What does it say about a school when its board calls an urgent public meeting and no student parents turn up to express support? It tells you the school is in real trouble.
Yet there may still be hope for Basin Elementary, as more than 20 locals came out last week for an impassioned discussion on the possible closure of one of Montana’s oldest schools, which has no teacher under contract and just one tentative student for the coming school year.
Unless the school board is able to secure a new teacher and at least one more student by June 30 (the end of the fiscal year), Basin’s school, which opened in 1895, is likely to enter non-operational status and shut down for the 2025-26 school year – and potentially permanently.
