Dear Families and Staff,

Over the last two years we have made changes and adjustments to our district because of budgetary constraints. It’s been a necessary reality to balance our budgets while statewide educational funding is lacking.

I see districts taking similar actions across this great state as they adjust to increased costs and lower-than-needed revenue. As we have had to make difficult decisions, there has been misinformation and untruths shared regarding these adjustments.

This afternoon, I want to take a moment to set the record straight. It’s important to have and share accurate information, especially as we work extremely hard to provide a positive working and learning environment for our staff and students.

Frankly, the spreading of misinformation and untruths harms our workplace culture, potentially damages our relationships with our community partners, and undermines our efforts to seek the funding that our schools so desperately need.

Ultimately, it hurts our students.

Our district is hardly alone in this situation. Google “school districts fighting misinformation,” and you’ll find examples from coast to coast. Some of the rumors are specific to certain districts, while others are more universal.

So, today we’re going to take a break from our regular Friday update programming and do some myth busting. If you still have questions after reading this information – or if you know of a rumor we missed – please let us know so we can address it.

Myth #1: Board members are paid to serve on the Board.

Public school board members in Montana and, of course, here in Helena, are volunteers. They are not paid. Period.

Myth #2: Ten administrators at the Central Office gave themselves “huge bonuses.” 

All payroll groups, with the exception of one group that is still negotiating, received an extremely modest 1.5 percent raise for the 2024-25 school year. Our district values all employees and wants to compensate all employees fairly.

District administrators have not received a “special bonus” unique to administrators at any time in recent history.

Myth #3: Despite the budget shortfall, Helena Public Schools administrators “found money” to give themselves “57 percent” raises.

Trustees did not “find extra money” during a budget shortfall to give administrators pay raises. A 1.5 percent districtwide pay increase for all employee groups was built into the 2024-25 budget adopted by the Board of Trustees in August. Our administrative group was the last to receive the 1.5 percent increase in September. This is because Trustees wanted to wait for a third-party compensation analysis to ensure that the 1.5 percent raise would not push administrators’ salaries outside the market rate for AA school district administrators. The analysis was conducted by CMS, a Helena-based firm whose specialties include employee compensation.

Through administrative compensation freezes and corrections, our administrators’ salaries are now well within market indicators.

You can find detailed information on the 2020-21 administrator pay increase in this letter recently shared with staff by Board Chair Siobhan Hathhorn.

Myth #4: Despite the budget shortfall and cuts to staff positions, the district has added new administrative positions.

Several administrative positions in the district’s Central Office have been eliminated or combined in recent years. Helena Public Schools went from 13 Central Office administrators in 2019-20 to 10 administrators in 2024-25. This 23 percent decrease makes our district’s Central Office staff one of the smaller leadership groups in Montana’s AA districts.

The reduction and adjustments to the administrative staff for the 2024-2025 school year netted $179,650 in savings to the General Fund.

Myth #5: The budget shortfall is a result of mismanagement of funds by district administration, including COVID relief funds.

The budget shortfall affecting Helena Public Schools is not a local problem, it is a statewide problem faced by AA districts across Montana. Over the past two years, most of our peer AA districts have made similar operational adjustments in the face of six-and seven-figure budget shortfalls. The current shortfall is more severe than anything our state’s public schools have experienced before.

Mismanagement of funds is not the issue. Helena Public Schools has a strong track record of fiscal responsibility. Our yearly state-required audits are consistently clean. Annual audits look at financial reporting, internal controls and compliance with laws, regulations, contracts, grant agreements and other financial matters.

District Business Administrator Janelle Mickelson is recognized by her peers as a statewide leader in school finance. The district is audited each year and the audits are available on the Helena Public Schools website at https://helenaschools.org/departments/business-finance/

As for COVID relief dollars, Helena Public Schools received roughly $20 million in federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds over the course of the pandemic. These monies were used as intended to reopen schools, provide summer school in 2021 and 2022, and provide instructional coaches to help close learning gaps. These funds stopped in September of 2024.

ESSER funds allowed the district to sustain staffing and programming levels longer than anticipated, helping with students’ academic recovery.

Myth #6: The cancelation of winter programs was to “prove a point” on levies not passing.

Though there are effects and outcomes for a lack of revenue, the reason for the cancelation of our elementary winter programs is due to the lack of music teachers in our elementary district. With just five music teachers serving 11 elementary schools, the logistics weren’t feasible. Consider: These five teachers cover 11 schools with six grade levels each. That’s nearly 200 classrooms.

All of our teachers have full plates. They are doing more with less and I truly could not ask these elementary music teachers to do the impossible.

We view the loss of elementary winter programs this year as a temporary situation and fully anticipate restoring them when adequate funds become available.

In the meantime, our schools are planning special activities to bring families into their students’ classrooms during the November through February winter months.

Myth #7: Board members and administrators go on lavish retreats.

In July, we did have an all-day Board Retreat in the library at Bryant Elementary School. The one-day retreat takes place every summer, as the board and administration prepare for the upcoming school year.

Myth #8: Helena Public Schools provides kitty litter boxes for students who identify as cats.

We hadn’t heard this one for a while but it came up again just this week, when we received an email through our district website with the subject line “Odd Question.”

The writer, while visiting our community from out of state, was told that Helena Public Schools provides kitty litter boxes in bathrooms “to accommodate students that [sic] are identifying as cats.” The writer sought confirmation that this was, indeed, untrue. Our response: “No, our district does not and has not ever provided litter boxes anywhere, for any student.”

This particular rumor was started in Canada and has spread throughout North America over the past couple years. There are more outlandish rumors of this sort that have gained traction on social media, but I’ll stop here.

In closing, I want to reiterate that I don’t blame anyone for being upset about the loss of elementary school winter programs, their child’s larger class size, their student’s lack of a laptop to bring home this year, or any of the other hardships that have come with the budget shortfall.

We knew there would not be universal agreement on where to cut. We knew there would be hard feelings. We are heart sick about each and every one of these cuts and would never have made them given the choice.

I’ve addressed the misinformation above simply because it distracts from the real problem, which is lack of adequate funding for our schools as guaranteed by our Montana State Constitution.

I hope this has helped address questions you may have. We’re also creating a standing FAQ webpage to serve as a resource with answers to common questions about the district budget, staffing, tax funding and more. If there is a topic or question you would like to know more about, please email it to helenamtschools@helenaschools.org