The district’s legislative committee met and presented an early draft of priorities for the next legislative session. Committee members said the district should pursue a focused set of asks that would most directly help Stillwater’s finances and operations.

Top funding priorities discussed were an increase in local optional revenue authority (metropolitan districts and AMSD have supported raising the per-pupil local optional revenue amount; staff cited an example proposal moving the index from $724 to $947 per pupil), increased Safe Schools Levy funding to help with resource officers and safety programming, and expanded school sparsity aid to relieve transportation deficits in geographically spread districts. Committee members also discussed policy items such as seeking authority to renew certain capital levies (for example, the technology levy) without returning to voters and considering statutory flexibility on hours-of-instruction and assessment (discussion included whether other standardized tests could replace current MCA requirements for certain high-school measures).

Staff explained how the local optional revenue mechanism works: if the legislature approves an increase in the statutory authority, the district could then choose to set a higher local levy amount in the following truth-in-taxation cycle; state equalization rules affect final taxpayer impacts. Committee members signaled that a short, prioritized platform is preferable to a long list of asks. The committee will refine its language after AMSD and MSBA discussions and return to the board with a final platform recommendation.