District probably won't need to raise levy after all

Hungry Horse News

School District 6 faces a much better budget situation than expected.

Superintendent Michael Nicosia told the Hungry Horse News Tuesday that the district will not likely need to ask for a mill levy or close Canyon Elementary School.

Nicosia said they ran the numbers again and found that the $70 million in relief funding from Gov. Brian Schweitzer's proposal in Senate Bill 177 will provide more money than their original calculations suggested.

Instead of facing a $283,895 shortfall in the elementary budget for the next school year, the deficit could be $34,962. The high school projection of a $3,368 shortfall remains the same.

"We can make some adjustments internally without a levy," Nicosia said. "At least we're within that range. It's not short enough to threaten our programs. This is my direction if these numbers hold up."

Nicosia said the district could make up the difference with a number of small cuts.

"It would be absolutely wonderful not to run a levy," Nicosia said.

Those numbers are in stark contrast to what the school board saw Monday night.

At a long-range planning meeting, Nicosia said SB177 would add just $59,986 for the elementary schools and $180,381 for the high school, which was just a 0.8 percent increase for elementary funding and a four percent increase for the high school.

The budgets for the current school year are $7,679,817 for elementary schools and $4,483,101 for the high school.

Nicosia had told the board Monday the district needed an elementary school mill levy of nearly $300,000 for the third-straight year.

The board discussed how to show the community that they needed another mill levy, despite the extra money from the Legislature.

The board was also considering closing Canyon school.

Nicosia also presented a reduction in force list. Fifteen people were on the list. Nicosia asked the board to prioritize programs which might be cut so he could reduce this list.

If the new projections remain the same, and the House doesn't significantly alter Senate Bill 177, the budget icture will look much brighter.

"Compared to what we were looking at (Monday) night, this is just outstanding news," board member Dean Chisholm said. "If these numbers hold true, it will be a great relief that we can run the schools for another year without asking taxpayers for another levy."