BIG TIMBER — A debate over unifying the school boards and superintendents in Big Timber is taking center stage ahead in the upcoming school board election.
Watch the story here:
Currently, the community operates with separate boards and superintendents for its K-8 and high school districts. School trustee candidate Catherine Kirchner is pushing to combine them, arguing it makes financial sense amid declining enrollment.
Kirchner built a website to share data on the financial impact of lower enrollment at Big Timber schools.
"In the last two years, at the grade school alone, we’ve lost 34 children and using the state calculation, formula, that’s roughly a quarter of a million dollars," Kirchner said.
Taxpayer Laura McKinnon supports examining the issue now rather than waiting.
"For the future of our schools, we’re going to be looking at problems, so I think we should be looking at it right now and asking questions as a community," McKinnon said.
Former county superintendent Susan Metcalf said unifying the schools has been discussed three times in 45 years.
"Each time we decided that it wasn't beneficial because of the problems that it would create to unify," Metcalf said.
Metcalf said unification creates a monumental task for the community.
"You have less representation by the taxpayers and each school has separate sets of problems and is very unique. So trying to meld that all together and make that work is a monumental task," Metcalf said.
While 40 of the 42 Montana school districts have already unified, Big Timber has not.
"Because Deer Lodge is the only school since the 90s that's unified, so they don't really even have much guidance on how we would go about the unification process, how we would meld two different school boards, how we would come up with one contract for two different districts," Metcalf said.
School board chair Yancy Terland wants to see more evidence before moving forward with the unification process.
"I want to see some evidence before I say, yeah, let's spend taxpayer dollars to get some true numbers. I want to see where it makes sense to me first," Terland said.
Voters will have to make a decision on the direction of the school board at the ballot box. The election is Tuesday, May 5.
Two candidates are also running for school board in Big Timber, Julie Johnson and Cameron Powell. MTN News asked each for a statement on unification. Here are their responses:
Julie Johnson
"Unification has both pros and cons. It is an important decision that needs thorough review.
There are benefits to having 2 separate districts. It allows us to collaborate when it makes sense to and separate when it doesn’t. The grade school and the high school already partner in numerous ways. We share teachers and coaches. We have a multi-district agreement to maintain the Civic Center. We share student transportation and food services. We collaborate on the calendar and we work to ensure curriculum alignment.
The grade school and high school needs are different so having two separate boards allows for those needs to be more directly addressed. It’s good to have trustees devoted to understanding the grade school and separate trustees devoted to understanding the high school.
Combining superintendents can look good on paper, but you must consider that the grade school already has a 50% superintendent. We know the grade school functions well with a full-time principal and a part-time superintendent. We meet accreditation, the staff feels supported, and administrators are able to effectively accomplish their tasks. We don’t know how combining a superintendent with the high school would affect that dynamic. Further, administrators in both districts currently hold multiple job titles. It's important to understand how that would be affected and whether new administrative positions would then be needed
The BTGS board has not made a decision on unification. What we have all agreed on is that this is an important decision so we need to ensure we spend the proper amount of time and energy looking into it.
While ANB numbers are concerning due to declining enrollment, the 25-26 grade school budget is currently at 91% of the max budget and the board recently voted against running a general mill levy. Process improvements can certainly happen, but unification is not a catch-all.
This isn’t something you try and if it doesn’t work you go back to the way it was. Once unification happens, it is a complex and costly process to undo. We want to make the right decision and I do not see any need to rush."
Cameron Powell
"I am neither for nor against unification; what I am for is open dialogue. A decision like this would need to start with open communication and collaboration by both school boards. These conversations and decisions would need to lean heavily on the inputs of parents and staff as they would be most affected.
IF, at that time it was decided unification was advantageous to the students, staff, and taxpayers of Sweet Grass County it would have to be a multi-year phased-in approach. Allowing time to accommodate staff contract mergers, system mergers, and budget evaluations. This is not a decision that should be taken lightly; we are talking about the education of our youth and the very livelihoods of our staff- Both of which are essential for our community to continue to prosper.
Unfortunately this conversation has become very divisive. Devolving into an “us against them” mentality; becoming more emotional than productive. I strongly believe that most parents, staff and taxpayers only want what’s best for our youth and community. I believe open communication is how we get there."
