Trego's Mountain Ear

It was essentially a well organized public board meeting. Casey Fuson facilitated the meeting with a powerpoint and did a wonderful job of providing the public with updates on the New Law HB 203, which will obligate districts to charge tuition for out of district students. The current estimate is that this will require Trego to send around $12,000 to other districts.

The meeting also provided some explanation of how school taxes work (mostly, they go to Helena and we get a smaller portion of them back). The public was reminded that our taxes are lower than those of our neighboring districts (the railroad provides significantly less of our school’s tax base than it once did, but it still provides about a third of district funding). As a consequence, even if the board does pass a permissive levy to cover the tuition it will pay as a result of HB 203, taxes will remain lower than neighboring districts. The continued operation of Trego School does keep school taxes lower for Trego residents.

Casey also provided information about Early Childhood Education. There’s ongoing work to expand the current transitional kindergarten program, and grant writing in progress to support creating a preschool that will operate within the school. The preschool will be operated by a nonprofit board, entirely separate from the school board.

Mark Spehar spoke briefly about programs the school is hoping to implement in the future: Weapons safety, Archery, 4-H, and Outdoor Education.

There was a brief discussion of the upcoming election. Current Board Chair Clara Mae (running for reelection) lamented the number of ballots she observed in the post office trash. It will be interesting to see how many ballots are returned.

The meeting also included a call for volunteers. The district has a volunteer packet that interested folks can pick up, and requires background checks for volunteers.

Casey provided a balanced overview of the benefits and costs of a four day school week, and public opinions of those present were mixed. There was no feedback for the board on meeting times, which will remain at 4:30 on the second and fourth Mondays. Nancy Wilkins expressed that the board hopes eventually to return to having a single meeting a month.

The meeting itself was rather poorly attended, though the folks present were engaged, asking questions throughout, and offering suggestions. There were no school-age children present, and only one parent of a school-age child.