001As 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. Do we have any public comment on
002a non-aggenda item? Okay, looks like we have a number of people who would like to speak. Um, just to set some ground rules. Typically run about 2 minutes. It's not something that's strictly enforced, but I want you to know, you know, be respectful of everybody in this room. We have a lot of stuff to cover tonight. Be concise. And if when you get past about 2 or 3 minutes, I'll raise my hand to let you know before I have to cut you off. So, whoever would like to come up first, please come up and state your name and address the board. Good evening. My name is Cindy Stone and up until May 6, 2025, I was the orchestra teacher in Bgrade School District. I would like to explain to the board in an abbreviated series
003of events that led to my resignation from Belgrade schools. I was diagnosed with leukemia in May of 2024, one week before orchestra's trip to France. I did not make my diagnosis public knowledge all summer. When school started in the fall, it was time to let my students and their families know I was sick. I spoke with school administration and moved forward. However, the day before I was to speak with students, I was required to meet with human resources for over an hour in order to prevent me from telling families and students of my illness. I chose to move forward with informing students and families, but had district and school administration present every class throughout the day. Many taking notes and few greeting me as they entered or speaking to me at all. In October 2024,
004I began passing out at school, and my doctors recommended that I take one day off a week in order to reset rest and continue to work. I did this. This did help with passing out, but not with the extreme exhaustion that came from working full-time. On February 3rd, I met with school principles to inform them that I would be seeking a medical leave of absence for the 2526 school year. At the request of principles, I found a highly qualified strings educator to take over for me during that time. I was told that the job would be posted quote soon and quote by the end beginning of March and that quote the paperwork had been submitted by school administration end quote. Human resources was notified by administration immediately after I notified principles in mid-March. I let
005students and parents know that I was seeking a medical leave of absence for the 2526 school year during an in-class performance. A week prior to these performances, I informed human resources and school administration. At the end of March, I was asked to submit answers to questions regarding my illness, treatment, inabilities to perform tasks, and any accommodations that could be implemented by the school. April 10th, Belgrade School District, human resources, and district administration received letters from both of my primary oncologists stating plainly and clearly that cancer and treatment required a medical leave of absence from July 1st, 2025 to June 30th, 2026. District administration informed me at the end of April that they needed more information regarding my illness, symptoms, and any limitations to my ability to teach. In a meeting with district administration, I was
006told that by telling students and families six weeks after notifying the district of my request for medical leave, I was forcing the district to grant to grant me my leave or to be quote the bad guys. Additionally, I in was informed by school administration that despite the orchestra enrollment being over 220 students, 170 at the middle school and 50 at the high school at the time, there was no ability to decrease class sizes by adding another section of orchestra at the high school and that there would be no ability to provide a larger space for the orchestra class, meaning that 50 orchestra students and instruments would be meeting in the band room, a comp a space completely too small for that number of students. It was made known to me that the orchestra room at
007the middle school would be taken over daily by the cafeteria because there was a desire to install a salad bar where the wall for the orchestra room was. When I asked to participate in the planning of this, I was told that I would not be part of the discussion. The actions of district administration and the perceived unwillingness for accommodation for larger class sizes and a thriving orchestra program that needed building and district support made it clear that I was simply a number to Belgrade leadership. I was not a person, not a valued teacher, just a number. It took the district three months after my request for a medical leave of absence to post the orchestra job, but it wasn't in response to my request. The orchestra teacher job for Belgrade School District was posted within
0084 hours of my resignation. For district administration, I am just a number and I am highly replaceable. Throughout the course of these events, the actions, responses, and lack of care displayed by all levels administration at various times has been highly concerning. I would encourage the school board to look into the 31 Belgrade staff who had resigned since April 18th or April 23rd. 18 of which are teachers. Teachers were don't resign because of students. Teachers resigned because of all levels of administration. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. I saw some other hands. Would somebody else like to step up? Please, please come on up. If you would please state your name. My name is Katherine Eer and I would like to say something on behalf of the Belgrade Orchestra program. Over the last seven years,
009the Belgrade community has invested in music by their overwhelming support of an orchestra program at Belgrade Middle and high schools. My son has benefited from this support. He has learned to play the violin, but also understands more about its cultural and historical impact. He has had the opportunity to play with and learn from professional musicians from various backgrounds and to play for D-Day in France. I would like to ask that the orchestra program continue to honor his desire to continue orchestra and the desires of the many, many other students participating in the program. This is an elective that not only teaches technique and playing instruments, but also music appreciation and cultural acceptance. But the community has also benefited from the orchestra. Many people who have supported my son with donations to his trip to France
010or to other orchestra fundraisers have asked to have information about the concerts and the events. I would ask the orchestra program continue to honor the desires of the community to um participate to um the desires of the community which has supported it. This is an elective that gives back to community more than it takes. It gives back inspiration and joy. This is shown by the overwhelming attendance to rocker concerts and by the comments of community members I've spoken to. Butistra is not just an elective that teaches. It's not just an elective that gives back to the community. So many community members have watched videos of the trip to France. They have um attended the rock orchestra concerts. This elective has become part of her community's cultural and cared human experience. I would like to ask
011that the orchestra program continue um and that we continue to support orchestra because it's something that is part of community itself. Well, in some sense, students, students who have been so well taught and inspired, who have participated in this community in this way will carry this on with them the rest of their lives. But I know school is also a terrific place, um, a setting where there is structure and instruction to match their enthusiasm and inspiration. So, please continue with the orchestra program in order to allow younger students to continue to have the instruction and inspiration and community they need. Thank you. Thank you, Catherine. Did we have other Please stop, excuse me, step up and state your name. State your name, please. My name is Rebecca Anderson. I have two kids in the Belgrade
012schools. I'm here to advocate for all the kids in Belgrade orchestra. Pardon me. I'm here in support of the parents who not could not be here and I'm here to advocate for the orchestra to continue and that it gets placed on the school board's agenda. I'm going to tell you a lot of things you already know. There is a lot of research on music education. It's shown to improve test scores across all subjects. Learning to read music is like learning another language. Um, music reduces stress. Performance teaches the kids how to get in front of an audience, much like public speaking. Here, you can tell I'm a little nervous. Um, and most of all, music is fun. As you all know, Belgrade Orchestra started several years ago. thanks to our director's hard work and contagious
013energy um that she had with the kids that it has grown to over 200 kids. Um one of my kids has gone through all um of those years and um stopping orchestra would slow down her growth in order to attend our universities in Montana. And on that note, for decades, the current the past and current leadership in our state um has had an issue with keeping our kids in our state. And so, it's a priority in Montana to keep our kids in their programs so that they move on and benefit our state with their jobs and staying and living here. Um also, Bgrade is now a double A school as you know, and orchestra is part of that. So, we need to keep it going. Um, my other student uh is in middle school and
014she is excelling. She's only had two years. Um, they both play in the rock orchestra and have been greatly influenced by Mark Wood. Um over the next few days and weeks of school that are left, um I request that the board keeps the substitutes active with the kids, keeps them in the classroom and keeps them playing their instruments. They know what to do and they know how to get things going. They don't need to go outside for recess every day. They can play. So, um, in that, um, I'm the voice of many and I'd like to see the board put Belgrade Orchestra and its continuence on your future summer agendas. Thank you. Thanks for your comments. Did we have any other people who would like to make a comment this evening on a non-aggenda item?
015Okay. I appreciate everybody standing up and letting us know what you feel. Uh that said, we'll move on to the next item in our agenda, which is our superintendent report. Di, thank you. Thank you all for being here. Um and we're looking forward to honoring our um students in just a minute. Uh we'd like to thank the voters for participating in the school election earlier this month. The mill levies each needed around 150 additional yes votes to reach a majority to pass. So we um were a little short there. Uh we look forward to continuing to share with our community the importance of our lo local funding as um one of the components of um how schools are funded across the state. Um and the budget that will be the budget will be adopted by
016the trustees that happens every August. And in the meantime, we'll be looking at where the the $165,000 um where those cuts will happen. Um uh uh congratulations to Trusty Scarvert and Nordhagen for their reappoint and to Walt Ders and Llaya Beard who you'll meet in a few minutes. Um they'll be joining the board tonight. The many thanks to the people who ran for uh school board trustee. It's a it's a big task to do that and we appreciate our community members who um are willing to you know um open the door to that idea. Uh, special thanks goes to outgoing trustees Mary Ellen Fitzgerald and Holly Murray. Um, and we'll have a few words to celebrate them in a few minutes. Um, we're very pleased to see an acrosstheboard increase in our ACT scores. Um,
017and we're going to hear about that a little bit later from our high school principal. And we would also like to thank Tyler Miller, assistant principal at the high school, for his work here in the district. and we wish him well as he moves to Maryland um this summer. Tyler, you want to stand up? Um, one last thing. We'll be hosting a public meeting on Wednesday, May 28th. So, a week from Wednesday, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. right here in this room um to get your ideas and insights into the designs that we're making um for the fourth elementary school. So, come give us your feedback. We have we have um you know, ways for you to look at what the inside of the building might look at. you can give us your feedback on
018classrooms, you can give us your feedback on the way the building is set up, on um parking and student pickup, all those great things. Um so we'd love to have you join us here. We'll be sending that information out to families and through social media. Um so a week from Wednesday, the May 28th from 6:00 to 7:00 right here in this room. Love to see you. Thank you. Okay, we have some uh student and staff recognition. Lesie. Good evening. I'm Leslie Atinson, public information officer. I would like to start by inviting our Belgrade High School ProStart students up to the front, please. I'll give a quick summary and then um if you want to turn around this way, we'll we'll give you a chance to do both ways. Um so, Belgrade High School students competed
019in the Montana ProStart contest in March. Belgrade won both the culinary and the management categories at the state level and was invited to attend and compete at the national competition in Baltimore earlier this month. The teams represented Belgrade in Montana well and placed 34th in culinary and 45th in management. The culinary team had a menu that consisted of a starter applewood smoked trout salad, corn and bean suatach with a chimmy chur sauce. Their entree was pan seared bison tenderloin with parmesan mushroom pan sauce, creamy palenta, sauteed zucchini, balsamic green beans, and blistered tomatoes. And their dessert was a chocolate pumpkin seed tort with chocolate ganache, black bean truffles, Bavarian cream, and a chocolate cardamom crumble with a straw strawberry huckleberry Um, the management team created a concept restaurant called Louis Lounge with jazz music and
020a full menu. Their presentation included a full restaurant design, menu cur curation, and marketing. Courtney, would you like to add anything? [Laughter] We actually found out this week that they had miss um I guess tallied the score. So, culinary actually got 33rd instead of 34th. So, that was kind of cool. We got that little bump, I guess. Um, so yeah, it was really awesome to be able to represent Montana again in Baltimore. Um, they competed and they made us very proud. They, um, yeah, I couldn't have been more prouder than what we were. We were able to make it kind of a fun trip as well since state competition is always over our spring break. So, we were able to go to DC for a day and do a little bit of touring around and
021then just a little bit of fun extra things just right around Baltimore there. We were able to take Mr. Miller with us as well. He was really fun chap to take with us since he's from that area. Be like, uh, where do you guys want to eat? And they're like, I don't know. It's like, Mr. Miller, where's some place good to eat? Um, but yeah, we had a really great time and we're really thankful for all the community support that has that has shown our program and we continue to and we'll continue to kind of keep shining. Thank you. So, to recognize these students, our culinary team is comprised of Norah Elliot, Haley Hus, Carly Stevens, Ally Pearson, and Spencer Miller. Turn around. And then our management team is comprised of Charles Dearan, Eli Hill,
022Noah Turnquist Lynn, and Chase Kinnaman. You guys want to turn around so your parents can see us? Nicely done, guys. So, we have one more uh acknowledgement here and then we'll take a couple photos. So, if everybody would just sit tight for a few minutes and the next one, Leslie. Perfect. Thank you. She can have a seat. I would like to invite our Belgrade High School District Music Festival participants and uh winners. So, Belgrade music students performed well at district music festival in April. Our large ensembles such as band and choir performed in Bosezeman and earned topped top ratings. On Saturday, students competed in Helena with solos, duets, and small ensembles. The following students earned a superior rating, which is the top that you can get at district music festival. So for our instrumental students,
023we have McKenzie Cardwell, Casey Clemens, Ivy Kai, Caitlyn Williams, and a saxophone quintet that is uh Mackenzie Cardwell, Casey Clemens, and you Andrew Renan, Connor, Connor Simple, and Derell West Morland. In addition, we had the following students earn a superior rating in their vocal performance. Alyssa Jakeel, Alyssa Wartz, Gracie Therie, Emma Anderson, and Katie Pendleton. The following students earned an excellent rating, which is also very, very good. And the instrumental students are Payton Pitman and a trombone duet with Dylan Buts and Jaden Luciani. And the vocal students earning an excellent rating are McKenna Jasper, Alexa Hogland, Thomas Alred, Henry Stock, Dileia Turner, Rebecca Nelson, and Rory Iverson. Congratulations. If you want to turn around and say hello, wave, and we'll take a quick photo and then you can be on your way. All right, everybody.
024Thanks for your patience. I guess we'll resume um our leader reports and somewhat of student staff recognition. We have our validictorian Viper Bell in the house. And this is your last report, correct? It is. Yes. Um so within the past month been kind of crazy as we're wrapping up um towards the end of the school year. Um the week of May 5th we did celebrate teacher appreciation week. Um student council planned it all out. Had some sweet treats for the teachers. Um had a traveling snack cart to their meetings one of the days. Um, and then we had members write personal notes to the teachers just to thank them for everything that they do because we really do appreciate everything that they do within their teaching um, both inside of school hours and outside of
025school hours. Um, so we just hope that they know that we do appreciate them and that we recognize their hard work. Um, and then we also had AP testing the last two weeks. It's not completely done. believe there's still some makeup and late exams, but um something new with that this year was that um most of them were digital or some form of hybrid digital, which um is all new this year. I think it went pretty well overall um at least from my experience and from what I've heard from peers who took the tests. Our baseball, track, and softball teams all leave for state this week. Um baseball and softball both got first place in their conferences, which was exciting. and um we wish them luck on their performances within the next few days. Um
026seniors only have 10 days left um of school. Um with that, they get a we're going to do a walkth through at the elementary schools um which is always super fun. I remember being a little elementary schooler watching all the seniors walk by and thinking how it was going to take forever until I was there. Um and then with that, because it is my last meeting, we do have um our student council elections coming up. um going to have elections for all positions um for both student body and representatives for each grade. We had a few members go over to the middle school to meet with their student council um kind of promote continuation over at the high school um make it more familiar to them and yeah with that there'll be a new student
027representative the next meeting. So all right, thanks for everything Piper. Okay, that brings us to the board report. Does anyone in the board have anything they'd like to share? I do. Um, I went to the ProStart fundraiser the other night. Um, all of those kids were incredibly professional, incredibly respectful, um, talking about their experience and seeing the community come out for that. I will say um it we it would be great to see more attendance at things like that and and figure out a way to get more um people to be able to attend, but we also understand there's lots of events going on and a lot of families are pulled different directions. Um the other thing I went to was the STEM night at the middle school and that was also a fantastic event.
028Um it's really shows the partnership between uh our Bgrade school district and Gallatin College and the opportunities that are there for those kids starting at fifth grade. Pretty cool. Okay. Anyone else? Holly Marielen, this is your last chance. All right. Hearing no more, we move on to the principles. Let's see. I didn't see who was here from the elementary school. So I think they were just um they have put their end ofear events into your into assembly. So you can take a look at those if you have any questions about those. Um we were in the and looking at time. We were going to go ahead and let the high school principal talk about the ACT scores. Um unless you have any questions for the elementary and middle school representatives. All right, Shana. Good evening.
029Thank you. Just to be brief. I'll get it one of these days, Carrie. Um, good evening. Thank you. Uh, I'll be brief tonight. Um, but I wanted to celebrate and share with you some good news. um we got our 25 ACT scores back and um we went uh there was an increase in our scores across the board. Um in fact in science there was a 1.3 increase um in ELA there was a 1.1 math a 1.1 um so uh our composite went up 0.9. So I think that this is a great sign. We've been working hard over the last couple years to make sure we're collecting data and analyzing that data and figuring out how we can very much target our approach to increasing our ACT scores and that's that's certainly paying off. I would
030like to thank Mr. Horesley for his tireless efforts in coordinating all of the testing at the high school. um those kids flowing in and out of the office when it's ACT time. And so he's always very good to the kids and they're receptive to um him getting them organized and prepared um all the way through. So I just wanted to share that with you and let you know that I'm proud of our students. They're really um they're really picking it up uh where they need to and they're asking for support and they're helping us target how we can improve our ACT scores. Thanks, Shannon. Any questions? How many kids? All of our juniors take it. So, we're talking about 200. And Bert, do you remember the exit? 229. Anything else? Congratulations. Still is with Leroy.
031Good evening folks. Um uh I put in simply uh a sort of a breakdown of timeline of um the renovation of the bathrooms at the middle school. Uh it was slated to start tonight, but there was a slight delay. So it sounds like they're going to be starting tomorrow night, but they will be they're dropping off a rolloff dumpster. Um if you guys have had a chance to review that timeline, do you have any questions? Otherwise, I would just be reading from it. No. Okay. Right. No. Go ahead. Okay. Uh consent agenda. Do we have a motion to continue? I move to adopt the consent agenda items one through six as listed on the agenda and board packet. Authorize necessary action for these items and include the same in the minutes. Oh, I'll second. We
032have a motion and a second. Do we have any public comment on the consent agenda? How about any board comment? Seeing none, it comes back to a vote. All in favor of approving the consent agenda as stated, say I. I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Seven to nothing. Uh, prior business. Let's see what we have here. There is no prior business. Uh, the election. Di, do you want to talk about that? We need to make a motion, please. Oh, sure. Let's make a motion to continue. 2025 election results as certified by the county election administrator, Eric Simon. Second. We have a motion in a second. Dei, did you want to say anything? No, this is just the um this is what we do after there's an election is we um accept the results
033that were provided to us. Okay. Any public comments? Any board comments? Comes back to a vote, right? All in favor of approving the election results say I. I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion passes seven to nothing. All right. Now we get to the sad part. [Laughter] So, Mary Ellen and Holly, would you please stand and be acknowledged? I'm too old. So, we've uh we've all worked with these two um for between six and 10 years. they've given a lot to the district and I felt it was fair to kind of acknowledge some facts about them which are important. So I'll start with uh Polly. Um I'm not sure everybody knows she has three daughters. She's going to be considered for saintthood. Uh she graduated in 1998 from Corbalis very young. She's been married to
034her husband Ron for 21 years. Um she's fought a fought a very public battle with breast cancer the past two years. And I wanted to acknowledge and admire your persistence and maintaining your board duties and your family duties as well as helping somebody outside of your family. You have a very lovely family and very welcoming and it's an honor to have known and worked with you. And we'll go back to Marielle and her. Yours is a little bit longer because you're older. Well, I was going to do it all at once. We'll get them both here in a second. Marilyn was embarrassed. She didn't like public acknowledgement, but I told her it was tough since it's her last meeting. So, she has quite the uh dockative experience. Um she started at school in 1948 in
035Belgrade. Is that right? She had long history with Belgrade. Went to high school, went to college, and in 1964 started teaching in the fall at Terry, Montana. She taught there for 5 years and in 1969 some superintendent named Milton who was at Terry came to Bosezeman reached out to her and brought her back to this area. So she taught 7th through 9th grade English history and social studies for 32 years. Very impressive. Um in November of 2002 she decided she wasn't done. So she ran for county superintendent. Served three terms. worked for 12 years and then retired because she couldn't run for Belgrade trustee without being retired. So, she started this in 2015, served three terms, nine years plus one one-year term, and she estimates she has taught over 5,000 kids and who knows how
036many dangling participles she's eliminated. So I think I just wanted to say like with these two they realized the need to participate in the education of our students and our community stepped up and filled the void admirably and our district is in a much better place and going in the right direction because of you guys' efforts. So I just wanted to thank you and I'd hope you' all join me. I don't know. Dei is going to give you some gifts. I got to pull myself together. So, we have um we just have a little um piece of memory that they can sit somewhere special for them that um says uh for Holly Murray board of trustee, you will always be remembered for your vision, leadership, and dedication to our students and community 2019 to 2025.
037And then for Mary Ellen, um you will always be remembered for your vision, leadership, and dedication to our students and community 2015 to 2025. And then Mary Ellen, because we're also celebrating a career that was dedicated to public education, also gets a very special bell that she can ring whenever she wants one of us to come mow her [Laughter] lawn. It says, "Thank you, Mary Ellen Fitzgerald, for your years of service and dedication to the education of Whoops, sorry, Montana's students 2025." We'll let Mary Ellen ring the bell. We have a special guest here too. Godfrey, did you want to say anything? Speech. Speech. Speech. I got to step up to the microphone. I hope you signed in, too. You know, I uh thanks for letting me say a couple of words, but I uh
038I've had the pleasure to work with both Holly and Mary Ellen. Uh Mary Ellen I've known for 42 years. And uh Holly I haven't known you as long, but it was a pleasure. You know, one of the things that I I my mom used to tell me that um you want to hang around people and get to know people and who will make you better as a human being and better as a a professional. I feel that you you've done that for me and countless others. I and I hope that uh I wish you the best in in your retirement from this board. There is life after boarding, you know. I know that too. But thank you for everything that you've done and um yeah, you're just a light of everything. Thank God you were
039there when I was here. God bless you both. I didn't realize we have another Bill Grade celebrity. Dude, did you want to say anything? You have anything you want to say? You worked with these two for a long time as well. They're kind of hiding there. [Laughter] Well, I got to work with both Holly and Marie Ellen and it was a pleasure. I you when you meet someone on the board, you don't know what you're getting. You don't I mean and but they were so dedicated and we went from working partnership to being friends that I just consider both of you a dear friend and congratulations. I've been off this is the first time I've been in this room in three years and uh you I didn't miss it because I was a trustee for
04019 and a half years and so I I really hate to say that I don't miss it that I almost but it was a truly good honorable experience and I'm glad I did it. Thank you. wants to take a quick picture. Then we need to get on Thanks. Yeah. Where is John? Okay, John, you ready? Come on up. And I'm not sure how you'd like us to do this. Did you Did you want us up there? Okay. Do Step up here, Steve. You're on camera. You can face John. There you go. Congratulations. All right. I'm the county superintendent school, so I get to swear them in. So, if you would repeat that. If you want to just okay here. All right. Ready? I do solemnly affirm that I will support and defend I the United
041States and Montana Constitution. Montana Constitution. I will faithfully execute the duties of office. I faithfully execute the duties of all with fidelity with and regard the best interests of the students to the best interest of the students in their and their education in all decisions and all decisions. Congratulations. Before we sit down, does anybody want to move around? from the board because we've had like 13 years of same board charted and created some bad politics. We kind of just decided we would go just rotate through to that for Boseman and we're not Bman and this is fine. We should be a habit of third or fourth year but we make up our mind but we don't want you or you don't want to do anything. Yeah. Just wait until you see what I can do
042in my second year. Okay. All in favor of the election of Steve Garbert as board chair say I. And I don't think I can vote on this. Can I It won't matter. Okay, you're good. I I Motion carries six to nothing. Uh, next item is the election of a board vice chair. Do we have a nomination? I'll nominate Jesse Mloud for vice chair. I'll second. We have a motion and a second. Not seeing any comment. Comes back to the board for a vote. All in favor of Jesse's nomination for her second term as vice chair say I. I. I. Motion passes. Second to nothing. Seven to nothing. And our last item is the motion to appoint our district clerk. A motion to appoint Carrie Fischer as the district clerk for the ensuing year. I'll second.
043We have a motion in a second. Do not believe we ask for public comment. Do we have any board comment? It's been great working with you past how many years? It's crazy. Um, it's been a very positive experience, change in direction that was sorely needed and I'm glad you're back. Thank you, Carrie. All in favor of approving the appointment of Carrie Fischer as district clerk, say I. I. I. Motion passes. Nothing. New business. So, for you new board members, we'll go over a few things for new business. This is the first part is mainly for you to just kind of learn about some of the stuff we've been doing with our new school. Um, we have a presentation. Dee, did you want to talk about this? No. Okay. But Brian does. Brian does. Good evening
044everyone. Um, I'll just make a quick introduction tonight. You'll see or hear from our architect, SMA, and from our construction manager, Langlist Associates. Uh, we've been hard at work since we met last month. Um, we continue to meet as a building committee and furthermore, we've also had the architect meeting with uh specific user groups throughout your district to try and solicit input and comment on important topics regarding classrooms and spaces and whatnot. And so being in the design development phase of the project, uh those have been very meaningful uh meetings and times together and really informative. So happy to see those comments become incorporated into the design. Following with that, uh you'll see at least um made reference to tonight uh on the design side, some um some reflection of comments we've heard from this
045board as well. It's still a work in progress, but I think um SMA will be able to do speak to um a few adjustments they've made to the plan that like I said reflect comments we've heard. Uh and then also um Langless and Associates tonight will run down uh they've been provide they've been working hard on a detailed schematic design level estimate. Um spoiler alert, we're still over budget. Um but uh it'd be important I think for you guys to hear from Langland and Associates as to uh what exactly they've been doing to arrive at the numbers that they'll share with you tonight at a very high level. Uh there's a lot of detail behind that that we're not going to get bogged down in tonight, but it's very available should any of you have
046questions about that. So I was wondering if you wanted to explain to Laya and what you're Yeah. Yeah. new trustees. Yeah. My name is Brian Tate um with Tate Management. I've been working at the district here uh for some time on capital projects. So, um, I've been assisting the district in in the details of construction and and design for a variety of projects and happy to be here and so I'm your representative um for for those tasks. So, I am Yeah. Thank you. So, with uh with that, I'll turn the time over to our team. Uh, who's first? Lee. Very good. And as always, if you have questions, um, please let me know. Thanks, Brent. Hello board. Good to see you all again. Um so we're actually kind of we'll go through this together here.
047Um we'll present uh Langless's. Uh so here's Lingless's schematic design cost summary. I'll let them kind of talk through that and then uh we can also talk about how some of the costs that we saw within this are affecting uh the early changes within our design development phase currently right now. Hey everyone, I'm Matt Drake. I know I've met a lot of you already, but for those uh that I haven't, it's good to be here. U and then this is Matt Spansky. So the Matsum commonly referred to Yeah. Uh so as Brian alluded to, there's uh quite a bit of detail behind this highle summary that you're seeing up on the screen. Um what we've done is we've kind of taken taken the blue outline here showing the currently designed phase one of the building
048and provided a building cost that that building cost is currently sitting at about 18.6 million. Then the green dash uh around the site that's the site package. So, all the landscaping, the the site work, the grading, hard surfaces, um the infrastructure to get uh services to the site, and that's sitting at about $3.5 million. And then the soft costs, that's the the uh design fees, the furnishings, uh permit costs. Um that's not a that that's not a bu one of our building costs. That's um what the the uh building committee has been tracking for a for soft cost. So adding all those up gets to $25.7 million which is um obviously a significant overrun u of the uh of the the current bond availability. Um, we've also kind of identified a potential ad alternate for
049consideration, just adding a 8,000 square foot gym based on some of the comments from the last meeting and what that could mean for additional costs above and beyond where we're currently sitting. So, um, from a high level, that's, uh, that's where we're sitting at today. um some of the uh behind the scenes uh how we've arrived at this cost. We've uh about five or six weeks ago we got SMA's schematic design package um sent that out to a number of contractors between 20 and 30, a lot of them local contractors um to solicit budgets from those contractors. uh put all those budgets together as well as our own pretty detailed takeoffs or counts of the building components um to arrive at these two costs. The um put that into a presentation of uh between 100
050and 200 individual line items and reviewed that over the course of I think two or three hour meeting one day with the uh with your building committee. Um, part of the purpose of that uh, review is to go through it in detail and make sure that what we're pricing early on before we have a lot of information aligns with what Lee and his team are where they're seeing the design going as well as where your building committee um, where it making sure we're in alignment with those uh, with those goals. So within that pricing effort, we also worked pretty heavily with SMA on looking and evaluating different structure types for kind of our our building footprint right now. Um looking at concrete masonry units or CMU blocks versus an all steel structure and ultimately arriving
051at a uh kind of a steel and pre-cast hybrid. um as well as looking at um other large driving costs mechanical systems for the building um envelope or building enclosure systems. Um so talking through those systems with SMA to kind of pick pick areas which we can you know maybe the design does not the the the change in structure does not allow for that type of facade to be applied to the building. So, what is an alternate facade that will meet within, you know, a budget or a a set price point for materials and making sure that we're pricing those in at this point and not changing those materials to something too expensive outside of what we were originally figuring at a later date. So, um so yeah, and I think Lee's got some kind
052of updated elevations or some some building changes that he can talk through. Yeah. So these are the images that we presented um at the end of SD. Uh so at the last board meeting that we had um and like Matt the Matts said um the biggest change that we kind of went through is at the end of SD within that package we had two structural systems um and we we ended up for the pricing effort going to kind of a hybrid. So the CMU portion here on the right that is our multi-purpose area that has changed to a pre-cast wall um system with some open web steel bearing trest on top of it. Uh and then the other part of the building where um the classrooms are at the admin and the library that's all
053going to be that steel um metal structure. Uh so that does mean that these this elevation um kind of the entire building facade is going to be changing and we're still working through that. Uh, and we we have a couple of upcoming building committee meetings um to kind of present and uh work through exactly how we want that to look before we come back to you and present a new facade of the structure. Um, but that does mean we're not going to be seeing uh the CMU on the exterior anymore. Um, we will be seeing some metal panel uh the potential for some brick. Um, you know, potential some limitations of uh the wood facade. We heard some comments on that. um you know trying trying to make this look a little bit more traditional
054uh potentially removing a little bit of the glass there in the library. Um so those are all pieces that uh are in the process right now and we're excited in the next phase uh or not in the next phase in the next meeting to show you. Um we just don't want to be uh presenting images before we kind of discuss it with our building committee team. Yeah. Any questions so far? We can go back to the the big piece too if we want to. Oh, you this by the way. Awesome. Yeah, I love this. Nice job. The green dash around site cost. Oh, sorry. The green dash around site costs. Um, is that like the physical boundary of those site costs? Have we considered any other outside like bringing in whatever the city's going to
055make us do? No, that that the current pricing accounts for what you're seeing on screen, which is obviously outside of that project boundary. So, it is accounting for bringing utility services to the project site. It is not currently it it does not currently contemplate any work with Frank Road having to tear tear Frank Road out and replace it but it is uh it is accounting for bringing the utility services through here which was shown in the schematic design package. Okay. That is with a on-site lift station to a gravity drain. I know there was some talk about a potential drain field out there but we're trying to stay away from that option. Thank you. You said that uh that Frank Road rebuilt. Are we going to be at all responsible for any upgrades to Frank
056Road? I know if you drive Frank Road right now, it's dying a miserable death. Oh, yeah. So, are we going to be responsible for any upgrades to Frank or is the city trying to get us with that county or anything or what's our obligation there? Yeah, you got it. Um the answer is uh maybe probably. So what we've done is yeah so what there's a bigger picture here and that is annexation into the city of L grade and annexation uh comes with stipulations of connecting two municipal uh utilities water and sewer and it also recognizes um our potential impacts of traffic to city infrastructure and roads. So, uh, we have submitted, we have paid for and submitted a traffic impact study, uh, updated from the last one we did to the city, and we're waiting
057for those comments back. That traffic traffic impact study, uh, recognizes not only, um, impacts from Belgrade schools potential load onto this area, but it also recognizes a lot of existing deficiencies to that road. And so, uh, my initial answer in the definite maybe or probable maybe, um, we'll look to strike a balance between, uh, existing deficiencies around this parcel, including Frank Road, and, uh, what effects our project have on the same. Um mostly you know what what our what our hope is that um our impacts focus more on um signage and traffic control than um a full new road section for example. But uh you'd be correct to say that Frank Road is uh not in tip-top shape. And of course now I think it also has a spring closure due to um wet roads
058and and load restrictions. So it's I I I'd question the legality of bringing school buses through there. Right now it's I think that you're right. It's weight restricted. Yeah. So more to come on that. So did I answer your question? Kind of. If if that did let me ask it this way. If that did, would that add to that 5 million that were already in the red on this project? Most definitely. Any idea how much? No. There there's a whole lot to get going. That could be a signal. It could be widening, right? I mean, there could be, you know, at a turn lane, roundabout at the other end of it where the fire department's going. Yeah. And again, no, Go ahead. No, it just it seems like it's I get why it's hard to
059speculate. Um, I would say we also need to be cautious. We were, the city actually worked with us pretty good on the last one and then we flash forward a few years and everybody hates the drop off and pickup at our new school because it's too narrow and people can't get through and there's not a chance for EMS and that was our some of that was our own doing. So, so it it's a tricky topic in that uh we've we've explained all along that improvements to Frank are expected if possible to be scalable over time. Right? So, we have a 60acre campus here that over time will see growth and that improvements to Frank um over time will be more and more dramatic as the the need requires and that we're hoping that we can
060take baby steps to start with uh to address that and like I said um partner with Belgrade in potentially their responsibilities in some deferred improvements to the same. So, um, like Frank said, it's been a good relationship, an open relationship, and we'll continue to, um, to work in that way. Sometimes it depends on other stakeholders as well. I believe the fire department is no longer going to build out there, right? Actually, I think they are. They are. Yeah, they uh they have last I'd spoken with them somewhat recently, their most recent idea um has to do with I think a maintenance facility in that area that could scale up to a department um as funds allow. Sometimes the first person has to take the first step. So like for the other school for Story Creek,
061we actually Godfrey arranged all of that to be built I believe and then the other stakeholders paid us back over time. That was part of the agreement. So, okay, there's there's considerations you can take going forward. All right, that's a great point, Steve, because um there would be um cost sharing in that for anyone benefiting from those kinds of improvements. So, it's not an all or nothing proposition. What about Thorp Road? We're not going to be on the hook for any of that at all. Say, say again. Thorp road. We're not going to be on. It's not going to be at all involving Thorp Road, which is Thorp Road is part of the traffic impact study as is Amsterdam, as is Jack Rabbit, right? So, all those roads collect traffic to and from the site.
062So, they have a varying degree of burden, I think, but um that's all part of uh the the large view. All right. Thank you. Any other questions for these gentlemen? Okay, guess we're done. Appreciate your time, guys. Thanks for coming back. Thank you. Okay, so this brings us to our next items in the agenda, potential items, is the uh contract. Let's see non-renewals. I think I need to I just realized this. So, we have a motion to continue with item number two. You got to speak in the mic, Rocky. I make a motion to approve non-renewal contract without cause of the listed certified non uh tenure employees in accordance with section 20-4-206 MCA. I'll second. Have a motion and a second. Uh D, do you just want to give a quick summary of this section
063number? Um this is just the recommendation for non-renewal certified non-tenured teachers. Um and you can read uh we've added included uh 20-4-206 the language from that um down below in the um in the board packet. Okay. Thank you. Any board comment before we continue with the vote? All in favor of the approval of non-tenured certified contract nonre the non tenure certified contract nonrenewals. Oh, I'm sorry. Did I do ask do we have any public comment? All right. Apologize. Hearing none, comes back to a vote. All in favor of approval of non-tenured certified contract non-renewals recommendation say I. I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Seven to nothing. Uh I wasn't sure if we could bundle a lot of these. N can't. Can we? We can. Um because Mary Ellen's not here anymore. Well, we
064could anyway. So, I I purposely Sometimes there's truth and sometimes there's just what we do. So, I purposely left the non-approve non the non-approval non-renewals out first. Um for the newer board members, you there's a list of all the people in here. If you don't have an objection with any of the people in the list, we can make a motion to include all of these and vote on it at once versus doing it individually. So, in the future, you'll see this ahead of time and maybe have something that you want to say in private. And at that point, we would you would just let us know and we would pull it out. But I think I mean, I don't have any objections with any of this. So, if somebody has something, stitch your piece now.
065Otherwise, we should probably just vote on these all at once. Dee, is this the same list that you and I went over in your office here a few days ago? Yes, it is. Thank you. Or we can do it one at a time. So to do that, you would just have somebody make the motion, make each of the motions um that are listed there. So it would be for numbers. Wait, I need my glasses. Three through seven. Um could be combined if you're comfortable with that. Good. Yes. Show us how, Jesse. I move to approve the listed non-tenured certified employees for contract renewal. Uh, and then it went away. Um, what's going on? Uh, for the 2025 2026 school year, the list tenur certified employees for renewal of their contract. Um, it's all the same
066thing. Each one is the same thing. Do I just keep saying I just say items three through seven for their contract for the 2025 2026 school year. The listed tenure administrator contracts for renewal for the 2025 2026 school year. And the listed classified professional contracts for renewal for the 2025 2026 contract year from July 1st, 2025 to June 30th, 2026. I'll second. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any public comment on any of these items? Seeing none, comes back to the board. Any board comment or questions? All right. All in favor of approving items three through seven on the agenda say I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Seven to nothing. Item number eight, transportation hourly wages. Make a motion to approve the hourly pay increase of $1 per hour
067by adding it to each cell of the transportation department pay matrix beginning July 1st, 2025. I'll second. Have a motion and a second. Do we have any public comment on the transportation hourly wages increase? Any board comment? Di, you might want to say a little bit about the I can or I can. I don't really care. Um the especially for you two just sitting down here. We're about to approve a whole bunch of payraises for people. This is an exercise that we've gone through months primarily led by Carrie and representatives from each of the different groups that we talked to to come up with ways to pay people more to live here. It's involved some pretty hard decisions at each of the schools, but it's been a collaborative effort with the board. We have a
068finance committee that's I don't know probably a couple hundred hours each this year we've given. So, we've we've worked through all this and Carrie ran numbers and it this sets us up for having some closer competitive salaries with the people in the valley. Um hopefully increase our retention and that's so and I know when I sat there the first year it's just like what the hell is all this? And that has been very thoughtful and I just wanted you guys to know that because you're sitting over there about to pass a whole bunch of money. I could add on to that too. is very deliberate. Um, we sit back and work with collaborate with the administration. You know, it comes to us for a vote. So, we don't want them to go through a bunch
069of work and then have it come to us and shoot it down. But I, for lack of better word, we operate very fiscally conservatively. We don't want to overspend and end up at a place where we have to lay people off. So, committees has spent a lot of time preparing this so that it's easy for us to approve when it gets here. And I'm sure you'll figure out a lot of this once you get farther in and start helping. Uh any other comments? No. I I just want to say so that's on the record here that uh even though I'm going to support this right now, I think our transportation being a commercial driver is severely even with this dollar an hour below market for the valley and for the industry for what we are
070asking these people to do. Okay. We do what we can each year. All right. Any other comments before we bring it back to a vote? All in favor of the transportation hourly wage increase for 2026 say I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Seven to nothing. And I don't know. Do we want to combine some of these other items? Nope. Just go go through. All right. Classified hourly wages. Somebody like to make a motion? Motion to approve an hourly pay increase of a dollar an hour by adding it to each cell of the classified matrix pay beginning July 1st, 2025. I'll second. Have a motion and a second. Do we have any public comment? Seeing none, comes back to the board. Any board questions or comments? Kind of follows the same same thing Frank
071was just talking about. A lot of work behind the scenes. Um, all in favor of approving the classified hourly wages for 2026, say I. I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Seven to nothing. Classified professionals. We have a motion. A motion to approve the classified professional salary matrix with a 4.76% increase to the base in each column beginning July 1st, 2025. I'll second. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any public comment? Seeing none, comes back to the board. Any board questions or comment? These are all indexed to the teacher matrix which is approved first through negotiations. They all kind of follow out of it and we do pay pretty close attention to what everybody else's pay so we can be competitive. Any other comments before we bring it back to
072a vote? All in favor of sorry I lost my place. Classified professional salary schedule adjustment for 2026 say I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries seven to nothing. Keep going. All right. Uh, for certified administrators, I'll motion to approve the certified administrator salary matrix with a 4.76% increase to the base in each column beginning July 1st, 2025. I'll second. We have a motion in a second. Do we have any public comment B? Yes. Well, you you are now. All right. I just want to say it's appreciated the salary raise but through process it was very unclear what was going on not great communication with information was not presented very well I'm only speaking for myself I know in a lot of communication about achieving it was not a great process on the end of
073it I know we're meeting we are the last two cycles. I don't feel there was a great amount of frustration communication transparency appreciated. There's some other issues. I feel I personally feel rushing what that's good. Thanks for the comment. Any other public comments? brings back to the board. Any board comment brings us back to a vote. All in favor of approving the certified administrator salary schedule say I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Seven to nothing. Um, I'll motion to revise the miscellaneous pay schedule for FY26 beginning of July 1st, 2025. I'll second. We have a motion in a second. We have any public comment on the miscellaneous pay revisions? Brings back to the board. Any board comment? Now we will vote. All in favor of approving the miscellaneous pay revisions for 2026 say
074I. I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Seven to nothing. Item number 13. Consider changing graduation date for 2526. We have a motion to continue. I'll motion to change the 2025 2026 calendar to move the high school graduation date one day later to Sunday, May 31st. I'll second. We have a motion and a second. Any public comment before we continue with the board? None. Frank, you have something you'd like to say? I don't know. Sunday's weird, but I get it. I mean, we got to do something, right? We're gonna have kids seniors playing sports. We did this in 2021. Is that right? And 15. 2021. And did we get good feedback from the community on those being moved to a Sunday or did people just roll with it? I guess the kids' option are
075they go to the state tournament or they go to graduation. So you try and accommodate both. This is the option, right? I don't think there's a good alternative. No, just bad luck. Yeah. Would you please come up and just state your name? We just have to do it formally. For the record, my name is Tracy Rasley. My uh son actually graduated in 2014. Same circumstance. The state track meet was going through Saturday. Um so it was very much appreciated as a parent that it got moved to Sunday. Otherwise, he would have been at the state track meet and we would have missed out on graduation. So as a parent who has been through this, obviously it happens once every seven years. Um, it's it's a great idea. Appreciate the feedback. Thank you. Okay. Any board
076comment before we bring this back to a vote? What time of the day would this be on a Sunday? It's usually at 2:00. Okay. So, that should avoid any church conflicts or anything. Thank you. Okay. All in favor of approving the change to the 25 2025 202 26 calendar say I. I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries seven to nothing. Item number 14, agreement between Belgrade School District and the Association of Belgrade Classified Professionals. PAR professionals. I'll motion to approve the collective bargaining agreement between Belgrade School District and the Association of Belgrade Classified representing the PAR professionals commencing July 1st, 2025 and ending July 30th, 2027. June 30th. June. June. Sorry, June. Thank you. I'll second. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any public comment? Any pairs here who wanted
077to comment on the process? Seeing none comes back to the board. Any board comment? Okay. We will now vote. All in favor of the agreement between the Belgrade School District and the Association of Belgrade Classified Prepare Professionals say I. I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries seven to nothing. Item 15, charitable asset transfer. Do we have a motion to continue? I'll make a motion to approve the charitable asset transfer agreement and transfer all the funds compiled from the district endowment fund for the Cook C uh family Dorbus Michael Hoffman Floyd Coil Memory and Gaming Scholarship Funds for the total of $168,14869 to the Belgrade Education Foundation. on and before May 23rd, 2025 and transfer May 2025 interest earnings on and before June 30th, 2025. I'll second. We have a motion in a second. We
078have any public comment. Mr. Radkkey, I just saw this on the hi Randy Radkkey. Um, high school teacher, I just saw this on the agenda, but um, I was told that we had no money left in the Floyd Coil Fund, and I see that it's actually pretty big. Um, that money is set aside for trade students. So, I would hope that the Bgrade Education Foundation awards that Floyd Coil award to trade students. Thank you. Thanks, Mr. Radkkey. Any other public comment before we bring it back to the board? Board comments. It is nice to finally able to legally be able to give this to somebody that can do something much better with it than we can. We can't manage this for the laws. We can't do anything to make it grow. And this foundation does
079a wonderful job of that. It's what they do. This was a sticky point for Frank and I when we first started because we were unable to untie the knot that kept us tied to the district. I just want to thank Carrie for getting it done, being persistent. Um, anything else? We'll just bring it back to a vote. All in favor of approving the transfer agreement between the BSD board of trustees and the Billgrade Education Foundation, say I. I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Seven to nothing. purchase an installation of carpet in the old library. I'll motion to approve replacement of the library carpet by Shaw Industries in the amount of $85,5163. I'll second. You have a motion in a second. Leroy, did you want to say anything about this? We need new carpet. All
080right. How many quotes came into that? How many quotes came in for this, Leroy? um a total of one and the reason is uh this is being purch purchased through the source wall contract uh and it's it's purchasing co-op Montana state law allows you to go through purchasing co-ops and single source uh projects because they've already done all the vetting and going out to bid and everything else. So, um, you know, talking to the local contractor who's actually going to be the sub under Shaw, he's he was like, "Yeah, if I quoted that, it would have cost more." So, anything else? So, this was the lowest bid is what you're This was a lower bid than would have been would have been Yes. Then if we had if we had sourced this locally, yes. The
081state goes out and gets bids for stuff every so often and this is on the list. Good deal. Thank you. Yeah. Public comment before we bring it back to the board for a vote. All in favor of approving the purchase and installation of carpet in the old library say I. I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Seven to nothing. Item number 17, agreement between the Belgrade school district and the Belgrade custodian maintenance and grounds workers chapter. We have a motion to continue. A motion to approve the agreement between Belgrade School District and Belgrade Custodian Maintenance and Grounds Workers Chapter of the Montana Federation of Public Employees Local Number 7767 beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30, 2027. I'll second. We have a motion and a second. Any public comment? Seeing none, comes back
082to the board. Any board comment or questions? Any questions from you guys? Good. All right. All in favor of approving the agreement between the Belgrade School District and Belgrade Custodian Maintenance and Grounds Workers Chapter of the Montana Federation of Public Employees, Local 7767. Say I. I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Seven to nothing. Item number 18, consider purchase of a 14 passenger bus. Could we start with a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the purchase of two 14 passenger international activity bus to be funded from a donation from Belgrade Booster Club and from fund 282. I'll second. We have a motion in a second. I don't know if Carrie and DD want to talk about this or Scott just give us a quick summary. Probably more for the new trustees to explain
083why we're doing this. Well, uh Walt and I talked about it uh today. Um the principles and the athletic director were looking at uh different avenues in case we cancel a bus um a full bus. So a 14 passenger anybody can drive that bus. Um so that was the option uh to look at two of those and see what else we can figure out. Kobe, you got anything else to add? No. Yes. No, but yes, I don't, but I do. So, there's so many examples that you can use a 14 passenger, I don't know if the bus is the right word, but a vehicular mode of transportation. Um, the golf team can easily go to Livingston, no problem. Um, you don't have to rely on, you know, the bus driver or a CDL if something
084falls through. Uh, the bus the the uh coaches can just get in it and go. You can take two of them if you have two teams going two separate directions. For example, baseball has a JV game in Dylan and a varsity game in but that's two buses going two separate ways. Now you have two coaches driving this 14 passenger bus to take the team there. Golf cross country does little trips out. They like to run out some near the mountain base of the mountain so you don't have to take a bus. Bus driver sits for two hours while they're running. It's just something we can do. We found so many uses for it. FFA can take a bunch of uh leaders up to MSU for a something to do there. Um just on and on
085and on. In fact, uh we just had an instance where u a bus we we did not have a bus driver last minute this last week. It was my fault, not Scott's. And uh I wish I had one of those or two of those and I would have had two two coaches take those to Billings for tennis and it would have been done. It would have saved us a big headache, me a big headache and Scott too. So there are so many examples that we can use these 14 passengers, field trips, um just on and on and on. And so, you know, we go places and we see these uh not to have bus envy, but you know, these little schools like Shoto and they they have these gigantic buses that you're like, how in
086the world they afford it? Then you have these then they some teams pull in with these little 14 passengers. The coach gets out driving it. Um it's it's just kind of neat to see that it's just so self-sufficient having that 14 passenger. But yeah, a little bus envy, I guess, when they got these cool little things with their wraps on it. But um any other questions? But yeah, big advocate for the 14 passenger. Are they wrapped? They can. They can be. They're not yet, though. Okay. I almost hate to ask this and open this can of worms, but because the coaches are driving it, do they expect compensation for driving as well as coaching? No. Speak to that. Sure. Former speech coach. Um, my team was so big they wouldn't all fill on a yellow
087bus. So, we had a school van. I drove it with all my extra babies in there. bus drivers are okay with potentially losing those hours. No. Um but hopefully it's not for every trip. It's it just depends on on what trip we're we're doing, but we are down to about six trips. So, um for them to have a weekend off every once in a while would be nice. Okay. Any other uh public or board questions before we bring this back to a vote? All in favor of approving the purchase of the 14 passenger bus, two 14 passenger buses, say I. I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Seven to nothing. Thank you. Thanks, Scott. Thanks, Toby. Item number 19, MHSA annual dues and insurance applications. Do we have a motion to continue? Move to
088approve the 202526 MHSA annual dues and insurance applications. I'll second. We have a motion and a second. Uh let's see. D or Carrie, did you want to talk about this? Really not much to say except Yeah, this this and the next one are just always going to be on your May agendas. Um we um we partner with MHSA. we need to do pay our dues and um complete our insurance applications in order for our students to participate in um athletics and activities. Any public comment or board comment? Seeing none, it comes back to a vote. All in favor of approving the annual dues and insurance for MHSA say I. I. All oppose, same sign. Motion carries seven to nothing. And our last item, number 20. Do we have a motion to continue? I move for
089the Bgrade School District to request the Gallatin County Election Administrator to conduct all elections that the board may hold between July 1st, 2025, and including the annual school election on May 5th, 2026. I'll second. We have a motion and a second. I don't know, Judy, did you want to give a quick summary of this or um smaller school districts that uh in the state of Montana, school districts have the right to run their own elections. Some small districts go ahead and do that with 17,000 voters, the manpower it would take for us to, you know, create ballots and split ballots depending on if they're in the high school district or both districts and um and uh to create those 17,000 ballots and track them and get them mailed and get them back in. um what
090uh we're not set up for that, but the county is. And so we um I don't know how long it's been that we partnered with the county to um to hold our elections for us, but quite a while. I think there's some cost associated with it, too. That's mainly what we're approving here. Correct. So, well, this is just the approval. We send a letter to the um election administrator saying that we would like them to conduct our elections for the upcoming year. So, it's just an agreement that we're going to do that. Um, we they bill us for the cost of the election. So, the cost of the paper, the cost of the printing, the cost of mailing, all that stuff. So, we get build, we would pay those costs anyway. Okay. Do we have
091any public or board comment before we proceed with the vote? All in favor of approving the request for county election administrator to conduct elections for Belgrade say I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion passes seven to nothing. And that concludes our meeting. Thanks everybody. Rip through that.