Making it to the finish line at next month’s Special Olympics Montana State Winter Games was almost out of reach for Kalispell Middle School students.

On Tuesday, Superintendent Darlene Schottle overturned a decision made by staffers last fall to cut funding for transportation to the winter games and stipends for staffers to accompany students. Participation at the high school level would not have been affected.

The Winter Games are back in the  budget primarily because of Kalispell Middle School parents.

As parents caught wind of the situation around November 2013, phone calls, letters and emails began streaming in to the district.

Persistence paid off.

Schottle addressed the public and trustees during Tuesday’s school board meeting, calling the initial decision an error and apologizing for the lack of communication with parents and community members.

Bob Norbie, Special Olympics Montana president, was at the meeting and offered to cover costs if the district couldn’t come up with the money.

“There was discussion around how many days students spent out of the classroom, discussion about cost, there was discussion where that funding had come from,” Schottle said. “It became very clear to us about a month ago that communication with our parents and some of the community had not been very good.

“In no way was it our desire as a school district to create a situation that we weren’t a united front doing programmatically what was in the best interest of students.”

Board members also were concerned about the situation unfolded. Trustee Joe Brenneman said he learned about the issue in December.

“This is embarrassing to have on the board’s behalf — to have parents have to come make requests like this to us when it shouldn’t have to be done this way,” Brenneman said. “I appreciate Darlene for fixing it, but let’s not let something happen like this again.”

Although the decision was rescinded and funding found in the Special Education budget, parents and Jenny Griswold, Kalispell Public Schools Special Olympics coordinator, expressed their desire that the school district create a more permanent solution or policy about participation in and continued funding of the Special Olympics.

Schottle agreed to organize a committee to discuss the issue.

Middle school parent Kim Deist of Kalispell addressed the board on the importance of extracurricular programs, which she said are essential for all students.

“I’m respectfully asking the school board to ensure our special needs students have the same access to extracurricular programs,” Deist said. “It seems Special Olympics Montana fills that void.”

“The Special Olympics builds a foundation of inclusion, awareness, friendships and tolerance for Special Olympic athletes like my son.”

Parent Mary Tepas of Kalispell refuted one of the explanations for cutting programming: that the amount of time spent at athletic events would be detrimental to a student’s classroom learning.

“Most children especially those on the autism spectrum would have socialization goals, interactive goals, team-building goals, leadership goals — these are all part of being a student in the Special Education department,” Tepas said. “All goals could possibly be met through participation in Special Olympics.”

The Special Olympics Montana Winter Games will be Feb. 23-25 at Whitefish Mountain Resort.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at [email protected].