001good evening just a reminder if you haven't signed in please do so at the back located towards right behind Miss Hodges next on the agenda is public comment public participation is encouraged in the Laurel School District all meetings of the board will be open to the public except provided by law scheduled meetings of the board may be recorded audience members May address the board during public comment for non-agenda interests or during the discussion of the relevant printed agenda item your attendance is welcomed if you plan to speak to the board please look over the information on the agenda then complete the public comment card located at the back of the room where you had signed in in and provide it to myself for superintendent TX to address the school board members please stand come to
002the podium recognize um excuse me identify yourself and briefly State your concern public participation is a right that carries certain responsibilities such as informing oneself in advance of the issues being discussed voluntarily being as brief and germine as possible not unduly repeating remarks or others or you have already made and showing respect at all times for the rights and opinions of others whether citizens board members School District employees or students thank you for your involvement in the Laurel Public Schools do I have anything for non agenda items during public comment okay I'm not seeing anybody race up to the podium so I will move forward through the agenda we do have correspondents uh as what we have seen is our fabulous uh businesses located around Laurel and in Billings have been donating to um our
003school and we are very appreciative of that we have the American Pizza Partners Who provided um some donations to FCCLA in our senior class so thank you very much the Laurel booster club provided to the We the People for their trip to DC coming up here in a couple of months and shields in Billings provided to our Athletics program so we do appreciate them in their donations to to helping our schools in everything that they do moving down through our presentation we do have Shane our owner rep to give us an update on our buildings trustees I'll start off with the West I think everybody had an opportunity last week to hopefully walk through West and see some of the progress and um we're starting finishes um in the addition painting ceilings trim FR mechanic
004electrical Plumbing's going in uh piping and prepping for flooring um we are preparing for this Summer's renovation we do have the mechanical unit replacement in each one of the classrooms uh we have Plumbing upgrades um and lighting replacement um so we're getting that all planned and worked out we're very aggressive this year on doing a bunch of the mechanical units so those have already been checked off bunch of the air handlers so we're in really good shape for this Summer's work um we're currently costing replacing the flooring throughout the building as well as painting all the classrooms that wasn't in the original scope of work we're also going to add the locker removal as a as a pricing component to that as well for potential contingency usage um we're in pretty good shape with our
005budget um and hopefully we'll able to bring that back um to to be able to exercise that contingency to Pi up those items this summer um so at this point our budget's in good shape our schedule we're on schedule um looking good from that perspective we are starting the process for moving teachers from South I know that Bethany's working continually with that I know that Wayne has got a plan that we're trying to get put together to make sure that that move has got some good coordination and and do our best it's still going to be a it's always a hurc in effort to move a bunch of teachers out and get them all in while we're still trying to finish up the school and especially the renovation pieces but it's not like it hasn't
006been done before we just make sure that it happens we got a good team to do that um FF and has been fully bid for both projects we've let contracts um one of the best things from my perspective obviously is we're on budget so I believe we got most of the things that we wanted um that the committee and Bethany and and her group wanted um I believe we've uh we we've got what we wanted for the price that we needed it to come in at so we're in good shape uh mgan finishes is started on the upper floors um painting uh ceilings are starting to go in um continue with mechanic Electrical Plumbing trim out uh kitchen equipment is starting to be put in place all the big mechanical hoods are going in so
007if you have an opportunity to go in and look you'll start seeing our kitchen starting to be fleshed out our gym is being painted um that project used to be on schedule and all the FF for that project was part of that uh bid as well and everything came in on budget so we're in great shape from that perspective we kind of check that one off the list uh South um currently we're in advertisement for public bids for South we'll be bidding it on the 24th uh we have a couple of alterat so depending on the budget we have pressed up against budgets that we had allocated early on in the process but we knew that I've made some adjustments in the budget uh hopefully you know I I believe we're going to be in
008okay shape for you guys to BU able to approve depending on what the alternates come in there's some restroom alterat that we're looking at to be added um in the design so hopefully in March we'll build the award that you guys are a to give us approval to move forward with that project uh we do have some asbest abatement that's going to be going on at the same time as designing and bidding that's going to be part of that project as well um graph graph we're finishing the construction documents are are finished um I have to finalize the friend end specifications with with the A&E team um we'll try to get that probably out for advertisement towards the end of the month or beginning of April um I would like to have it I'm sorry
009March time frame I would like to have it bid and awarded in April one of the board meetings hopefully at the earliest board meeting in April with that we have a number of alternates obviously that you guys requested and some committee committee workshops have we've added additional scopes of work to that project where it was originally um we have all of that incorporated in and we're going to bid each one of those as alternates um and depending on obviously where South hits how we're feeling from a budget perspective that way the the board can start looking at those altern to choose which Al alternates to fund um and by that point should have a pretty good understanding with South being out of the way you know this part of the checklist um to a to
010give you guys some good recommendations on where I think we're at from a budget perspective and you can choose alternates as you as you as you want and speaking of that overall budgets are holding pretty well we had I worked with Julie continually we're staying up to date with that we've done well in some of our interest Investments slugs as I'm sure you guys are fully aware um globally we're in really good shape um the teams continue to perform at a very high level very happy where we're at take any questions anybody have any questions I just have one do you happen to know where we would be able to get in at South like what would the time L be looking like from move in to South I know it's really hard since you're
011just on the bids but any guesstimate um I would say late September early fast as we could some of that's also going to depend on what we find on our asbest design and how much of batement we have to do because that'll we're going to have to give at least a week to two to get the teachers out all that stuff out before we can start any commun baitman baitman might be a a couple of weeks depending on where we what we find um you know so that's stealing a little bit of obviously construction time um feels like it's about a four month project is kind of what Lang and I have landed on so that puts us kind of in that time frame there tonight looking with the uh Wayne is there at South
012tonight with the asbest asbest guy there going through some stuff tonight prefacing that depending on what we obviously find but it would be that would be the soonest I would any other questions for is the only thing I would add is the was it just Donnie and I that were on the tour but any it we toured West chis I just wondering how that switch gear situation is going at West is it on schedule still to be delivered or do we have a time when that's going to get here they say it is um but whether we take that to the bank or not no um I've watched that move eight times so they were at their behalfs do I think it's going to hold us up throughout the summer no we should be able
013to be in a position where we can they should have it in time we can't guarantee anything that that's I think we're in okay shape there they check we check on it constantly every week we talk about this which any other questions from the board public have any questions all righty I'm not seeing any thank you very much for your time moving through our agenda we do have the high school CTE update um we're going to jump ahead because this is the same presentation that we've just continued to build off of is that is that the first one okay so um this is the same presentation that we've been just building off of um for the last year and a half and so just wanted to give an update um we said that we would
014meet with everybody at semester and just talk a little bit about what we've done so far um some things that we've learned and been working on along the way we also have some um a couple of updates on some kind of high-profile goals and targets that we're trying to meet by the end of this year as well as into the future um so we just have a few a few little updates for everybody um one of the big things that we learned last year was that the state accreditation process including us developing a graduate profile what does a graduate at Laurel Public Schools look like and so that's been um part of the work that we've been doing out of our district leadership team our district leadership team broke into four subgroups this year and
015one of the groups is is really focusing in on this component around what does a graduate look like what are those components um and I will let Dr Bon speak to some of the progress on that project aot of respons ADT to0 different types of and St students weren't limited to what was on the list so through the consensus building activity it we did staff in one group and then we us student councel um get for the other group and they they had to sort out first individually what are like the top seven qualities that Dr from and they list or they could come up with new ones and then they had to get into a group and as a group come to a consensus of their top like five to six so there was
016a little bit of for Choice what it did is it kind of gave us an idea of consensus because they had to arrive at this through discussion about what they thought was most important and why and it was really interesting that to see some of the overlap when we brought the staff together um the other part is that the DT has uh the subcommittee developed a survey that's gone out Mr Torx was big part of developing the survey and that's gone out to the Chamber of Commerce and then that same survey is going out to parents at Le level and possibly other levels also to give us a little more feedback more perspective on that and from there we'll pull the what our top pieces are a lot of them circulate around big bubble ideas
017like respons we'll put those for you and bring back at the next the next um so some of the um things that we've been working on this year we had two act conferences that we sent leadership to one of the things that we realized as we started jumping into this work is um you know career in technical education is not my background it's not the background of some of the people trying to lead this work so we felt like educating our leadership to be able to better lead the charge was uh necessary so uh Mr KY from the middle school attended the ACT best practices conference in octob Act was it well they're both from the same organization it's the CTE conference but it's from the association of CTE sorry um so he attended the
018best practices conference which really was around those program pieces and uh instructional pieces around just best practices for Career and Technical education in a school setting um the conference that Dr Bayton and I attended was more around that big Vision piece what does what can CTE instruction look like um and it was a lot more of also the nuts and bolts of Industry Partnerships budgeting um how to create a CTE program from the ground up so it was more of like that big Vision big picture piece so putting those two two pieces together we met as a district secondary leadership team and really talked about you know what we all learned and what we want to see happening in Laurel um so that's kind of that middle section there from our collaboration conversation and one
019of the big things that we landed on was that certifications piece um being able to get students certifications or um program accomplishments here at Laurel High School would be one of our um first pieces that we really want to learn more about Dr Bayon and I actually have some contacts now of different organizations that offer that and so we're looking into some of those pieces another piece that we really talked about is Career Technical education is so big and I think we've said this multiple times as we've talked with this group as well as when we talk with each other that we really need to slow down we can't do you know 15 different things and then not do them well we really want to focus in on like one or two pieces that we
020feel like we can really put our attention to our energy our our learning and really going slow in order to go far and have sustainable programs and pieces that are financially sustainable in the district as well um and the third piece that really came from that conversation was around the district alignment that CTE learning doesn't start at the high school that's where we see a big end yield is at the high school level but talking about careers and what you want to be when you grow up and what opportunities are out there that really starts at kindergarten and actually one of the breakout sessions I attended was building that K12 pipeline um so we're kind of doing a backwards plan design here with our focus at the high school but eventually we want that District
021alignment K12 um so then some of the pieces that kind of filter out of all of those those um learning opportunities as well as the conversations we're having in the in the district is we need to continue to educate leadership around understanding what career pathways are what builds into those those are some conversations that I already have scheduled with the Middle School ad admin team so that we can build better program feeders into the high school classes that we have also really making sure that our leadership team understands teacher certification and courses and the coding that goes along with all of that because in order to offer classes at the high school we have to have it coded certain ways that then indicate that this class connects to this pathway and we also have to
022make sure that we have the appropriate licensure to be able to code those classes appropriately and that's a piece that has taken us a about a year and a half to truly understand all of the nuances around that and so we're going to continue to educate our Middle School leadership team on those pieces so that then again as we're building that District alignment we have all of those pieces in place um and then the last piece is we continue to talk about Staffing as a need that many of the different schools and districts and people that we met through our Leadership Learning they have program coordinators that this is all they do and so we're still kind of figuring out and balancing how do we do this on top of and in addition to in
023tandem with all of the other things that we're trying to do within my department or as a leader of a building um and then also with our teacher capacity I mean we're we're at building and space and people capacity to really continue growing we need more people to be able to continue to grow so those are just continued conversations that we're having that came from a lot of the learning that we did this fall and winter we wanted to be able to this winter give the mcis of we're our our dead is to do it in the fall if we're able to um run beta testing with some earlier late spring um to see how it goes to run it for a whole grade level run that through and collect that data it's a free
024interest inventory thats and at that time we'll take we'll those to see what are the most what are the highest R and compare it with with the data that shows us what our high highand in the area and in the state so we know we're preparing our graduates for whether they want to go to a foror college your college and apprenticeship or straight into so we want to have some opportuni for all ofel we know that it will take probably a team to determine riew some of those overlaps how the things align and then we can use that information to help which of the pathways we want to invest more in and grow more but and which of the pathways we might want to bring back a little bit more as exposure pathways start we
025know that fing after students have taken and that helps have that typ of strategic so that's something that we want to work on I would say late spring summer building out because it something and so then looking at our goals and the timeline that we have for the rest of this year as well as into next year um by the end of this year we're thinking that we could have that piece that Dr bton was just still just talking about um understanding what Pathways we have um and what classes we have that connect to the pathways so we'd like to have that for middle school and high school so that we can say we have a pathway um I think there's like 15 15 different Pathways and of those 15 we have these courses that
026are connected to pathway a these courses are connected to pathway b or we don't have any classes that we're offering in this pathway over here so we hope to have that you know a little bit more mapped out by the end of this year that's we have access to all of that information it's a matter of just sitting it down down and putting together the flowchart that says okay here's the pathway courses offered at the Middle School courses offered at the high school and where are we at um we feel like that along with the mcis data um that can help give us our focus into next year and really looking next year at our three plus concentrators or completer um Pathways as well as then which pathways are our more just entry level interest
027and then with that looking at those certifications getting that mapped out a little bit clearer as far as which classes we have where kids can earn a a certification and we'd really like to add a minimum of two that's our Target for next year two additional certifications that we could offer at um Laurel High School um the the last two the partnership piece and the data collection piece we feel are kind of just ongoing along our timeline um The Graduate profile file of work will stem into continued work and Partnerships with our stakeholders in the community um once that graduate profile is graphically designed and and figured out it doesn't end there that really is your marketing tool to go into businesses and say okay here's what we are striving for is there a a
028connection here with your business or your company that we can um work with you on um and that's going to change as businesses come and go into our community as well as also when we get a a better feeling for what the industry need is within you know Yellowstone County neighboring communities that our kids go into um and then also along with that partnership piece is continuing to build our postsecondary Partnerships with City College um any Junior College opportunities with with neighboring um postc options for kids the data collection we're we're working on that mcis piece um and we still want to continue to look at our data and what data are we looking at and not collecting data again just for the sake of collecting data but having it be purposeful and guide this
029work with uh with Laurel High School as well as with all of our schools and putting in systems and practices that are consistent um because right now it's kind of like well we we did this this year but we didn't do it for four years after that so we want to really build in those sustainable consistent practices with our data collection so and I believe that is it that's it so any questions about our update where we're at just say I like some of the stuff you and it kind of occurred to me like I've always thought of CTE as like trades but it's nice like it was kind of nice to hear that you're thinking about like communication and other leadership sort of soft skill things that are important that frankly a lot of
030high school students don't get so I it's that's a a dimension of it that I had hadn't occurred to me very well so I'm glad you articulated that and then the other thing I liked was the sort of thought of like that vertical integration of talking about careers from the beginning of their school career which I think is going to align well with the way that we've built these new schools to have um dedicated space to steam which you could easily push into those career paths inside that steam education as well so I think at least for the first part of your bonding question we're we're pushing towards an alignment in the lower grades to do that we just got to get the high school caught up that's what occurs to me is that bonding
031needs to occur to help the high school catch up with the technology and the spaces that they'll have in the Elementary District so very good I I appreciate this update it was great very uh thought-provoking thank you J I just like to ask the students what sort of conversations are you hearing in the school about CTE what what needs are you seeing or have you heard anything your two so I'd say that's pretty good obviously the younger kids aren't really free yet seems like this would be able to help set their expectations on what they like and then finding a that usually you'll like have to pay for some type of quiz online to tell you what you should be so I think with skills like these it'll be more helpful I um I've heard
032a little bit just through conversation we this council did some things creating the uh yeah yeah uh but just talking to Dr Bingington Mr skon kind of hurt a little bit um and I guess well I mean there's not a ton um all of our classes kind of help you know you learn skills there's Street law for lawyers welding for trades uh all that kind of stuff but it's good to know that they're working on better things I think it would especially help if you expand this into the middle school to try to get them thinking about careers and then it would also help them take the classes younger uh to see if that's a career that I actually want to go into because the classes that you're going to take based off the CT
033CT program would kind of show you what um the career is like so if you start them out younger you can kind of tell if you like the career or not and then make a decision from there one of the things that we heard a lot at the conference The Vision conference was that it should feel like a natural part of your entire organization it shouldn't feel like o is this separate thing on the side that we're going to sit and have a conversation about C and right now I think here it feels a little bit like that where we're really trying to work it back into it should be embedded in all of our conversations we're doing a science lesson why why is this information necessary what careers use this type of information I
034mean that should just be embedded into all of our content areas so that's one of the things that we've had a lot of conversation about is it it should not be a standalone off to the side one off thing it should be a part of who we are a good point was brought up about sometimes we P what we think is really our bus department and our FCCLA FCS a lot of dep um as reference different departments uh we could run a data analytics certification certific that runs through computer programs cost a teacher training cost but you can run data analytics through a science classro they do data analis cont emphasizing more communication maybe to English applied mathematic and more help us perhaps through our science but in all of those areas we can draw
035in career and technal education so that students are at least getting experience because you might think you really want to go do this thing till you go to college a year exposure uh I just wanted to add uh you brought up just having it kind of mixed in with all of our conversations and it feels a little bit separate here on the board it's not something we talk about a lot but I think it's worth mentioning it does actually happen uh a little bit more than I think some people might think um I really have noticed it in our classrooms a lot of teachers are really good about we're learning this this is why we're learning it and this is where you can use it um I remember like history last year every day it
036would be uh this is why we need to do this and this is where you can use it um um science my freshman year um Miss kellinger is really good about saying why we should use it and uh where would be used um but further uh just not even in our school but we have a some like ctsos um which are like I don't even know what the acronym stands for student organiz yeah um but like BPA uh FFA FCCLA um and we offer those at our school I'm me and Michael are both part of our BPA chapter and those are also really helpful we've learned a lot um so yeah I know Renee Rene is judges for BPA com that's questions from public audience we do appreciate you on the continued update and continuing
037to try to find things that would better our students so thank you very much thank you okay moving through our agenda I have down to the consent agenda do I have a motion I make a motion to approve the consent agenda motion to approve by Renee do I have a second second seconded by Chris comments questions from the board Julie Board of board of public education I'll amend my motion to approve the consent agenda with the change to the January 27th um minutes to change OPI to Board of Public it I would second that Julie thank you Renee for that update any comments comments questions from the board comments questions from public audience not hearing or seeing any for the consent agenda I do have a motion to approve with those changes for the January
03827th board meeting minutes and a second by Chris all in favor say I I I I'll oppose say nay motion carries moving through our agenda with that being said we do have a new staff member that you guys hired we and I see they're here tonight so we want to at least recognize them so I have uh in front of me our little bio that written To Us by our HR dep department and Mrs Peggy Pollock So yeah thank you go ahead and stand there you go so I'd like to introduce to everybody miss Selena Smith our new special education Aid at the middle school and possibly the most well-traveled person in our in our district she live has lived in 40 out of states right only wanted in three of them though so that's
039good thank you that's good baby um at this point she's basically a human roadmap if you need directions a travel tip or a fun fact about Nebraska just she's your person uh when she's not collecting new addresses she's collecting raggedy an and and dolls which is both charming and honestly slightly terrifying especially if you walk into that room at night I suppose uh so welcome Selena we're just glad Montana made the cut as number 40 so thank you for being here a thank you thanks thank you it's nice to meet you guys okay moving through our agenda on down to our action items um I have January 27th close session um minutes do I have a motion motion to approve the minutes from the Clos session January 27th 20125 motion to approve by Chris do
040I have a second I'll second seconded by Jenny yes ma'am because I was not at that meeting do I not vote that is a very good question interesting I'm gonna probably have to say my initial gut says no but she's at this meeting why do you ask hard questions and then make me make I don't think it's to illegal for to vote just you weren't at something the meeting before and yeah that's true doesn't come up think my initial says no but you can abstain okay will you please mark that she's going to abstain thank you since she was absent during that Al righty I do have a motion on the table by Chris second by Jenny Donnie has abstained do I have any comments questions from the board comments questions from public audience okay
041not hearing or seeing any item for January 27th of 2025 Clos session many minutes motion to approve by Chris seconded by Jenny all in favor say I I post say nay we already have Donnie for abstaining motion carries action item B for the baseball sublease do I have a motion I make a motion to approve the suble agreement with the Laurel Dodgers go ahead and second that any comments questions from the board no comments questions um this if we get to the point where we do of course approve this this still has to go to City Council as well so just know that we're approving it it still has to go to them they have to approve it um we are coming down to the wire is I believe baseball is hopefully going to be
042starting up soon um so just everybody know that as well any comments questions from public audience okay not hearing or seeing any I do have a action items for baseball suble motion to approve by Renee seconded by myself all in favor say I I I all oppose say nay motion carries action item C for M con's lease this has just been an update um because we still have currently one right now but this would be allowing us to extend do I have a motion I move to approve the extension of lease to Mo cones for the agreement in the minute or note approved by Chris do I have a second second you should for as many times as you wind that was kind of emphatic seconded by Kayla we comments questions from the board I
043was just saying that because last time we talked about it she was telling everybody how often she went so do I have any comments questions from public audience okay not hearing or seeing any action item C for mone's lease motion to approve by Chris seconded by Kayla all in favor say I I I I'll oppose say nay motion carries action item D for the policy Updates this would be the second reading for both one and two do I have a motion I'll move to approve second reading of policy 3510 P1 and 3608 approv by Donnie do I have a second second by Jenny comments questions from the board not seeing any comments questions from public audience righty action item D for our policy update second reading for one and two motion to approve by Donnie
044seconded by Jenny all in favor say I I all oppos say nay motion carries action item e for graph books for the graph donor's Choice books do I have a motion I make a motion to approve the graph donor's choose book by Renee do I have a second choose Choice I'll second seconded by Jenny do I have a comment question from the board comments questions from public audience very quiet tonight very quiet Al righty action item e for graph books for um motion to approve by Renee seconded by Jenny all in favor say I I all oppose say nay motion carries action item f for the LMS books do I have a motion i' motion to approve the LMS or books motion to approve by Chris do I have a second hi Kayla you're okay
045okay motion to um approve by Chris second by Kayla do I have a comment question from the board not hearing comment question from public audience all righty action item f for Elma books motion to approve by Chris seconded by Kayla all in favor say I I oos say nay motion carries action item G I do have um a request for some items to be removed off of this order for uh the high school books I have dig painted Devils pully Terrors drop of Venom and skins that IBI zobe zobe to be removed so if somebody's going to make that motion please I'm yes dig painted Devils Holy Terrors drop of Venom and skins is it IBI LBI Zia zbi is that just the author okay skins then with did you get off okay yes one
046two three four five so whoever is going to make that motion I move to approve the book list with the exception of the five listed by or chair motion to approve appr by Jenny second comments questions from the board comments questions from public audience Mrs Hodes please come to the podium Hodes High School librarian just do we get a why I mean I guess I was we've asked this before is there um I believe from what I was informed that they did not match our policy in regards to let me pull it up please bear with me let me let me pull it off my phone it's easier for me to instantly pull up my email that um sexual [Music] content um that would be for painted Devils Holy Terrors and skins is not published
047yet so kind of hard to approve something when we don't even know what the content is on it so um they're not released fe uh skins is not um published or released until February 11th Holy Terrors is not will not be released until April 1st they can certainly come back if we can get to them after that was my next question I mean if we know what they are but right now we don't know what they even are so I'm not saying that we couldn't but once we find out what they are after being published then I'll need to be back on the list for review um a drop of Venom is heavily on sexual content rape violence Gore um and so that also does not follow on our policy as well and then Diggs
048in regards to reinforcing the critical race Theory as well find that information we Google thank you okay so I asked the board I asked public any other comments questions from public audience okay I have an action item for G the high school books SEC uh excuse me made motion from Jenny and seconded by Renee with removal of the five that I have listed all in favor say I I I all oppose say nay okay motion carries action item 8 H for the TR6 bus route reimbursement do I have a motion I'll move to approve the TR6 for Buzz route reimbursement claim first semester johnie for approval motion to approve second comments questions from the board comments questions from public audience not hearing any or seeing any action item H for the TR6 bus route reimbursement
049approved by Donnie seconded by Renee all in favor say I I I all oppose say nay motion carries going through our informational items um as always I do appreciate you guys taking the time I know it's busy especially coming in after the holidays and there's ton of things going on so please um know that we do appreciate your reports that goes to our department heads and to our um admins at their schools I'll go down if I uh excuse me if you need me to stop because you want to make a comment let me know if not I will just be going through the list Department information or Department reports activities Chris I just have one question where did um speech and debate place I it wasn't on here where' you guys Place fourth our
050drama team took first for the fifth year in a row which is pretty cool um we had one kid take state champion in both events he was signed up for which was pretty cool um and we got to do a little parade last week that was pretty fun to do so yeah we we didn't do too bad so we we did also have 18 spots open on our speech team and we still took fourth so that's what I was going to say because it's kind of like wrestling right it's like a numbers game a little bit yeah if you don't if you're short if you're short players of those events are fairly sparse populated by other schools as well and it's like a lot like track can yeah if there's not many kids running that
051two mile you can get a kid in there that's fit that's still points for the team always a good thing yeah you guys will have to get out some recruitment on that that's pretty awesome before with that many spots empty so that was awesome have you guys come in uh anything else on activities okay curriculum yes ma'am just wanted to give an update on some of the new curriculum that's coming through it's mentioned in my board report um so we have two brand new programs that we would be looking for board adoption that uh the notice went to the paper it should show up in Thursday's paper for the next two weeks for anyone who wants to come and review those uh one is for grades 5 through 8 it's a new science program for
052middle school and for fifth grade it's from a company called twig and so that material is in my office for anyone who wants to come look at it and observe it and make comment um the other one is for high school environmental science um we have the uh a sample of the teacher manual in my office as well for the environmental science um there is one computer science resource that's more of a supplementary resource that we're looking at that is new to the district but it is going to be at the middle school it is a virtual component to help the computer teacher use the SPO ball that we did some fundraising probably oh I don't know like six or seven years ago to purchase the spal balls so it's a a supplemental piece for
053coding that program also has some financial literacy elements in it that we really like so that we can start getting some of that financial literacy language and and knowledge in at the middle school as well so um that one is just a supplemental piece that we're bringing in that's new to the district that will be at the middle school but the other two are new adoptions that will probably come to you the first of next month to give us time to do that two week posting with the paper but just wanted to let you all know that um presented all of the information the budget and all of that to learning and Leadership last week and then just wanted to give you an update so you all know that it's it's there come on down
054take a look thank you thank you for updating us too yes I just circle back to activities to because football or uh wrestling did great too I just wanted to say we're not on activities anymore Chris I know I just I want to Circle back we're on curriculum curriculum science yeah yeah sorry your time is up thank you okay thank you Charlotte curriculum facilities I'm sorry Rene are we going backwards now know I know that Wayne isn't here tonight um but I just want to give a shout out to the maintenance staff for the snow removal it's been a battle the three maintenance staff that so I mean it's been a battle for everyone and this is a lot of sidewalk and parking lot to take care of and they've really done a great job
055we've seen them out there at the we hours of the morning with us and it's they're doing a good job you have something C I also want to give a shout out to Mr Tuson is it still guy oh Wayne way yeah your your activities you're fine we already talked about you you're fine unless you just to thank Wayne for getting a light over these stairs I had mentioned it last two weeks ago and it's there tonight so thank you very much Wayne thank you anybody else on facilities before I move forward let's go back I know no see everybody's kind of livened up a little bit now it's nice to see okay Food Services technology I do want to give a a shout out to Devin um Shane when we were meeting with him
056just to kind of go over updates on our buildings mentioned that he has never seen a more sophisticated more knowledgeable Tech director than de so I believe that was a very high compliment yep I got you there you go Devon way in the back uh Transportation I was gonna say I just I'm just G to gra him a little about I'm sure you'll come back from that conference about AI with more things to terrify us on yeah probably he says the transportation uhhuh yeah well Transportation has been uh running pretty Fier with the snow and the cold too so Zeta thank you until your your drivers we do appreciate them honestly nice to see we got one bus it's only been two years it's only been two years gets HR director student services and nursing
057um May mention that they didn't have anything new so they moved Theirs to the next uh April 28th for should should no that should be February February along with the missing superintendent yeah uh Financial reports thank you Julie we're going to go down through those for Treasures cash summary cash report revenue report expenditure report high school and middle school activities Bond expenses and Union yes ma'am this time representing the union um just a question as to why I had emailed you that and didn't get a response for the union list on the I did respond lau and I told you the board has asked for it to be on report I why but I didn't get an answer it's for the CBA yes it is October for Chang that's your um interpretation and the board
058is interpreting it differently principal reports thank you very much principles for your reports as well going through South West graph which we are missing and I apologize for that know one's been kind of busy over there middle and high school yes ma'am didn't come I think I saw that though I saw it somewhere social media okay which thank you for that as well that's very nice it keeps me up to date as a trustee uh committee meetings we have our January 9th Capital planning meeting January 16th leadership and learning yes ma'am my question has nothing to do with that particular meeting but I was just wondering if the committee had ever direct addressed the policy notes from mtsba from November 26 I will look I don't remember ever getting I forward those on on it
059thank you thank you Donnie for those notes on that up January 20th uh for District Operations superintendent report will also come to us on February 28th uh resignation reports job vacancies okay mtsba leison report Johnny did you want to touch base yeah I do want to mention a couple things um on the report that I provided a lot of those are live links hopefully that makes a little easier for you if there is something there that you're interested in um pursuing um I do want to bring attention to the called actions that are coming from School Board Association you may not agree with the direction School Board Association is taking and that's important too so I just want to encourage you that when those calls come out that you make yourself familiar with What legislation
060is being acted on and that you put your yay or nay out there um the legislators do respond I uh put out several of them last week and got responds and been back and forth back and forth back and forth but they do listen to us and we keep will get greef and so I just want to encourage everybody to participate because it's not all just funding that goes through the legislature there's all kinds of stuff that it'ss our world and you work Yellowstone County elections yellow yes oh um so are they asking us to approve a separate time timeline is that what that is asking of us Julie no not really they're just making us want to be aware of the timelines and how they are and make sure we follow those you know
061get our stuff to them as fast as we can you know and not you know so not wait till the very last moment right because it's just so hard for them with the printing and stuff to get everything together so we will be next month you know we'll be doing some U ballot language and get that to them right away we've already discussed what we're doing for ballot language so it should be pretty easy straightforward um but I believe that's what they're asking for is that they just want us to make sure so have they made a request for the certification bot to happen earlier because that date that's in that April 4th date is the last day and I know the predecessor to the current election administrator he always called ask us to have
062them done five or six days earlier than that that was never a problem countywide so I just wondered if she had tried that and maybe you could suggest that she can call earlier yeah I think you know Ginger's really on top of it she's doing a really good job um I really like her um and um yeah if she calls for it I guess we just make sure we get our stuff out there you know our last day for you the apply for uh trustee is March 27th and we've got several positions up we've got got a one year we've got a two-year and two three-year positions so we got and So the faster you get me that information because March 27th you know was that deadline and then you get your name on the
063B so then that was ystone County elections and then ystone County elections timeline there's two specific ones there and the high school library book just feel like we just did this are we no this is an additional book list future discussion items do I have any from the trustees did I miss anything ask student have you talked about getting together material for the lab yes we did um we have a couple I wouldn't say scripts but a couple different things we've written down that we would want to go over um for coming up with dates we'd be available to record at the high school simply because we don't want to disrupt any classroom time um so whether that's a day students don't have school but the school is still open or uh that kind of
064thing like PR P days or anything where we can go in without disturbing other classrooms so come over and talk and we can make sure the information you have I got some stuff for you too Y and that was the next thing that we were kind of worried about is well not really worried about but we wanted to do before we started making the videos was get in contact with you guys and see what you guys want us to say make sure everything's right got I got all the data and stuff that would suck if we started telling them things that weren't true so ideas and then content and verif Y perfect thank you very much anything else um so uh I know that during our last session we had talked about we are hoping
065to bring um superintendent contract up at the next meeting so that is being reviewed um by a committee just to kind of make sure that what is being discussed comes to the board with much deliberation on that anything else am I missing okay if not we have um truste candidate interviews we do have two that have put in interests to sit on the Laural school board if accepted tonight with a potential action item that I do have down there we'd like to possibly move them up to the front piggy thank you very much appreciate that ladies is her and miss Anderson if you'd like to come up we'll put you front and center yes in the hot seat well we're in the hot seat up here all the time so Deja Vu we're on the
066other side this time all righty so miss Anderson I know you were here before and kind of um saw how we did it but what what we're going to do is each one of us will ask you a question you'll each get an answer that question from that trustee might be some discussion in regards to that I do have a potential action item if the board chooses to want to make a motion tonight to place one of you in that vacant um position we can certainly do that if they choose not to then we'll have to decide on timeline as to when we can get that taken care of okay if the board does make a motion to approve that um you will not be swor in at tonight's meeting we will have everything taken
067care of in the next two weeks before the next meeting occurs and then we'll have you swor in at that okay all righty so Chris we'll have you start well first thank you for both having an interest um it kind of again both of you again in serving the district um so thank you for that I think uh there's a lot of questions so I'll uh I'll leave a different question for I'm sure everyone like why do you want to do it but um I would ask what do you feel like sort of having observed this board what do you think is um working well and what would you work to improve um either on the board or on the district level well overall I feel feel like the board is very healthy and with
068my experience I've seen all kinds of boards um either as a teacher or a principal and um so that's my interest is drawn to something that I think is working well that I would like to be a part of um and I see a lot of exciting things going on around the district um I had a few extra minutes before the meeting so I had to drive by Mogan wow that is a very different look to that new school building but um so anyway you know what I would like to bring to the board if considered is um just the communication piece and the relationship to have it be healthy um at all levels and um and I think there's always room for improvement I mean I found that when I worked in education so
069um did I answer was that second part A Fault to find there's not really a fault but um just I feel like there are so many changes going on in education and I retired in 2020 and when I talk with people that I worked with prior oh you're so lucky you're not doing this you know I I know the challenges are really out there for people and um we just got to really strongly pull together because um there's a lot of give when you go into this profession so the reward is in the affirmation of just doing something and not you know not having expectation in terms of money for one but you know there are a lot of challenges yeah we'll have Cathy answer now too please so I asked uh what do you
070feel like at the board level or at the district level is going well and what do you feel is a thing that you could Pro you could contribute to improving either at the board level or at thect okay uh I retired from the board six years ago I believe that when I was on the board we we laid the foundation for the new schools that are being built we had a lot of community action and uh events getting input from the community and this board has taken it to the next level so we're seeing the actual schools being built and by the Fall we will see the students in those schools and that's exciting the thing that I believe I can bring to this board at this point is I just consider it um like
071a substitute teacher been here done that um for the short period of time until May till the election to fill in it's like a substitute teacher where I wouldn't need too much coach in as to what needs to be done I just had one follow up to her response this one but was it your intention and I guess the intention would be both of you would you do you intend to run in May or or would it be like a substitute as you suggest would intend to run also you good okay Donnie so public education is um I wouldn't really say ENC but definitely evolving and we are seeing more and more charter schools and home schooling and a lot of ways in which we are losing what I would like to call our students
072because I feel public education they should all be coming to us can you give me a little bit of your perspective on that whole scenario and what the district might do to home well I guess I just think about when I was in the building with a kid and I think um the best way to bring them home is to do the pieces that help them feel at home and you know there are some kids that come to school and they're looking to learn because they've been loved at home then there are some kids that come to school and they're looking for love because that maybe isn't at home and um it's challeng is individual so I do think you have to get creative I think it's a little bit of a a cell in
073terms of um the voice that gets out there in the community and um extracurricular is a big seller for the district so kids that like those Avenues are our successful and being a part of them that keeps them in the school I think um it's very challenging and I've been out a few years and I've been told that you know the effects of Co and I know what that did because I was here when Co kicked in and um you know there's not only catchup going on but there are just a lot of broken pieces so I I feel like the mental health piece and the relationship piece the belonging piece those are the pieces that the stronger they are in the building settings the more we're going to sell and there are a lot
074of I remember being a part of West and I miss a lot of those celebrations that we did so it's not that I don't think they're happening it's just that they just have to continue to have so don't take me she as far as education goes I have taught in the public schools I have taught in private schools I have homeschooled um I believe that educating the individual development each student every day without exception to get back to the basics that our students need to know how to read write and do arithmetic and Science in a leadup I'm excited uh I was excited when I was on the board for CTE um more emphasis put on on trades and individual development toward a particular gifting that a person has rather than one size fits all
075and everybody's supposed to go to college not everybody's supposed to go to college but if we focus on Basics and I'm a great proponent for getting back to cursive and that was one thing that I really asked for um when I was on the board and anyway we won't go into that but that's just where I stand on education here Kathy just keep that just you just hold on to that okay we'll let you go first this time so my question is is that I've seen over the years that I've been on the board and each one of these board members they come with a strength and a passion which is why they been drawn to be a board member you know you have some in the finance world of passion and strength some in
076the dotting their eyes and crossing their teas on stuff what would be your strength and your passion sitting on as a board member to help pretty much to help rise this board to be balanced across for everything probably my strength and passion is I've lived in Laurel for 50 years I have um a granddaughter and great grandson in school now um what happens at the local level makes a big difference and if policies change from Washington DC to the local level major things will have to be done at this table and um having prior experience and um just realizing how important every individual is here young people going off to wherever you feel led you know what's your gifting where are you going and the reason each one of you has gotten on the board
077when I first got on the board like Why Not Me It's A Hard position to fill and with all the vacancies coming up or the positions rather than vacancies it'll be interesting to see who steps up to um put their name on the ballot I don't know if that answers your question so I think what I would bring to the board um I think of all the things that are necessary attendance um reading the material um being prepared to vote all those things are important but I think my passion lies more with the climate and the culture and I will tell you when I was looking over um before coming tonight the different reports and things that were posted um our finances are critical I get that and Don knows that um but I actually
078enjoyed the four building reports that were there to read and the pictures and I especially like pictures in combination with things like attendance discipline academic achievement um because to me I know what that's like on a day-to-day basis very busy and I just really admire all the energies from teachers to make those things happen um another thing that I can add to being a a board member is fact that I am semi-retired and I can go to the different buildings and talk to people and observe what's going on and I've had a lot of feedback since I retired from the board saying the only person who really took that kind of time now it probably has changed but that I think getting in touch with the administrators the custodians the whoevers um they like that
079one-on-one because I guess we represent them just like our legislators in Helena do for us that's the nice thing about this board is that pretty much each one of us either has children's in a specific building or have been in a building or have been in administration and stuff so that's the nice thing about I think so that would be added well I guess you kind of addressed my question is that I mean these agendas we meet every two weeks there's a lot to look over do you have the time to dedicate to the position and we are a pretty good board I think we're pretty healthy but part of that is bringing questions having discussion like speaking your mind when you have um you know a concern so um can you speak to your
080availability you kind of said your dedication and then Chris also stole my thunder I was going to ask you if you were interested in running for election in May to to be in an official board seat today I I realize all that's in entailed in being on the board and the reading the uh uh where you go to Convention and trainings mtsb and so yeah I'm you know all I've lost a lot of sleep over a lot of issues too it's not an easy job I guess for my time and I've really thought about this um when I retired I became a caretaker for a few years and the last year I haven't had that responsibility and so I am looking for ways to keep busy the job really kept me busy and then you
081know I had a few really good years with my mom and um um my husband and I are empty nesters we do have grandkids and we do like to visit them because they're not local but um if you know if I'm considered for the board I will be in attendance and um that's a big e for me so um yeah I I thought about it and I'm available I guess the one question about that is um because I know there are multiple openings and so if you guys do go ahead and fill a position to the the end if I ran um that would be the one I would run for I mean my motive here is not to replace current board members that still want to be on it and so I just that's
082my angle so decisions that are made as a board that One Voice May disagree with how what is your perspective on those kinds of decisions where your one voice may not be validated by the board decision well my position on that would be when you make a board decision you support it even if it wasn't the way that you wanted it to go I'm a strong believer in that because you're part of a board team with a decision and the other thing um is that board members should not micromanage and that's another reason why I feel this board is healthy and that would not be anything when I talk about wanting to be a part of climate and culture and well-being it's not that it's just being part of moving the district forward in the
083Peace of being a board member um I also agree with unity on the board but only if all of the uh reasonings have been presented from each board and they are weighed carefully then to come to a general consensus that this is the way we go or this is the way we go but each person needs to be heard um since all the other questions have been asked um we're coming up on a big ly conversation and working towards that what could you bring to the board and the community to help that the levies are always very very interesting interesting because they seem to fall opposite of the city council's asking for money School asks for money um I have questions about some of the monies that the school district has received and if I
084get those questions answered then I can support a levy but most often um they seem to come at in opportune times um well with regard to levies they're critical because I think their maintenance of what we're doing um and you have to pay your people you have to have materials for your kids you have to keep your buildings warm um I just when I've been involved in the levy process we weren't asking for extra we were just really asking um you know to keep things going and to keep them going well and to give small raises if that was a part of um you know Contracting and so I've always really been a strong supporter of levies because I feel like the district has a process in place where you go through to establish what
085that would be um you know with the bond I was so excited when it passed and now we see some really cool things because of it the the bonds kind it was kind of an extra thing but it was definitely needed and um so I for levies I just feel and I will be happy to be a voice to be out there chamber you know wherever like the people of the group would decide that they would want me to be I think the conversation really needs to happen and we have to sell when it comes to levies because we're dependent on them I major Cuts always happen when we don't get them and that's one other thing when it comes to Levy and communication with the community that's where the boond doggle comes in because
086not everyone's on social media not everyone gets the Outlook not everyone listens to radio or TV and so that I really like the cups in the but we don't even have the fence at the pool anymore to put the cups in you know which promoted certain things but that communication piece is always um tricky would you mind if we asked a question as well I think it's each individual do you want to go first or do you want me to go first so I was just thinking about this from your previous resp responses so you tell us that everyone is an individual and then you tell us that everyone deserves to be loved and so my question is how important is inclusivity to you whether that's race ethnicity gender sexual orientation religion ex Inus is
087inclusivity inclusivity everyone is an individual everyone deserves love everyone needs to figure out who they are their identity and often so many things in society might point us one way but we need leadership and strong personalities in education to open doors to um reveal truth to individuals so that young people have a choice and and like the CTE uh you might think you want to go into education but you're really better in journalism or whatever so there's all these options does that answer your question well I think the mission statement speaks for itself and I mean my practice always was every kid so um and I kind of had a heart for the underdog so you know I it doesn't matter whether you're a boy or a girl what your race is um what your
088skills are what your athleticism is I believe take them all we teach them all we want them all because we are trying to remain competitive and have good numbers for these new schools that we've built so so we're the student representatives to the board so um I just want to know what your guys's opinion on this is is what do you think the biggest challenges that students are facing currently and how will you address them you know I think and my background is with Elementary more so um but I've had kids grow up and I think that the challenges are we live in a very busy world there's a lot of stuff that goes on kids come from a variety of backgrounds and um the challenges that come to the classroom at um like the
089K4 level you know a teacher gets a group of kids and they become a family unit and they can experience that you're together as a family and there's lots of different ways the teacher gets to go with that group I think as kids get older they need opportunities that meet their passions um so the extracurricular is really critical and of course you have to have the grades if you want to participate but you know respecting Authority and discipline are a part of life and we want to we want to build good citizens because they're going to be the generation that takes care of us so to speak so okay so H respond oh sorry you were first I'm I'm still mixed up would you state your question again yeah so um what do you think
090is the biggest challenge that is facing students currently and how would you address them I think the biggest challenge facing students and probably people of every age is who am I and why am I here what are I I supposed to be doing with my life and discipline love um leadership Community Athletics um social skills all of those things play into it and and so many students come from such varied backgrounds in today's society we don't have family as a whole like we used to and so students like Kelly said come to school some of them have love at home and they're fine when they get to school and other students come looking for that love and acceptance because it's not at home so that would now now um so as Educators you taught private
091public homeschool and you were our principle um um I first graduated last year so this is exciting for me to see what you little guys turn into um so you both spoke a lot on individuality um and inclusivity um but as board members um what do you really bring to each individual student and how can you help develop them every day without exception well I think the role of the board is the policy we are you know we oversee the policy and there were some readings today in the meeting and those policies I think are designed to protect the students and you know to achieve the mission so I think you know that doesn't mean that we won't be out and about there cheering you on or judging at your um events or you know
092because it's always fun to celebrate wins that's for sure um but I think in terms of the purpose of being a trustee for the district is to make sure that the pieces are there um for the kids the students to be successful and to go on from here and do exciting things so I really appreciate on social media the little website from the school saying this is what's happening in Laural schools today and giving a shout out or a kudos for all the activities that go on and so as as part of the board just to get behind that and and probably find more ways to do high fives other than a star on a chart like we used to put years ago I guess I just want to say that we have two great
093candidates in front of us with with tons of experience that we can draw from I don't think we can make a wrong decision with this choice I mean these are both very good candidates um I'm I'm leaning towards towards Kelly at this time same here I Echo what Jenny said I appreciate you both in your experience I think that the board would benefit from either one of you um I do find uh relevance in Kelly's recent Elementary education experience um we have some high school background and experience in Kayla which I've appreciated some of that um from the high school teachers perspective it's been wonderful um I think uh it would be nice to have another educator with that and you have some uh administrative School level administrative experience that's recent and relevant to the
094district and so for that reason I would also um lead towards Kelly also tough decisions is always hard um but I do think I heard a commitment to run for positions whichever one doesn't make it could run for a position too um Kathy was on the board when I was hired by the district so I'm very grateful to her for all the guidance and and uh learning that I gained from her commitment to the board so I know she's a committed trustee Kelly was an administrator while I was working for the district so I also know where she comes from as an administrator and um how she operates and what she could bring to the board we also during during my tenure with the district had a retired administrator on the board and that was
095pretty darn invaluable to to the board and provided a lot of perspective and insight so I I think I need to Le towards Kelly also thank you both for um submitting your letters of interest and um coming and doing this for the second time and you returning to want to be on the board because it is hard um I think that you both would be great um trustees on this board um but I guess I I would probably lean towards Kelly just um like Donnie said I think that the that administrator um perspective um and experience would be full to us um thank you both for coming tonight as well it feels silly I just met Kelly not that long ago doing the same thing so it feels silly to ask you a question ask
096a question um so I appreciate you being here and sympathize with you as well um but I think I would lean toward Kelly as well just your fairly recent experience um as an administrator is it's really to add toward what we have I think all of us have different strengths and bring different be I similarities where you a lot of the similarities where you guys have come from from your past from being on the board to ad admin as well um and again I that's what I was trying to get at is strength and and passion this board serves so well together and we all have a different strength that which is why I believe we are so healthy but it would be nice to add that extra admin support inside as well because I
097do know that we have several administrators that we want to make sure that we are encouraging or that are we supporting and are we doing what's best because we don't know what they go through on a day-to-day basis so um I too would probably be leaning more towards you as well Kelly just for that insightfulness um to help our our district move forward so at this time I'm kind of feeling definitely a leaning does anybody want to make a motion they do have a potential action item on the table you want I would make a motion to uh Point Kelly Anderson to fill the vacant trustee position to appoint Kelly Anderson second if you both have any comments or questions to us have a motion well I to share that I Wasing both with you
098in the last year and I had an interview 14 years [Laughter] tired you know it it puts it in perspective but aathy and I she was on the board and I was an administrator and um yeah she needs to run too she's another good candidate to consider so it's nice when you have more than you have plot because the board hasn't always been in that position so yeah and I'm very appreciative of the opportunity for a couple months we comments questions from the public audience since we do have a motion on table thank you for letting for having this discussion it's healthy it's good to have choices and congratulations Kelly you're going to do a great job Mo on the table from Chris seconded by Jenny to appoint Kelly Anderson on the board all in
099favor say I I I all oppose say nay motion carries I do appreciate the both of you um again we won't be of course doing anything in tonight's meeting but we will be in contact with you Kathy I hope that you do put in your your uh name in the P for coming down in May for one of the trustees positions yes March 27th is deadline is deadline yes thank you very much thank you very much okay before everybody gets up um I'm going to read through um our executive session um next and then I will of course close the meeting so I as the presiding officer of the meeting May close this meeting during the time the discussion relev relates to a matter of individual privacy in the MCA Antiquated for the 2-3 d203
100that if this determines that demands of individual privacy clearly exceed the merits of public disclosure I do have the right of the individual privacy may be waved by the individual about whom the discussion pertains to but in the event I will close this next session so you more than welcome to um stick around after we open or you can go home bundle up and stay warm