Ahead of Looming Layoffs, Kalispell Schools to Propose High School Levy
Without the passage of a levy, Kalispell’s high school district will lay off approximately 20 teachers. Voters have not passed a high school levy since 2007.
By Denali Sagner
Kalispell Public Schools (KPS) administrators are recommending the district run a high school general fund levy this spring, Superintendent Matt Jensen told the school board last week.
The school district is facing an estimated $2.7 million budget deficit, which administrators say is due to a constellation of factors including inflation, an outdated statewide education funding formula and the repeated rejection of local levies by Kalispell taxpayers.
Though the KPS elementary district, which includes Kalispell’s six elementary schools and middle school, is technically fully funded, it is set to face a $1.2 million budget deficit this year. The high school district is 90% funded, leaving a $1.5 million budget deficit. If high school district voters support a general fund levy, which administrators plan to bring this spring, the high school district will have a $1.3 million surplus.
“This is a high stakes levy,” Superintendent Matt Jensen told the school board on Jan. 14.
“We have twenty-and-a-half [full-time equivalent] positions that are going to be reduced from this district if this levy doesn’t pass. Those are high stakes.”
Jensen said the district is pursuing a multi-pronged approach to addressing its budget woes, including elevating bills in the Montana Legislature that aim to raise teacher pay and reconfigure the state’s funding formula. Lawmakers have brought dozens of education-related bills to address teacher salaries, early numeracy and budgeting, among other topics.
“We don’t believe that the funding mechanism and the ANB calculation is fair,” Jensen said, referencing average-number-belonging, or ANB, the per-student funding mechanism that makes up the majority of a Montana public school’s budget.
Though Kalispell voters have historically supported elementary district levies, KPS has not passed a high school levy since 2007, leaving its high school district under tight budgetary constraints.
Voters in 2022, 2023 and 2024 rejected high school levies.
Kalispell is the lowest-funded class AA high school district in Montana, KPS Finance Director Chris Campbell told the school board.
If the levy fails again, KPS will move forward with reducing its high school workforce by around 20 staff members. The layoff plans come on the heels of a months-long negotiations process between the district and its teachers union, which failed to reach a collective bargaining agreement last year for the first time in two decades after talks over salaries and cost-of-living concerns stalled. The district and the teachers union reached a contract in November, agreeing to an average salary increase of 4.64%
Despite concerns from board members, Jensen said he believes the community is “fired up” and “more informed” about the district’s financial needs ahead of another levy election.
“That energy is out there and it’s good,” he said.
District administrators will present the levy proposal to the school board on Jan. 28.