BILLINGS - A bill in front of the Montana Legislature is looking to give schools another option to form a high school district.
That could help four Billings-area rural school districts that are looking at the possibility of building a new high school.
As the law is currently written, those four schools would have to consolidate and form one big district.
But House Bill 707, introduced on Tuesday, would allow those districts to have separate kindergarten through 8th-grade districts and form one big high school district.
Those leading the way on a new high school met with Superintendent Elsie Arntzen, R-Mont., from the Montana Office of Public Instruction, and legislators.
"We kind of walked away thinking that it wasn't going to happen that it was maybe a little too fast to get anything in place for legislation for this legislative session," said Susie Layton, Southwest Billings SMART Growthco-founder.
But Billings legislators worked quickly on behalf of Layton's group, which seeks to combine Blue Creek, Canyon Creek, Elder Grove, and Elysian districts for a high school.
"As a combined district, it would give those four schools the ability to work with each other and utilize resources together that right now they're paying for or having to work with separately," Layton said.
"If and when these folks choose to move to make their own school districts, that that's available for them and they don't have to wait for another legislative session," said Rep. Jodee Etchart, R- Billings.
Etchart is the main sponsor of the bill, which she says makes some changes to a 2017 law that helped school districts in Lockwood and East Helena build high schools. If passed, the 2023 legislation authorizes adjacent elementary districts with at least 1,000 students to form high school districts with the approval of voters.
"We just want people to be able to have the freedom to do what they need to do and not have to wait for the next legislative session in two years," Etchart said. "So that's why we decided this doesn't mandate anything. It just makes it feasible should they choose to proceed."
"Our goal would be to study both options and just see which one is best," Layton said.
