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Townsend, Montana - 3 schools
An equity score of 29/100 ranks Townsend K-12 Schools #94 of 141 districts in Montana (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $12,223 per pupil, Townsend K-12 Schools ranks #312 of 394 Montana districts by per-pupil spending (Montana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
706
Total Enrollment
3
Schools
$12,223
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Townsend K-12 Schools operates 3 public schools serving 706 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 Broadwater County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $12,223 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 49.1% local, 37.3% state, and 13.6% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one. The district's equity score is 29/100, ranked #94 of 141 in Montana against a state average of 38, notably less even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 3 schools offering Advanced Placement (2 AP courses district-wide), a 253.2:1 student-counselor ratio, somewhat above the 250:1 ASCA recommendation, and 49.1% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 88.3% White, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 0.3% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Broadwater High School, with a diversity index of 25.1/100.
Its largest campus is Cecelia Hazelton School, enrolling 423 students (58% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Townsend 7-8, at 114 students, a 4x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Cecelia Hazelton School accounts for 57.7% of all Townsend K-12 Schools student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Townsend K-12 Schools a distant remainder — means Townsend K-12 Schools-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.
Townsend K-12 Schools school enrollment varies 3.7× across entities
Townsend K-12 Schools school enrollment ranges from 114 students (lowest) to 423 students (highest), a spread of 309 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.
Townsend K-12 Schools student-counselor ratio is 253:1 — near the typical range (US average ~408) — within the typical range for U.S. public districts
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 Variation between sub-units within Townsend K-12 Schools is typically wider than the Townsend K-12 Schools-aggregate figure suggests.
Townsend K-12 Schools chronic absenteeism rate is 49.1% — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
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 Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.