Glasgow School District Mill Levy

Dear Glasgow School District Community Member,

School funding formulas are complex and confusing. To simplify things, our district receives direct state aid payment equivalent to about 44 percent of our general funds. According to the Montana OPI document "Understanding Montana School Finance and School District Budgets," the general fund is defined as the fund used to account for the financing of a district's operation and maintenance costs not accounted for in another fund. Some examples of the general fund expenditures include salaries and benefits, supplies associated with pupil instruction, administration, support services to students, utilities and other operating costs, and extracurricular activities not paid by the student activities fund. The general fund is the primary budgeting fund of a district. We will be asking you to raise 2.10 mills (approximately $32,715.00) to 88.03 total estimated mills for next year. The total mills the school district asks for is currently 85.93, the total estimated mills will increase to 88.03 with the 2.10 mill increase. A mill is one-thousandth (.001) of a dollar. School districts can determine how much a mill will raise by taking the total taxable value in a district (an amount provided to the school district by the county assessor) and multiplying it by .001. This result is equal to what one mill will raise in actual dollars. The approximate dollars this will cost a $100,000 homeowner would be $2.84, and a $200,000 homeowner would be $5.68 per year. The impact on your total tax bill for residents and landowners outside the city limits would be less than one percent increase, residents inside the city limits and St. Marie would be less than one percent increase. Keep in mind that there is a difference between bonds and levies, bonds are for buildings and levies are for learning. For example, the Track/Football field project known as "Scottie Recharged" will be a voted bond which is separate from the general fund levy which is being voted on in this election.

Glasgow School District has faced some challenging situations for the past couple of years. Our voters did not pass a mill levy for our school district last year. A year ago the general fund levy failed by 14 votes, 706 against, 692 for.

We will be asking you the taxpayers of the Glasgow School District to raise your taxes through this levy request.

Over the past years, we have worked hard to cut down our expenses, to make the reduction in revenue more bearable. With a healthier infrastructure and cutbacks on expenses, we are spending less money now in spite of an increase in salaries, benefits and inflationary costs (fuel, supplies, etc). With these reductions, it has not hurt our ability to educate our children in this community and I refuse to let it. As your Superintendent, I will continue to do everything I can to make sure our kids get the high-quality education and opportunities to which they have a right. OUR students will not pay the price for our declining revenue resource.

As previously mentioned, we will be around $32,715.00 short in revenue this year. The Glasgow School Board of Trustees has decided to run a mill levy again this year. This was not an easy decision to make by our school board members; however, in order to ensure that our school can and will continue to provide for the educational future of our children, school, and community we all need to chip in.

As your superintendent of the Glasgow School District, it is my job to balance the needs of the students, the demands of the district, and the interests of the community. The school board is often required to make difficult decisions that impact all three. I know that Glasgow, as do all rural communities, understands the critical role that a school plays in maintaining a healthy community.

The school election, conducted by the county for the first time, will be a mail-in ballot only and those will be in the mail around April 17, 2023. Ballots must be returned to the Valley County elections administrator no later than 8:00 p.m., May 2, 2023. I encourage all readers to vote when their ballot arrives in the mail.

Respectfully submitted,

Wade O. Sundby,

Superintendent