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New county superintendent outlines priorities, explains recent homeschooling rule changes
Summary
Marcia Stolfa, newly sworn county superintendent, told commissioners she has begun outreach to district leaders, scheduled a July transportation meeting and a September budget review, and summarized changes from House Bill 778 that alter homeschool attendance records and remove local immunization-record retention requirements.
Marcia Stolfa, the county’s newly sworn superintendent of public schools, told the Flathead County Board of Commissioners she has been on the job about a week and is focusing on meeting district leaders and organizing upcoming meetings and budget work.
"I've only been in the position officially for a week," Stolfa said, noting she had already met with staff on June 17 to review duties and timelines and had sent introductory emails to superintendents across the county to encourage collaboration. She described a transportation meeting scheduled for July 23 and said she set a September 2 meeting with commissioners to finalize school budgets for the coming fiscal year.
Stolfa also summarized recent legislative changes affecting homeschooling under House Bill 778. She said the statute’s revisions removed some provisions intended for brick-and-mortar schools and clarified that county superintendent offices may now request attendance records from registered homeschool parents at any time. She added that the requirement to retain immunization records at the county for homeschoolers was removed.
"One of them being some of the regulations had to do more with a brick and mortar school rather than homeschooling," Stolfa said, explaining the change. She told commissioners she did not expect new punitive oversight tied to those changes and said county superintendents will discuss the details at an upcoming conference in September.
Stolfa said she has been arranging access to Office of Public Instruction (OPI) reports and is following up on tuition payments and out-of-district tuition procedures that several districts have raised. She flagged work to clarify what role the superintendent’s office will play in managing and sending tuition statements for programs such as the Flathead Special Ed Co-op and Crossroads.
The board did not take action on Stolfa’s report; commissioners thanked her for the briefing and expressed confidence in her transition.
