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Hays, Montana - 3 schools
An equity score of 69/100 ranks Hays-Lodge Pole K-12 Schls #5 of 141 districts in Montana (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $22,663 per pupil, Hays-Lodge Pole K-12 Schls ranks #92 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
248
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$22,663
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Hays-Lodge Pole K-12 Schls operates 3 public schools serving 248 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Montana. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 combined, 1 high, 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 Blaine County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $22,663 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 9.8% local, 31.3% state, and 58.9% federal, an unusually federal-heavy mix, typically a marker of concentrated Title I eligibility or a small district reliant on federal impact-aid programs. The district's equity score is 69/100, ranked #5 of 141 in Montana against a state average of 38, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 118:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, . Demographically, the student body averages 2.4% Hispanic or Latino, 0.5% White across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Lodge Pole School, with a diversity index of 11.8/100.
Its largest campus is Lodge Pole School, enrolling 144 students (56% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Hays-Lodge Pole 7-8, at 27 students, a 5x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Lodge Pole School accounts for 56.5% of all Hays-Lodge Pole K-12 Schls student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Hays-Lodge Pole K-12 Schls a distant remainder — means Hays-Lodge Pole K-12 Schls-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.
Hays-Lodge Pole K-12 Schls school enrollment varies 5.3× across entities
Hays-Lodge Pole K-12 Schls school enrollment ranges from 27 students (lowest) to 144 students (highest), a spread of 117 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous campus portfolio, most districts have a wider mix of school sizes. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Hays-Lodge Pole K-12 Schls student-counselor ratio is 118:1 — 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.