Small Montana Schools Lose Federal Grants

As a result of changes in an already-cumbersome application process, some of Montana’s smallest rural schools lost out on a federal grant.  The Billings Gazette reports that Sand Springs is one of seven Montana schools that missed out on the money, according to the Montana Small Schools Alliance, for reasons like administrative turnover that left positions vacant during the summer — or, in the case of Jeana Bliss, fighting a historic wildfire.

Bliss is the district clerk for Sand Springs Elementary, a schoolhouse between Winnett and Jordan in Garfield County.  She said they had never, in all the time she’d been involved with school boards, had to fill out an application to receive grant funds. It had brought in $20,000 for Sand Springs, but changes in the process were instituted this year by new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.