Superintendent's Report

By Broadus Schools Superintendent Jim Hansen

As many of you know we will be losing four teachers at the conclusion of this school year. Attracting new educators has become extremely difficult in most rural communities. The Montana legislature has made an attempt to increase beginning teacher salaries with House Bill 143. Qualifying schools would receive an additional State payment if they agree to increase salaries during the first three years for beginning teachers. Beginning Broadus educators would be eligible for this increase. However, since school funding is a shared responsibility between the state and school district, local taxpayers would be required to contribute over half of this cost. I applaud the legislature for encouraging young educators to stay in Montana, but this only reaffirms “nothing is free.”

Your school board will be considering this month whether to run a general fund mill levy in the elementary and high school district. Your general fund provides the majority of the district’s operational expenses. If a school has declining enrollment, the State contribution decreases requiring the district to increase their share to operate at the same budget. As stated above, school financing is a shared responsibility between the State and local school districts. If your district desires to operate at the same budget, local patrons are forced to make-up the difference. Therefore, it is important to understand any proposed levy will only allow the district to operate at basically the same budget as the 2020-21 school year.

In the next couple weeks the school will publish a notice in the Powder River Examiner denoting any expected increase or decrease in mills. This publication is the result of a political deal that allowed schools to permissively (without voter approval) levy their taxpayers. Many other school districts have passed additional levies for building maintenance, or they have assessed mills permissively to their taxpayers. WE HAVE DONE NEITHER.