Montana School Boards Association

Montana School Boards Association
Basic facts
Location:	Helena, Montana
Type:	501(c)(3)
Top official:	Lance Melton, Executive Director
Website:	Official website

The Montana School Boards Association (MTSBA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization representing school boards in Montana. Any publicly-elected K-12 school board in the state is eligible for membership.

Background

As of September 2025, the organization's website said it had been "founded over 95 years ago through the efforts and interests of volunteer elected trustees from throughout the state of Montana." The organization's core functions include advocating at the state and federal levels for policies it believes will enhance student achievement, providing training programs for school board members, and providing insurance policies at a discounted rate to member organizations.

As of September 2025, the MTSBA described its mission as "to develop the full potential of each child in every public school through school board leadership."

Leadership

As of September 2025, the following individuals held positions of leadership at the Montana School Boards Association:

• Lance Melton, executive director
• Debra Silk, associate executive director and general counsel
• Wendy Brenden, communications manager
• Lauren Carparelli, chief financial officer and director of MTSUIP
• Emily Dean, director of member engagement
• Tony Koenig, director of policy services and senior counsel
• Andy Sever, director of labor relations
• Andrew Vigeland, director of HR and senior counsel
• Shawn Bubb, director of insurance services

As of September 2025, the following individuals sat on the Montana School Boards Association's board of directors:

• Krystal Zentner, president
• Rick Cummings, president-elect
• Jennifer Hoffman, vice president
• Sue Corrigan, immediate past president
• Barb Riley
• Iris Kill Eagle
• Yancey Beston
• Stephanie Esch
• Scott Walter
• Lei-Anna Bertelsen
• Tom Billteen
• Bill Bronson
• Siobhan Hathhorn
• Arlene Walker-Andrews

Work and activities

Lobbying efforts

As of September 2025, the MTSBA had five registered lobbyists with the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices.

The Montana School Boards Association identified the following priorities for its 2025 lobbying efforts:

“

Support initiatives and proposals that advance the interests of public schools and students as described in our vision and goals; Provide adequate and equitable resources and support to meet the needs of special education students; Enhance and ensure continued progress of closing the gap to fully fund public education through the updates to the funding formula and support to schools, including but not limited to, inflation application to K-12 BASE Aid and infrastructure support; Advocate that all pre-k models proposed ensure the implementation of formula-based early childhood education; Expand opportunities to meet the needs of at-risk students; Support recruitment and retention of excellent school staff, including but not limited to, certified and classified staff, nurses, mental health professionals, and administrators; Ensure the health and safety of students in every Montana school; Properly support high quality school conditions and infrastructure; Fulfill the constitutional promise of equality of educational opportunity for each child in Montana; and Oppose any proposal that diverts limited state general fund revenues to private education while failing to provide the funding support of public education needed to preserve the constitutional rights of each child to access a basic system of free quality schools that fulfills the educational potential of each person.

”

Notable endorsements

See also: Ballotpedia: Our approach to covering endorsements

This section displays endorsements this organization made in elections within Ballotpedia's coverage scope.

Notable ballot measure endorsements by Montana School Boards Association

Measure	Position	Outcome
Montana LR-130, Limit Local Government Authority to Regulate Firearms Measure (2020)  source	Oppose	Approved

Affiliations

The MTSBA announced in November 2021 that it would leave the National School Boards Association in June 2022.

Finances

The following is a breakdown of the Montana School Boards Association's revenues and expenses from 2000 to 2024. The information comes from ProPublica.

Montana School Boards Association financial data 2000-2024

Year	Revenue	Expenses
2000	$0.9 million	$0.9 million
2001	$1.1 million	$0.9 million
2002	$1.4 million	$1.3 million
2003	$2.2 million	$2.2 million
2004	$2.4 million	$2.4 million
2005	$2.7 million	$2.6 million
2006	$3.5 million	$2.8 million
2007	$3.0 million	$2.8 million
2008	$3.2 million	$3.0 million
2009	$3.8 million	$3.6 million
2010	$3.6 million	$3.4 million
2011	$3.7 million	$3.6 million
2012	$3.5 million	$3.4 million
2013	$3.8 million	$3.5 million
2014	$4.2 million	$3.8 million
2015	$4.2 million	$4.0 million
2016	$4.4 million	$4.0 million
2017	$4.2 million	$4.0 million
2018	$4.6 million	$4.3 million
2019	$4.7 million	$4.5 million
2020	$4.9 million	$4.7 million
2021	$5.4 million	$4.7 million
2022	$5.4 million	$5.0 million
2023	$5.8 million	$5.4 million
2024	$6.4 million	$5.8 million

See also

• What is an influencer?
• Public education in Montana
• List of school districts in Montana
• Consortium of State School Boards Associations

External links

• Montana School Boards Association official website
• Montana School Boards Association on Facebook
• Montana School Boards Association on X