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Voters in five of Montana’s largest public school districts on Tuesday delivered several key successes in local efforts to increase the amount of money flowing to classrooms via local levies. Yet in some communities, requests to bolster funding for school security and help hold the line on general fund budgets hit hard by inflation, fluctuating enrollment and the expiration of pandemic-era federal aid fell flat.

According to initial election results from around the state, school districts in Missoula, Bozeman, Helena and Kalispell all won voter approval for modest to sizable increases to their schools’ general operating funds. But in Belgrade, similar bids for additional support at the elementary and high school levels failed, as did the Helena schools’ requested increases for technology funding.

The general fund levies put forth by AA districts not only support a wide array of general expenses, including staff salaries, but also enable schools to access additional state funds above the base amount appropriated by the Legislature. And the requests for increases this year come at a time when local budget pressures have run headlong into growing fatigue among taxpayers stretched thin by rising property values. While fully aware of the challenges weighing on individual Montanans, school officials in many of those districts cautioned voters ahead of the May elections that without the local funding boosts they’d requested, schools could be faced with stagnating budgets or, worse, staff cuts and reductions to educational programming.

In Kalispell, Superintendent Matt Jensen estimated the district had roughly 21 staff positions on the line in its request for a high school levy increase estimated at roughly $3 million. Tuesday’s passage marked the first successful levy increase for the high schools’ general fund in nearly two decades, with supporting the proposal. And while the district has been able to operate within its means in recent years through targeted reductions, Jensen explained the district reached a “tipping point” this year in the form of a $1.5 million budget deficit, putting even greater importance on the results of the election.

“We’ve neglected maintenance and facilities and our grounds and custodial [staff]. A lot of these support service programs are on the brink, and we just can’t cut anymore,” Jensen said.

Jensen also noted the district banked heavily on change in the 2025 Legislature, negotiating raises for educators last fall on faith that lawmakers would pass a $100 million state funding package to boost teacher pay. The STARS Act did pass, but Jensen stressed that more local dollars are still needed to support core instruction and prevent impacts to dual credit and trades-based educational offerings that will eventually draw down more state funding through STARS.

“This support not only strengthens our schools but also reinforces the vitality of our local businesses and the long-term health of our community as a whole,” Jensen wrote in an open letter on the district’s website this week, hailing the levy’s passage. “In an era marked by division, I’m especially thankful to serve a community that can come together in support of our most valuable investment, our children.”

For the second year in a row, Missoula voters rejected the $1 million high school safety levy but approved the elementary and high school operational levies. 

The proposed safety levy would have helped offset costs covered by the general fund, including school resource officers, upgraded security infrastructure, safety training and increased mental health support, Superintendent Micah Hill said previously. Without that funding, the district will need to look for tradeoffs, he told �ԹϺ��� on Wednesday. 

“We’re going to end up basically going through pretty methodically and surgically to ID those areas, which could be activities, travel, anything where we see an increase in the budget from one year to the next that we’re not able to offset from the safety levy,” Hill said.  

Hill said the district is grateful for the community’s support of the operational levies, which help pay for general fund costs, including salaries, curriculum and supplies. Though the amounts may seem relatively small — $384,947 for the elementary and $164,315 for high school — the levies allow the district to hit its maximum budget allowed by the state, which is “critical” amid declining enrollment, Hill said. 

The levies, particularly for the elementary schools, will help the district meet the teacher salary requirements in the STARS Act, Hill said. The Missoula district is already in compliance with the pay levels in the first year or two and plans to increase salaries to meet later thresholds as soon as possible, he said.

Bozeman voters continued a longstanding trend of backing proposed increases to the district’s elementary and high school general funds, approving levy requests of roughly a quarter of a million dollars for each. Business director Mike Waterman told MTFP earlier this month that the levies were primarily aimed at keeping the district’s budgets at the maximum levels allowed under the state funding formula, optimizing the flow of state dollars. With the levies, Waterman estimated the district would have an additional $490,000 to take to the bargaining table when it negotiates staff salaries later this month.

“We’re not looking to add any significant programs, and we’re also not in budget-cut mode,” Waterman said. “It really comes down to staff raises. Staff compensation is what the general fund elections are all about.”

The Bozeman public schools also saw success Tuesday on a $13.8 million building reserve levy on the elementary side, which will aid the district in addressing ongoing construction and maintenance needs at a time when inflation has driven up the cost of such work. Superintendent Casey Betram noted that the request was simply a replacement for an existing building reserve levy expiring this year and will increase annual taxes on a $100,000 home by only $2.83.

“Thanks to your support in passing the general fund operating levies, we’ll be able to invest in our most important resource: our dedicated staff, who make the greatest impact on student learning every day,” Bertram said in an emailed statement responding to the levies’ success Wednesday morning. “The approval of the elementary building reserve levy also provides essential funding to care for and maintain our elementary and middle school buildings — ensuring safe, welcoming spaces where students can thrive.”

Helena Public School officials issued another round of levy requests to address its elementary general fund budget shortfall of about $2 million and its aging technology devices and services, which school officials say are essential to everyday education.       

While the district currently runs on a 20-year-old perpetual technology levy that provides about $1 million per year, those funds are not enough to continue to support school device upgrades, internet services maintenance and IT staffing, according to Helena Public Schools communication officer Karen Ogden.

The district has said it needs an estimated annual $4 million to operate its technology needs efficiently. Without the passage of the nearly $3 million technology levies on the ballot, Ogden said that the district will need to continue to draw money from its interlocal and general fund accounts, of which approximately 90% of those reserves go towards staff salaries and benefits. 

In addition to its technology levies, which both failed, Helena Public Schools also sought an elementary general fund levy to alleviate some of its budget shortfall by about $293,700. 

“While cuts will still be necessary for the 2025-26 school year, these funds will help reduce the deficit,” Ogden said in a press release. “This levy will provide support as the district works to preserve current levels of staff and programming amidst the budget shortfall that is affecting our district and others across the state.”

With the approval of the elementary general fund levy, the recently passed STARS Act will also be greatly beneficial, Ogden said. Because the district meets the base teacher pay requirements, school officials can use the STARS funds to provide pay increases to the district’s teachers. 

General fund levy requests in Belgrade didn’t fare as well as in other AA districts this week. Trustees had asked for a $100,000 increase for the elementary school budget and a $65,000 increase for the high school budget. Unofficial results Wednesday morning showed both failing by several hundred votes. Superintendent Dede Semerad noted that the funds were intended to address the increased costs of district operations, including staff salaries, instructional materials, utilities and insurance, the last of which, she told MTFP, is set to increase by 10% this year.

“You can look at it glass half full or glass half empty,” Semerad said of this week’s results. “Forty-seven percent of the voters approved both of them. That’s great, and it’s what we see and hear, that our community supports our school district, they love our teachers, they want things to go well. And we also hear, ‘But my taxes are still super high.’”

Semerad added that voters’ deliberations on the levy requests were likely impacted by uncertainty over what state lawmakers planned to do for property tax relief — a debate that stretched into the final days of the legislative session and close to the final call for school election ballots. Semerad did note that Belgrade is nonetheless in position to receive roughly $800,000 more in state funding through the STARS Act as a result of increases to teacher pay. She said the district will, over the coming months, work to adopt a budget that accounts for its levy requests not passing. 

Three of Montana’s large AA districts opted not to run levies on their May ballots this year: Billings, Butte and Great Falls. Last year, voters in Billings rejected two separate $2.5 million levies specifically geared toward safety improvements in the city’s elementary and high schools, while voters in Butte approved a similar pair of safety-oriented funding requests. The Great Falls Public Schools did not run a levy in 2024, and the district’s trustees opted again to forego any requests on the 2025 ballot, continuing instead to lean on funding reserves made possible by millions in federal COVID-19 relief to fill any budget gaps in the coming school year.

This story was updated on May 7, 2025, to include comments from Belgrade Public Schools Superintendent Dede Semerad.