The Troy School District is facing a deficit for the upcoming academic year, but Superintendent Dan Wendt said retiring teachers will help balance the budget. He also said the shortfall could have been worse, but under a settlement reached last week on behalf of the Montana Quality Education Coalition, the state’s public schools will get an addition $4.6 million next year.
Wendt said declining enrollment has led to a drop in funding from the state.
“I can think of a bunch of reasons out there for why (people leave), but there’s no one single answer,” he said.
Troy has three schools within its district, covering kindergarten through high school. During the 2010-2011 school year, there were 432 students enrolled in the school district; a year later there are only 399 students. The town of Troy, located west of Libby near the Idaho border, has seen its population slightly decline over the last decade. According to the 2000 census there were 957 people living there, but 10 years later there were 938 citizens.
Wendt said the drop in population and enrollment would have resulted in $84,000 less from the state of Montana, but thanks to last week’s legal settlement, schools across the state will get more funding. Now the district is facing a $65,000 deficit. That shortfall will be made up by the planned retirement of two teachers.
Wendt said the retirements are not a permanent solution and said in the future cuts may not be so easy.
“Each year is a new situation,” he said. “It’d be wonderful if we could keep addressing the issue like this, but I don’t foresee that.”