At $20,170 per pupil, Melstone Elem ranks #132 of 393 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
47
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$20,170
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Melstone Elem operates 2 public schools serving 47 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Montana. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 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 Musselshell County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $20,170 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 393 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 27.4% local, 52.1% state, and 20.5% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles.
and 12.5% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 96.2% White across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Melstone School, enrolling 24 students (65% of the district's total enrollment).
Melstone School accounts for 51.1% of all Melstone Elem student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Melstone Elem a distant remainder — means Melstone Elem-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade band: combined. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how the district allocates programs, capital, or staff. Because it contains a majority of the affected population, enrollment-weighted aggregates will sit closer to this entity's reported fields than to those of smaller peers; an unweighted entity count answers a different question.
Melstone Elem chronic absenteeism rate is 12.5% — low (typically associated with lower-than-average attendance disruption; districts in this range often have attendance interventions, robust transportation, or smaller catchments that reduce barriers)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.