School Board Discussions Budget

On Monday evening the Broadus School Board Trustees met for their monthly meeting. All members were present other than Jay Schroeder and Danny Krantz. The major agenda item was approval of the 2023-24 school budget.

Broadus Schools Superintendent Jim Hansen described the budget as he went over major budget items on a large touch screen monitor with the board.

Hansen commented “You’re in good shape. Your budget is a lot better than 10-12-15 years ago, but in the future you could have some problems.”

Potential future problems stem from changes to oil and gas revenues, which have kept the school afloat for some time. If these funds dry up or are shifted to being shared statewide, it could cause issues for the schools, Hansen explained.

Overall in both the Elementary and High School districts the burden on PR County tax payers declined, dropping by around $18,000 in the Elementary, and $35,000 in the High School. A large percentage of that shift came about due to a change in the guaranteed tax base, or GTB. GTB is defined by OPI as a mechanism that helps to equalize the differences in revenue generating capacity between districts with different property tax bases and in doing so help balance the principles of educational local control and equality of opportunity embodied in the Montana Constitution.

This year, many schools in Montana saw their taxable valuation go up (as did many residents of the state, particularly in more affluent areas), though Broadus Schools saw their valuation go down. This resulted in more money from the state to offset the local tax burden through the GTB, with $10,000 more in the elementary and $19,000 in the high school coming from the state compared to last year.

Other board agenda items included hiring for several positions, including two part-time classroom aides to help in the elementary – Marlee Bilbrey and Sylvia Zimmer. Dillon Wahl was hired as assistant football coach. Kate Ruland takes over Yearbook duties and will work as a volunteer coach for Cheer, Raquel Mader was accepted as a substitute teacher, JJ McDowell as JH football coach, Stacy Hagedorn as a volunteer volleyball coach and JH coach, and Melissa Billing as a volunteer JH and HS volleyball coach.

The board heard from Activities Director Mike Richards about changes to how 8th grade athletes may be pulled up to play in HS activities. Over the past few years, those decisions were made by the board. This model created a large amount of discussion each season, as the need for 8th graders in a sport, the number of 8th graders, the willingness of a coach to take on 8th graders, and a number of other factors varied significantly, and changed year by year and sport to sport. Statewide, schools are going to a model where a select group, such as the coach of the sport along with the AD, made these decisions.

He proposed to have a group of three to make the decisions, in this case the AD, the coach, and the Principal. Parents and community members with issues could still have their input heard before a vote on the matter, going through the group of three instead of the board as a whole. Discussion was held on the matter, and a vote on the motion to move to a three member panel to assign 8th grade participation passed, with all but one member voting in favor of the motion.

The first reading on a packet of board policy updates from the MT School Board Association passed. During the report from the Clerk, Dixie Mitchell, it was noted that an audit from the state found no significant errors in reporting. The board congratulated Mitchell on her performance in assuring a clean audit report.

The board heard a proposal from Bob Moore, a representative of McKinstry. His company provides services to school districts which guide energy efficient and cost efficient upgrades. The school contacted McKinstry while looking at ways to save money on their electrical bills, and the potential for adding a solar array or putting in more energy efficient infrastructure. The schools currently have a high energy cost due to “peak usage” fees, which occur at times of maximum energy usage, often in the morning when lights and heaters are fired up. The thought is that a solar array would help offset these costs (especially with current cost sharing models from the federal government for solar), and potentially lower the electric bill for the school. The most recent electric bill at the high school was $4,594 (it should be noted that this was before school started, so high costs such as football field lights during games are not on the bill). Of that total, $2,596 was a peak usage fee.

Moore, who has a long background in education in Western Montana from Churchill and Stevensville, and has ties to the local area through the Cathey family, spoke at length about the services offered by McKinstry which would apply to Broadus. One option would be a facilities commission assessment, where their personnel would come in and give a report on the lifespan of capital items in the facilities (basically everything from the heating boilers to windows). This would allow the school to budget in the future for replacement of capital goods.

A second option is an investment grade audit, where the company would come in and look at replacement of the coal boilers, as well as installation of a solar array.

Moore explained that McKinstry uses a “Design-Build” model, which incorporates all levels of a project from engineers to contractor.

McKinstry will come back with quotes for the proposals, to be discussed at a future meeting.

Superintendent Hansen’s report noted that workers had been busy around the school over the summer on a number of projects. Mini-split AC units had been installed in most classrooms, work on the new duplex housing unit is still ongoing with interior, electrical, and plumbing still in the works. The locker room pedestal showers are still a work in progress, as are the HS electrical upgrades and generator. The leak in the gym roof over the summer was fixed; the problem was with a drain which was not properly attached. The drains may need upgraded in the future.

Principal Ternes noted that as of the first day of school (Monday), 118 students were in school in grades K-6. The JH and HS consists of 98 students.