Appropriations subcommittee reviews Montana School for the Deaf and Blind budget; members flag vehicle, longevity and lighting items

The Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Education held a budget hearing on the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind (MSDB), where staff presented a $10.4 million biennial request and lawmakers probed several program-level change packages including funding for an administrative assistant, vehicle leases for outreach staff and a longevity pay adjustment.

Alexandra Ghosh, a legislative fiscal analyst with the Legislative Fiscal Division, told the committee MSDB’s requested biennial budget is about $690,000 (3.4%) above the base budget, with the general fund accounting for roughly 95% of funding. She said the school currently has 88.28 budgeted positions and the request includes one new position, and she outlined that federal funds include Medicaid reimbursements, approximately $240,000 in EHA Part B funding and roughly $105,000 in ECIA/Chapter 1 funds.

The budget review identified several decision packages that drew the most attention. The administration proposal (DP 9) requests funding for one full-time administrative assistant (about $54,000 in fiscal 2026 and $52,000 in fiscal 2027) to split time between the business office and outreach recordkeeping. The education program included DP 5, a roughly $44,000-per-year request to cover additional motor pool vehicles for outreach staff and a transition coordinator. DP 15 proposes longevity-pay adjustments (approximately $107,000 in fiscal 2026 and $132,000 in fiscal 2027) to align MSDB staff with state employee longevity steps.

Committee members discussed a technical error tied to DP 2, a state buildings energy conservation project administered by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Ghosh and agency staff said an LED lighting project and associated loan through DEQ had been shifted into a conservation/debt-service line but the corresponding reduction in operating expenses was not applied; the result temporarily inflates debt-service in the request by roughly $33,000. Chair Beatty directed staff to prepare a change package to correct the accounting for that item: “Alexandra, put please put together a change package to correct this,” the chair said.

Superintendent Firthmeier, representing MSDB, reviewed recent operational changes and enrollment trends. He said outreach capacity grew after the 2023 session: MSDB added outreach consultants and now operates statewide services from its Great Falls campus, serving students as residential or day students and acting as a statewide resource. Firthmeier provided enrollment and outreach caseload data: for deaf and hard-of-hearing outreach, consultants increased from six in 2023 (601 students, average caseload ~100) to nine in 2025 (607 students, average ~67). For blind/low-vision outreach, consultants rose from seven in 2023 (518 students, average ~74) to eight in 2025, with a 52-student increase recorded in that program.

Firthmeier and staff also described local operational impacts from staffing changes: MSDB lost paraprofessionals in a recent organizational reclassification (from 10 to 6 paraprofessionals in one category), which the superintendent said has resulted in administrators and counselors covering transportation duties and increased use of comp time and substitutes. He said MSDB expects enrollment to grow as transportation (House Bill 151) and expanded distance-learning classrooms increase access for students across Montana.

Committee members asked about a proposed professional-development package for educational interpreters organized with RIT (contracted program presented in June 2024). The MSDB superintendent summarized that the RIT package discussed previously would cost roughly $61,000 per year for eight participants (about $6,600 per participant) for an intensive, recurring online program; no committee appropriation was approved at the hearing.

Public comment came from McCall Flynn, executive director of the Board of Public Education (which serves as MSDB’s board), who said the board supports MSDB’s budget and praised recent staff work: “We are very much in support of their budget and really happy that you all got to hear all of the good things that they’ve been working on as well.”

No formal votes were recorded during the hearing. Chair Beatty noted staff should prepare corrected decision packages and said the committee will begin executive action later in the week. Committee members and agency staff repeatedly distinguished discussion items (questions, requested additional data, and program transfers that were described in budget documents) from formal decisions: the chair requested corrective paperwork and signaled upcoming executive sessions where the section’s recommendations will be considered by the full appropriations process.

The hearing also included routine budget metrics: MSDB reported a House Bill 2 modified appropriation of about $9.6 million for fiscal 2024 with roughly 98.7% expended; personal services were nearly fully expended and operating expenses ran lower. Ghosh noted that, unlike local school districts, MSDB cannot levy property taxes and relies primarily on the state general fund, with modest state special revenue (school trust interest) and federal revenue (Medicaid, EHA Part B, ECIA/Chapter 1, and National School Lunch Program).

Next steps: staff will prepare the change package to correct the LED lighting accounting error; the committee will begin executive action on agency budgets later in the week and will consider MSDB decision packages during section E executive sessions before the formal appropriations recommendations go to the full committee.