Alberton school board chair Ray Fredette welcomes in the crowd of three dozen community members right at 6 p.m. They’re seated at tables in the century-old elementary school cafeteria. It’s warm, and long stretches of silence are punctuated by coughs.
On the agenda tonight: approving the minutes, an upcoming overnight trip for a school group, and cutting the school’s only K-12 music and middle school technology teachers.
Fredette opens public comment.
A man in a blue button-up stands and approaches the microphone, facing the five board members. He provides music instruction to the district’s approximately 150 students, from kindergarten to senior year.
“Hello, my name is Mike Wolfe, and I’m the music teacher here — for now,” he said.
Alberton is the latest school in Montana to make major cuts to programs and staff after inflation hamstrung budgets and one-time pandemic funding dried up.
Alberton is the latest school in Montana to make major cuts to programs and staff after inflation hamstrung budgets and one-time pandemic funding dried up.
For the next half-hour, a stream of parents, teachers and students urge board members to save the music and technology programs. Their pleas echo others in board rooms across the state in recent years as Montana schools put forward steep cuts to balance their strained budgets.
Science, technology, engineering and math teacher McKenna Akane asks the board to delay their decision for a month to give the community time to explore other funding sources. Akane in her two years at the school won national recognition as a Discovery Educator of the Year.
“I have given so much of my time and effort to try and build a STEM program here, and move here and see it succeed. And, regardless of how you guys vote, I hope Alberton continues with STEM,” Akane said.
Several board members cry as interim Superintendent Greg Upham spends the next 40 minutes outlining the district’s dire budget situation.
“We’re facing a pretty significant deficit that needs to be addressed,” Upham said.
Last fall, former superintendent Monte Silk asked the board to move $145,000 in one-time federal pandemic relief money to the school’s general fund. Upham says that was used to pay teacher salaries — a funding source now gone.
He says the district’s property and liability insurance rates are climbing, and the school is in contract negotiations with its existing teachers, anticipating wage hikes.
“And, we’re getting squeezed by a platform of taxation that it’s become almost impossible to pass operational levies because our property taxes are so high,” Upham said.
“We’re getting squeezed by a platform of taxation that it’s become almost impossible to pass operational levies because our property taxes are so high.”Alberton schools interim Superintendent Greg Upham
Upham says the music and technology programs aren’t needed to meet accreditation standards, which is why he suggested cutting them to balance the books.
Alberton’s budget crisis mirrors those playing out other public schools. Missoula last year cut 47 teaching positions. Helena slashed 52 jobs after five levies failed. Schools in Kalispell are depending on voters to pass a levy this year to save 20 teachers.
Board vice chair Patrick Manson makes the motion to cut McKenna Akane and Michael Wolf’s positions.
The board sits in silence for a long moment before member Nicole Henry seconds.
Four to one, the board votes in favor of the cuts. The room quickly empties while the board finishes its work.
Afterward, vice chair Manson is visibly emotional as he explains his “yes” vote.
“Four of our board members have children here,” Manson said. “One is the former superintendent and a teacher here. If we didn’t believe in this, we wouldn’t. And, I just think we face the realities of, we are a district that doesn’t have a lot of money to go around.”
“ I just think we face the realities of, we are a district that doesn’t have a lot of money to go around.”Alberton School Board Vice-Chair Patrick Manson
Night had fallen outside by the time the gymnasium cleared out. As technology teacher McKenna Akane straps her son into his booster seat, she says she appreciates the difficult decision the board faced.
“It would be a lie to say I’m not greatly disappointed,” Akane said. “And, I feel deeply saddened that the students will no longer have STEM as an organized class, and that the music department as a whole will no longer be at the Alberton school.”
Education advocates have pushed state lawmakers to boost school funding and give them more tools to raise it themselves. Some of those policies are on the move in the Legislature — but if they pass, they’ll likely come too late to help save Alberton’s music and technology teachers.
