Montana’s shrinking schools: Statewide student decline takes extra toll on rural communities

Bozeman school administrators plan $80 million in building projects over the next four years, while Roy’s superintendent must cope with having no music program, no business classes and no home economics class to offer his students.

"I’m really a little nervous," said Dustin Sturm, superintendent, bus driver, math teacher, basketball coach and driver’s education teacher for the district 36 miles northeast of Lewistown.

By KRISTEN CATES
Tribune Staff Writer

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Big Sandy enrollment plunges

By KIM SKORNOGOSKI
Tribune Staff Writer

Walking down the high school hallway, Ed Ray stops and points at a graying picture hanging above the lockers.

"That’s my father," he says.

Further down the hallway, the Big Sandy Schools superintendent spots his own picture from the Class of 1969 — the school’s largest graduating class. That year, 455 students attended first through 12th grades here, a number that has dropped dramatically ever since.
In the last 20 years, enrollment plummeted from 330 to 160 students.

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