MCPS schools are currently facing a significant budget reduction, leading to a host of challenges. These financial constraints have left many students and families wondering how their education will be impacted.
When Judson Miller, principal at Hellgate High School, was asked what caused these budget cuts, he said, “During Covid, the Federal Government gave all school districts a big influx of money and MCPS spent that money on people. We added positions, and so when that money from the Federal Government went away we had to go through a budget-cutting process. Which eliminated positions in the district.”
This “budget cutting process” cut 25% of MCPS’s budget, putting us in a deficit. While the effects of the deficit may not be immediately apparent, they will become so over time.
Although we can already see some of the impacts, Laura Elliot, the current chair of the art department, mentioned that students now have to pay a ten-dollar fee to cover the costs of consumables in pottery class.
“I’m worried over time these fees will increase,” Elliot said. These concerns can be extended to other school fees for clubs, sports, music, and our new gym shirt policy.
In past years, parents didn’t have to worry about paying fees for classes required by the district. But now students have to pay 10 dollars every semester for pottery and gym classes. This assumes that every family can pay these fees without adding any stress to a family’s financial situation. It is also unclear if families will receive financial aid for these fees if needed.
While solutions for this deficit are still very unclear, Hellgate staff expressed the willingness of our school board to inform and support students and staff through stressful times.
While these efforts are highly appreciated by students and staff, there is still a lack of experience that would be beneficial in a time like this. As of this year, the burden of this financial crisis has been handed off to the district’s new superintendent and our new head of finance for MCPS, though no fault of their own.
Principal Miller also raised other funding concerns that factor into these challenges. “…We haven’t gotten a corresponding raise from the State, inflation costs, how much the State is allocating per student. That is a whole separate and additional topic to the funding there.”
The State Legislature’s neglected funding of education for far too long was also reflected in many of the interviewed teachers’ concerns.
Montana has been historically the worst state at paying their teachers. Jeff Waniata, head chair for the social studies department, said, “Montana does not take good care of our teachers”.
There have also been no actions to increase the budget on the state level, as it’s been the same for the art department since the ’90s, even though inflation has increased the price of materials.
Currently very little is for certain, but what we do know is that Hellgate, along with the rest of MCPS, is doing its best to protect our students’ education. Our new superintendent, along with our school board and principal, are doing their best to inform and orchestrate a financial strategy. This includes advocating at the state level, securing grants, and organizing fundraisers.
Despite these efforts, we still can’t expect favorable outcomes as many things are still unclear. Many wonder if the quality of our education will worsen through fees and more possible budget cuts, or if our district and state legislation will be able to adequately support our schools.
