Bozeman, Gateway voters strongly back school levies; Belgrade barely says no

Voters in Bozeman, Gallatin Gateway and Willow Creek have supported general fund levies for their school districts, while similar requests in Belgrade, Manhattan and Three Forks ran into headwinds in Tuesday’s School and Special Purpose District Election.

Bozeman voters passed both high school and elementary levies designed to increase teacher and staff pay by 3%, according to official results posted just after midnight by Gallatin County election officials. The elementary levy passed 8,793 to 4,887 and the high school levy prevailed 9,929-6,228.

Mike Waterman, executive director of business and operations for the Bozeman School District, said he is “definitely grateful for the community support.”

Waterman added the district is “committed to meeting expectations.” He reiterated that the funds from the levies would go toward increasing compensation for teachers and staff.

The district’s voters also decided on Kevin Black and Greg Neil as trustees. Both garnered more than 7,000 votes, while Patrick Zimny was third with 4,833.

Eight miles to the west on Interstate 90, Belgrade voters barely said no to high school and elementary general fund levies, both designed to increase teacher and staff salaries as well.

The high school levy fell 2,926-2,788 and the elementary levy went down 2,922-2,739. Even farther west, Manhattan defeated its elementary levy 518-486 and also its high school levy 839-731, with Three Forks following suit 634-614 for its elementary levy and 630-619 for its high school.

Three Forks did pass a tech levy 658-598.

Conversely, in Gallatin Gateway, where the school district is facing a budget shortfall of more than $400,000, voters approved a levy requesting just less than $48,000 per year. That vote was 326-215.

In other Gallatin County voting Tuesday:

• Monforton passed an elementary general fund levy 574-482 and a building levy 634-421.

• Willow Creek OK’d a general fund levy 61-42.

• Big Sky overwhelmingly passed the creation of a hospital district 842-66.

• Belgrade elected Lila J. Beard and Ron Barnett as school trustees.

• Big Sky selected Matthew Dodd for school trustee.

• Lucas Hancox and Brian Nickolay were chosen as trustees for Gallatin Gateway.

• Julie Loessberg was picked as trustee for Monforton.

• Robert W. Buchholz and Aaron Lattimore are choices for trustees in Three Forks

• West Yellowstone voted for Estela (Tatiana) Salinas and Yessika Vega for trustees.

• For Central Valley Fire District, trustees are Joel Fassbinder and Ron Murray.

In all, 26,374 ballots were counted county-wide as of midnight.

This story will be updated.