Teachers will be paid according to a contract that was set to expire this week after the Kalispell Education Association and Kalispell Public Schools failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement following roughly five months of negotiations.
For the 2025-26 school year, the district proposed a 1.5% increase.
Factoring into negotiations is the school district’s anticipation of a $1.7 million budget shortfall going into the 2024-25 school year.
Both the association and district recognize the challenges that inflation and the cost of living, failed levies and an outdated state funding formula pose in reaching an agreement.
The district cut four elementary positions this year through attrition, which means the district didn’t fill positions after people retired or resigned. The district anticipates more reductions next year after a $700,000 high school general fund levy failed in the May school elections. A high school levy of any type hasn’t passed since 2007.
“We bargained to receive the average starting wage amongst AA schools and other K-12 districts in the Flathead Valley.”
Daily Inter Lake: Kalispell Public Schools, teachers union pause contract negotiations
At the most recent Missoula County Public School board meeting, trustees decided to cut three tenured teacher positions and a member of the administration.
This is after the district cut 47 nontenured positions last month.
Earlier this week, Helena Public Schools announced budget reductions of about $2.5 million. It resulted in 38 positions being cut, including music and physical education teachers, as well as paraeducators and custodians.
One of the proposed position cuts is the MCPS Arts Education Director who oversees and coordinates all arts programs including visual, drama, and music for the District. The proposed cut has a former arts education director — and the arts community raising the alarm on how this cut could negatively impact fine arts in Missoula public schools.
In his letter to parents, Superintendent Micah Hill writes nothing is taken lightly when it comes to reductions.
But he adds, “There isn’t a single position that isn’t important to our students and school community. Yet, the committee was tasked with the impossible - to bring forward recommendations for staffing reductions and other budget cuts.
KPAX: Arts community voices concern over Missoula County Public Schools proposed budget cuts
Missoula County Public Schools is facing millions of dollars in budget shortfalls due to declining enrollment, expired relief funding, and inflationary costs.
This has caused school administration to propose dozens of job cuts, and that's causing community concern.
Students and other supporters lined up in front of the MCPS District offices ahead of Tuesday night’s Board of Trustees meeting to demonstrate against the proposed budget cuts that include possibly 100 job cuts across the district which includes the Arts Education Director who oversees and coordinates all arts programs including visual, drama, and music for MCPS.
KPAX: Students, other supporters demonstrate against possible MCPS budget cuts
Susie Hedalen has officially filed to run for Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction in the 2024 election.
A release from Hedalen's campaign said Hedalen is running on a conservative platform and has received endorsements from Governor Greg Gianforte, Attorney General Austin Knudsen, the Montana Rural Education Association and other state and local officials and education advocates.
Right now, Hedalen serves as the Townsend School District Superintendent and the Montana Board of Public Education Vice-Chair, and formerly the deputy superintendent at the Montana Office of Public Instruction.
Montana Right Now: Susie Hedalen files to run for Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction
The Montana Office of Public Instruction’s bi-annual Youth Risk Behavior Survey results are out and the numbers are alarming. Students are reporting an increase in violence and weapons in schools. In 2023, 10.5% of students reported being threatened with a weapon on school property, up from 6% two years prior.
The report comes at a time when School District 2 is preparing to bring a safety levy to Billings voters.
According to the survey, 11.2% of students say they've carried a weapon on school grounds in the last year.
KTVQ: New study finds an increase in weapons brought into Billings schools
Bozeman Public Schools plans to offer new early childhood programming this summer to help kids learn to read at their grade level.
The district started offering its Running Start Kindergarten program in 2015, aimed towards students whose household income is below federal thresholds. Funding for the classes was partially supported by state law that helped schools to enroll students in early kindergarten programs.
House Bill 352, passed in the spring, eliminates the provision that allowed Running Start to serve students based on financial need. District officials said they are excited because the law also expands program funding to more students based on their literacy needs.
“I’ve been telling everyone I know that House Bill 352 is the most exciting thing done by the Montana Legislature in a long time,” Bertram said while presenting the new programs.
The new summer program will be offered to students entering grades K-3, Bertram said. The sessions will run Monday through Thursday for five hours each day, starting July 8, he said. The summer classes can take up to 160 total students between Emily Dickinson and Meadowlark Elementary Schools, he said. One goal of the summer program is to have one teacher for every eight students, Bertram said.
The district is also planning to offer additional reading support in classrooms during the school year for 4-year-olds. The capacity of the program will be 72 students, Bertram said, with the goal of having one teacher and a paraprofessional for every 18 students.
Bozeman Chronicle: Bozeman schools to begin new early literacy programs this summer
MTN recently had a chance to talk with Matt Jensen, who was selected by the school board on February 5, 2024, to become KPS superintendent. He's currently the assistant superintendent for KPS after being involved in the Bigfork school system for 17 years.
Jensen — who will transition into the superintendent position on July 1 — tells us that once he takes over leadership, he hopes to prioritize the budget, facility upgrades and overcrowding, curriculum, and building a relationship with partner districts.
KPAX: Newly hired Kalispell Public Schools superintendent is eager to get to work
On Tuesday, the audience was full at the Helena Public Schools Board of Trustees meeting, as leaders discussed a set of key recommendations on how to address a projected budget shortfall and catalog the district’s long-term facility needs.
“There’s been a lot of interest, and we’re thankful for that – there needs to be,” said Superintendent Rex Weltz.
Many of those providing public comment Tuesday were parents particularly concerned about two possible reductions: cutting back the PEAK program for gifted and talented education and closing one or more elementary schools. Speakers whose children are in the PEAK program said it’s already suffered since the closure of Ray Bjork Learning Center last year, and that the program has reached their kids in ways others can’t. Parents from Broadwater and Hawthorne Elementary Schools expressed the most concern that their schools could be up for closure, and said the loss of a nearby neighborhood school would have negative impacts outweighing any cost savings.
In January, the budget committee heard the shortfall next school year could range from around $660,000 to more than $4.5 million. Since then, the district has secured almost $1 million in additional revenue, through the approval of three charter school proposals and their deal to rent out some district facilities.
The rest of the uncertainty comes from things like ongoing union negotiations, enrollment figures due to be updated in the coming weeks – and most of all, whether voters approve a series of levy proposals intended to provide funding to offset the drain on the general fund. In the May 7 school election, trustees are set to ask for up to six separate levies: small levies directly to the general fund and larger levies to fund technology and safety and security improvements, each for both the elementary and high school district.
“The surest way to avoid all of these things is to support those levies when you see them on the ballot in May,” said vice-chair Jennifer McKee. “That is how we avoid poring over all of these things – every single thing on that list, every program that's touched by it, every school, all of it, has enormous value.”
Helena Public Schools is far from the only school district in Montana dealing with budget shortfalls, as places like Missoula and Bozeman have reported similar issues in the last year. Both leaders and a number of public commenters said they hoped to see the Montana Legislature take another look at the school funding formula in light of these problems.
KTVH: Helena school board discusses budget, facility recommendations
The district reported that budget shortfalls with grants and the general fund will set the school back roughly $8 million, according to a letter sent from Superintendent Micah Hill to staff last week.
Current plans show a 20-person cut to certified staff at K-8 locations, 13 certified staff at area high schools and 13 staff members in central administration.
The district said it will work to move money around to limit the impact of the cuts, and officials also have four levies planned to increase revenue. But the district warned that cuts were inevitable, with potentially up to 100 eliminations.
One preschool was considered for closure by the district, but the agenda for the meeting said leaders decided against closing any schools.
Worsened by inflation and collective bargaining agreement increases, the agenda states the general fund is down $3 million, while ESSER funding was reduced by $5 million.
The agenda for the meeting said elementary school enrollment has declined by more than 470 students since 2019, while the number of teachers has increased. Area high schools have increased by 400 students, so cuts are more likely to be focused on elementary schools.
The general fund levies would bring in roughly $469,000 annually, while safety levies that fund school resource officers, counselors, behavior interventionists and other safety-related expenses would net $2.5 million.
MCPS to consider potential layoffs: 'Our hearts are extremely heavy'