Missoula County Public Schools trustees approved the invoice last week, but it hasn't reached Helena yet. No one is holding his breath waiting by the mailbox for it to be paid, either.
The bill asks for $7,546,267 in elementary district cutbacks since 1994 and $3,393,185 in high school district reductions since 1997. It also seeks repayment of technology and building levies, increases in utility and insurance costs, textbooks and salary increases over that time. The trustees did agree to back out of about $200,000 in new local mill levy support that Missoula voters approved last week.
“It should be noted that your payment of the attached invoice will only return us to the level of program and staffing available in our elementary district in the 1994-95 school year and the 1997-98 school year in our high school district,” MCPS Superintendent Jim Clark wrote Gov. Brian Schweitzer.
“While I'm sure you're aware of this, I would remind you that districts are not allowed to carry over general fund monies from one year to the next,” Clark scolded Schweitzer. “If we do not expend our budget for a given year, we simply lose the money from the next year's state support for our general fund.”
Schweitzer's education policy adviser, Jan Lombardi, said she hadn't seen the invoice yet and didn't know how it would be received. But she maintained that the administration has taken school funding seriously.
“We feel we consistently supported public education at historic levels,” Lombardi said. “And we're not done. We'll be continuing to support public education in the next session.”
The tactic appears unique to Missoula, according to Montana School Board Association director Bob Vogel, but the sentiment is not.
“Now's the time boards are sitting down and looking at the budget pretty closely, and that's where the agony is happening,” Vogel said.
And Missoula has been more fortunate than other urban school districts this year, Vogel said, because its local voters are supporting general fund levies. Great Falls and Billings each face much deeper cuts, he said.
The 2007 Legislature approved a 7 percent increase in school funding for the 2007-08 year, and an additional 1.9 percent boost in 2008-09. MPCS business director Pat McHugh said while that money does carry through both years, the uneven distribution and changes in enrollment hurt school district budgeting ability.
In Missoula, a drop of nearly 100 students in the high school district equals about $600,000 less in state funding. That money is being made up by the reduction of 10 teachers (saving about $450,000) and an administrative staff reorganization (estimated to save $125,000).
“About 90 percent of our budget is salaries and benefits,” McHugh said. And given the way teacher contracts are structured with step-and-lane raises for experience each year, the payroll goes up regardless what kind of increase may have been negotiated on base pay.
Beyond that, school districts are facing double-digit jumps in utility and supply fees after years of relative stability on those budget lines. McHugh said with the general fund going almost entirely to payroll, districts have had to look to technology or building reserve levies to cover maintenance and equipment expenses. That puts more burden on the local taxpayers and handcuffs schools' ability to modernize programs or replace classroom resources.
McHugh agreed state government has done a good job in the past few years boosting education resources. The problem remains that state funding formulas prevent schools from using their money in ways that address changing problems.
Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at rchaney@missoulian.com
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