Dear Families and Staff,

August is packed with satisfying endings and exciting beginnings.

Our summer staff has wrapped up a successful summer of adventure and learning for 105 K-3 grade children in the Quest Jumpstart program and 181 K-5 grade children in the Summer SACC program.  Our facilities personnel have completed major building improvements — take a drive by Helena Middle School to admire the new exterior!  We are continuing to work through the $100 million of deferred maintenance across the district using funds from our annual $4.5 million Building Reserve Fund and I want to thank all of our facilities personnel for their hard work this summer.

Throughout the summer, thanks to the Chamber of Commerce, hundreds of community members have taken school tours, attended informational events at local breweries and researched the details of the bond proposal on our website  https://helenaschools.org. The bond would build a new Helena High School, remodel Capital High School, build a new Kessler Elementary School, and eliminate $55 million of the $100 million in deferred district maintenance that I mentioned earlier.

This week high school sports practices have started, principals are back in their buildings, the trustees have passed a budget for the upcoming school year and the ballots for the upcoming bond election will be mailed out today.  The school calendar will be coming out in the Helena Independent Record on August 23.  And, for the first time, the calendar will also be published on our website at https://helenaschools.org/25-26-calendar-flipbook/.

For the first time in several years, we are starting the school year on stable financial footing.  The trustees have been fiscally responsible and, along with funding from the STARS Act, been able to support 2% raises for employee groups across the district to maintain quality staff to serve our young people across this community.  Our budget includes a reduction of $388,426 in administrative expenses bringing the total number of administrators to 31.5 this year, down from 37 in 2020.  For the youngest in our community, we are expanding our KinderSprouts program from three half day classrooms to eight full day classrooms in buildings across the district providing free quality education for 4 year olds.  Every elementary student will once again receive two PE and two music classes per week including our beloved winter music programs. Middle school students and educators will benefit from an increase in staffing in our middle schools.  At the high school level, teachers will once again be able to teach five of seven periods instead of the increased workload of last year with six of seven teaching periods, providing students with additional opportunities and support.

We are beginning this school year with a refreshed sense of community — restarting our opening of school celebration which stopped during Covid.  All of our staff will have a chance to start this school year with an informal outdoor gathering — having a cup of coffee and a pastry, saying hello to colleagues and newcomers, listening to music performed by some of our own, and hearing from our Teacher of the Year, Lauren Gustafson.

And, we are at a crossroads.  Like Helenans who,150 years ago when Montana was still a territory, were asked to support the building of Helena’s first high school, we are stretching towards a new future not only for the Helena schools, but also for the Helena community.  This week, as ballots are mailed out, the bond decision is in your hands.   At this moment, I wholeheartedly agree with prominent Helenan Cornelius Hedges, when he wrote to the Helena Weekly Herald in 1875 regarding the building of our first high school, “It will improve the character, and quicken the enterprise and ambition, not of the children only, but of every resident.”

Respectfully,

Rex Weltz, Superintendent
Helena Public Schools