Two western Montana school districts are keeping a close eye on a Senate bill that could impact where thousands of students attend high school.

Senate Bill 107 would allow voters in certain medium*sized school districts to create their own high school. It would apply to districts with more than 1,000 kindergarten through 8th grade students.

Right now there are three districts in Montana that fall into that category. Two are in eastern Montana, and the third is in Missoula -- the Hellgate Elementary School District.

The district is located just a few miles away from the Missoula County Public School District, which is where all of Missoula's public school students currently attend high school.

Like most school districts in Montana, Hellgate Elementary has humble beginnings.

"This school district, of course, was started in 1869 as a one-room schoolhouse, for 16 kids with one teacher," said Superintendent Doug Reisig.

Reisig oversees a district that, in 2015, has 1,500 students and more than 160 employees and teachers.

He says that's a large enough student base to support a medium-sized high school -- something he says many parents would prefer over a larger Class AA high school.

"That's what's been the impetus behind this, is having our parents come to our school board meetings, come to our school board members, and ask if they could just have a vote on whether or not it is something that the people in this district want," said Reisig.

If the bill passes, and voters approve a Hellgate district high school, Reisig estimates it would enroll about 600 students.

The bulk of those students would come from the Missoula County Public School District, and for a district the size of MCPS, that's a big drop-off.

"There certainly could be job loss, there certainly could be programmatic impact on this students in Missoula County Public Schools," says MCPS Communications Director Hatton Littman.

Littman says fewer students at MCPS would mean less funding for the district, and higher taxes to build a new high school building for Hellgate.

"Higher taxes on most Missoula County voters, and a very significant tax raise on those Hellgate Elementary voters who would then have to build their own high school building," said Littman

In addition, she says it could result in a lower quality education for all public high school students in Missoula.

"While this bill could potentially control local control over decisions for their high school students," said Littman. "What it also does is really limit their opportunity for school choice."

Reisig says he's confident a Hellgate Elementary School District high school would provide a quality education.

"We believe that if, in fact, we did have a high school, that we could provide all the academic programs we need to provide for our kids to have a solid high school experience" said Reisig.

A committee hearing will take place in Helena Monday at 3 p.m. It's open to the public, and both school districts are encouraging parents to attend.

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