001Next. >> As required by Montana law, members of the community are given an opportunity to make brief comments to the board on any matters not included in the agenda. Individuals wishing to be heard shall first be recognized by the chair. Individuals after identifying themselves will proceed to make brief comments. The board would like to remind everyone that to avoid violations of individual rights of privacy, a member of the public wishing to address the board will not be allowed to make comments about any student, staff member, or member of the general public. No action may be taken on any matter discussed during the public comment portion of the meeting until such time as the matter is specifically noticed on an agenda and the public has been allowed the opportunity to comment. We have any public comment
002on a non-aggenda item going once? Seeing none, we will begin with with our evening's program with the student staff recognition or excuse me, is that right? Yes, student staff recognition. That's no problem. I am the communication specialist at Belgrade School District. And so tonight we have four different student and staff recognitions. So let's go through all four of them. And then if anybody's being recognized, if you wouldn't mind staying and then we'll get photos with you afterward. So, the very first one, we'd like to welcome Ethan Belcock and his family to our meeting. Ethan was recently named a commended student in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program. This makes Ethan one of the top students in the entire nation, recognized for their exceptional academic promise. So, tonight we want to give Ethan a certificate to
003recognize his accomplishment and encourage him to keep up the fantastic work. All right. So, the next one is a little bit weighty here. We've got kind of a four in one. So, not only are we doing student and staff, but we're going to recognize some amazing community members. Uh we're so fortunate to have the very generous support of our Amazon facility as it relates to our schools tonight. So, uh, we have one member here representing four tonight to receive this recognition. Um, these four individuals partnered together to donate nearly 100 backpacks and a whole bunch of other school supplies to Ridge View Elementary. So, they have been doing a great job and we're excited to give them each a certificate. And Tevin, if you wouldn't mind coming up and recognizing that. Thank you so much.
004Appreciate it. All right, I'm very excited about the next one. Courtney, if you wanted to know that you're next up. We're always super proud of the work that the teachers do every day. And every so often, we get to stand up here and recognize one for even more outstanding work than the day-to-day work. So, that's definitely the case tonight. And we're here to recognize Courtney Duma for being named the 2026 Montana Teacher of the Year Award. Fantastic award. Lots of work on her part as a result before and after. Right. Yes. Exactly. So, we recognize that your hard work, tenacity, skill, and heart always goes into went into this honor and we notice it. It doesn't go unnoticed. And so, we're so grateful to be here tonight to celebrate this accomplishment with you. And we
005would love to give you this certificate of achievement. Courtney, do you want to talk a little bit about next steps? >> Oh boy, I got a little bit of that today. I was very fortunate today to have the 2025 teacher of the year. She lives up um she's in from from Powers and she drove down to visit me today and kind of gave me a little bit of the next steps of what I'll be uh going into this next year. My tenure starts January 1st. Um and basically I become a spokesperson for educators for Montana, which means I'll be gone a lot come to find out. Um so I'll be doing quite a bit of traveling this next year. Um so there's gonna be a lot of subs. So Carrie, you and I are going
006to have to talk at some point cuz they'll reimburse all of it for my subs and stuff. So it won't cost us anything for them to send me all the places they're going to decide to send me. So basically, I'll be doing a lot of virtual conferences. I'll be kind of developing my platform and speaking with legislators, people just all over the place. So, this got really big really fast, but I'm really excited that I get to represent educators, not only for the state, but definitely a big one for us here in Belgrade because I'm definitely excited to put us on the map with a big gold star. So, yeah. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> All right. And finally, I want to welcome RNR Taylor Construction to our meeting tonight. Uh they are proud
007partner of Belgrade High's Panther Trades program and tonight they're here very special to share an award that they have received with a teacher whose dedication, skill, and commitment to his students and the trades has definitely had a lasting impact. Welcome them up here as they want to recognize Randy Nike. So just a little bit about this. Uh the Montana Contractors Association yearly has uh yearly awards that they give out and we had submitted on uh for the MCA education foundation award and with our partnering work that we do with Panther Trades and we were awarded this. So, we wanted to pass this along to Randy was for his uh pursuing us and helping us get this thing going that uh we have a great program that's continuing to get youth out into the construction industry
008and other trades as we see them go into uh mechanics and uh just through CTE meetings we had. There's lots of other avenues for these kids to go. So, it's a very cool program. We're very proud to be a part of it. So, yes. Steve and Dei, would you mind joining us for some photos? All right, let's move on to the next item on our agenda, which is the leader boards. Begin with the superintendent. >> Um, thank you. Yes, we would like to thank the community for um considering the recent bond proposal for the fourth elementary school. Um we know that the needs of those students still exist. The bonds did not pass. Um and so uh we will be um our long range planning committee will be meeting to talk about next steps and
009to brainstorm you know how what what are those needs? How are we going to address them? What what are we going to do next? So um that we'll um bring that back to the board. So we look forward to having those discussions. Um, and then uh we have we are here in our new digs tonight. So hopefully uh this is all going to work out. We have our camera system going. We have our microphones going. Um and we'll have to help people know that this will be our boardroom from now on. Um we have not switched buildings yet. Um but we're allowed to use this. It's still being used as a courtroom during the day. So there's there's some overlap here still in this room. Um, we do have one more property that we're is
010going to be conveyed to us. That's 109 Kennedy Street, which is this first house, um, on the other side of the fence here. Um, that's the last building for the land exchange and, um, we're trying to get that process completed by November 30th. Um, and that's all I have. Okay. >> Thanks, Stephen. Any question? On to the next section. All right. Student representative What do you have for us, Kaitlin? >> So, hey guys. Um, I actually just came back from DA Choir Festival at Bosezeman High with our chamber choir. Um, other schools attending are Sentinel, Boseman, and Gallatin. And it's just a giant thing with a lot of choirs, regional. Yeah, it's great. Every year, uh, our performance is tomorrow at 6:30 in the Boseman Auditorium. And our guest director this year is pretty good.
011Um, student council did a raffle for a boo basket on Halloween and had lots of photos of costumes taken for the yearbook. So, a success I'd have to say. Student council's also set for can the grids next week of the spirit week, including the themes of Monday, Zoom meeting, business on top, party on the bottom. Tuesday, surfers versus bikers. Wednesday, country versus city. Thursday, athletes versus mathletes. And Friday, cats versus Grizz. And we're also doing our rock paper scissors tournament that day. uh with can the grooves. When each student submits a can, they submit a vote for which teacher should get pied. And multiple are going to get pied, but Miss Smith is going to get pied. So, come watch her get pied on the 25th at lunch. Shakespeare and the Spears came a couple
012weeks ago and performers are the third, which helped our AP literature students a lot. I'm one of them. Um because they're reading it right now. Uh with the cell phone ban, Hacky Sack is making a comeback and is seen around every corner. and theater just finished their run as sister Jr. which was directed by Lynn West and it was a hit. Our FFA agricultural sales team finished 11th at nationals in Indianapolis. Um speech and debate had its first meet of the season at Billings West. Mackenzie Cardwell and Demetri Hodat placed first in duo interpretation with several other people placing in the top five for other events. And they're also requesting judges for their meet at home December 5th and 6th. And the Veterans Day assembly is tomorrow and everyone's excited to see what's in store
013for this year. Thanks. >> Thanks, Kaitlin. Any questions for Kaitlin? Appreciate it. You're welcome to stay or leave if you choose. Uh, District Clerk Carrie, it looks like you have a uh detailed breakdown on A and B. I'm not sure if you want to give us the cliff's notes version or if um any board members have any questions for you or how would proceed. I included it all in there just because it's there's a lot of questions about what the difference is between our A and B which is our average number of belonging and our actual enrollment count for A and B. Um a lot of people use them interchangeably but they are a little bit different as far as how um they can be enrolled in school but there are certain students when we
014do our A and B count that end up not being counted and that's the students that are absent 11 consecutive days. So 10 prior to the count day and the count day, we can't they end up not being counted for our um enrollment, our A and B count for and all of our funding is based off of A and B count. So we need those counts as accurate and as um large as we can. So losing students because they've been absent is is really hard. Um, next month we're going to have to talk about um whether we want to run mill levies and stuff in May. Usually we can hold off until February to do that, but the law changed and we now have to call for our election in December. And a lot of
015that is because of the trustee election, I found out because trustees file for um candidacy. They can start filing in December, but we haven't actually called an election yet. So they changed the law and said we have to call for an election before trustees can file for candidacy, but once we call for an election, we can amend our resolution. So say we decide we're going to rerun the bond c um um issue and we decide actually we're not going to run it, we just cancel that portion of the election. or if we have we have two uh positions open, if only two people apply for those, we cancel the trustee election. So, there's there's different things we have to call for it, but we can cancel portions of it as we um need um up
016until 45 days before the election. So, a lot of this also helps the county election office so that they can um certify ballots and get those ready because they have a shorter time frame um to get those printed and get them mailed and stuff. So, um, that was a big thing that came out of the last legislative session. October, we have to do A and B reporting. We have to report all of the people that work in our district. We have to report every program that every student is in. If they're in title one, special ed, uh, if they're gifted, they they need all that. And that was all in October. So, our office has been buzzing with reporting between us and the um, learning center um because they have to do a lot of
017it, too. So, we uh divide and conquer and help each other out trying to get those reports all filed on time. So, I think that's all unless you guys had any questions. >> I was kind of curious um how many you know what's the the requirements for not counting somebody for A and B for absences? It was like 12 days before the >> 10 days prior and the count day. So, it's 11 consecutive days. How many heads in the district do you see where that happens out of curiosity? >> Um, I think this year we might have had five or six. I mean, it's not a huge amount and most of it ends up being the high school. >> Okay. Mo >> I mean, the little kids are they like school still. >> Yep. Um,
018we can make a uh we can do a a appeal like if a kid is out because they have a pet they had surgery or something like we can still we can make an appeal for those kind of things for medical reasons but um just not showing up we can't. So family vacations we can't things like that. So >> understood. >> Tell your people to plan their vacations not the first Monday in October and not around the first Monday in February. Any questions for Carrie before we proceed to the board report? >> Thank you for the great information. >> Board report. Anyone have anything they'd like to share this evening? >> Uh I I know mentioned before about the uh play and um I I know there were a number of other people that were
019there. Um particularly I've been to a lot of those. This is one of the better ones I think that I've seen. So, congratulations to that group. It was a The West do a wonderful job. >> Was Caitlyn pulling it up? >> Yeah. >> It was very good. >> You're welcome. >> Any other board comments? >> I just wanted to comment. I enjoyed seeing like the staff highlights and all the uh stuff that the schools are doing to engage the community in the report. I appreciate that. Anything else before we bring it on to the principles? Okay. I'm not sure how we want to do this either. I see Natalie's here and we have a a breakdown of the elementary um activities. Um >> yeah, she can just talk about her >> talk about that Natalie
020or >> Hi, good evening. Um, okay. So, you see most of the activities and such that we're doing. Um, one thing that we've done this year that's been really fun is we've had the uh we've added monthly assemblies to honor kids for their roar to get roar shirts. So, when kids get four five roar paws or roar tickets, they get a roar paw and it goes up on the board and we announce their name on the announcements every morning. And then last year at the end of the month, we would just announce them on the morning announcements to one kiddo from each grade level would get a shirt. This year, we've added assemblies. Um the panther has been making an appearance which is a um parent in the costume uh and taking pictures with the
021kids and stuff that we're gonna put out in front of the school. So that's been really fun. We've also done um a couple uh at both of our assembly so far we've done fundraiser awards. So we had a fundraiser I believe um fundraiser and we raised over $14,000 last year. I think it was closer to like 910,000. So that was awesome um to award the kids that. So, uh, one of the the top award winner earns principal for the day. And so, I'm going to have a little kindergarten shadow. Um, last year was a fourth grader. This year was a kindergartner who won. So, um, academically, our intervention groups have been going really well. They're really fluid. We've been working on our PLC's to make sure that kiddos are getting the services that they need
022in order to perform. And then we have at benchmark, we're going to reassess those groups and re uh kind of redistribute them for kids based on what they need, skill deficit, things like that. And then we also this year every Thursday have our gifted and talented um program going on in the school and so kiddos are getting pulled during that win time to join the um the teacher for that as well. Um our music programs are coming along. It was fun. I was in the music room the other day and they were practicing their holiday program. Uh and then in there I said uh Mrs. Bush had a fun class book that they made. Um and I can pass this around if you want to take a look at it. Um it's just super cute.
023I saw one day at the copier working on this and it was it's really fun to see their little stories and illustrations that go along with the book. Um I also grabbed from um this was from Freedom the all the lessons that the kids did around that. I can pass this around as well. And then we had our pumpkin carving night which was super fun um right before Halloween. Great attendance, lots of good costumes. Uh we had face painting. It was really well attended. Our book fair is going on this week during parent conferences. Uh, so we have conferences you as you know Thursday or Tuesday and Thursday night this week. And then we have a fundraiser coming up at Texas Roadhouse next Monday if anyone needs dinner. It's takeout as well as dine in
024benefits the PTC and then we started can the Grizz today. So if you have any questions take a look at those. >> Thanks Natalie. Any board questions for before we move on to the middle school? >> Sounds wonderful. Yeah. >> I'll grab that later. And on to the middle school. I see Julie's reference, but I think Dave is here. Dave, did you want to say a few things? >> Hey, good evening everybody. Lots that we have going on at the middle school. And I think the thing that stands out to me is in spite of teachers and staff being super super busy, they make all of these things happen. So, I just want to give a kudos to all of our staff. You can see a long list of excuse me, activities going on at
025the middle school. some of the highlights for me. All four grade levels in the first quarter had a 95% attendance rate. So that's wonderful. We want to keep that going. Will it maintain throughout the year? We're going to do our best to make it happen. But it typically does go down a little bit, but that is just outstanding attendance at the school. So we're proud of that. I also want to give a big shout out to Boy, I'd love to talk more about all of this on our list, but our wellness team really stands out a lot. Marcia Boursma is one of the leaders on our wellness team tonight. I'm glad she's here. Uh staff activities, student activities throughout the year. We just did our haunted house, the trunk or treat, and the school dance.
026Super well attended a big community event and fundraiser for student activities. We just had the Wills of Harmony um performances going on in there, too. And we attended the high school play that Miss West puts on. um so many things that that involve the students and the community and a lot of fun as well as learning. So I think when I was looking over this list, there's a lot of activity and a lot of fun going on, but that's on top of learning every day. So that's that's occurring a lot as well. Let me know if you have any questions. All right. Thank you. And >> again, we have a lot of information. Um, if it's okay, I just hit highlights and answer any questions. Um, under under student life, um, again, sister act was
027a great success, I think. Um, well attended. Uh, student council will have can the Grizz coming up in a couple weeks. Um, last week we held our annual or quarterly pause lunch. Uh, had over 70 students recognized. That's always a great event. Um, uh, BHS library is doing excellent. Uh, Emily Nelson texted Shana and I this morning that, uh, book checkouts are up 231 from last first quarter, which is an exceptional amount, so that's that's a positive. Um, we will be undergoing uh, accreditation review on the 25th, so in a couple weeks from tomorrow. Um, I'm ready for that to be over. I'm not going to lie. It's a lot of a lot of busy work. Um uh the advanced placement order deadline is this week. Currently we have um 198 students taking 311 exams.
028That's 50 more exams than we had uh students signed up for last year. So that's that's excellent. Um we've already addressed it but again Courtney Duma was teacher of the year and um FA law office's name is teacher of the month and she doubled up. So she was also a teacher of the month along with Miss Okcon our Spanish teach one of our Spanish teachers Mr. Hoskins who um is in the physical education department and also uh teaches some CTE classes with a sports medal um from the math department and Miss Young also from the CTE department. Um as you all know we have our annual Veterans Day assembly tomorrow which is a big undertaking but always an excellent event. Um we also have parent teacher conferences this week um on Thursday evening and then
029the following week we'll also have uh or two weeks we'll have our career fair on the Monday of the week of Thanksgiving. Um and fall sports are gearing up to start along with speech and debate. Um and December 5th and 6th we'll have a a large undertaking also on a home meet for speech and debate. Um and Toby wanted to put a plug in because they need judges. So, anybody interested? No experience necessary. >> Any questions? >> Good for you. That's >> just a club speech debate. You are trained to be a judge. >> Yes. No, no experience at all needed. >> I already signed up for three hours. I can't go anymore. >> I can stand here all night. Anyone else? >> I put that down to the rest of the board also do
030the same. Any any questions on any See if I'm clear. >> Checking. Good. Any questions on any other information or things going on at the high school? >> Yeah. Thanks for coming tonight. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> All right. Let's move on to the consent agenda. Do we have a motion to continue? Nothing's coming up. That's pretty simple. >> I bet you can add lib. >> Second. >> We have a motion in a second. Do we have any public comment on the consent agenda? >> Seeing none. Thanks, Kaylin. Comes back to the board. Any board comment or questions? >> I have a question on saw one, not too much on most of this, but there was a uh concession advisor, which is something that we haven't had before. Uh we got rid of that um
031before and now we're looking to do a looks like something. Uh I was wondering why we've changed that. I know Thomas did this last year but no >> didn't have anybody last year step to do it. extra. >> I think that was also on a board agenda in the spring, not this last spring, but the spring before to create the positions. It was the same time we did Panther Perk. last year. >> Yeah, it's been happening. I do know that in the past. >> Uh we've funded this last year, I believe, or last spring. >> Yeah, nobody stepped up. That's why Thomas did it last year. We didn't have anybody apply for the position, so Thomas just did it hoping we would find someone. could have. They're like, "Oh, he's doing just fine." >> Well,
032thanks for doing that, Rebecca. >> You good, Rocky? Does that answer your questions? >> Okay. Any other questions before we proceed with the vote? All in favor of approving Frank's motion as stated, say I. I. >> I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion passes 4 to one. Prior business annexation but by the city for Ridge View and the bus barn property. Do we have a motion to continue? >> Motion to approve the annexation documents for Ridge View and the Bus Barn properties. >> We have a motion in a second. Uh let's see. Dei, did you want to give us a quick summary? >> Sure. Um this is on uh under prior business. it was on last month's um board agenda. Um but um we had some questions to get answered and then also the um one
033of the documents had um the wrong property in it. So that's all been corrected. Um thank you to Brian for doing that. Did you want to say anything Brian or answer any questions? >> And Brian's here to answer any questions about annexation. >> I was actually in De's office when Brian called to discuss this. So I got my questions answered. We're right at >> Yeah, we were all there as a >> anything the rest of us would find enlightening. >> The well is not an issue still have one. >> Correct. >> Meaning that if we hook up to city water, we can still keep the well. I'm sorry. transmission. >> Oh, so if we hooked to city water, you can still utilize it. Well, >> well, >> that would be the same for RGU too.
034>> Is that right? >> If it would be helpful, I could summarize just a few of the changes that we deployed for these uh annexations sort of in preparation for eventually um the annexation out at Frank Road as well. And so, um, I have them all off the top of my head, but, uh, one of them would, with respect to the well, um, they would expect that we would connect to city services at each of those locations under two conditions. The baseline condition was when services are available. We added language in there to say u, that wouldn't be enough that uh, our current infrastructure, if it was still operable, we would be allowed to stay on that. So in the event of a substantial failure of our existing wells or septic systems and city services
035would be available then we would have an obligation to connect. So that kind of gave us a little bit of a buffer to say hey for example if they brought water and sewer to ridge view uh we wouldn't by default be obligated to have a capital expense to connect if our existing conditions were still serviceable. So that was useful. We deleted um a a paragraph regarding uh roadway extensions and development which is meaningful sort of for obvious reasons. Um also we clarified what would trigger impact fees. Uh that was sort of an open-ended statement from my point of view. So we added language to describe that building permits would be you know part of a capital project that would initiate potential impact fees. Kind of tightened that up a little bit. Um, and also added
036language that would allow for payback agreements. So, if we were making improvements, I was thinking about our Frank Road parallel. If we were to make improvements with that annexation, which we haven't done yet, um, that in the annexation agreement with the city that we just explicitly state that we would reserve the right to endeavor to get payback agreements for anyone else benefiting from infrastructure we put into the ground. So, those are just kind of a summary of um additions that we added to the baseline boilerplate standard Belgrade annexation documents. So, hopefully that's helpful. >> I guess I was kind of curious about Ridge View as a whole. I I see that different than the bus barn where you'd actually have to run some infrastructure to it to have it done. Whereas since they're hooked to
037River Rock Water and Sewer, wouldn't it just be kind of redirected at the River Rock Water and Sewer connection? >> There's real no real scenario I can even think of for Ridge View that has the city in front of the the infrastructure that is River Rock. So, um I don't think that'll ever >> it's hard to imagine that ever happening, right? But to to your point, you're right. The bus barn, that would be the the better example. Yeah. >> All right. Any other questions for Brian or comments before we want to bring this back to a vote? >> Good. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for helping us with this, Brian. Thanks, Frank, for reading this so closely. All in favor of approving the motion to for the annexation documents, excuse me, let me rephrase that.
038All in favor of approving the motion to approve the annexation documents for Rididge View and the bus barn properties say I. >> I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Five to nothing. New business. Uh let's see. We have an update from the Greater Gallatin United Way. Di is Amanda here? >> We have Amanda's not here, but Ben is >> the new Amanda. >> Ben Franc. I'm the director of community impact at Greater Dallas United Way. First of all, I'd like to thank you all for approving theou last board meeting and apologize for us being there around I want to share just a few updates about our programs, answer any questions you might have. Uh but I do want to express my gratitude towards the school district um your administrators, principles, custodial staff, front office staff
039who we work with on a daily basis to help serve uh students in the Bay School District. Uh we currently operate 15 programs across skeleton county, but the three that we're probably here tonight are Saddle Peak, Story Creek, and Bo Middle School. Uh our biggest highlight of the year is increase in our At the time of the document that's in front of you, we had 158 students enrolled in our program, which is a significant increase from the previous school year. Um, we're not sure what to attribute that to, but we know that families need care for their kids when school is not in session. And that's after school, P days, breaks, uh, such as over winter break, spring break, and of course summertime. and we wouldn't be able to serve those students without the coordination
040and collaboration that we had with your with your team. So, we're very appreciative that it's been a very exciting year, not just because of the growth, but Kids Link is a very different program than it was several years ago in terms of how we operate as an organization treating Kids Link as small business. of 501c3. Uh we're very invested in in the care and safety of kids out of school time. We've got a lot of things happening as you can imagine after school from 3:15 to 5:45. It's a busy time of day. Uh but first and foremost, it's a safe place uh for kids to be, which is something that we put a considerable amount of training and time in making sure that our staff and our teams understand that they have a duty of
041care that extends uh to 5:45 every single day that we um they're uh they're doing a lot of different things in after school, try to support the school day um by coordinating with principal and teaching staff to see if there's any additional supports that we can apply. after school. Um, but kids are also there to have fun, which is one of our primary goals that we take on. Um, this, uh, this school year, we'll have additional P days here in the school district. Um, something that we haven't done in recent school years, but the has grown considerably, and so we want to make sure that we're stepping up that role. Other updates, uh, we're really proud of about a 95% retention of our teams, specifically in our low grade locations, which is something we've worked
042very, very hard on. Considerable challenge considering the demographic of the folks that we hire for after school, many of whom come from MSU. Um, but we treat our people really well. We want the right people in the right position. So, that's something that I wanted to make sure that you all knew that the Kids Link staff is very committed to helping serve those kids and those families. Um, and we're looking forward to what comes next and we're very open to collaborating with schools. There needs that we can help to support. >> I'll take any questions if you have a question. >> Yes, sir. Um, thank you for coming tonight. Appreciate it. Couple of questions is one is on health and safety. Do you have a somebody there like a nurse or something like that on
043duty when your kids are there? >> We don't have a nurse on staff any programs. All of our program coordinators is the one person who oversees our sightbased teams. Um, I go through additional first CPR training. We try to get as many of our staff trained up on first aid CPR. Um, but we do not have a response site. >> Okay. Second question is a little about a little bit about language. Uh, do you have anybody there that's u speak Spanish? >> I couldn't say specific to which school sites, but we have definitely seen an increase in the number of students who Spanish speaking in our programs. So we have tried to for more second language media staff members and we're trying to get them out there as much as we can. We do have
044Spanish meeting staff available to communicate with families for the enrollment process for scholarship or other kinds of supports might need. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? >> Yes. Thanks for coming tonight. Thank you. Uh, next item, next item of business, the executive administrative assistant. Um, do we have a motion to continue? >> Motion to approve the position of executive administrative assistant assistant. >> Do we have a second? >> I'll second. >> We have a motion and a second. Um, there's kind of a quick summary here. I don't know if you want to talk about it a little bit or not, Dee. I can. It's up to you. >> It's hard to say. Laya and I talked about this a bit before the meeting started and I'm not sure if any of the other board
045members have questions or >> I do. Okay. Why don't you give us a quick summary then, Dudy? >> Okay. Um, so we currently have an un unfilled administrative assistant position in the district office. Um, that's been a position that's been there for um quite some time. um as kind of a you know the main person when you come in the front door um answers the phones things like that and was primarily a support for the your your board clerk who's Carrie to make sure board meetings get posted and things like that. Um, so Trey and I and Carrie as the finance director have don't technically have any administrative support. So we have no um support in that way. Um, we have done a lot of work um over the past year and a half to
046really you know we talk about right sizing our schools for the number of students we have. We've also been right sizing our central office. Um and so we have accumulated a savings of um to this point um almost $166,000 just from reconfiguring positions, not rehiring certain positions um some, you know, and some other changes that we've made. Um so from that savings, we were able to fund um a full-time GT gifted and talented teacher. So, you heard um you heard uh Natalie at Ridge View talk about um students being pulled one day a week for for that um GT time. That's the person that we hired from these savings. So, we've hired a teacher out of that and then we have some additional funding that um we're hoping to use to one um kind of
047upgrade this position to an executive administrative assistant. That's typical for a a double A school district to have. For any organization that has almost 600 employees, you would expect to have somebody who has, you know, a high level of skill, the ability to interact with public um when those interactions can be wonderful and when they can sometimes be challenging um to be confidential and to provide the kind of support that that our office needs. Um, so that position would continue to answer the phones and direct people where they need to be and to be the front-facing person in the office and would also provide administrative support for Carrie, Trey, and me in our positions. So, it would be one person for three people. Um, and um, the cost for that will go up a little
048bit. So, we already would we already have the position. Um and so we would be increasing that a little bit and that would come from some of the savings that we've already already made and other um changes in the office. >> You had talked about uh part of the salary increase was just there would be more advanced work for this individual >> versus just scheduling meetings and things like that. Can you elaborate on what they would be doing, what your proposal is? >> Yeah, you open up the job description. Um, so I think if you think about, you know, an executive administrative assistant for a, you know, a corporation, for the CEO of a corporation, they're doing a lot of things that aren't just answering the phone or scheduling their meetings, but those are important
049pieces, right? This is a person who um has higher level skills, organizational skills, can work with our calendars, can um work with the front-facing public, can work can be the liaison between kind of the you want your assistant to also be your brain, right? And can be that that connection between our brains and and our, you know, Brenda, our communications person, and um our principles. And so making sure that communications are going out to the right people and taking some of those um tasks that um can be better managed by somebody who is in that position off of our plates um where we're being pulled in so many different directions and um giving them more um kind of a focused effort. Okay. Do we have any uh public questions for DD or the board on
050this before we bring it back to board question and comment? I I would just like to point out really quickly that even after this position has been filled, there's still money sitting there. Is that correct? Still >> that is correct. Yeah, there's still because the the increase to this position, like I said, there's already a position that exists. So, there's an increase to it, but it doesn't take up the rest of that that we still have savings in there. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Any public comment or questions? Any board questions or comments? >> I have some questions. >> Um, is this just does this job end at the from December to June 30th? Because it looks like to me that the number is really more like $72,000 or $73,000 if it's a year
051round if it's a year round position. >> Yes, that's correct. >> Okay. here >> because >> yeah, I get that. >> Okay. >> So, >> but yes, you're correct. >> These other these other savings, they're they don't really have anything to do with this person. They're just savings that we've collected over time were savings that you talked about in the finance meeting when we talked about the adjustments that we made to the >> We made all those for this budget year. And so, that's where I was like, those savings came in to help pay for that this year and moving forward. So, we made it for shortfalls in budget, whatever they were. We didn't we didn't have this in mind when we made those changes. >> Yeah. Um, so what's the normal what do we
052normally pay um somebody that does what just for maybe it's inappropriate, but can you tell me what you paid the secretary that worked there before? was in the low five low 50s. I do know that. >> Pardon me. >> Low 50s. >> So, what's that? Is that like $20 an hour? >> 20 25 >> 25. >> Yeah. >> I mean, 2,000 hours of working hours a year. So, you can >> Yeah. >> 20 20. >> Yeah. >> Yep. Um Yeah. So um and I guess uh >> pardon me >> 2254 >> we paid the previous one 2254. Was that with uh experience or was that the base pay? >> No, that was with her time in the district. >> Okay. >> So there's So they start out normally they'd start out at a lower number
053and then build up from overtime. >> Yeah. like they'd start out at like 15 or something like that and then go up. >> So, >> I don't know what >> we're basically looking at upgrade and the cost somewhere around $30,000. >> Mhm. >> And for me, I guess I'm curious. I mean, I don't necessarily think that's uh depending on what you're going to do, it's probably not the end of the world, but uh would seem like you'd start out at a lower rate and build your way up to that amount. Uh unless you have some specific person that you're going to hire. Um the other thing I question here is the ratio of admin versus uh educational uh labor. Are we how much of a change have we had on the admin piece versus the
054versus the the amount of teachers we have? And I'm just wanting to understand kind of what's cuz it seems like our teacher group is shrinking a bit. Maybe they're not. Maybe that's just my perception. But our admin group seems to be growing a bit. And I'm just trying to figure out, you know, when we went out for uh to the public and look for a payment initially, we got rejected and I think our number was like $160,000, something really small. >> And then obviously we just got a almost four to one rejection on our bond. >> And I guess I'm just a little bit sensitive to what we're doing um and whether this makes the right this is the right move for us with respect to everything else that's been going on u trying to
055take get levies going and what kind of impact that's going to have I mean obviously you've made some good reductions obviously you had some reasons to do that because of the workload or whatever >> but and the public has been pretty clear to us >> that they're looking for something a little bit different in us in our performance. So that's that's where I'm at. >> So So I think um good questions. So two things. One is um we we want to be thoughtful of how we use the word admin in our district. Um, in most districts, we talk about the people who work in the district office as the central office or the, you know, support services or things like that. Um, they're not administrators, >> right? >> Yeah, I get that. I get I
056get that. But they're not teachers either. >> No, they're not. And so, so, you know, district office staff are necessary because we need to pay people, we need to hire people, we need to do all those things, right? So, we need a front secretary. I mean, we need somebody who can be an office administrator. We need Right. >> I agree. >> Yeah. Good. I agree completely with that. >> So, we need to replace this position. The position isn't going away. We're looking at something a little bit different. >> Yeah. >> But if we don't move forward with this, then we'll just replace it. >> I guess the heart I'm having is just the the amount of money we're going to pay this person versus the amount of money we've paid the last. >> Yeah. I
057I >> four or five years of being in the job. No, I was >> number Where did that number come from? >> How did that number? >> Oh, >> we just we took I mean what we do when we look at creating new positions is we look at what other the double A school districts are offering >> in the state and then we look at the bottom of that because typically we're below you know what other school districts will be offering. So this was would be considered low on the tail in other doubleA school districts. >> Yeah. >> You you know Dee, I'll be honest. I really struggle with this one for a number of things. A lot of the things people were telling me and they told us here last week >> that you
058know how however you define admin is not how they define admin. Their admin is anybody but teachers, lunchladies, and bus drivers. Your admin is one thing, but I kept hearing constantly, "Oh, the administration's growing. It's it's, oh, you see all this administration and they got the big fancy offices and they got all this." And right now, we're looking at paying this person a significant more amount of money than we would a teacher. >> Mhm. And you know, I I kept hearing, we got to get the money into the classroom and keep it out of, you know, and not get let it get caught in the admin building. No, like I said, you know, admin your definition versus Publix. I'm using the Publix. Um, but that's what I kept hearing is we got to get the
059money into the classroom. And we're starting teachers at 45,000 a year. Mhm. >> We're hiring this person at 70 something 75 72 >> 72,000. >> What are we saying to the community and that's that that's one thing that they're going to see this and they're going to ask me this and they're going to ask all of us >> and that's fine. And I hope that we as we continue to communicate with our community that we are sharing information that the that the the district office, the central office is an integral part of our school district because we have to pay people, we have to hire them, we have to follow the laws, we have to do all those things and provide supports, right? So, we have to have a district office and we've made a
060lot of cuts in the district office just like we've made in the schools because we think that's the right thing to do. We believe that as a school district, we've tightened the belt in the district office the same way we have in the schools. We need to refill this position. >> I don't >> we can't survive any longer without a secretary or an administrative assistant in in our office. Our people are taking on extra work. We're doing you're paying us to do things that you shouldn't be paying us to do. >> Exactly. >> We are we file our own papers. We schedule our own meetings. We make our own phone call. We are doing things that you're paying us too much money to do and we're not getting to the important things that we're supposed
061to be doing. So, we will we will need to refill the position. I hear what you're saying that that that figure sounds high and that's okay if we want to adjust that figure and see if we can if we can >> somebody and I do acknowledge that in this job market in this area that is a tough thing to sell. But I just look at it big picture. What do we, you know, where are we focusing our effort on? And that's where our money is going. And >> I >> currently the money doesn't look like it's following the the focus. >> Yeah, I I completely understand that. And if we if we can So I think we can look at that position. Is this a worthwhile position and move forward with it with a different
062starting rate? We can see if we can fill it. >> Yes. >> Um or we can say maybe this isn't the right time for this position and and we don't approve the new or the board doesn't approve the new position. >> Well, from where I'm sitting, you definitely need to fill the position. >> Yes. because you're um and you need to get somebody in there that you know >> can supply the needs that you have >> um you know has the uh wherewithal to manage the all of the communications that have to come out of that office. So I get I I'm not opposed personally to supporting that. I just my issue is just um it just seems like a high price. >> That person better be a rock star. >> Yeah. And you know
063and I've and you know I've had business similar size to this and you know probably paid my administrative assistant the executive assistant something in the range of uh $55 $60,000 something like that. Um, but that was, you know, 10 years ago. So, different animal, >> right? >> The thing is is what you explain to us, the public doesn't know. >> That's our job. >> And and and that is what I know that. I'm just trying to say that's one of the things that's really frustrating is that you go out on the streets and that's what I found when I went out there with Bond is we have a public that doesn't like get all that we're doing. That's all I was trying to say. >> Pretty good job on the last levy of you hear
064the drain the swamp and it was pretty easy to just point out numbers. This is the swamp. We're talking about dating grain. When you look at the ratio of money we spend in our district office versus money we spend in the classroom, it's we don't line up. They do more than they should. Um I'm a little bothered that we have people I mean we did a horrible job if we're not advertising the fact that we did a pretty good job of getting our teachers raises last year. It came in sacrifices of the teachers. They got increased class sizes. But we see teacher bases increased dramatically last year. It was a lot of work and a lot of teachers put a lot of effort into getting it done. Pretty collaborative. But yeah, just so to hear
065that's being I guess I think people just look for a reason not vote for a bond that honestly >> when you think when you >> Well, I think there's they're ticked off. You know, the problem you have right now is you've got p the public is really not in the mood um because of the taxation issues that they feel like they've been unfairly uh put against. And honestly, you know, when people understand the the biggest problem we have is people don't understand that Gallatton ca uh county, Gallatton Valley pay higher property taxes on average than the rest of Montana maybe other than the folks up uh in the north uh in the Flathead area. >> And those monies go to the state. They don't come to Belgrade. They they go to the state. And the
066state gives every student a set amount of money. We get the same amount of money as every other school out here. And what but our property uh uh owners, they paid a higher percentage and they don't get that we don't get that money, that their money is not coming back to our schools. They don't get that. And this is the one of the biggest topics that we have related to, you know, voter fatigue. It's it's they they're up to their eyebrows right now with I've paid these guys enough and I'm not paying them anymore. And they think it's coming to us and it's not. It's really confusing. And I I mean I just happened to be that my daughter the mail showed up today and my county tax bill showed up in it tonight will
067be in the mail in the near future I'm assuming. Um >> and and and I think that people are going to be pleasantly surprised as Yeah. you know when they get that. >> Yeah. >> But for us >> also >> you guys are saying great things but nobody can hear it. I'm sorry. >> Sorry, Carrie. So, but I know I get what you're saying and I just you got to look at it from a perspective. I mean, you know, I I know that that way that we, you know, our money is going to Helena and not coming back to us. I know we're paying for school, small a lot of smaller town schools because just our our tax base is higher because our property values are higher. >> I I I I understand that. But
068our, you know, we've got to show show the taxpayers that we are being as fiscally prudent as possible. And when I see, well, you know, I mean, we're the 3606 is the number written down here. And uh, you know, that's significantly more than we pay a teacher. That's uh I think even in this valley for uh an adept executive assistant that's a I believe that's a fairly good wage is even in this area for for that level. Maybe I don't understand what that person's doing but I think that that's a very substantial wage for that type of a person. That's what it came down to. Carrie, was 3606 and that's for a 2080 hour work year. >> We ran numbers on um uh all of them like what it would be like. We started at
0693365 and looked at that and then we went up and I was just trying to pull up on my phone, but I know that we did a lot of research on the salaries like on Indeed and this area and looked at those for hourly wages and ours was still in the bottom of the the group. So, >> okay. >> But let me let me >> the median on last door like you were right there. >> Say that again, Frank. >> Right. glass door does salary surveys of professionals right >> job website >> I think so I I I hear what you're saying I I wouldn't mind if maybe this table then you came back and put a maybe maybe you can't wait a month I don't know I wouldn't mind seeing the data that drove
070the 36 that's a reasonable request >> I I I agree you know I just >> And what's your backup plan. Should this not go forward? Would you just go forward with a regular secretary? >> Yeah. >> Well, if you don't have a secretary at this point, I'd recommend that you bring a temp in at least to get you through the period of time that you can till you get to this resol if this is not resolved the night. And >> I very much agree that we're paying you guys to file. >> Yeah, we're paying way more than $36 an hour for this. And it's not and they're not really all that good at it either. >> I'll second that. >> I don't know. I hear Dee makes a mean cup of coffee. >> No, you
071know, I know that because I'm not any good at it either. So, not making it I'm not making it. >> Looking for papers. >> The 36 an hour build up is I could see it being that or more than that, but I'd like to see it too. What is what do we pay? Where are we at? I guess I'm not looking at it and you probably don't know it off the top of your head. Maybe Carrie does. Like a school secretary. What would the building secretary be? >> They're they're in around the same place that our uh previous administrative assistant was. I think they're all in the same area classification. >> 20s. >> 25ish. >> 20s. Yeah. I think they're looking for someone to do a little more. >> Yeah. >> Depends on how many
072years they've been there, too. They do get a little bit of a bump as they go up. >> I assume when you put this out, you were assuming you were going to hire a very experienced individual for this position. >> That would be our um preference. >> Okay. >> That that title administrative executive administrative assistant is a really tough one to hear in Montana because it's just not a common thing to appreciate. >> Yeah. And we yeah we looked >> around I think hiring a secretary but you're >> you're hiring a manager of the office is what you're hiring essentially >> it very much is an office manager and somebody with the ability to be uber confidential right super confidential to handle um our employees you know we don't like it but sometimes people are
073a little gruff with them and um you have to have the right temperament to be able to be the front-facing person and handle, you know, sometimes sometimes things come with attitude and to to be able to handle that in a professional way and, you know, help the person relax and and move forward and and get to the heart of, you know, what information they need or where they need to go to >> seem like a guard boss to me, >> right? Um, so yeah, I mean all that plays into it and of course we look we always look at what are the other doubleA's calling the position you know how much are they paying for the position. There were things in other doubleA job descriptions that we took out because they weren't very Belgrade and
074you know a few things that I think we added in because we're like no this is the way we operate here and you know we have people to do these things and how do we make all that connected and have our office run smoothly. Um so um >> and some of the other ones have an assistant for each one of us. >> Yeah. I don't think another month is going to hurt. >> Um, this point >> some of the doubleA's have assistance for each one of us and we're going to share someone. >> Yeah. >> I feel like some of like mainly it's me just because Jesse's not around, but we talked about this, you know, as a board at a board chair level and Dee had talked about some of the things they wanted
075this person to do and it made a lot of sense. >> Sorry. Um, it may benefit us to take a step back and I'll chime in a little bit on the job description perhaps. It's worked for us in the past. >> Sure. >> I do worry, you know, I understand like Walt and Rocky's concern about the public perception, but I don't want that driving our reality because we've talked a lot about this and the reductions that we've made for streamlining our operations are right there in that chart. were very deliberate about anytime they hire somebody, we need to make the appropriate >> Yeah. >> adjustments and admin as well. >> Part of our problem there was though, we weren't sure we're going to get how much finance we were going to actually receive and I
076don't know that we're really totally up to speed on everything there as well. So, what might it's a good it's a good list of things to save, but until we really have a clear picture on where we're going to go, we didn't have A and B or anything else. So we have really had a unclear picture as to what the what our actual numbers are going to look like. I guess uh a lot of those savings that you put together were really as a result of trying to cut back as stiff as far as you could just so that we had the money to run this place no matter what. Well, and uh we also you guys made a decision a couple of months ago to combine the custodial supervisor and the maintenance supervisor because
077we couldn't hire a maintenance supervisor. So, we didn't include that number in these, but that's also another savings that you guys had already approved for us as well for this fiscal year. ask another question regarding >> I don't know how that was all applying but so this individual starts off at $36 an hour then what is the pay scale on that person >> we didn't we didn't make a pay scale did we would be in line with everyone else's >> there's a pay scale that attached to it >> no >> it would go up yearly >> we I think we're I I have to go back to the discussion, but I think where we looked at um honestly is matching it up with the salaried position of the network admin administrator is where we looked
078at um the salary. Um and then we had a lot of discussion as to whether the person would be hourly or salaried as well with their duties that they have to do. And then Mary reviewed our job description and said we need to definitely make it hourly. So that's what we went with hourly. If we change some of the duties within it, we could make it an exempt position, which we found out a lot of the other doubleA's do as well. So the person's not getting overtime, they're on a salary. >> Okay. Um, seems like we probably want to just table this. >> Those are our options, right? Or we vote it down and it comes back. >> I'd like to know what that more about that exempt up to say exempt. >> Oh, okay.
079>> It's basically hourly versus salary. >> I got it. Yeah. >> But we as a board if you have questions can reach out to DD and Carrie and >> talk about it and uh you can refine this description. We can >> I felt like I was there were specifics that you needed an individual, a higher paid individual, someone with more experience to do for the three of you that were not adequately described that would help the case. Mhm. >> Um I can probably work with you to define those a little bit better. >> Sure, that'd be great. >> Yeah. Send questions and thoughts my way and we'll um >> bring it back next time. >> And I'll make a a point of digesting it thoroughly before the meeting. Sure, >> that sounds good. >> I'll
080try not to forget it until I'm sitting up here like they do all the time. >> It's hard to do. There's a lot to be >> Okay, so I think at this point, do we want to rescend our motions or just let it drop? I love made it. So >> just withdraw your motion. >> I just say I resend. I resend my motion to approve the position of executive administrative assistant. >> I think Frank second. >> Okay. We appreciate all your work on this. >> Yep. Thank you. Great conversation. >> Let's do what we can to get you the help that you need. >> Thank you. Item number three, revisions to the miscellaneous pay scale. Do we have a motion to continue? >> Motion to approve the revisions to the miscellaneous pay scale to begin
081November 11th, 2025. >> Um, so, oh, sorry. >> You're okay. We have a motion in a second. Dee, >> um, so we had a couple of pieces in here. Um it started with um the addition um or the the question to you if we could add an administrator substitute position. Um the substitute teacher substitute positions are also on the miscellaneous pay scale. So that's separate from negotiations. So um the we you know our team does a great job of covering a person's out for a day or at a conference for two days things like that we do a really good job covering. it's a little bit more challenging and more challenging to the building when an administrator needs to be out for a week or two um you know because of a personal need to
082be out or maybe an extended conference or or something like that. And so for those times if we have a longer period of time when an administrator is out, we would like to um have it be possible to hire um you know potentially a retired administrator. Um we have several in the community who could come in and and um cover the building. Um it's hard on the staff when the you know the principal is out. Um you know the teachers are having to make decisions on their own and things like that and so we cover and and and all the buildings have been very helpful about sending people over to cover. But um it is um it is more settling for a staff to have somebody that they know might be there all week. So
083um that our proposed rate is $400 a day or $200 a half day or $50 an hour for that. Uh the second part is um we last spring when we were talking about miscellaneous pay scale, we increased the um student worker amount to $16 an hour and then totally forgot to increase the other uh adult workers to the same rate. And so we saw that when we went in to take a look at the adding the administrator substitute position. Um, so we would like to um increase that rate from $12 to $16 for supervision, ticketing, event management, all those things because people can be making more than $12 an hour. Um, we're estimating that the cost of doing all of that is less than $5,000 a year um to do that. >> Okay. Um, do
084we have any public questions or comment for Dee before we proceed? Seeing none, comes back to the board. board questions or comments. >> The only question I have is um currently when a principal's gone, I assume the assistant principal steps into that role. >> Is and the downside to that is is what >> this probably works. This is probably more elementary >> Trey, do you want to describe >> don't have it or you don't have something? >> Rocky, you can have Trey should describe what went on and how he filled it. This is another case where I have background knowledge. We talked about it last week. >> Yeah, sure. So, uh, we just had Story Creek principles out for eight days. Um, and it's been quite a challenge between me, Mary, and Matt trying to
085manage that, uh, day-to-day operations and then try to also do our our other job, too. And so really um Steve's right. We would probably use this only in the event of the situation where we have um at an elementary school um or there's a need at a for a long-term situation. You know, if we had a an illness, a long-term illness or a pregnancy situation where we had to replace somebody even at a high school, we would consider maybe doing that. um in that situation for long term. >> Is another example. I think we've gotten kind of spoiled by our administrators being there all the time. >> They are remarkable. And it, you know, I think at the middle school and high school when you have that um aligning of the stars there and you
086have multiple administrators out at the same time, that could be also another situation where we would consider it. >> Sorry, Rocky, I may have interrupted. Did you have another question? No, I mean I I I get what now what you say about the elementarymentaries and uh um I guess there'd always be a case where you might have two two uh folks out at the same time. >> Um >> excuse me. >> You if you had the luck you had with the dean of uh students at high school, you would be okay there. >> Agreed. >> But yeah. Okay. I I guess I see what you're doing. Um I I again I would think it's we got to lean heavily on the system of principles for anything the short term. >> Um maybe there's a little
087bit of a little bit of an understanding on what the total number of days are going to be gone. So we bring somebody in if we know we're going to be down for a certain amount of time. Any other questions? >> That motion second, but I miss you. >> I think L did. >> Good. K brings it back to a vote. All in favor of approving the proposed revisions to the district's miscellaneous pay schedule to address recruitment and coverage challenges, say I. I >> I all oppose same sign. >> I motion carries 4 to1. >> Stipen for the payroll manager. Do we have a motion to continue? >> I'll move to provide a student stipen of $1,000 a month from November 2025 to June 2026 to Lisa Church. >> Second. We have a motion and
088a second. Uh Dee, this is another one where you probably best to summarize your thoughts. I'll let um Trey and Carrie talk about this one >> as you >> 2025 to 2026. >> I said >> you did. You were great. Thanks. >> And I guess before you continue, this is another example of these our administrators thinking about how they could utilize somebody temporarily to save money. So, >> so um when we when we made the position halftime, the HR director, um Mary currently, who's doing a fabulous job by the way, um we limited her role in that job to specific things. Um she really supervises no one uh in particular although they use she's provide uh Lois provides her support however she doesn't really supervise anyone in that department. Uh that has fallen on me
089and that's okay. However, due to the day-to-day operational issues at the schools, for example, like covering when a principal's out, um that tends to leave a vacancy there in HR to be filled for daily supervision and and handling issues on a routine basis. And so when we looked at how we can bridge that gap between HR and payroll, Lisa has significant experience in both sides of the services for HR and salary. And so um it was our recommendation to you guys that she provide the day-to-day oversight and supervision of those of the HR staff as well as the payroll staff. So it increases her responsibilities. The only thing that that will not change is my supervision over the whole HR department. Carrie will still continue to provide oversight over the payroll department. Uh but I
090will provide direction and overall support for the way the HR operations are going to flow. So really uh Lisa would just be the day-to-day questions uh ensuring that our uh reports that are contingent upon how we pay people are done in a timely manner and executed properly. So those are would be her her limited limited role with regard to how she operates in HR. Okay. is this is only for eight months. >> Go ahead. I'm sorry. Trey. >> Sure. Well, yes, we will. You know, uh depending on where we are, we probably, you know, where we come back with a recommendation to continue or not continue. If we're able to get all our goals accomplished in the next few months, then we can certainly revisit it. Um but uh so yes, we would we would
091be looking at this for the remainder of the year and then either we've accomplished our goal or we still need to continue to some extent. >> So one of our challenges is that um benefits, how people use their benefits, those things directly impact payroll. >> And so if things aren't done correctly on either side, there's a clash, right? and then we have to clean things up and it's um it's costly for the district to operate that way. So what and one of the things that um because Lisa knows both sides of it, we're looking to to clean up some of our processes and that's why Trey was talking about you know we may be in such good shape with where we are by the end of this school year that this isn't needed or something
092different would be needed. I think that's why we looked at a a temporary stipend um to see if we how long, you know, we we need to clean some things up and make sure that that you know everybody knows what's going on and that our numbers are matching on all sides of >> Help me understand this. Oh, >> well, I was going to say like one of the other things that is going on is train. I've been trying to problem solve this and figure out how we can work together better. And um this we came up with this solution and I guess we're not afraid to abandon it if it doesn't work the way we think it will or want it to. That's why we suggested a stipend rather than a complete overhaul of Lisa's
093position and stuff because um if it works the way we want it to, it would be amazing for our office even if we could continue going forward like that I think because we need that bridge in there. The communication we right across the hallway from each other and communication is a struggle for all of us. >> Let me interrupt and ask for public comment before we No, you're good. It's a good discussion. We were just getting out of order. any public comment >> back to the board. I like the fact that it's kind of closed. It's like you're bringing in a consultant. >> Yeah. >> To see what can be optimized and if it doesn't work, we're not obligated past the eight months and you could terminate terminate it early if you wished. Right. If
094you didn't feel it was then if if you went two months and it wasn't working, you would just say, >> "Yeah, I don't think we're afraid to abandon if it doesn't go the way we want." >> What do you see? I take time. >> You think, let's just say this all goes swimmingly. Do you see this being her stipened forever or what would you do? >> I mean, >> what is your end goal here? >> Well, I mean, >> receive the data from her. >> I mean, >> oh, wow, there's so many things I want to say. um >> two minute time limit. >> But but ideally, you know, um I think we need we need someone who's the boots on the ground dayto-day operational. Um does that look like this long term? I don't
095know. I think we need to wait and see um how it plays out. Um, and so I I think that's something we're just going to have to see how how it works for the rest of the the year. Uh, are we able to accomplish the goals? Do we still have other things we need to accomplish? Um, and then maybe re-evaluating how we how we look at our HR department in generally speaking. Um, you know, there's some things that I have in my head maybe that would make us look a little bit different but accomplish the same goal. And and um um so I yeah, I would I think we're going to need somebody long-term to supervise HR on a daily basis in a in a very granular way. And I'm not sure that my position
096can do that as well as do supervise the five principles in transportation and maintenance. >> Feels like we need an HR director to considering it. >> Is that what we're talking about? There's an HR person or are we talking about a >> a payroll person? I can't quite get my hands around you guys talking about. >> So there's HR, there's payroll. This person would sit in the middle between the two departments. Okay, let me ask a question about payroll. How many people work on payroll? >> There's two payroll clerks and then the payroll manager who oversees like them and all of the reporting and stuff that has to go into payroll. >> Who's the payroll manager? >> Lisa. >> The church. >> Okay. So, she's going to um delegate more of what she does to
097her payroll clerks, which we talk to them and we feel like we have the capacity in there to kind of reorganize and um then she'll take on more of a higher level thinking kind of out of the weeds, the day-to-day stuff and start >> has to be around HR. What's her experience there? >> Well, before we had an HR department, payroll was the HR department. >> Okay. so that she's not doing dealing with like employee relations. That's what Mary and Trey do. What she's looking at is making sure that our communication from HR is good. Our uh reporting that we have to do to the state and federal government is good. All of our um stuff is reconciling with finance. That's an area that I'm really struggling with. we need once we pay uh take
098deductions out of people's paychecks, it goes into an account and for whatever reason there's a disconnect between what payroll thinks should be in the account and what HR thinks should be in the account. So this is where Lisa is going to come in and be that bridge in between and go this is what actually needs to be in that account. >> Okay, I I might be completely upside down because I have been almost all night long. So, >> you're doing fine, Rocky. >> This seems like an issue that um you know, they have these things called like ADP uh they have programs out there that that make HR and >> let me help you with this one because this is another talked about this briefly, >> you know, >> and there is a limitation with
099Tyler I think Tyler Technologies, right? the profession. >> It's a limitation of either the software or our knowledge of the software. We've talked about that. It's a pretty robust program and whether we know how to use all of its functionality. We're I mean I this is my fourth year here and I'm still learning things that need to that we can do and asking questions like well can it do this and can it do that. I will tell you that school payroll is not pushing the button like you do in QuickBooks. It is very complicated. I've had like lots of people come in and say, "I've done payroll for lots of businesses and school payroll is completely different. There's all the different funding codes and all I mean just just implementing our CBAs is complicated, okay,
100and takes a lot of time. So I mean I'm not saying that there isn't a better solution, but I think our Tyler technologies is something we need more training on in our department, which we've been talking about as well. >> We talked to one of my questions to Carrie, was there a better program that would work. And you might answer that question, too. >> it seems like there are limits, too. But she should answer that. >> So, we've uh with school fund finance, software, and payroll, there's three programs in the state of Montana that work with OPI and help us do our that are compliant with OPI's reporting and stuff. >> That' probably be an answer to >> Yeah. Yeah. So, there's three programs. There are other ones that are trying to get into the
101Montana market, but I don't know if we want to be the test case. >> I give up. I give up. >> One question that I would ask >> and you said if you needed to abandon this you would do that. >> Is Lisa on board with that too? Like I get this that if this doesn't work, Lisa's saying yes, I'm >> I'm happy to abandon it and the girls are happy to abandon it >> and so you kind of all come to that together. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. >> How many years has Lisa worked for us? >> Long time. Uh gosh, I could tell I I want to say 15. >> She has a lot of experience, I guess, is my point. >> Yeah. And before she worked for us, she worked for other organizations
102in in payroll and HR, too. Doing kind of the same functions. >> You got my vote, Carrie. >> I think we >> I'm sorry, Rocky. I wasn't trying to be defensive or anything. >> Sorry to interject. Sometimes we have these discussions outside of this meeting and that information gets left behind the scenes. I thought that was like a big no no >> was in a in a noticed finance meeting. >> Ah, okay. >> Yeah, >> I didn't come to that one. >> You know how our discussions are, they they wind follow a winding road. >> It's noticing. >> Yeah, it's good. Honestly, this doesn't seem like it's that risky, especially, you know, I mean, at 8 months, you're but it'll either come into its own, it'll probably take six months before it, you know, fully
103fleshes out whether it's going to work or not. And at 8 months, then we're, you know, do we, you know, thumbs up, thumbs down. Well, the other thing here is that um you know these kinds of things typically have a lot to do with employee uh you know u being happy with their position. The f the first thing you want to do to piss somebody off is mess up their pay. And so that's uh that's that it's an important part of this particularly for the employees of the of the school district to make sure that we get that right. and uh you know explain it well to everybody. So I mean I'm think it's you know I'm all in for that. >> All right. Do we have any other questions for these everybody before we
104bring it back to a vote? Thanks for your answers in the discussion everybody. >> You're welcome. Trey and I have been collaborating on this for months and we finally got DD answered all Dee's questions. So >> I like the far the fact that it's close-ended. You know, when we get into a discussion with a community member about us creating positions, we can cite this as an example of something that's closedended that we decided to try. >> All in favor of approving the motion to provide a stipen of $1,000 a month from November 2025 to June 2026 for Lisa Church. Say I. I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Five to nothing. Thankfully, we are on to policies. Good night, board. No more payroll. Do we have a motion to adopt revisions for policy 11
1051000? Excuse me. >> Motion to adopt revisions to policy 1000 legal status and operation. >> Do we have a second? >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Dei. >> Okay. So, remember that we're um we uh are going through the 1000s right now, trying to look at policies that haven't been looked at since 2011 or maybe since then, but um and and just compare them to the current MTSBA policies, see if there's anything in there that we think that you would have concerns with. You get to read it over with the proposed changes from MTSBA um and decide if you'd like to move forward with it. Um, so this one you should be able to pull it up. >> No. >> Yes. Yeah. >> Yes. >> Do we have any questions from
106the community for DD regarding this policy change? Seeing none, comes back to the board. Any board questions? I wondered if you could explain what first class is. >> Yes. Means we the best. Um, first class is um, shoot. Now I'm not going to say the right words. >> It's not with the population in our county. >> That's right. The population of the county, not the population of our school district. >> Yeah. Right. So all double A's are first class, but there are some other aids that are first class. And some of the like other districts within our county are also first class because even though they're smaller schools because our county has a high population. >> So like West Joelstone would be a first class school. >> Um I would have to look that up.
107Um how how it works and how close you have to be to the center. Like >> it sounds like it's what more than just being in the county. >> Yeah. Well, it is based off of the county first and then there's other criteria, but I'd have to look it up. one of those links at the bottom um for the MCA will tell you um >> the definition. >> Okay, >> speaking of definitions, what exactly is a free quality education? >> Well, there's something called a dennial study going on right now that they're taking a look at that and trying to figure out that very answer. >> We're on 53 years of trying to define that. Okay. Any other questions for DD before we bring this back to a >> vote? Yeah. >> MCA available online.
108>> All those in favor of approving the revisions to policy 1000 say I. >> I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries five to nothing. Policy 1113. Do we have a motion to continue? Motion to adopt revisions to policy 1113. They cons. >> We have a motion in a second. Duty. >> Um, so same thing. This one hasn't been reviewed or updated since 2014. Um, M MTSBA's model policy uh prompted a review to ensure consistency with current law and governance standards. uh clarifies that a trust's resignation may include a spec specified effective date provided by the resigning trustee um and that you know the board has to has to accept it based on that date. Um and also that a trustee position may be declared vacant vacant if a current trustee ceases to have the legal
109capacity to hold office under any other provision of law. Okay. Any uh public questions or comments? Comes back to the board. Any board questions or comments? >> Um this uh policy references the the trustee fails to attend three consecutive meetings. You can vacate it. But the we're striking that very language from the next policy we're reviewing. Is it just so it doesn't exist in two spots or >> Oh, I guess I did notice that. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Well, that's right. >> It's like they split it into two policies. >> That's a good catch because I I we were just going off of the recommendations from the MTSBA policies. So, um >> I know that there is >> I don't know if it matters. >> There is something in the law about three. You know
110what I would get? I can't speculate >> policies the law if we make it. Yeah, but my speculation is is that they don't need it in two places and it probably didn't fit correctly in vacancies. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> So, they took it out and put it in the other one. >> Okay. >> Cuz they put or >> they took it out in 1240. >> They also took took out the absent from the district for 60 consecutive >> makes more sense in vacancies than in duties. >> That Yeah. Yeah. >> I think that's a lot of what they did in their cleanup. >> Yeah. is put them where they thought they were better suited. >> You know, there was a committee that wasted hours in discussing this one or this one. So, >> it
111doesn't matter in the grants team. >> Fair assessment. >> All right. We all good with the synergy now? >> All in favor of approving the revisions to policy 1113 vacancies say I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Five to nothing. Revisions to policy 1240. Do we have a motion to continue? >> Motion to adopt revisions to policy 1240, duties of individual trustees. >> A second. Do we have a motion and a second? De. >> Um, well, we just talked about the changes here, right? So, deleting those two pieces that were moved into the other one into uh 1113. Um and then just that statement that board members as individuals have no authority over school affairs except as provided by laws authorized by the board. Comments made in perspectives expressed by individual trustees in their
112personal capacity do not reflect the official position of the board or the district. That's just new language that MTSBA added. >> Pretty boilerplate to me. It's >> timely. Do we have any public comment or questions on policy 1240? Seeing none, comes back to the board. Any board questions or comments. Shall we vote? All in favor approving revisions to policy 1240, duties of individual trustees, say I. I. >> I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Five to nothing. And our final policy of the evening, number 5250. I make a motion to adopt policy number 5250 nonrenewal of employment/dismissal from employment. >> Second. We have a motion and a second. >> Okay. So this is remember last month we talked about policy 5252 and that was the one that talked about um nonre if you were nonrenewing
113non-tenured staff for financial reasons you had to disclose that. Um so Frank brought some questions forward about that. We um went back and looked at because we get draft policy from MTSBA and we get draft policy from Beia Kaliva's office. So we looked at Beia's draft and she referred back to this policy 5250 non-renewal of employment and dismissal from employment and from her perspective believes that this covers that situation. It covers any time that you would be non-renewing somebody for employment and it's more of a just a general statement saying that you have to follow the law >> which does not put us in the position of saying because of financial >> we have to follow a law so but >> you know >> we like >> yes I think that's better >> yes >>
114so I put so last last month you tabled 5252 that should have been under um >> yeah, >> old business, but um because it's a different policy number, I dropped that and put put this one in. >> Okay. Any public questions or comments? Comes back to the board. I thought it was vague until I just noticed in conformity with state statutes. >> Yeah. >> And district policy. Yeah. >> Appropriately vague. Yeah. >> Any further questions before it comes back to a vote? All in favor of approving policy 5250, non-renewal of employment and dismissal from employment, say I. I. I. All oppose, same sign. Motion carries five to nothing. And that concludes our meeting for this evening. Thank you everybody for attending.