Thursday's budget work session drew a big crowd of arts supporters after some trustees floated the idea of cutting the districtwide fine arts supervisor and two elementary district arts teachers last month. MCPS faces a tight budget year in 2008-09. It is already considering cutting 5 1/2 classroom teacher positions to make ends meet.
While the work sessions have examined several controversial budget-cutting ideas, most have failed to gain trustee support. That was the case Thursday, when all of the nine trustees present said they wanted to find other ways to save the necessary dollars.
“We should consider it as being an investment, not a liability,” Smart told the trustees. “It's an investment in community pride and wonderful community relations.”
Trustees Toni Rehbein and Scott Bixler both said they supported keeping the arts program fully staffed. But they also raised concerns that cutting teachers in the middle schools could have long-range effects on student success. It also would raise class sizes, one of the biggest concerns that parents have asked the board to avoid.
While the high school budget attracted much less public attention, it was considerably more challenging. Superintendent Jim Clark has proposed cutting as many as 10 teachers and three administrators to make the budget balance.
Those plans are still in flux. Clark originally suggested replacing three high school deans with a single person who would manage athletics for the whole district. But a new idea is being worked out that might keep the athletic duties in each building, while a teacher would take on part-time student attendance and discipline duties.
What's more worrisome, Clark said, was the continued drop in high school enrollment. A previous study predicted MCPS secondary enrollment would bottom out at 3,608 students in 2012. This May, there are just 3,614 students enrolled.
“I'm concerned for us a great deal about that in the future,” Clark said.
Because Montana schools are funded on a per-student basis, it becomes harder and harder to keep Missoula's wide-ranging class offerings as the population shrinks.
That prompted a number of money-saving or -raising ideas from the trustees. Several asked if the city government could shoulder more of the cost of keeping school resource officers in the police budget. Trustee Rick Johns proposed leasing vacant school property to raise income and joined several others in a call to standardize class offerings among the three city high schools. The trustees also are considering borrowing money from the elementary district budget to cover expenses in hopes that the Legislature will produce a more effective school funding formula in the near future.
MCPS plans to spend about $26.7 million in the high school district next year and $29.6 million in the elementary district. Its final budget must be settled by mid-August.
Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at rchaney@missoulian.com.
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