School employee raises questioned

GREAT FALLS – Advocates are upset that some of the money intended to go toward Indian Education for All has been used by Missoula County Public Schools for teacher and other district employee pay raises.

But district officials say they’re not misusing state appropriations and already offer students strong Indian education programs.

“Missoula has been a leader in Indian Education for All for some time,” said Missoula Superintendent Jim Clark. The Office of Public Instruction “looks to our district for resources. It doesn’t mean we can’t do better.”

He said the district didn’t expand its Indian education offerings this year.

Indian Education for All is a law that mandates Montana schools teach all students about its American Indian tribes and reservations. The mandate was written into the Montana Constitution in 1972, but this year is the first that the state has committed substantial money to the directive.

The state infused money into school districts’ general funds instead of doling out those Indian Education for All dollars to districts in a separate account, said Denise Juneau, director of OPI’s Indian Education Division.

That’s how the spending on salaries could occur.

State Rep. Carol Juneau, D-Browning, who chairs the Montana Indian Education Association, says the spending is disappointing.

Clark said the spending on raises is permissible.

“There’s an implication here that we were misusing funds that were mandated for something,” Clark said.