Monforton Schools Superintendent Laura Axtman takes on a lot outside of school administration. She does cross walk duty and recently replaced overgrown weeds with flowers in front of the elementary school. For the fast growing rural school district, she’s not the only one doing double duty.
“Our man of all trades here he's our music teacher, our tech guy, he also has a landscaping company—he helped me with all the drip the other day we wanted it ready for back to school and then we got the rock put in so it was already,” Axtman said.
Over the last decade, the K-8 Monforton School District near Bozeman’s Four Corners, has seen the biggest growth in Gallatin County with an 84% increase in students. With a budget shortfall of more than $300,000 and voters denying a levy to make up that sum, Axtman was expecting cuts, including two certified teaching positions.
“But we actually saw two years in a row of a reduced class size in kindergarten and first grade which for some districts might be detrimental but for our district was actually a very, very helpful,” Axtman said.
Axtman says instead of anyone losing their job, the district just didn’t refill two positions after a kindergarten and first grade teacher left at the end of last year for other opportunities.
“It ended up kind of like being serendipitous because we didn't need those positions either so that did end up working out for us this year,“ Axtman said.
One program that did see cuts was a long standing community mentorship program that served more than 50 students last year. The district cut the program director’s position, but Axtman hopes the program can still continue to a lesser degree under the school counselor.
“I never want to say something's gone because once you start losing things it's hard to get them back and so I'm working really hard not to lose anything. but to just think outside the box of how we can continue to offer things that we always have that keep on important to be a special place that it is,” Axtman said.
Monforton School District isn’t alone in adjusting budgets after voters statewide rejected asks for money by school districts large and small, including in Helena, Billings, Three Forks and Belgrade.
Alongside the general fund, voters also denied Monforton’s safety levy. The district was hoping to upgrade to keyless entries, important for fire and emergency. Without the funds able to switch all doors, the school solicited a donation to add the feature to the middle and elementary school front doors .
“We're doing the best that we can to do what we can here on campus without costing their taxpayers money, ” Axtman said.
