Somers School District officials are planning a special tax assessment next year after a data entry error resulted in uncollected taxes and depleted reserve funds.  

In August, the school board authorized a mill levy reduction of 5%, but the data entry error reduced property taxes closer to 25%, according to the school district.  

Superintendent Alex Ator said administrators were notified in late October by the Flathead County Treasurer’s Office that, after looking into the district’s financial statements, they noticed their reserve funds depleted.  

“It was a little overwhelming, but in general, when issues like that happen, you just need to figure out what happened,” Ator said.  

The error resulted in the district under collecting revenue, which created a shortfall that could affect essential school operations, district officials warned. 

Reserves for the general, transportation and retirement funds were reallocated to cover the missing money, but to restore the reserves to the levels necessary for school operations, the district plans to collect the remaining 20% through a special tax assessment in February 2026 administered by the Flathead County Treasurer.  

The Somers and Lakeside School Board will discuss adopting three separate budget amendments at its December meeting, totaling $630,460.15.  

The estimated amount to be billed in February is $36.59 for a home valued at $300,000, $77.09 for a home valued at $600,000, $100 for a home valued at $750,000 and $139.84 for a home valued at $1 million.  

The process will not increase taxes beyond what was originally planned but will recoup the amount that was intended to have been collected prior to the data entry error.  

Ator said they are reviewing and strengthening internal processes to ensure this does not happen again.  

“There will be more eyes on more items, less siloed decision making and more people on what the final product should look like,” he said.  

He said the district is waiting until February for the assessment to give taxpayers time to adjust.  

“We know that finances are tight and how the general economy sits currently. And we wanted to ensure that we supported people first and then find a plan. In some ways, the holidays weighed in on that, but otherwise, it's just that if you know a marginal or a large bill is coming — having two to three months to plan for that is much more fair and appropriate than sending it out day one,” he said.  

Ator, along with other district leadership and the school board, apologized for the mishap.  

“This is going to create some distrust and frustrations from local families, and we just want everybody to know that we do sincerely apologize. We do plan to do better the next time,” he said.  

Ator said anyone with questions or comments can reach him by calling the district office or emailing him at [email protected]. 

A public meeting to consider and adopt the budget amendments will be held Dec.15 at 6 p.m. in the Somers Middle School Commons.  

A community question and answer session will also be scheduled closer to the assessment date in late January or early February.  

Taylor Inman may be reached at 758-4440 or [email protected].