The hallways are quiet and the kitchens are cool. But around Missoula private school buildings, the faint sounds of a creaky economy are creeping in.
“We're at a huge advantage,” joked Pat Haggerty, superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Helena. “We're a private school system based on faith, so we're just going to pray.”
In a letter to parents last fall, the Valley Christian School Board reported extending a line of credit to $291,000 “in order to keep our payroll current.” The board also raised the tuition rate from 60 percent of the actual cost of educating a student to 70 percent.
Incoming Valley Christian Superintendent Chris Martineau said this summer that discount gap has closed entirely. The school now charges the full $5,000-a-year cost to each student. However, it has also set aside about $78,000 in financial aid to help families in need.
“We had never done that because it could be unaffordable for a lot of families,” Martineau said. “We don't want to become a school of elitist families.”
The Valley Christian board also assured families it was rolling the line of credit into a fixed-rate loan at a lower interest cost, which should speed its retirement. This summer saw the groundwork for a endowment campaign, and also the marketing of some Valley Christian campus land, Martineau said.
Sussex School is also counting on a fundraising push to get ahead of difficult times. Head Teacher Robyn Gaddy said the capital campaign expects to raise between $1 million and $2 million for a new elementary school building and other renovations.
Sussex turned to its own students for some money-saving ideas.
“Our eighth-grade students looked at ways to cut costs for electricity and heating in a science unit on sustainability,” Gaddy said. “They made recommendations to the board, and we hope to use some of those changes. They looked at (low-energy) light bulbs. And next year we plan a larger push to do place-based education on bikes instead of using our own small bus.”
The 87-student K-8 program at Sussex has a few more openings in its middle school grades than usual, Gaddy said. But so far, there's no fear that families will forsake the program.
Missoula International School teacher Julie Lennox said she was also seeing no change in enrollment plans for next fall. But the Spanish-language immersion school was bracing for a jump in energy costs in its old Prescott School building in the Rattlesnake Valley.
“This building is quite expensive to heat,” Lennox said. “And we're a little limited in what we can do in this building for renovations. So we plan to run the boiler on limited basis, and wear more sweaters.”
MIS will continue its winter ski excursions to Snowbowl, but other field trips face the budget ax. Lennox said the teaching staff is looking for options where they can walk or take a Mountain Line bus instead of chartering a school bus. The school has about 130 full-time students.
At Beach Transportation, vice president for operations Greg Beach said the big jumps in diesel costs have affected local business.
“Schools certainly aren't adding any routes or field trips at this time,” Beach said. “But most of the activities (games and competitions) are scheduled a year in advance. Anything to be changed there would have to be done a year hence.”
Bus companies like Beach have a clause in their contracts allowing them to adjust for changes in fuel prices. While public schools can pass that on to the taxpayers through permissive transportation levies, private schools have no such flexibility.
To help them out, Beach said his drivers try to keep costs down by more careful driving. Engines are shut off if the bus is idling more than five minutes, unless cold weather or handicapped services demand longer times. Drivers are also trained in fuel-efficient techniques of acceleration, braking and gear-shifting, Beach said.
One positive aspect of the fuel hikes could be youth safety, Beach said. High school students will have less money for driving themselves to school, meaning greater bus ridership.
“We can be part of the solution here,” Beach said. “We know we knock 10 or 15 private cars off the road with every bus route, and we're four to six times more efficient on a per-passenger-mile basis.”
Valley Christian School used to depend on donations to keep its four-bus transportation service running. This year, it will be charging families a fee for the first time.
“We believe that if parents felt confident this was a viable choice for their children, they would join Valley Christian in spite of the economic conditions,” Superintendent Martineau said of the 250 to 300 students at the K-12 school. “Still, it's kind of ominous out there. These are costs in addition to what they're already paying. Some may have to give up the school because of the financial environment.”
Unlike public schools, which set their budgets based on last year's enrollment, Missoula Catholic Schools has more flexibility to adjust its spending plans. Superintendent Haggerty said his western Montana Catholic schools all set their fuel budgets in May, just when gas prices started spiking.
The cafeterias at St. Joseph Elementary and Loyola-Sacred Heart High schools also keep a nimble footing to control food costs. Last year, about 450 of the K-12 program's 520 students ate there every day. Nevertheless, next fall will see the first increase in lunch and breakfast meal prices in nine years. The schools' energy costs are also forecast to increase 8 percent.
To avoid passing those increases on to the students, Missoula Catholic Schools plans to expand its fundraising efforts. While the falling stock market and troubled employment trends aren't helpful, Haggerty said that wouldn't stop forward motion.
“If we did have any icing on the cake, it's going to be thinner next year,” Haggerty said. “But even in harder times, we've been good at raising funds. This year we're a little bit better than we were last year. Which may be a lot better, considering the economy.”
Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at rchaney@missoulian.com
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