Montana Code 20-9-302. School isolation
20-9-302. School isolation. (1) Except as provided in 20-6-502(4)(b), the trustees of any district operating an elementary school of less than 10 ANB or a high school of less than 25 ANB for 2 consecutive years shall apply to have the school classified as an isolated school. The application must be submitted by the trustees to the county superintendent by May 1 of the second consecutive year that enrollment falls below the amount specified in this subsection. The application must include:
Terms Used In Montana Code 20-9-302
- ANB: means the average number of regularly enrolled, full-time pupils physically attending a school of the district or an offsite instructional setting or receiving remote instruction from the public schools of a district. See Montana Code 20-1-101
- 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.
- 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
(a)the name of each pupil who will attend the school during the ensuing school fiscal year with the distance the pupil resides from the nearest county road or highway;
(b)a description of conditions affecting transportation such as poor roads, mountains, rivers, or other obstacles to travel, the distance the school is from the nearest open school having room and facilities for the pupils of the school, or any other condition that would result in an unusual hardship to the pupils of the school if they were transported to another school; and
(c)any other information prescribed by the superintendent of public instruction.
(2)The county superintendent shall submit the applications to the board of county commissioners for their consideration on or before May 15. The board shall approve or disapprove the application on the basis of the criteria established by the superintendent of public instruction. The board may approve an application because of the existence of other conditions which would result in an unusual hardship to the pupils of the school if they were transported to another school.
(3)When an application is approved, the county superintendent shall submit the application to the superintendent of public instruction before June 1. The superintendent of public instruction shall approve or disapprove the application for isolated classification by the fourth Monday of June on the basis of the information supplied by the application or objective information the superintendent of public instruction may collect on the superintendent’s own initiative. An elementary or high school may not be considered an isolated school until the approval of the superintendent of public instruction has been received.