At $13,287 per pupil, North Star Elem ranks #282 of 393 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
150
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$13,287
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
North Star Elem operates 2 public schools serving 150 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 Hill County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $13,287 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 393 Montana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Montana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 54.2% local, 26.7% state, and 19.1% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers.
a 25:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 34.5% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 83.3% White, 8.4% Hispanic or Latino, 2.0% African American across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is North Star School, enrolling 83 students (77% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is North Star 7-8, at 25 students, a 3x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Enrollment across the district's NCES-reporting campuses fell 5.3% between 2022-23 and 2023-24 (150 to 142 students), and the student-teacher ratio tightened by 1.7 students per teacher as staffing held steadier than enrollment, per the NCES Common Core of Data annual universe files.
Of the district's $2,036,000 in reported FY2023 expenditures, 54.1% went to instruction, 33.8% to support services, and 2% to capital outlay, a fairly typical instruction/support/capital split for a public school district. Figures come from the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey's function-level breakdown, not the aggregate per-pupil figure above.
North Star School accounts for 55.3% of all North Star Elem student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of North Star Elem a distant remainder — means North Star 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.
North Star Elem student-counselor ratio is 25:1 — 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.
North Star Elem chronic absenteeism rate is 34.5% — high (typically associated with higher-than-average disruption; recent CRDC data showed elevated rates persisting after pandemic-era schooling changes)
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 Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.
North Star Elem has 2 schools, including 1 combined, 1 middle. Total enrollment is 150 students.
How much does North Star Elem spend per student?
North Star Elem spends $13,287 per student.
What is the demographic composition of North Star Elem?
North Star Elem students are 83.3% White, 8.4% Hispanic or Latino, 2.0% African American, 1.2% Asian, averaged across 2 schools. Source: NCES CCD Membership 2024-25.