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Chester, Montana - 4 schools
At $12,670 per pupil, Chester-Joplin-Inverness El ranks #292 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
195
Total Enrollment
4
Schools
$12,670
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Chester-Joplin-Inverness El operates 4 public schools serving 195 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Montana. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 combined, 1 middle schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Liberty County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $12,670 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 40.9% local, 37.7% state, and 21.4% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one.
a 42:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 42.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 96.2% White, 0.5% African American, 0.3% Hispanic or Latino across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Chester-Joplin-Inverness 7-8, with a diversity index of 12.5/100.
Its largest campus is Chester-Joplin-Inverness Schl, enrolling 124 students (74% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Sage Creek Elementary, at 5 students, a 25x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Chester-Joplin-Inverness Schl accounts for 63.6% of all Chester-Joplin-Inverness El student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Chester-Joplin-Inverness El a distant remainder — means Chester-Joplin-Inverness El-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: combined. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Chester-Joplin-Inverness El school enrollment varies 25× across entities
Chester-Joplin-Inverness El school enrollment ranges from 5 students (lowest) to 124 students (highest), a spread of 119 students. That spread is wider than typical and predicts noticeable gaps in service quality between the highest and lowest areas. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Chester-Joplin-Inverness El student-counselor ratio is 42:1 — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Values this far below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.
Chester-Joplin-Inverness El chronic absenteeism rate is 42.4% — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.
How many schools are in Chester-Joplin-Inverness El?
Chester-Joplin-Inverness El has 4 schools, including 3 combined, 1 middle. Total enrollment is 195 students.
How much does Chester-Joplin-Inverness El spend per student?
Chester-Joplin-Inverness El spends $12,670 per student.
What is the demographic composition of Chester-Joplin-Inverness El?
Chester-Joplin-Inverness El students are 96.2% White, 0.5% African American, 0.3% Hispanic or Latino, 0.3% Asian, averaged across 4 schools. Source: NCES CCD Membership 2024-25.