Of the 125 education bills passed during the Montana Legislature’s 2023 session, House Bill 203, which will allow parents to freely enroll their children into any public school district adjacent to the one they’re living in, is causing Jefferson County schools to more carefully articulate their transfer policies in anticipation of upcoming enrollment changes for the next academic year. Montana City School, the largest in Jefferson County, adopted such changes at its most recent March board meeting, and Clancy Elementary intends to convene its policy committee this June.
The bill effectively creates a school choice program between neighboring school districts that may force smaller school districts to consolidate with their larger neighbors. As the bill wasn’t passed until July 2023, schools were largely unaffected by enrollment changes this past academic year. It is uncertain whether there will be a significant impact on Jefferson County districts, but many, such as Clancy, are convening their policy committees in order to more carefully articulate their out-of-district transfer policy and preempt potential changes to enrollment.
“The bill means you can’t close your district to out-of-district students, unless you have a very good reason,” said JHS Superintendent Erik Wilkerson. “For JHS, just about as many kids go over the (Boulder) hill as come down it, and we’ve always accepted nearly all transfer requests. We don’t anticipate any big changes.” Wilkerson further explained that, as East Helena High School is operating at near capacity, there may be additional transfers from Helena High School and others in Lewis & Clark County. As new construction is completed this August, JHS’s total enrollment capacity will expand from 250 to 340, and allow them to accept more transfer applicants.
“We used to be getting 10 out of 50 students coming from Montana City [School], and now we’re getting close to half. And we’re getting something like 90% of the Clancy [Elementary School] kids, so, if anything, it seems as if students are migrating in this direction,” said JHS Principal Mike Moodry.
Smaller districts in Jefferson County, such as Basin, would risk closure should their enrollment figures meaningfully reduce.
Public schools in Montana receive state dollars based on a number of basic entitlements, including per-capita funding based on a school’s total enrollment and other allocations specific to student needs (such as special education or indigenous achievement programs). HB203 will only have negative impact for schools with net enrollment losses, as they will receive diminished population-based contributions from the state. Schools with net enrollment gains will receive additional state funding. Schools already facing budget difficulties will struggle to operate should enrollment fall beneath a viable level.
“We are hanging by a shoestring in Basin,” said Jefferson County Superintendent Sarah Eyer. “It already has the highest per-pupil expenditure in the district, just by nature of being smaller. Consider the cost to heat the building, or maintain a custodial staff. The fewer the students, the more expensive it is for each of them to attend school there.”
Districts will issue additional permissive levies to cover out-of-district costs for resident students, regardless of where they choose to attend. These funds are not added to a school’s operating budget, but used to manage student migration into and out of the district.
“The premise of the bill is that if a student lives in a district, then that district’s taxpayers should pay for their education regardless of where they go to school,” said Wilkerson.
Schools will be able to turn away out-of-district applicants based on physical or budgetary constraints, such as enrollment exceeding facility capacity or increases in student population pushing class sizes beyond state-mandated limits. As schools may be expected to acquire additional staff to regulate class size, it may only be used as a mitigating factor should a district lack funding to conduct new hiring.
“All schools need to shore up their policies to make sure transfers are accepted or denied for good, consistent reasons, but this bill may well make things more challenging for smaller schools,” said Eyer.
