MISSOULA — Missoula County Public Schools (MCPS) is looking for voters to pass four levy requests that are on the May 7, 2024, school elections ballot.
MCPS is facing an estimated $3.6 million deficit that has already resulted in the cutting of staff, and programs that many students supported.
The general fund levy for the elementary school is valued at $105,134 which would cause an increase in annual taxes by approximately $2.37 for a home valued at $300,000. The high school levy is valued at $403,627 and would increase taxes on a $300,000 home by $4.95 per year.
MCPS superintendent Micah Hill says the district has made cuts and considerations to help with the deficit but these levies not passing could make matters worse for them.
“If they don’t pass, I already talked about how we addressed the 3.6 million budget shortfall, if they don’t pass we have to continue to contemplate even deeper cuts than we’ve already experienced,” Hill said. “So it helps us kind of stay even for what we’ve contemplated already and where we’ve actually made the reductions but it will not significantly change the overall budget picture for the district other than we may have to go deeper into the cuts we already did.”
The school has also placed two safety levies on this year’s ballot for elementary and high school. The elementary safety levy is around $1.5 million per year and would increase taxes on a $300,000 home by approximately $33.72 annually. The high school safety levy is around $1 million and would increase property taxes by around $12.24 for a $300,000 home.
Superintendent Hill explained what the District would use these levies for in their schools.
“We currently expend about $4,000,000 annually in safety-related expenses. Those include things like school resource officers, school counselors, psychologists, academic interventionalists behavior interventionists, behavior interventionists.”
Hill also said the levies could be used to fund other needs like cameras and cybersecurity technology. He also explained why the district needed to include these levies on the ballot.
“What we’re looking to do is try and shift those expenditures to the safety levy so that we free up money in the general fund for regular and routine operations,” Hill said. “So when we pay for school resource officers out of our general fund instead of safety fund we’re actually getting into the pot of money that was set aside for educating kids.”
Ballots for the school election are due back by Tuesday, May 7, 2004.
Visit https://www.mcpsmt.org/site/Default.aspx?PageID=18726 for additional information about the MCPS levy requests.
