LOCAL

Ennis schools propose $59M bond Big Sky voters could pay 87 percent

BY GABRIELLE GASSER

ENNIS – Ennis School District #52 is proposing the third largest bond ever in the state of Montana in the upcoming Feb. 8 mail-in Madison County election. Among the electorate to approve or deny the bond are registered Big Sky voters residing in Madison County, who make up almost 12 percent of the Ennis School District voting bloc and contribute roughly 87 percent of the district’s property tax base, according to data from the Montana Department of Revenue based on levy districts.

The $59 million bond is intended to support an ambitious expansion of the Ennis school facilities including a new building, new gym and improvements to the existing junior high school wing. According to Ennis Schools Superintendent Casey Klasna, the district’s bonding capacity, or legal debt margin, is $355,324,820, a figure calculated as 100 percent of the district’s total taxable value less any outstanding debt. The $59 million bond measure is 16.6 percent of the district’s overall bonding capacity.

The existing high school building, built in 1971, is not meeting space and infrastructure needs, Klasna said, is not handicapped accessible and is not compliant with current building code. The district’s concern is that growth will outpace the existing facility, which is already overcrowded with classes held in every available space, according to Klasna. One such example is a raised platform located in the center of the high school building over the library where world language classes take place.

“The bottom line is we are doing this for our students and our education,” Klasna said. He emphasized the importance of providing quality education and a “positive and safe learning environment for students.”

Klasna said space is at a premium for the 411 students enrolled in the district. He explained that the junior high students are being pushed out of the building they share with the elementary school and into the high school building.

From last school year to now, Klasna said enrollment has increased by about 8 percent. The district’s plan is based on a 10-year Cohort Survival Method which predicts that enrollment will increase to as many as 680 students in 2031, a 65 percent increase from current enrollment.

The original high school building was built as an open concept and partitions were later added between classrooms that Klasna said do nothing to prevent sound leaking between classes. If the bond passes, construction on the expansion would start in June of 2023 and would finish in August of 2025.

The impact on taxpayers will be approximately $114 annually for a home with an assessed market value for tax purposes of $344,000, the median value of a home in the district. Based on current taxable values and interest rates, the 20-year bond will be broken into approximately 24.55 mills per year.

Though Ennis School District’s 441 Big Sky voters comprise approximately 12 percent of the district’s total 3,701 voters, Big Sky property owners in the district will pay an amount of the bond proportionate to the taxable value of the levy districts. That amount is currently 87 percent but could fluctuate over the years based on changes in taxable values.

To address this overlap with the Big Sky community, the Ennis School District Board of Trustees hosted a meeting with the Big Sky School District Board of Trustees on Jan. 5 to open a dialogue between the two districts, and to allow BSSD trustees to tour the Ennis school facilities.

During the meeting, BSSD Board Chair Loren Bough shared data on the Madison County portion of Big Sky as well as voter sentiments and comments the school board has heard. “I found out about it through a friend,” she wrote in an email to EBS. “I know of another family who said they had something show up in their mail, however, that was not the case with us. Once I saw the PDF brochure it was clear there is a plan established and they are going for it.”

Morris encouraged every Big Sky resident in Madison County to view the proposal and to see if it makes sense.

“As a result of geographical barriers, and not through open enrollment, BSSD #72 is the school our kids go to —yet we do not enjoy the right to vote on [BSSD] school bonds, for school board members or even run for school board ourselves,” Morris wrote. “We would like for the state to consider redrawing the school district lines to incorporate all current and future homes where, because of geographic barriers, have or could have students end up at BSSD.”

During the meeting, the discussion quickly turned to how the Ennis district could better inform Big Sky voters on the bond issue.

“When you’re asked to pay more taxes to an entity that you’re not benefiting from, there will always be pushback,” said BSSD trustee Stacy Ossorio during the discussion.

As the evening progressed, several Ennis residents offered comments including Maria Marzullo, a former school board member and longtime community member.

“I, as a retired widowed homeowner, will receive no benefit from what this district wants to do,” Marzullo said in response to the concern raised by Ossorio. “I love children. I love education. I think the biggest investment we can make in our life is to educate our children. There are a lot of voters who are not going to personally benefit from anything whether they’re in the Big Sky area or the Ennis area.”

Kelley Knack, assistant girls’ basketball coach and Ennis community member, also weighed in.

“I feel that our communities are very entwined, and I think we always piggyback off the success of the other,” she said.

Knack’s comments echoed a larger discussion theme: consideration of how the Big Sky and Ennis communities interact and can learn from each other’s experiences.

BSSD trustees urged the Ennis board to provide more information on the upcoming bond to Big Sky voters through a meet-and-greet event to show voters where their money would go. Bough also encouraged Ennis trustees to consider the annual expenses required to upkeep the new facility, which he said would likely appear before voters every year as additional dollar requests.

“I’m just super appreciative that you’re willing to have this meeting and I thought the way forward is just the sharing of ideas and communication,” Bough said in the meeting.

The joint school board meeting concluded with an agreement that the two school boards will create a joint subcommittee or working group that includes members from both boards that will continue to meet and have an open dialogue.

“I thought that the meeting was very productive and apparent that both school boards want a great educational system in place for kids,” Klasna wrote in an emailed statement. “Having a good relationship with neighboring schools is important.”

Ballots for the upcoming election will be mailed on Jan. 20 and must be returned by 8 p.m. on Feb. 8. Ballots postmarked on Feb. 8 but received later will not be counted.

School board trustees from Ennis School District and Big Sky School District sat down together for a joint meeting on Jan. 5. PHOTO BY GABRIELLE GASSER

Data provided by the Montana Department of Revenue. GRAPHIC BY ME BROWN

Ennis K-12 Schools Superintendent Casey Klasna gives a tour of the current facilities. PHOTO BY GABRIELLE GASSER

Marijuana demand ‘exceeded expectations’ for Big Sky dispensary owners Dispensaries cope with supply concerns as business blooms

BY BELLA BUTLER

BIG SKY – The floodgates opened on Jan. 1 for recreational marijuana sales and Big Sky’s three dispensaries are celebrating success while planning for the future of an exploding industry.

State shops raked in a collective total of more than $1.5 million on opening weekend of recreational sales according to reporting by the Missoulian, adding more than $313,000 in tax revenue to state coffers. Big Sky dispensary owners said nearly two weeks in, demand from recreational customers has been greater than anticipated, putting their businesses in the same boat as others statewide now concerned over supply.

“I just was shocked at the number of people that were coming into the store,” said Charlie Gaillard, owner of Big Sky dispensary LPC.

Tanya Simonson, co-owner of Herbaceous, and Shine Miller, manager of Greener Pastures, each described lines out the door on Jan. 1. Simonson said on opening day her shop hosted around 150 people and has continued to bring in closer to 80 customers per day since. She added that these customers can’t be summed up in one archetype; they range from construction workers in their 20s to retirees in their 70s.

“It’s been busier than we expected,” she said. “Right now we’re just trying to balance the amount of demand that we’ve got with product.”

The medical marijuana market in Montana up until 2022 was vertically integrated, meaning dispensaries could only sell products that they grew and produced. Legislation permitting recreational sales allows the market to integrate horizontally, so dispensaries can now purchase wholesale products from other growers and producers.

Gaillard said LPC, which has locations in West Yellowstone, Bozeman and Ennis in addition to Big Sky, has already brought in products from another producer to his shelves to help with supply concerns and plans to introduce more brands to his stores soon.

Herbaceous, which has another store in Butte near its farm, currently only sells Herbaceous products, but Simonson said building partnerships with other producers and growers to bolster her supply isn’t out of the question.

“If it continues to be as busy as it has been,” she said, “I believe that we will have to buy from other people.”

Simonson added that she’s still unsure if this solution will be sufficient. Montana House Bill 701, the legislation establishing the framework for the new industry, gave existing producers 18 months to operate before new licenses can be issued. On top of that, recreational marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, meaning product can’t be sourced from outside the state.

“We’re not sure if there is going to be enough because I feel like the demand is pretty high,” she said.

Miller said Greener Pastures, which has additional locations in Bozeman and Missoula, will continue to exclusively sell its own products but will add a growing operation in Logan to support its current facility in Bozeman.

The three dispensaries in Big Sky all operated as medical marijuana dispensaries prior to Jan. 1. Simonson and Gaillard estimated that since the start of the year, more than 80 percent of their business serves recreational customers with the remainder being medical patients. Miller similarly estimated the split at Greener Pastures is roughly 75 percent recreational and 25 percent medical.

Montana Free Press recently reported a story about medical users’ concerns that the blow recreational users have delivered to state supply will negatively impact availability to the state’s approximately 55,000 medical marijuana cardholders.

“We did have a lot of [medical patients] stock up prior to January 1 I think just for that reason,” Simonson said, though she’s hopeful it won’t become an issue.

Gaillard said he doesn’t think medical cardholders will have issues sourcing products, though since recreational customers are a bigger piece of the market, medical products will still be there but may be available in lesser quantities at LPC moving forward.

Inside Greener Pastures, medical and recreational products are displayed in different cases. Miller explained this separation has two purposes. First, recreational edible products are statutorily limited to 100 milligrams of THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis, whereas the limit does not apply to medical products. Second, the shop intends to ensure that product is reserved for medical patients.

“It’s a prescription and it’s a medical card so they are a priority for us,” Miller said. “We started out as a medical company and we had medical patients and we want to keep them happy.”

On Jan. 12 in Herbaceous, most customers saddled up to the counter with both products for purchase and questions: What’s the tax? How much can I buy?

Simonson said many recreational customers are still riding a learning curve, but so are dispensaries, and for good reason; the 153-page House Bill 701 is extensive, covering everything from cultivation and sales to licensing and transportation.

“We’re just trying to figure it out day to day,” she said.

Tanya Simonson, co-owner of Big Sky dispensary Herbaceous, helps a customer at her West Fork location. PHOTO BY BELLA BUTLER

At Greener Pastures, recreational and medical marijuana is displayed separately. The dispensary’s manager, Shine Miller, said maintaining stock for medical patients is a priority for Greener Pastures. PHOTO BY BELLA BUTLER

Bozeman Yellowstone International sets all-time record at 1.94 million passengers in 2021

BOZEMAN YELLOWSTONE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

BOZEMAN – Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport handled an all-time record 1,940,191 passengers during 2021. This is an increase of 118.1 percent over COVID-impacted 2020 and a 23.3 percent increase over the previous record of 1,573,860 set in 2019. Over 40 percent of passengers traveling to or from Montana traveled through Bozeman in 2021. On a national basis, the Transportation Security Administration reported a 31.1 percent decline in passenger throughput across 440 United States airports for 2021 compared to 2019.

“BZN has been fortunate to see a very robust recovery in passenger traffic with record-setting passenger levels since April 2021,” said Brian Sprenger, airport director. “It is estimated the increase in passengers in 2021 generated nearly $200 million in additional economic activity for southwest Montana compared to 2019.”