GFPS budget committee recommends no levy this year
The Great Falls Public Schools board budget committee voted during their Feb. 17 meeting to recommend that the district forgo a levy this year.
The district is hosting a budget town hall on March 5 and the full board will consider the budget committee’s recommendation at its March 23 meeting.
But, the committee members, Paige Turoski, Bill Bronson and Kim Skornogoski, said they anticipate the need for a levy in the coming years unless the Legislature changes the school funding formula or other significant changes since funding isn’t keeping up with costs.
Luke Diekhans, GFPS’ business operations manager, said that staff was already working on what they expected to be a deficit for the upcoming budget year that begins July 1.
He said that since the second student count was conducted in February, they have firmer numbers to draft a preliminary budget.
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The district got some good news, in $557,834 of state funding, about $43,056 more than expected, but even with that increase, there’s a $2.9 million shortfall.
GFPS has used county birth records to predict enrollment and it’s “still projected that enrollments going to continue to decline based on population here in Great Falls,” Diekhans said.
State funding is based in large part on enrollment numbers.
Diekhans said there’s no one way to trim $2.9 million from the budget, so staff has taken a multifaceted approach.
In recent years, Diekhans said the district had taken steps to reduce expenses without jeopardizing programming. including:
- consolidating one assistant superintendent position during the 2024-2025 budget
- paying off an energy bond this year
- renegotiated electricity costs in December
- not filling six elementary positions that had been vacant for several years
- change to divisional tournaments, shortened by a day, for a significant cost savings
There are two district funds that officials have some flexibility to use for balancing the budget, to include interlocal and the impact aid funds.
Diekhans said the maximum amounts GFPS could request in a levy are:
- $1,100,439 for elementary
- $1,070,470 for high school
That totals $2,170,909, and even if both were approved, the district would still be facing a shortfall.
District officials, with budget committee support, are instead proposing to reallocate funds from the energy levy and electricity savings; and consolidating some classrooms for staff reductions.
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Lance Boyd, assistant superintendent, said that they worked with the secondary administration team to look at class offerings, listed lowest enrollment to highest and they noticed a significant number of classes with three to eight or nine students, that had multiple sections.
With resignations and retirements, GFPS officials said they’ve identified some courses that can be consolidating, reducing positions, and cost from the budget.
They’ve identified:
- 7.5 positions in high school for a savings of $454,688
- two positions in middle school for a savings of $121,250
- three classrooms for targeted reductions for a savings of $181,875
Superintendent Heather Hoyer said the district is doing master scheduling now, so it’s a good time to go through that process of consolidating class sections. She said it’s a natural way to find savings through vacancies without having to go through force reduction process.
There are also other options for some of those courses, such as the Montana Digital Academy, GFPS officials said.
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Diekhans said the district continues to use all of its special education impact aid annually and it’s a fixed amount.
Within impact aid, they have some flexibility to reallocated up to eight Loy Elementary School teacher salaries from the general fund to impact aid, a shift of $485,000.
Diekhans said they’re planning to use $1,092,042 to balance the budget and are auditing all school schedules.
If the district isn’t running a levy this year, the money has to come from somewhere, he said.
“Is it risky, I think there’s some risk involved,” Diekhans said of shifting some positions to be funded by impact aid, because it’s hard to shift them back to the general fund and impact aid isn’t guaranteed.
Boyd said that they continue to advocate to the local congressional delegation about how the federal funds are used.
Two weeks ago, he said, the district didn’t know if they’d have full funds, a slight or significant reduction in federal programs.
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Boyd said that federal entitlement programs like Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA, funds are most at risk, but that’s been true for years.
Anything attached to the Defense Department is currently a safer bet than funds on the Title side, which provide funds for low income students, student achievement programs and more, he said.
Kim Skornogoski, school board member, asked what using the interlocal fund would take that balance down to and Diekhans said that was hard to predict at this point since there’s upcoming potential costs, such as addressing earthquake damage at Loy Elementary and East Middle School.
Insurance may cover some of the earthquake related affairs, Diekhans said, and the adjuster had already been on site to review the damage.
Engineering companies have been out to review the damage to get an idea of structural issues and estimated costs.
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Diekhans told The Electric that there were bricks that had been separating from the wall for awhile near the main East Middle entrance. Repairs had been made in the past, but the earthquake caused more damage.
He said they don’t think it’s structural, but are looking into it.
The windows at Loy were redone in 2022 at which time a small crack by a gym window was identified and deemed non-structural at the time.
The first earthquake caused that crack to really open up and more cracks were found, as well as separating around the stage, Diekhans said.
Skornogoski said that “we can only cut so much and I think we’re at the edge,” as costs continue to rise.
Bronson, school board member, said that there’s been a significant decline in the rate of passage for levies and public willingness to support public education through property taxes.
The Legislature meets next year, Bronson said, and they’ll have to decide on a school funding model that may drive the necessity of levies, or shift to a different model with more state responsibility.
The question will be, Bronson, said whether the state will have the funds next year to increase its share of pubic education funding due to tax cuts and reliance on the state general fund.
He said it will be interesting to see how the Legislature deals with those issues, but for now, recommended not running a levy.
There’s “risks down the road,” he said, but it will help that the district has trimmed as much as they can, but wouldn’t call it fat.
Skornogoski said the numbers don’t reflect the 10 years of cuts prior to COVID, but they do reflect that the district used the federal COVID relief money that was intended for three years and stretched the dollars over five or six years, in an effort to avoid significant cuts for awhile.
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“But I think we’re at the end of the rope,” she said, and going forward, there are no COVID funds, built up reserves and instability in state and federal funding sources.
Turoski, school board member, said that for the entire time she’s been on the board, they’ve projected a coming fiscal cliff.
“We’re here now,” she said.
The district was fiscally responsible with COVID funds to make it to this point without a levy or major cuts, she said.
