Montana Code 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.
Terms Used In Montana Code 20-9-165
- Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- County superintendent: means the county government official who is the school officer of the county. See Montana Code 20-1-101
- district: means the territory, regardless of county boundaries, organized under the provisions of this title to provide public educational services under the jurisdiction of the trustees prescribed by this title. See Montana Code 20-6-101
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- fund: means a separate detailed account of receipts and expenditures for a specific purpose as authorized by law or by the superintendent of public instruction under the provisions of subsection (2). See Montana Code 20-9-201
- Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
- Pupil: means an individual who is admitted by the board of trustees pursuant to 20-5-101 and who is enrolled in a school established and maintained under the laws of the state at public expense. See Montana Code 20-1-101
- school: means an institution for the teaching of children that is established and maintained under the laws of the state of Montana at public expense. See Montana Code 20-6-501
- Superintendent of public instruction: means that state government official designated as a member of the executive branch by the Montana constitution. See Montana Code 20-1-101
- Transportation: means :
(a)a district's conveyance of a pupil by a school bus between the pupil's legal residence or an officially designated bus stop and the school designated by the trustees for the pupil's attendance; or
(b)individual transportation. See Montana Code 20-10-101
- Trustees: means the governing board of a district. See Montana Code 20-1-101
(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.