The Montana legislature passed a joint resolution in March creating the Bitterroot Valley Community College District. On Wednesday, May 12, the first Trustees were sworn in by Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntsen. Montana Commissioner of Higher Education Clay Christian was also present and welcomed the new trustees, saying the new community college will be a great addition to the state’s educational institutions in its new capacity.
Operating as the Bitterroot College University of Montana, the school was essentially an outreach extension of the University of Montana with no local control over its operation or program offerings. Montana has a few independent college districts in Dillon, Miles City and the Flathead Velley. In March of 2020, the voters approved establishing an independent two-year college district in the Bitterroot, but at the same time they rejected a levy designed to support the district. Finding the funds to support the independent school district will be the first of several herculean tasks set for the new board of trustees.
The new board of trustees will meet for the first time on Monday, June 7, at 5:30 p.m. in the County Commissioners’ room in the County Administration building in Hamilton. They plan to meet on the first Monday of every month thereafter.
“There is no playbook for this,” said Linda Doughty, Chairman of the new board. ”It hasn’t been done in 52 years.” But she was undaunted by the immensity of the task ahead and eager to get on with the mission.
According to Doughty, one of the first considerations will be whether to hire a President of the College or appoint an Interim President to serve immediately
while they go through what could be a lengthy selection process. Then there is the elephant in the room question of how to fund the operation. Doughty expressed confidence in being able to work that out and has sketched out a many-pronged approach.
First and foremost, she said, was to get out in front of the community and make it plain what it really means to have a community college rather than appendage program of the University of Montana.
“We were not a college before,” said Doughty, “and I don’t think a lot of people really understand what that means. It means not being in charge of your own programming, not being able to offer even associate degrees. An actual community college offers local residents the opportunity to get an affordable two-year associate degree and then go on to any university to continue their education if desired. It also offers the opportunity to gain control of the curriculum and offer more courses tailored to meet the needs of the community.”
Doughty said the board would be looking to the students themselves to figure out what kinds of course offerings are needed or in demand. She said they would be looking to the local business community to see what kind of needs they have in terms of education and training for their workforce.
“There is a whole lot of foundational work to get done,” said Doughty.
As for funding, Doughty said they are looking at everything. She said there is some start-up funding in the governor’s newly proposed state budget and there are grants available for college start-ups. She said that the community has been very supportive and that they expected to raise money through private donations and that the establishment of some kind of endowment was promising. They will also be back on the ballot seeking some kind of supportive levy by the next school district elections. Doughty said the planned public information campaign was crucial to those efforts.
Doughty said that the current board of directors was very active and has been meeting every week for two hours a week for some time now to get this far in the process and no one was ready to slack off. Members of the current board including Doughty are Don Gardner, Ran Pigman, Janet Woodburn, Sue Smith, Gary Carlson and Marci Smith.
“Everyone is very involved and very committed,” said Doughty. She said without that support and without the incredible community support they have gotten, none of this would be possible.
In the meantime, however, Doughty said they were working with the University of Montana to see if the Bitterroot College University of Montana programs could be funded at least until the next levy could be put on the ballot. The building that the UM satellite program occupies belongs to the Hamilton school district. She said discussions were underway with the school district to see if it might be possible for the new college district to lease it or even acquire it.
Doughty said that local legislators Representative Dave Bedey and Senator Jason Ellsworth both deserved a big thanks for the work they did in getting passage of the district through the state legislature.