School board approves budget principles, superintendent contract, Chartwells renewal and curriculum adoptions

The Blaine County School District No. 61 Board of Trustees approved several policy and operational items during its March 11, 2025 regular meeting, including the district’s 2025–26 budget guiding principles, a rolling three‑year contract extension for the superintendent, an annual renewal of the Chartwells food-service contract and adoption of listed math and science curriculum.

Board members said they intend the budget guiding principles to preserve stability and predictability in budget decisions. “Having consistent and predictable guidelines is really important to the stability of the district,” Trustee Romero said when introducing the guiding-principles item. The board voted to adopt the 2025–26 budget guiding principles without substantive edits.

The board approved converting the superintendent’s agreement to a rolling three‑year contract with annual review and reduced the contract’s annual increase from 5% to 3% to align with the district’s employee salary schedule. Superintendent Patty Fowdy thanked the board after the vote: “No. I’m grateful for the opportunity. We’ve got a lot of work to do, so I want to keep doing the…