2 Buckets

There are two buckets for voter-approved funding for schools in Montana: Bucket #1 contains  bonds used for buildings and Bucket #2 are levies used for operational expenses. The district doesn’t have the right to dip from one bucket into the other if they are short on funds. The challenge occurs when both buckets need refilling at the same time. Such is the situation facing Belgrade Schools.

The district is planning for the future by proposing land purchases and building elementary schools which will be paid out of the bond bucket. At the same time, the operational buckets for hiring, utilities, paper, textbooks, and technology are inadequate to continue. In fact, during the last several years the district has had to dip into federal reimbursement funds to meet its obligations. 

Let’s talk about the first bucket: bonds. Bonds are financed by local taxes and are used to provide improvements to the infrastructure of the district. Providing land, utility structure, buildings and furniture for a new school is the function of a bond. Bonds work much like a home mortgage. The district pays principal and interest and the bond is paid off or “retired” after a certain period of time, usually 20 years. The district has refinanced bonds several times to save taxpayers money. Also, worth remembering is that the district doesn’t have to sell the bonds if the enrollment flattens or the economy turns south. This is a protection for the taxpayer.

With bonds, the taxpayer knows exactly what the product will be---land or a school. The second bucket (levies) are used to meet diverse needs and may be more difficult to understand as they are used for a variety of expenses. Both are critically important to having a healthy school district. We need facilities for our growing population, but we must also have funds in Bucket #2 for staffing and to provide textbooks and technology for our students. Rest assured that the school board and administration are vigilant in using the resources of the school district. 

Bucket #2 goes into  the general fund which allows us to have reasonable class sizes and provides qualified teachers and support staff. These funds pay utilities, custodial services, learning materials and technology support. All of the expenses incident to running a school building come from the general fund and the only way to increase this funding is to approve a levy to refill Bucket #2. These funds help provide a quality education for our students and will allow our students to be successful as they compete on a global stage.

As our district adds businesses and residences it allows the burden of taxes to be distributed and therefore the impact on individuals is lessened. It’s exciting to see new growth in our community!

Mark Halgren
Curriculum Director
Belgrade Public Schools