Billings Public Schools have a mountain of deferred maintenance - $120 million. It accumulated over years of tight budgets in which trustees funded staff and operations while postponing repair and renovation. It will be a huge challenge for our schools to ever catch up.

However, federal stimulus money that the 2009 Legislature and Gov. Brian Schweitzer appropriated for increasing school energy efficiency offered hope for a small but quick start.

On June 12, the Montana Commerce Department announced that it had awarded $4.84 million of the $15 million it can distribute in Quick Start school energy grants statewide. Schools in Darby, Roundup, Poplar, East Helena, Bozeman, Belgrade, Montana City, Conrad, Terry, Butte, Miles City, Cascade, Florence, Polson, Townsend and Dutton received grants ranging from $13,711 to $492,051. Independent School northeast of Billings received $67,135. But there was no award for Billings Public Schools.

Finally last week, Billings Superintendent Jack Copps received word that the state Commerce Department had approved a portion of the schools' grant requests but not its highest priority: replacement of a chiller/heat exchanger that quit this spring at Skyview High School. Interviewed last week, Copps said he didn't know how the school district will cover the cost of this equipment without the hoped-for grant of $310,000. Without working equipment, much of the school was too hot or too cold for the remainder of the school year. A new chiller/heat exchanger would save $11,000 annually in energy costs.

Applications for new rooftop units at the Career Center and a new roof at the facilities building on 10th Street West were partially funded. Unfortunately, the school district doesn't have the money for the remainder. Trustees are struggling to close 2009-10 general fund budget gaps of $1.6 million in the high schools and nearly $2 million in the K-8 schools. The gaps are the difference between expected revenues and the cost of continuing all existing programs and staffing levels next year.

Many other Montana schools also are wrestling with tight budgets and worrying over worn-out, energy-hogging buildings. Billings is an important district to illustrate the challenges. One of every 10 Montana public school students attends class in Billings, making ours by far the largest district. A malfunctioning ventilation system at Skyview High directly affects 1,600 students plus faculty and staff.

Billings has submitted additional applications for the state's Quick Start grants, seeking help funding for energy management systems at Senior, West, Lincoln (which houses the Senior freshman academy), Castle Rock and Big Sky and has requested funding for replacing lights and Arrowhead and windows at Senior and Poly Drive.

We call on the Commerce Department to favorably consider Billings' bids to improve our schools. There is sometimes a perception in state government that large school districts need less help because they are big. We ask state decision makers to remember that our district also has big demands for 15,500 students - demands that have left little resources for facilities in Billings.

This is the third in a series of editorials offering a midyear update on community issues raised in the editorial board's community agenda on Jan. 1.