made up mostly of pandemic relief funds, to fill the remaining budget gap.
“This is hard all the way around, and I am frustrated that we’re in this position with a lack of funding,” Superintendent Rex Weltz said. “Now we’re in a position where we need to make some adjustments, and no one wants to do that. I don’t want to do that, but we need a balanced budget going forward.”
The trustees, along with the superintendent and school staff, worked through a budget document developed by the school’s budget consensus committee. The document included a list of staff positions and programs to be reorganized, consolidated or cut.
“Now we’re in a position where we need to make some adjustments, and no one wants to do that. I don’t want to do that, but we need a balanced budget going forward.”
Superintendent Rex Weltz
About 37 staff and teacher positions were cut, including three music and three physical education teachers, four custodians and five paraeducators, ultimately saving the district about $2 million.
More than 200 people joined the meeting virtually, and about 14 spoke in opposition to the cuts, primarily about the strains that teachers will face with more classes and more students. Nine additional teaching positions will be lost through retirements, resignations or leaves of absence.
“Not only will I not have the quality time to spend getting to know as many of my students as possible, but there is no way they are going to come out as strong writers,” Susan Baranek, a Capital High School English teacher, said at the meeting.
“We all know that connecting with our students is what makes for a successful student,” she said. “If our end goal is what’s best for our students, lack of attention from their teacher is a worst-case scenario.”
By spending the last of its relief funds to help balance the budget for the upcoming year, the district’s budget woes are likely not over. Officials said they will ask the Legislature to adjust the school funding formula next year and may have to put another tax increase before voters.
Frustrated board members agreed that the cuts would make it difficult for the district to deliver the quality of education the students deserve.
“This sucks. The choices we’re making are not gonna be best for teachers, not gonna be best for kids,” board trustee Linda Cleatus said at the end of the meeting. “The quality of education and the quality of our offerings are decreasing. I mean, that’s just the reality because we don’t [have] money.”
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