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School Finance

Welcome to the district school finance overview page.  Here you can learn a bit more about how the district finances operate, what the annual budget is and how the district is funded.


 

Minutes


BUDGET COMMITTEE
The Great Falls School District operates a comprehensive and accredited educational and co-curricular program for students of the Great Falls community. The District is the third largest employer in Great Falls with approximately 1800 local residents employed by the school district in a variety of capacities.

The District holds the philosophy that the community’s children are educated with the community’s dollars and that district administration and staff are responsible and accountable for wise and prudent expenditures of the public’s money.

To that end, the Board of Trustees has established an annual budget committee process in which citizens and representative staff members conduct a review of district expenditures and revenues; seek to relate the budget to the District’s mission, vision, and goals; and deliberate on the fiscal ways and means of conducting business to achieve those goals.

Ultimately, the Budget Committee develops a recommendation for the district budget and may also, at times, include cuts to the current educational program to live within the district’s and community’s means.

Superintendent's Message
The Great Falls Public School District operates a comprehensive and accredited educational and co-curricular program for students of the Great Falls community. The District is the second largest district in the state and the third largest employer in Great Falls. Approximately two thousand local residents are employed by the school district in a variety of capacities. This includes teachers of 10,500 students enrolled in 21 schools. Approximately 600 support staff provide adult supervision in special education and over-enrolled elementary classrooms, prepare and serve meals, clean and maintain 1.9 million square feet of buildings, repair boilers and plumbing, and maintain 295 acres of grounds. Another 300 mostly part-time people coach youngsters in after school sports programs and approximately 250 people are employed on a fairly regular basis as substitute teachers...

Schedule of Meetings
The Budget Committee began meeting on February 17, 2011, with a guest speaker on the basics of School Finance. The committee will continue to meet weekly to review department budgets, expenditures and related budget unit proposals. In late March the Committee will make recommendations to the Superintendent for the final prioritization of decision unit packages. These meetings are open to the public and all staff and will be held at the District Offices at 5:15 pm on Thursdays with the exception of March 3.

Great Falls School District Budget Resources
Great Falls Public Schools makes the following budget documents readily available to the public. As a public institution, all budget documentation is available to community members. If you'd like information not readily available here, please contact the office of the Superintendent @ 406-268-6001

Montana Office of Public Instruction links
The Montana Office of Public Instruction (Montana OPI) reports on the schools two official budgets. The district is divided into two portions - an elementary district covering Kindergarten through grade Eight, and a high school district covering grades Nine through Twelve. Below are the official state documents covering the budget for both districts:

Additionally, the following OPI resources may be of interest: