Schools fear lack of funding

Unless the Montana Legislature intervenes, many of the state's school districts are months away from disaster.

That's the message that districts, including Columbia Falls, want to impress on the public and on local legislators. Schools across the state are facing significant budget shortfalls at the beginning of the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, 2008.

All told, schools may need voters to approve between $14.5 million and $19.6 million in levies just to maintain current programs.

The Legislature did increase this year's school funding by 8 percent. But next year's increase is just 1.9 percent - far short of a projected inflation of 4.3 percent, Columbia Falls Superintendent Michael Nicosia said.

"The second year in the biennium is a train wreck," he said. "We've been saying it since before the end of the last legislative session."

Now people outside the field of education are telling lawmakers that funding is inadequate, he added.

"It's not School District 6, or the Montana Quality Education Coalition or Dr. Michael Nicosia saying that," he said. "It's the people employed by the state to do this saying it's a train wreck, and the only way you can solve it is by a special legislative session."

Without that session and a vote to increase school spending, he said, schools across the state will see shortfalls in the next fiscal year. Billings' elementary schools, which form the largest public school district in the state, face a deficit of up to $2.9 million. The district can ask voters for an $870,000 levy, but that still leaves a huge shortfall.

Closer to home, the Columbia Falls School District faces a deficit of anywhere from $259,272 to $378,567. Most of that would happen at the elementary level, Nicosia said, which can only levy about $43,000.

If there is no special session and the feared shortfalls become reality, Nicosia doesn't know what the district will do. Columbia Falls already has tightened the belt considerably.

"We've cut so much over the years," he said.

The custodial staff is as low as it can get, he said. Most of the district's para-educators are supported by money outside the general fund budget, and "those that are, are needed," he said.

The district could draw a line with employee negotiations, Nicosia said, but the valley's relatively high cost of living already makes it difficult to attract qualified applicants.

"If we draw the line in the sand, we're hurting ourselves and we're hurting our kids," he said. "If we cut personnel and projects, we're hurting our kids."

Other local districts may face similar dilemmas. According to Bigfork's "very, very preliminary" budget projections, the 1.9 percent increase is not enough to cover even the steps on the employee pay grid, District Clerk Eda Taylor said.

"Another problem we have is enrollment dropped, but not enough to cut a full teacher when you spread it out all over," she said.

Taylor didn't know how short the district's budget might be. According to data collected by the Montana Quality Education Coalition, the elementary district could be short by as much as $86,700.

The high school district could avoid a deficit by passing a levy, but the district already is asking voters to support a bond. Asking for a levy on top of that is unlikely, Taylor said.

Whitefish may be in the same boat, District Clerk Danelle Reisch said. The district is asking voters to approve a $21.5 million high school bond. It is not asking for a levy.

"At this point, I'm not positive that we'll be able to run a levy," she said.

While bonds and levies are separate issues - bonds are for buildings, not annual operations - taxpayers don't always see the difference. Both increase annual property taxes.

Enrollment in Whitefish is down slightly, which will impact next year's general fund budget. Whitefish's seventh- and eighth-grade classes have been small in recent years, Reisch said, which is having a significant impact on the overall budget.

"We've had some pretty small classes now hitting the high school," she said. "It's nothing that we haven't expected."

The district will have a better idea of what it faces after its spring enrollment figures are in.

"But based on our October numbers, it's not a pretty picture," Reisch said.

Kalispell Public Schools is the exception to the rule. It added about 180 elementary students and about 60 high school students this fall, which will increase the districts' per-student funding next year.

The elementary budget could go up by almost $1 million, District Clerk Todd Watkins said, and the high school funds could increase by $400,000 to $500,000.

"If we don't have to add a bunch of staff, we'll be OK for a year," he said. "Then it'll be interesting after that - but we'll have a legislative session coming up."

Legislators did approve more than $100 million in new education funds this year.

"The Legislature and the governor have done a good job of providing us with money recently," Nicosia said. "We've received more money these last couple of legislative sessions than we've received total since 1991."

While schools are grateful for those funds, he said, many of them are earmarked for specific programs.

"They haven't solved the underfunding problem," Nicosia said. "They've just added another program."

They are good programs, he said, and schools are glad to have money to operate them. But those earmarked funds - like the money to implement full-day kindergarten - are one-time only. They help schools start the programs, Nicosia said, but do nothing to help them maintain them.

"Our hope is that we can get the message out to enough people, and that those people who are concerned about education in Montana will be able to convince the Legislature and the governor that we need a special session," he said.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com