The Great Falls Public Schools held its annual town hall budget meeting this month, giving parents, staff, and community members a closer look at the district’s financial outlook for the upcoming 2026–2027 school year and how leaders plan to address a projected multi-million-dollar gap without cutting student programs.
During the meeting, Executive Director of Business Luke Diekhans walked attendees through the district’s current financial picture and the factors contributing to the projected deficit.
Brianna Juneau reports - watch the video here:
According to Diekhans, last year’s district budget totaled $85,559,782 through a combination of local and state allocations. The projected budget for the 2026–2027 school year is estimated at $86,135,991.
However, maintaining the district’s current comprehensive programs and staffing levels would require about $89,019,460, leaving the district with a shortfall of approximately $2,883,469.
Diekhans said the deficit is the result of several factors impacting districts nationwide, including inflation and declining student enrollment.
“Inflation and declining students in the district both play a role in what we’re seeing,” Diekhans explained during the meeting.
Despite the gap, the district’s budget committee has already taken a significant step in determining how the shortfall will be addressed.
At its February 17 meeting, the district’s board budget committee voted to recommend that the district forgo a levy this year, meaning taxpayers would not see a request for additional funding on the ballot.
Budget Committee Chair Paige Henning said the committee wanted to challenge district leaders to find solutions internally before asking the community for additional funding.
“We as a committee had challenged the district team to really look creatively at our budget, what could be done without having to go out to a levy,” Henning said.
Diekhans said the district had been preparing for financial uncertainty in recent years and is able to rely on funds set aside during the pandemic.
“We’ve had several years of COVID funding not too long ago that we were able to move a little bit of money off to the side into what we call our local reserves,” he said. “We’re able to use that money to help us balance over time. It’s kind of a little bit of a safety net for us.”
Additional financial relief is also coming from other sources that will help offset the nearly $3 million deficit.
District officials say an annual $450,000 energy bond payment has now been paid off, freeing up funding in the upcoming budget cycle. The district has also renegotiated electricity contracts, lowering utility costs, while maintaining appropriate student-to-teacher ratios to improve operational efficiency.
Even with those savings, Diekhans said the district will likely still need to dip into reserves to close the remaining gap.
“We can take those efficiencies, we can improve upon them,” he said. “But in the end, we have to come up with a way to figure out how to pay for the rest, and that’s going to be out of those reserves that we have.”
District leaders emphasized that cutting academic or extracurricular programs is not currently part of the plan for the next school year.
“We know our community values the opportunities Great Falls Public Schools gives to our students, and we value it as a district as well,” Diekhans said. “So we do want to keep those in place and work more with the efficiency side of it, rather than cutting programs.”
Henning added that the district has demonstrated strong fiscal management in recent years, particularly in how it used federal pandemic relief funding.
“We really wanted to show that we were using our public funds efficiently and effectively,” she said. “I’ve seen a lot of fiscal responsibility over the years in my time on the board. The way the ESSER dollars and the COVID funds that came in were utilized—they weren’t one-time, one-off things. They were really used wisely.”
Henning said those federal funds helped pay for building improvements and HVAC system upgrades, allowing the district to set aside other funds that are now helping stabilize the budget.
While the district is facing financial challenges, Diekhans said parents and community members should not expect major changes to student opportunities next year.
“Going into next year, I don’t see a lot of difference,” he said. “We’re not going to make those major changes that some people may feel we might be making, and we do have to be very deliberate and intentional about how we’re doing that.”
District leaders also encouraged the public to remain involved in the process.
District officials say their focus remains on maintaining educational opportunities while navigating the financial realities ahead.
