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Circle, Montana - 3 schools
At $12,392 per pupil, Circle Elem ranks #304 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
127
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$12,392
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Circle Elem operates 3 public schools serving 127 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Montana. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined, 1 elementary, 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 Mccone County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $12,392 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 48.8% local, 43.2% state, and 8.1% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one.
a 104:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 19.6% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 98.0% White across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Redwater School, with a diversity index of 8.0/100.
Its largest campus is Bo Peep School, enrolling 57 students (42% of the district's total enrollment).
Bo Peep School accounts for 41.9% of all Circle Elem student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Circle Elem-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.
Circle Elem student-counselor ratio is 104:1 — 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.
Circle Elem chronic absenteeism rate is 19.6% — near the typical range (US average ~28) — aligned with the national post-pandemic baseline of roughly 28% chronic absenteeism
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 Variation between sub-units within Circle Elem is typically wider than the Circle Elem-aggregate figure suggests.