Columbia Falls School District sending more levy requests to voters

Looking down the barrel of some significant operating deficits in both the elementary and high school budgets, the Columbia Falls School District 6 Trustee Board unanimously approved bringing two levy requests to voters last week.

The district will seek a $430,667 levy for the elementary district and a $157,463 levy for the high school district. Last month, the board also approved a $2.75 million building reserve levy request for two years to replace the leaking roof on the east wing of the high school.

The building reserve levy request is split into $1.375 million annually. The district discovered the roof was failing when it began a separate and federally-funded heating and cooling project for the school.

That project is on hold until the roof can be addressed.

The roof levy would have an approximately $83.16 tax impact on a home assessed for $300,000; and $166.32 on a home assessed for $600,000.

The tax impact of the roof project would last two years.

The elementary school levy request amounts to $30.70 for a home assessed for $300,000 and $61.40 for a home assessed for $600,000.

The high school levy would be $8.63 on a $300,000 home, while it would be $17.25 on a $600,000 home.

If all the levies pass, the total tax impact on a $300,000 home would be $122.49 and $244.97 on a $600,000 home.

The last time the district pitched an operational levy was in 2014. It floated a 16-mill technology levy in 2018 that was easily passed by voters. That levy raised about $500,000 annually for 10 years.

The operational levy requests find the district in a bind as expenses have increased about 6% for the elementary budget, while the state of Montana’s reimbursement rate is about 2%.

Even if the elementary levy succeeds, the district is still looking at about a $40,000 deficit.

The high school is slightly better, with expenses about 4.56% and state reimbursement about 2% as well.

“These deficit numbers are big enough to impact the way we do business,” said Superintendent Cory Dziowgo last week.

But he said it was too early to talk about what specific cuts could be made if the levies fail. 

The district plans on hosting community forums to talk about the deficit and the school roof project, as well as tours of the high school roof problems in the coming weeks. It also plans on reaching out to local radio to do spots there as well.

The district will mail out ballots April 19 and election day is May 7.

The district has set up an elections page at: https://www.cfmtschools.net/school-board/election-2024.