2023 Montana Code Annotated › Title 20. Education › Chapter 9. Finance › Part 1. School Budgets › 20-9-165. Budget amendment limitation, preparation, and adoption procedures

20-9-165. Budget amendment limitation, preparation, and adoption procedures.
(1) The meeting of the trustees to consider and adopt a budget amendment must be open to the public, and any taxpayer in the district has the right to appear and be heard. If at the meeting a majority of the trustees present find that there is sufficient need for a budget amendment, the trustees may make and adopt a final budget amendment, setting forth fully the facts constituting the need for the budget amendment. In adopting the final budget amendment, the trustees may budget for any fund that was included on the final budget of the district for the current school fiscal year. The budget must be itemized to show the amount appropriated for each item.
(2) When the budget amendment is the result of increased enrollment, the maximum amount of the budget amendment for all funds must be determined in the following manner:
(a) determine the total amount in the final budget for the current school fiscal year of all funds affected by the enrollment increase, less any amounts appropriated as capital outlay and any amount appropriated for addition to the operating reserve;
(b) divide the amount determined in subsection (2)(a) by the number of pupils originally enrolled in the district during the immediately preceding school fiscal year. The resulting cost per pupil is the maximum permissible per-pupil expenditure in the budget amendment.
(c) determine the enrollment increase of the current school fiscal year by subtracting the number of pupils originally enrolled during the immediately preceding school fiscal year from the number of pupils enrolled for the current school year. The result is the enrollment increase for the current school fiscal year.
(d) multiply the cost per pupil determined in subsection (2)(b) by the enrollment increase determined in subsection (2)(c). The result is the maximum limitation on a budget amendment for amendments resulting from increased enrollment.
(3) For other types of budget amendments, the budget amendment is limited to the expenditures considered by the trustees to be reasonable and necessary to finance the conditions of the budget amendment and the final budget amendment must include the details of the proposed expenditures.
(4) Whenever the trustees adopt a budget amendment for the transportation fund, the trustees shall attach to the budget amendment a copy of each transportation contract that is connected with the budget amendment and that has been prepared and executed in accordance with the school transportation contract laws.
(5) After the trustees have adopted the budget amendment by a majority vote of the trustees, it must be signed by the presiding officer of the trustees and the clerk of the district and copies must be sent to the county superintendent and the superintendent of public instruction.
History: En. 75-6727 by Sec. 233, Ch. 5, L. 1971; amd. Sec. 13, Ch. 277, L. 1977; R.C.M. 1947, 75-6727; amd. Sec. 21, Ch. 392, L. 1979; amd. Sec. 69, Ch. 370, L. 1987; amd. Sec. 15, Ch. 767, L. 1991; amd. Sec. 42, Ch. 633, L. 1993; amd. Sec. 3, Ch. 260, L. 1995; amd. Sec. 7, Ch. 211, L. 1997.