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State superintendent, legislators and stakeholders discuss solutions for Heart Butte – Daily Montanan [1]
['Nicole Girten', 'More From Author', '- January']
Date: 2024-01-12
The state, the Blackfeet Tribe, Pondera County, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester’s office and the Heart Butte School District are working together to find solutions to keep the school district open after the district uncovered millions in deficits.
Montana State Superintendent Elsie Arntzen and the Office of Public Instruction hosted a discussion Friday afternoon with stakeholders. The tribe committed to sending mental health professionals and the state said it would send “boots on the ground” to Heart Butte to assist the district directly and help with COVID-19 relief funds through a loan.
“We are going to complete this school year. We’re going to do everything we can in the next four months,” Arntzen said. “There has to be a promise and it’s going to take all of us to make sure that those doors open in the fall.”
The district in a statement on Saturday explained the financial crisis was due largely to financial mismanagement through not paying payroll taxes or employee retirement, and employees making personal expenditures on the district’s dime. Superintendent Mike Tatsey has been accused of using school funds for expensive rodeo equipment. The school started the financial audit after the board placed Tatsey on administrative leave in September, following the closure of a youth home he oversaw earlier in the year.
Tatsey’s name has remained out of the public conversation around solutions thus far, but in the meeting Friday Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, said it was necessary someone be held accountable.
“Especially with impact aid stuff,” Windy Boy said.
The district’s financial consultant Jenine Synness said the $1.1 million in federal impact aid dollars the district received in October had already been spent.
Earlier this week the Heart Butte School Board voted unanimously to reduce staffing nearly in half, laying off 30 employees, to save about $300,000 dollars in an effort to reduce spending and hopefully keep doors open. With the savings from the cuts, the school is looking at a $2.2 million shortfall.
In the wake of Tuesday’s meeting, the school’s principal Sandi Campbell, tenured her resignation effective Jan. 16, as first reported by KRTV. Campbell had also been serving as acting district administrator in light of Shannon Augare’s resignation earlier this month.
Sen. Susan Webber, D-Browning, said she wanted to see a temporary replacement in that position soon, and a representative from the district said they are working on it. Arntzen said she would speak to the Board of Public Education to ask the school not be at risk for losing accreditation as stakeholders are working to get the district back on track, and would reach out to the state’s administrator’s association to see if any retirees or other qualified people would be available to help in the interim.
Board Vice-Chairperson Edith Horn-Wagner spoke to the school’s immediate needs, including mental health professionals (as some counselors had been let go in the cuts), a financial expert to help draft a five-year plan to “balance the books” in the district, as well as help drafting a staffing plan.
Chief Financial Officer for the Blackfeet Tribe Lionel Kennerly said the tribe could send mental health professionals to the school and pay their salaries.
CEO of Blackfeet Tribal Health Garland Stiffarm said their organization could provide behavioral health support, not to replace what the school is offering but to offer additional services.
OPI Chief Financial Officer Jay Phillips said he’d be interested in getting “boots on the ground” in Heart Butte to help the district sort out its finances, with board approval. He said the department is looking to see if there are grants available, as well as a potential non-interest bearing loan to get the district on its feet to meet payroll needs “until we have the opportunity to kind of reconcile the books and figure out all the funding streams.”
Arntzen also said this is an unusual case, and outside the typical actions the state would take. She said she believes in local accountability and trusts the trustees in the 400 school districts across the state.
“I don’t want the state to become too much of somebody who’s going to ask for information all the time. But I believe at this point, we need conversation to know exactly where we are so we can put a solution into play,” she said.
Rep. Tyson Running Wolf, D-Browning, thanked Arntzen for understanding local control and is helping but recognizing the power sits with the board.
Webber said it was paramount stakeholders act quickly to get finances and solutions in place.
“We need to make sure that that school and those children are taken care of,” she said.
Arntzen suggested stakeholders continue the conversation next week, and said in an email following the meeting Phillips cleared his schedule the following week to be on site in Heart Butte “to formalize a short-term, coordinated fiscal plan with the school board and county.”
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