THOMPSON FALLS - A new school year is coming with some new bus routes in Sanders County.
School leaders at Thompson Falls, Trout Creek, and Noxon tell MTN the changes are causing some parents to enroll their students in different schools this year.
“I will do whatever it takes me to do to make sure my child has a solid learning foundation,” said Samatha Swatman.
She’s a mother of a girl with autism heading into the seventh grade in Sanders County.
Swatman told MTN her daughter faced challenges at Thompson Falls Schools, which is the school district where she lives.
“She struggled the entire time,” Swatman said. “She’s dealt with bullying from kindergarten, basically. Third grade, it went out of control and it just got worse and worse from there.”
The bullying reached its peak in the sixth grade, she said.
Upon the suggestion of a friend, Swatman turned to the next nearby elementary school in Trout Creek, hoping that her daughter would have a better social and educational experience.
“They took her from straight F’s and D’s to A’s, honor roll, top of her class,” Swatman said. “They took her from not having a purpose to giving her lots of purposes in life. She started doing archery. She ended up at the state championship.”
The Thompson Falls resident was able to get her daughter on a Trout Creek school bus because of a tri-district transportation agreement between the three districts — Thompson Falls Public Schools, Noxon Public School, and Trout Creek School.
It had been in place for at least 30 years, school leaders said. That bus transportation agreement was not renewed for the 2023-2024 school year.
This means students, like Swatman’s daughter, that live in Thompson Falls but need Trout Creek School to provide a school bus ride within the Thompson Falls school district, will no longer have that option.
The student will need a reliable commute to the other district’s bus stop or have a guardian drive them directly to their school of choice.
“To me, that’s what it’s about, parents having the right to choose where their kid goes to school and the buses have been taking them to those schools for years and years and years. Now that’s been stripped away,” said Trout Creek Superintendent Preston Wenz.
Members of the Sanders County transportation committee voted against it in a 6-1 vote. Wenz was the lone voter against the move.
Why is the tri-district transportation agreement not being renewed this year?
Thompson Falls Public Schools Superintendent Bud Scully told MTN News that under the advice of the Sanders County Public Schools education attorney, he was told not to sign the agreement because it’s illegal.
“What’s happening then is that there will be a double payment by our taxpayers,” Scully said. “So we would have to pay for Thompson Falls to run a bus and Trout Creek to run a bus over the same route. That’s why it’s illegal. You can't do that.”
Although this agreement has been in place for years, he said now that he knows it’s wrong, it’s time to fix it.
“They don’t need to run their buses into our district because you can’t, by law, get reimbursement and that’s really what it amounts to is they wanted to get reimbursement for their route miles,” Scully said.
Trout Creek School Superintendent Preston Wenz said the disagreement started this year when he submitted new bus routes to the County Planning Commission. He said the routes weren’t being expanded, but Trout Creek wanted to add more stops along their route.
The proposed bus routes crossed into the other district’s lines. The decision to not approve the routes, he said, will ultimately affect the Trout Creek students who were thriving in the school’s smaller class setting.
“Some people have said ‘Well what you're doing is illegal.’ It’s not illegal [the Office of Public Instruction] has known about it; everyone has known about it,” Wenz said. “As long as it’s been agreed upon, it’s been good. But now that it’s not agreed upon. Now yeah, if we ran a bus to Thompson Falls, or from Thompson Falls to here with kids, then it would be doing something illegal, but that’s obviously not going to be happening.”
Noxon Public Schools superintendent Dave Whitesell said he was against signing the tri-district bus transportation agreement for two reasons — it would put an extra financial burden onto taxpayers and to prepare for the upcoming Montana Open Enrollment Bill set to take effect July 1, 2024.
The bill says a child can choose to attend a different school than their residence as long as they have approval from the districts. However, the parents or guardian may be responsible for the transportation of that student.
Even though the bill isn’t in effect yet, starting this 2023-2024 school year, superintendents agree that district buses will only pick up students within its district lines.
Additionally, Thompson Falls and Noxon Public Schools will have pick-up spots for high school students in the Trout Creek area since Trout Creek School is only K-8.
All Sanders County students can go to whichever school they wish to attend, but they will have to get to their desired district’s bus pick-up location for a ride or have a parent or guardian take them to school.
About a third of former Trout Creek elementary-grade level students won’t be picked up at their usual bus stop on the outskirts of the town this upcoming year because of the decision.
From a reduction of teachers to cutting back on extracurricular activities, not having that agreement in place will have negative effects on future funding and resources for Trout Creek students, Wenz said.
“It’s going to have a huge impact,” Wenz said. “We ended the year at 69/70 students. Right now, as of today, we’re looking at 48 students. Potentially factoring in some others that we have not gotten confirmation back that are affected by this, we could be down to around 40-42 students.”
Swatman said even if her daughter had public transportation to go back to Trout Creek School this year, she wouldn’t be able to enroll her daughter due to the school's current shortage of special education teachers, she was told.
This leaves her with few options.
“Homeschooling isn't really in her books, not having special needs,” Swatman said. “I mean, I tried to teach her during the pandemic and it did not go well. She needs to be in a place where she’s safe, where she can thrive. Where she can grow. Where she can keep growing.”
A transportation agreement with approved routes for all three schools is not finalized yet, school leaders told MTN News.
Additional school board meetings are scheduled before the start of school. Thompson Falls, and Trout Creek Schools start on Aug. 28. The first day for students at Noxon Public Schools is Aug. 23.
