School will see budget shortfall after state cuts

Columbia Falls School District 6 will see large cutbacks in state funding for at least the next two years.

The state, in a special session earlier this year, opted to cut its budget across the board rather than raise taxes. Cuts were made to education and SD6 saw a total of about $792,295 in reduced state aid.

Cuts included the elimination of the general fund block grant, debt service aid, transportation reimbursements and state maintenance aide.

The state did raise the guaranteed tax base aid, which offset some of the cuts. The district will see a $421,474 increase in that aid.

On the plus side, the elementary schools have seen a higher enrollment by 20 students, which offsets the cuts. In fact, the elementary budget for fiscal year 2019 will have a slight budget balance of about $70,698.

The high school, however, is in the red, because its enrollment dropped by 19 students. As such, the high school budget is about $94,000 in the red.

The state doles out aid based on the number of students in a school. The elementary schools current have about 1,511 students, while the high school has 657 — the lowest in the past three years. In 2017, there were 692 students at the high school.

The school board is considering floating a levy to make up the gap. It discussed such a measure at its Dec. 4 meeting, but took no action on the matter.

The high school’s budget should improve in fiscal year 2020, when a larger eighth grade class enters next year, superintendent Steve Bradshaw noted.

Some school board members noted that cuts in state aid simply shift the tax burden onto local property owners.

During the special session, Gov. Steve Bullock wanted to raise some taxes to fund part of the state’s $227 million budget shortfall, but Republican leaders in the House and Senate squashed that idea.