Gardiner Elem operates 2 public schools serving 91 students, placing it among the smaller districts in Montana. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 other, 1 middle schools, giving families a clear picture of grade-band coverage before they move, rent, or enrol. Aggregated across those campuses, enrollment totals 96 pupils using the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is geographically located in Park County County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $16,071 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, which aggregates every revenue and spending line reported under federal accounting standards. The funding mix is 53.8% local, 31.9% state, and 14.4% federal — a breakdown that matters because districts leaning heavily on local revenue are more exposed to property-tax swings, while higher federal shares typically track Title I concentration. Average teacher compensation clocks in at $92,679 per NCES F-33, a signal of the district's ability to recruit and retain staff against neighbouring districts.
a 48:1 student-counselor ratio that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 24.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 89.7% White, 3.5% Hispanic or Latino, 1.9% African American across the district's schools.
Gardiner School accounts for 72.9% of all Gardiner Elem student enrollment
That concentration — well above the 8.4% national median for largest-entity share — means Gardiner Elem-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: other. 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.
Gardiner Elem student-counselor ratio is 48:1 — low (typically associated with meeting or exceeding the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommended 250:1 benchmark, which correlates with stronger college and career counseling capacity)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Gardiner Elem chronic absenteeism rate is 24.8% — 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 Gardiner Elem is typically wider than the Gardiner Elem-aggregate figure suggests.