There’s a $600,000 question mark in this year’s budget for Park County School District No. 1.

The 2014-15 budget approved by Park County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees last week includes general fund revenue estimated at roughly $24.4 million and expenses of around $25 million. The $600,000 difference is to pay for the education of students living in Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park — if they are included in the Powell school district.

“It’s still up in the air,” said Mary Jo Lewis, coordinator of business services. “As of right now, it’s in our budget.”

Lewis noted that Park County and state officials must decide whether to extend the school district’s boundaries to include Mammoth Hot Springs.

If approved, the Powell school district will pay for Mammoth students to continue attending school in Gardiner, Mont. The state of Wyoming then will reimburse the Powell

district for the exact amount — to the penny — it pays Gardiner, said Kevin Mitchell, superintendent of Park County School District No. 1.

The exact dollar amount per student must still be calculated, Mitchell said.

Mitchell said the initial estimate from the state was that education for the 37 students will cost somewhere between $500,000-$600,000.

“We’re taking the larger number just so that we aren’t looking for funds later on, but I’m guessing it’s probably going to be closer to the $500,000,” Mitchell said.

The Powell district eventually will be reimbursed the full amount from the state of Wyoming, but by state law, that payment wouldn’t come through until the next fiscal year.

Mitchell hopes to work with legislators in the 2015 session to change the Wyoming statute so the reimbursements will occur within the same fiscal year.

“We intend to work diligently to have that happen in this session,” Mitchell said, adding he will talk with state Sen. Hank Coe and state Rep. David Northrup, who both serve on the legislative education committee.

Other Wyoming school districts that pay for students’ education across the border in states like Idaho or South Dakota also must wait a year for the reimbursements. Their payments are smaller in comparison, because they don’t have as many students attending school out of state, Lewis said.

If Mammoth is included in the Powell school district, the payments will come from its $5.7 million general fund reserves.

The exact dollar amount will go back into the district’s reserves once it’s reimbursed by the state.

Though school officials are prepared to include Mammoth payments in this year’s budget, no transactions will occur until the district’s boundaries are extended by county and state officials.

“Until that all happens, the whole thing is moot anyway,” Lewis said. “But it is in our budget.”

Powell will not benefit from adding Mammoth students, superintendent says

Despite what two Park County commissioners said Monday, the Powell school district actually does not stand to profit from having its boundaries expanded to include the northern half of Yellowstone National Park.

Commissioners Joe Tilden and Loren Grosskopf were guests on KODI-AM’s “Speak Your Piece” program Monday morning when they wrongly suggested that Powell stood to make as much as $185,000 a year if students in Mammoth Hot Springs become a part of the district.

In reality, Powell will not collect any extra money if the proposal goes through.

“Not even a chance,” said Park County School District No. 1 Superintendent Kevin Mitchell.

Park County commissioners — along with the county assessor and treasurer — are currently mulling whether to recommend the expansion of the Powell district to include the northern part of Yellowstone that lies inside Wyoming’s boundaries.

A favorable recommendation from those officials (and subsequent agreement from the Wyoming Board of Education) would make the state responsible for paying for the education of the roughly three dozen students living in Mammoth; the federal government abruptly announced this year that it could no longer pay those bills. That left Wyoming as the only logical candidate to take on the financial burden.

The state has a constitutional obligation to educate Wyoming children and Gov. Matt Mead, Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill and Powell and Cody school board members have encouraged the Park County boundary board members to recommend that northern Yellowstone become a part of the Powell district.

But the Park County officials have so far balked at doing so. They’ve cited concerns about liability and future federal interference with Wyoming’s right to educate the students.

The students in Mammoth would likely never set foot in a Powell school if added to the district. Instead, the Powell district would arrange for the students to continue to be educated in Gardiner, Mont.

Not only would that be cheaper than busing the kids to Powell or building a new school in Mammoth, the average student’s education in Montana currently costs less than one in Wyoming. For example, according to data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau and released in May, Montana spent an average of $10,464 per student in fiscal year 2012 while Wyoming spent $15,897.

The commissioners’ confusion on Monday began with concern over the difference between Wyoming and Montana’s spending on education.

“That’s something that a lot of people don’t understand ... is if this deal is done and the boundary is extended into Yellowstone National Park, Powell School District No. 1 will receive $13,500 per student living up in Mammoth,” Commissioner Tilden said on “Speak Your Piece.”

However — repeating a figure mentioned by state Sen Hank Coe last month — he said the education in Montana would only cost $8,600 per student.

“So there’s a little bit of difference in the spread there,” Tilden said.

“That is a question — what’s going to happen to that $5,000 difference?” said Commissioner Grosskopf. “I mean, is the state going to pay the $13,000 and Powell keeps the $5,000? Or is Powell going to send the entire ($13,000) to Gardiner? That was one of our questions.”

“It’s a very good question,” continued Tilden on the radio program. “We haven’t discussed it with Powell, but I presume they will probably end up keeping the $5,000.”

With 37 students, the extra $5,000 per child cited by Tilden would mean Powell could potentially claim a windfall of up to $185,000. But that’s not what would happen.

As was stated by state and local school officials at the boundary board’s earlier meetings, the amount of money the state would pay to Gardiner — passed through the Powell school district — will be based on the Gardiner district’s actual costs for educating the Mammoth students.

In short, there wouldn’t be any “extra” money for Powell to take. If it costs $8,600 per student, for example, then that’s what the state would pay to Gardiner through the Powell district.

“Powell will not keep one penny of this money,” Superintendent Mitchell explained Tuesday.

Gov. Mead recently used emergency state funds under his control to pay for the 37 Mammoth students’ education in Gardiner for the past school year. The $497,722 payment breaks down to an average of about $13,452 per student.

Mitchell said he wouldn’t expect to see a big difference between the cost of educating the Mammoth students compared to the district’s other pupils.

“They (Gardiner) are basically going to get pretty close to what it costs a kid in Powell to go to school,” Mitchell said. “They’re Wyoming kids.”

For reasons that are unclear, northern Yellowstone National Park is the only part of the state that’s not in a Wyoming school district. The southern part of the park is a part of Teton County School District No. 1.

The county officials may make a decision on the boundary in August.

Grosskopf and Tilden said in interviews with the Tribune that any difference in cost between Wyoming and Montana’s education systems would not affect their decision.