Great Falls Public Schools officials are developing their budget for the upcoming school year.

The district is holding a townhall on the budget at 5:30 p.m. on March 5 at the district office, 1100 4th S. S.

Superintendent Tom Moore and the board budget committee will have a presentation about the revenue and expense projections for the upcoming budget year.

They’ll cover frequently asked questions and attendees can ask additional questions and provide input.

To prepare for the meeting, attendees are encouraged to review this information on the GFPs website: “School Budgeting 101” and  “This is Great Falls Public Schools.”

The board budget committee meets at 3:30 p.m. March 19 at the district office to review revenue and expense projects.

GFPS adopts budget with reduction in taxes [2023]

The committee includes Mark Finnicum, Bill Bronson and Paige Turoski.

They’ll take public comment as they develop a budget recommendation to the full board.

The committee will consider options such as running an operational, technology, or safety levy, or no levy.

The full board meets at 5:30 p.m. March 25 and will consider the budget committee’s recommendation.

If the board opts to run a levy, they have to take action and set an amount during this meeting.

In January, the board approved estimated changed for non-voted levies for the upcoming year.

GFPS budget committee recommends no levy this year [2023]

Brian Patrick, GFPS business operations manager, said that state law requires that school boards adopt a resolution whenever they intend to impose an increase to non-voted levies for the ensuing year.

The board budget committee reviewed those estimated permissive levies in January and the estimated impact for all combined elementary and high school budget is an increase of 1.75 mills, Patrick said.

That’s an estimated impact of $1.81 for a $100,000 home; and $3.64 for a $200,000 home.

The exact financial implications won’t be known until August when the district receives its certified taxable values from the Montana Department of Revenue.

Those permissive levy funds include adult education, building reserve, flexibility, bus depreciation, transportation and tuition.