Yearly budgets for eight public schools in Jefferson County increased slightly from the 2022–23 school year to this school year, 2023–24.
Budgets were finalized by each school before the school year started and, as a formality, the Jefferson County Commissioners approved the budgets at their Sept. 14 meeting.
The total budget for each school is comprised of 10 different funds: the general fund, transportation, bus depreciation, tuition, retirement, adult education, non-operating, technology, flexibility and building reserve. All of the school’s non-operating budgets for this year and last were zero.
The amounts allocated in a school’s general fund for the current fiscal year were derived either from a school’s current enrollment numbers or a school’s average enrollment numbers over the three preceding school years, whichever is greater — this number is generally referred to as “average number belonging” or ANB. If the ANB used to determine the amount in the general fund increased from the previous year to the current year, the amount of money in the general fund increased, and if the ANB decreased, the school’s general fund decreased.
Montana City School
The Montana City School ANB went down from 501 last year to 492 this year. The General Budget went up from $3,702,768.41 last year to $3,770,828.08 this year, which is a $68,059.67 increase, equating to a 1.8% increase.
The General Fund budget takes care of the day-to-day operations of the district: paying cost of living increases for salary and benefits of the 60 staff, textbooks, equipment, supplies,electricity, gas, water, septic services, etc.
The total budgets for all funds this year went up to $5,245,121.28 from last year’s $5,170,094.16 which equates to just a 1.4% increase.
According to Montana City District Clerk Diane Smith, last year, $721.43 in property
taxes on a $300,000 home went toward Montana City School. That same home was likely reassessed with the 32% increase in value. It is now worth $396,000, and $696.21 of the taxes will go toward Montana City School.
The total of all 2023-24 budgets for all budgeted funds is $5,245,121.28. Of this, the local taxpayers will pay $1,866,775.91, equaling 130.23 mills, an increase of $119,723.80 over last year’s local taxpayer’s portion, Smith said.
“The 2023 Legislature changed the Guaranteed Tax Base Aid calculations, and the shortfall is a direct $91,380 hit to local taxpayers and out of control of the local district,” she said in an email. “This has nothing to do with our district increasing spending or because we asked for more thorough voted levies, which was suggested in a mailing from the governor’s office this summer,” Smith told the Monitor in an email.
Montana City School this year is focusing on literacy.
“As with most schools, the biggest challenge is to ensure students are at grade level or above in regard to their literacy skills,” Montana City School Superintendent Tony Kloker told The Monitor in an email. “Our literacy committee worked hard to introduce some new ideas and processes to help students improve skills and get excited about reading.”
For example, he said that last year, kindergarten through second grade students were given a book from the school, they read it at school, at home with their families, and completed activities, and the school is hoping to bring an expanded version back this year.
The other challenge, Kloker said, is to ensure students have the technology available to access the educational resources and curriculum.
All Montana City School students have a one-to-one device, Kloker said. Every student has access to an Ipad (kindergarten), laptop (first-fourth grades), and chromebooks (5th-8th grades).
“Although this provides flexibility and access to many resources, it comes with challenges; these include managing all of these machines, figuring out the firewall and acceptable
website access, and setting up rosters and users for all of the educational resources,” Kloker said.
The leadership at Montana City School has also changed.
Daryl Mikesell, who was the principal for K-2 students and the middle school is now principal for K-5. Cori Trudeau, who was the 3-5 principal last year, is now the middle school principal (6-8) and literacy coach, Kloker said.
Clancy School
The Clancy School ANB went up from 383 last school year to 402 this year, helping the school’s general budget increase from $2,687,110.84 last year to $2,816,165.13 this year. The school’s general budget also increased from $3,535,340.23 last year to $3,739,414.03 this year.
One thing that Clancy School principal Kendra Fanning said has changed at Clancy School is the student population. She said that when she started eight years ago the population was anywhere from 330-350, and now it’s around 400.
Clancy School also has a new kindergarten teacher and a new sixth grade teacher. They’ve also had a shift in the building, Fanning said. There used to be two second grade classes, and now to accommodate the growth, there are three. There are also three kindergarten and three first grade classrooms, whereas there were only two classrooms per grade when Fanning started several years ago.
“One of the biggest things we’re starting to approach and talk about with the board is expansion,” Fanning said.
But with growth come other obstacles, as well. One of the biggest challenges facing Clancy right now is a lack of student support staff, specifically paraprofessionals and kitchen support staff, Fanning said, adding that school districts nationwide are having this problem, and part of it comes down to how much school districts can afford to pay these positions.
“For a long time people would say it was education funding, as far as making sure we can pay competitive wages,” Fanning said. “Some people can work and make $20 an hour, and I cannot necessarily pay $20 per hour for paraprofessionals.”
Fanning also said that this is the best transition to the start of a new school year she’s seen since she started at Clancy School.
“The last couple of years, we’ve been reeling and coming off the pandemic, adjusting from protocols and now there’s not as stringent of expectations,” Fanning said.
For example, teachers were required to take temperatures as students entered and keep track of who were wearing masks and not wearing masks.
“As we’re starting to step away from that and shift down the years, there’s a little less anxiety as far as extra duties or extra things they have to do,” Fanning said.
Jefferson High School
Jefferson High’s ANB stayed the same from last year. The general fund went down from $2,725,525.59 last year to $2,721,073.50. The total budget also went down slightly from $3,865,522.21 to $3,834,349.61 this year.
Boulder Elementary School
Boulder Elementary School’s ANB saw an increase from 197 last year to 228 this year. The General Budget also increased from $1,611,416.36 to $1,851,516.40. The total budget went up from $2,307.694.60 last year to $2,639,149.41.
Basin School
Basin school’s general budget went up from $188,605.56 last year to $190,183.34 this year. The ANB went down from 22 last year to 19 this year. The total of all funds went up from $299,708.36 to $322,810.37.
Cardwell School
Cardwell Elementary School’s ANB went up slightly from 35 last year to 37 this year. However, the General Budget went down from $323,102.46 last year to $322,675.77 this year. The total budget went down from $748,604.48 last year to $727,879.73 this year.
Whitehall School
Whitehall High School’s ANB this year was 143, up from 137 last year. This year, 126 of those estimated students were from Jefferson County, 15 were from Madison County and two were from Silver Bow County. Last year, 127 were from Jefferson, nine were from Madison and one was from Silver Bow County. The high school’s general fund also increased from $1,328,117.44 last year to $1,393,773.14. The total fund increased from $1,938.754.04 last year to $2,124,477.90 this year.
Whitehall Elementary School’s ANB went up slightly from 328 last year to 330 this year. Of that population, 304 were from Jefferson County this year, 10 were from Madison County and 16 were from Silver Bow. Last year, 308 were from Jefferson County, 16 were from Madison and four were from Silver Bow. The General Budget went up from $2,182,719.89 last year to $2,253,215.41 and the total budget went up from $3,100,949.97 to $3,288,132.08.
