Saving Montana’s small town schools

By day, the Flaxville school houses 16 students, five teachers, another teacher who doubles as the principal and one superintendent. By night, the building becomes the hub of this northeastern Montana town.

By ALLISON FARRELL – IR State Bureau

Some of Flaxville’s 88 residents exercise in the gymnasium. The local quilting club uses the building, and its sewing machines, for meetings. Kids play basketball and run track there through the afternoon.

Of course, talk of consolidating Flaxville’s six-student high school with Scobey’s much larger high school, a mere 12 miles away, is always percolating. Some Flaxville parents already send their children down the road. But while some rural school administrators around the state sense a logic in consolidating Montana’s tiny, far-flung schools, educators in Flaxville say the school’s closure would deal a death-blow to their town.

‘‘In my opinion, the school is everything,” said Flaxville Principal Loren Dunk. ‘‘It’s the ultimate source for the community to stay alive. Closing it would ultimately be the beginning of the end.”

But small-town Montana schools fighting to keep their doors open in these tight financial times may not be forced to decide between something and nothing. The state school renewal commission, a 28-member group charged with mapping a new course for Montana’s public education system, is debating a policy that would give small towns like Flaxville the financial ability to keep their local, albeit tiny, schools open.

The commission’s concept would give communities the authority to tax themselves specifically to support their local school. The additional local tax, which supporters liken to a sewer district or water district tax, could give small schools a fighting chance at survival, or give them a way to go out gracefully, said John McNeil, commission member and superintendent of the Savage Public Schools.

‘‘This is a possible out,” McNeil said. ‘‘At least it’s a thought that there may be some hope.”

If the concept is adopted — and it’s a long way from the Legislature at this point — communities could use the additional tax money to pay for the heating, lighting and water bills generated by community groups using the facility after hours.

The money could supplement a school’s maintenance budget, or, if a town opted to close its school, the money could be used to maintain the building as a dedicated community center.

No matter how a community spent the self-inflicted school tax, no community would be forced to abandon its school against local wishes, McNeil said.

‘‘It’s really them making the choice,” McNeil said. ‘‘If keeping the school open wasn’t their desire, they would just let the school go.”

Dunk said the local tax plan would go over well in Flaxville, where a ballot initiative seeking to close the school was defeated in 2002.

‘‘I just think it’s really important for this community to keep the school going,” Dunk said.

McNeil said the tax option could make closing Flaxville High School easier on the locals. Under current law, Flaxville’s K-8 school could not afford to stay open if the high school closed. But the local tax option would let the town shutter the high school yet maintain the K-8 elementary program and the community center therein.

‘‘This is pretty innovative,” said Kirk Miller, superintendent of Havre Public Schools, commission member and chairman of the Montana Board of Public Education. ‘‘I think the idea has great merit. It merits a lot of future discussion.”

The commission, a body created by the 2003 Legislature, will again discuss the topic when it meets in Helena in January. Its recommendations will be forwarded to an interim legislative committee.

http://helenair.com/articles/2003/12/03/montana/a09120303_01.txt