The impact of the spring weather has been noticeable this year. The impact on high school activities pale in comparison to those in local agriculture who are working to get through calving season or get back into the fields, but the district has been making attempts to get our student-athletes out on our fields as well. The season is short in the spring and this year’s weather has limited the Red Devils, along with many other Montana teams, on practice and game availability.
Teamwork is a valued element of activities, and several examples come to mind to show teamwork in the best of all terms for us in this community. Our coaching staff has balanced a workable rotation to share practice space between the three activities. We extend thanks for the efforts of our maintenance staff, activity director Tim Bastian, and coaching staff to put in extra time to ensure practice and game fields are getting prepared for activities.
Our most recent board meeting had two areas of focus that I will try to address in the next two articles. The topic this month is funding of school districts and the mill levy decision. Next month I will address safety concerns that have been discussed. School funding is as complicated as the tax system. Our school board and I had several discussions to include a special mill levy discussion meeting on March 11. The realistic issue is that we have not had an operational general fund mill levy increase since 2006 and the increases in costs have continued to rise. I am a community member who does understand the economic impact of a mill levy and the bond support for the rebuilding of our school building. The decision to not run a general fund mill levy this year was one that took time to decide. This is due to the financial structure of school systems in Montana.
There are 3 pools of money to be utilized by school districts. These monies are set to pay for certain items. Transportation funding can only be used on buses, and travel, related to the regular school day. All activity travel is a general fund operating budget strand. This means that any coach/cruiser buses must come out of the general fund operating budget. Much of our activity budget comes from the general fund. This is why we have black and yellow buses. This allows us to maximize the effectiveness of the money available to the district. Although they do not look as fancy as the coach buses we are looking to improve the spacing and comfortability on these buses for our students.
The permissive levy monies are levies that do impact our community members. These monies are specialized monies that are in direct proportion to the needs of the district. Some of these items are tuition to help us educate students at alternative locations, transportation, bus depreciation, adult education, and building reserve. These funds cannot be used for any general operating expenses and are only available for the intended expense area they are designated for. An example of this action is due to a recent standard change, set by our legislature, school districts are allowed to purchase an E-Bus. We will take advantage of this new standard as it allows us to purchase a 5 star rated SUV for transportation needs from our bus depreciation monies. This money will not be from our general fund budget or our transportation fund money.
General fund operating budget mills are for everything else. Salary, benefits, building maintenance, classroom expenses, maintenance supplies, activities, and a portion of our food program. This is the largest budget focal point for the school district. The recruitment and retention of staff is a continuing concern across the state and the salary and benefits to staff members is the main item that many are trying to balance with keeping our classrooms supplied, safe, and welcoming. This budget is funded by taxes that are calculated by the mill value of our area. The school district cannot spend more money than we are allowed by the budget that is set by the Office of Public Instruction. An increase in this budget can only be accomplished by passing a general fund operating mill levy.
The decision to not run a mill levy was difficult but we are going to be able to make it work with some constraints on the budget. Our community deserves to have insight into our budgetary issues and concerns while balancing the community to have a school that we are all proud of. In all likelihood, the school district will need an increase in the general fund next year or we will have to make some cuts. This may, of course, not be needed if there are more funds made available to school districts through our legislature and their perspective on investing in education.
The real overview is that the state funding of education has not increased at a rate comparable to cost increases for other items since 2006. 14 years is a long time to not have these increases, but the school district has been able to manage this through fiscal responsibility and utilizing excess reserves to do some improvements and operate without an impact to our community. Those reserves are diminishing after 3 years of use and unless there is a change in the funding at the state level, the impact, unfortunately, lands on the local taxpayers.
Thank you Huntley Project community, for allowing us to work with and be a part of the lives of your students. May we all strive together to improve daily outcomes and make a better tomorrow for everyone. The Huntley Project School District will be out cleaning up in our community, and in support of our Veterans, as our traditional thank you in May. The Huntley
Project School District would like to thank the Lions/Lioness for the support on the cleanup day and for helping to provide the 7-12 Student Council BBQ. I would like to thank Tichelle Ickes for the proofreading and editing of my monthly column as it is valuable and appreciated. The
combined efforts to support others can be in various forms and it is noticeable.
I encourage anyone who cannot make our board meetings to utilize the Red and Black Attack, visit the website at huntley.k12.mt.us, and follow HPREDDEVILS on Twitter or Huntley Project School District on Facebook.
Go Red Devils!
Mark Wandle- Huntley Project School District Superintendent
The Superintendent Sandbox is a weekly column that is published in the Yellowstone County News each week from Superintendents from the local School Districts addressing the needs of their schools and children. Check the Yellowstone County News for weekly columns from each Superintendent through the month.
