001Please stand. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you everyone for coming to our board meeting on 519. Public portions of the board meeting are being recorded in accordance with district policy 1420 and section 2-2-214 MCA. By remaining in this meeting, all participants and attendees acknowledge they may appear on the recording which will be placed on the school district website for a minimum of one year from the date of the meeting. Anyone wishing to speak on an agenda item, please fill out the pink sheet located at the end of the table and return it to the board secretary as soon as possible. First item on our agenda is the approval
002of minutes from the regular board meeting of April 21, 2025. Motion from trustees. Move to approve. Is there a second? Second. Has been moved and seconded. Do trustees have any changes or questions regarding these minutes. Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. I. All those opposed. Thanks, Jory. Sorry. All those opposed on there now. Thank you, Henry. All those opposed. Motion passes. We are moving into our communications part of the agenda and first item on the agenda is West. Thank you. West Elementary School presentation, Mr. Eric Zaylor. All right, madam chair, member of the boards, thank for thank you for having me here today. Uh it's been an honor uh this first year at West Elementary School and uh I thank every one of you for allowing me to be in
003this position. So thank you. It's been great. So just real quick recap. Um I'll try to be quick. I think I'm on a timer over there. So this is our little buck. He showed up three or four times this year. Talk about a safety issue. Um kids like to chase him. No, they no one chased him. But anyways, it was pretty cool. He he was there pretty regularly, so that was kind of fun. And as most of you know, we started the year with the bears in the tree. So that was almost the first day of school the day before. But um so wildlife all over the place um not just the kids. So first thing I want to talk about um just celebrate some reading gains. Our dibble scores uh from the spring here.
004Kindergarten went from 39 to 60% proficiency. So we thought those numbers were absolutely amazing. Jen was really pleased with that. Uh, first grade is at 67% proficiency, which is the highest first grade has been since 2019. So, kudos to our first grade teachers there. That's a great improvement. Uh, third through sixth grader are at 72% proficiency with our eighth or excuse me, with our sixth grade leading the way at 85%. So, our Dibbles numbers were off the charts. So, we we really happy with those scores and how that all played out. So, um, celebrating those celebrating those dibbles gangs. That was awesome. Uh, mass testing. We've completed three cycles. We're in the anchor cycle now. So that's the fourth cycle of mass testing. Um that ends here on the 20 23rd. So we're in our
005third our fourth cycle now. Our first three cycles. We had 99% completion rate for the first two cycles and then 98% completion rate for the for the third cycle. Um really looking at how we're going to break down the data. It's really kind of a baseline at this point in time as what we're going to do with it in the future. Um, so all I know is the teachers are working hard every single day to get these tests in to make sure that the kids are there and catching them on the days that they're present. Um, once this anchor test done, I mean, it's time to celebrate. It's it's it's a good time of the year for these kiddos. Um, they were ready for the test. There's no doubt about it, but they are test
006out. They're they're done testing. So, um, little bit of map testing. This is some math for you here. uh we've seen from this. I don't know if you can see this. The laser really doesn't point out. I'm going to walk up here if you guys don't mind. So, right here you're looking at our winter compared to our spring. And this is just showing our growth from 40% to 50%. We're really looking for the numbers to go green and blue. Um so, you're starting to see some gains there. So, that's 80% growth just from the winter to the spring. If you look at the winter chart here, you can see that we have two in the high achieving and in the high growth. Um, and if you bounce over to the spring, we got a lot
007more classes and grade levels that bounced over. So, uh, the math data is looking good. It's a little bit off because we, as you can see, we only have 389 kids. We're still working on on on the map data. So, not everybody's tested yet. I didn't throw the reading up because there's only like 150 kids that have tested in that area. So, um, you can definitely see the growth there just by looking at those dots. That's why I threw those charts on there from the winter to the spring. So, we're seeing good growth and that's what we need. That's what we want to see. Uh, Hall of Fame. Um, thank you to Mr. O'Neal for putting this on and continuing to do this in your new position. The kids love this. They look forward to
008it every single year. Um, we had 16 kids get the the the school hall of fame. We had these six end up in the city hall of fame. They went out there and they scored tremendously well. Um, very very proud of them. They studied hard. You can see some of the pictures here. uh kids in the meeting room during lunch recess just trying to get prepared for this this big uh hall of fame competition. So, thank you Mr. O'Neal for putting that on. The kids absolutely love it. Then I kind of started to go picture crazy. So, you're going to see a bunch of pictures here, just picture collages. Just kind of a recap of what we did in the year. First thing I wanted to look at was the Buffalo community. Basically, this is
009us. It's our public relations. It's the parents. It's all the businesses that we work with and the people that come in and out of the building and help us out. So, I threw Silverwood up here just simply because the read to ride. The kids love this program. They read so many books. They send it in, they get a ticket to Silverwood Homeake Lodge. That was our third and fourth grade ski trip. The kids did a phenomenal job. I mean, you got kids that I don't think get off the couch too much other than to eat dinner. Then they're back on their couch playing video games. They went up cross country skiing and had an amazing time. Uh Discovery always willing to help out with the fifth and sixth grade ski trips. Our ski trip this
010year was phenomenal. No injuries, no accidents. Uh, everybody had a great time. Teachers did an amazing job supervising it. YMCA and what they do for our water safety program with the third grade. I thought that was pretty neat. I wish I'd have been able to get down there and actually see what they do in the pool. I just didn't have the time. Food drive was big for us. Uh, Dream Big and Colt Anderson and that group. They do so much for West Elementary uh from the for all the elementary schools. As a matter of fact, the whole school district. Uh but the Grizz Tech game, they got the tickets for those kiddos to come to the game. Um brought a bus to West Elementary, picked them up, they ate dinner one night at West Elementary
011before going up to the Tech game. Uh all funded by Dream Big. So hats off to those guys. Starlanes, they're always willing to take kids in for uh field trips and those things. We had some swing dance this year, so that was pretty cool. Uh a little club up in Montana Tech of some swing dancers came down and we did a perfect attendance assembly and we we gave them some some swing dance lessons. That was neat. uh hug a tree program with the 1590 search and rescue. Really cool just about kids being lost in the woods and what to do. So that was a pretty cool program. Montana Department of Transportation kind of see the pictures there. That was really early in the year. First thing they did when they came to our school was
012talk about the snow plows and don't crowd the plow and the importance of snow plows and and what they do. Got the kids to go through and blow the horn. They had a great time. Uh and then they did drones. So the kids got to go out there and watch them fly drones and some pretty cool stuff. uh but high the two programs that actually came this year and helped out with our Buffalo buddies program which I'll talk about here in a minute uh was the soccer program and the football program. Um so we got kids coming down from but I regularly that's not including our uh big brother big sister kids but we'll talk about the Buffalo buddies here in a minute when I get to another slide. And then Montana Tech I mean
013they do so much for West Elementary. So every program up there everybody's involved. Um, so hats off to a lot of these people. Other things going on in our community. Uh, family dinner night. Family dinner night was huge. I I was a little nervous about these events. I'm glad we stuck with them. I'm glad we're doing them. Uh, we do them by grade level. It ended up being about six, seven months, well, six months that we'd have family dinner nights. We tie them to math night. We tie them to reading night. We tie them to STEM night. Um, and the families would come in, the teachers would line them up, feed them spaghetti. I'd give a quick little speech. Um, talk about the importance of math and reading. And it it was awesome. Got to
014give my hats off to National Honor Society because they would send kids to give drinks, hand out cookies, uh, work on the art projects and things like that. Just a really cool night that we do at West Elementary once a month. So, I thought that was pretty cool. Uh other things that went on, Kindles for Kids, that just happened uh with the Masonic Lodge 22. It's really cool that the Masons came in and actually talked about what masons are and what they do and the kids got a little bit of lesson in there, not just free kendals. So that was pretty cool. Uh bug both times we were over 110 students, just barely. So um Quanas, hats off to those guys coming in, uh working with that program. Uh it's an amazing program. Love what
015Kuanas does for the kids in this community. uh Irish dancers. They come around to all the schools. They do a great show. I'm pretty proud of that one, too, because our own Miss Hall teaches those kids and she does a great job teaching them the Irish dance. Then our PTO, we have a very involved PTO. It scared me the first couple times. Like overwhelming, like so many people coming in. We like to do this. We want to do this. And they're just so willing to help out and raise funds for the community for the school in our Buffalo community. Um they bought all the donuts with grown-ups. We ended we ended up buying over 1,200 donuts this year through Safeway or Donuts with Donuts. It took four days to get it all in and the
016cafeteria is packed every single morning. Um they did an amazing movie night during Christmas where we watched the Grinch. It was this huge Grinch theme. Uh brought in Santa and got some pictures. It was they do an amazing job. Uh the field day, they're going to throw some money at our field day. Um just really cool stuff. And then the last one's the police department. uh they came in did a reading with our during our Buffalo buddies time and it was really cool to see those guys come in and have these kids see the police in a little different light sitting there reading a book and you know I get to interact with them like that. So that's some of the community stuff. There's so much more that went on. I'm just hitting some of
017the highlights throughout the year. Um things that we're doing the student body so right here within the school. Uh the first thing that I got up here is Buffalo Buddies. Uh this is a new program that I did this year. Anything that's starred is something that I kind of added this year. Um, if you look underneath where it says student activities, you kind of see that wall of windows that looks into the library there at West. So, that's a PAX leaders wall. It's all tied to the PAX leaders and a handful of PAX leaders and our student of the month stuff. Um, so that's a little bit different. Buffalo Buddies, you can see the kids reading books and the police officers there reading books. Buffalo Buddies is a program where our sixth graders will go
018down to the pre-K classroom or the kindergarten classroom and they'll take them for 15 minutes and they'll each have their own little buddy and they'll get them caught up on homework or anything that they need help with or something that doesn't make sense or maybe they're just going to do a coloring project or they'll just sit there and read a book with them and that'll happen once a week that the sixth grade will go down and do that. And then once a month for Buffalo Buddies, we bring in agencies from the outside like the police department, BU football, BUI soccer, Montana Tech. So, we're bringing all these programs and these guys will actually go in and read to the the prek through u third grade classrooms. So, we do that once a month. So, and
019they get to sit down and they read a book to them. It's it's really pretty cool program. Um just really brings the community in the school together and gets those sixth graders interacting with the young kids. So, I really like that. Uh prek holiday program was phenomenal. put on by our um miss again Miss Hall and and our prek staff, prek, kindergarten, first second grade staff, they did a great job. Again, PAX leader of the month um just like student of the month, we didn't start it until where we at February there. Uh February, March, April, and we'll do the last one in May. Uh there was no real student of the month program in place, so we just kind of ran with it. We decided to tie it to PAX, which is our basically
020our um behavior and classroom management program. Um, so we've tied it to PAX and it's it's been it's been great. The kids love it. Uh, they're they're challenging themselves to get their handprints on those windows. So, they get recognized as student of the month or PAX leader of the month. They get a certificate, nice little picture with me. Not that that matters. Um, but then they get to put their handprints up on the window and that's the part that they all love. So, those handprints will stay there until next February, March, April, but they'll get a race and we'll put the new ones up. So, they'll be there all year. Um, unified leadership. So again, our sixth grade uh working with our self-contained classes on this one. They'll get together with the self-contained classrooms. Um
021they'll take them into like a ste-ins room for an example and they'll work on bouquets or or projects that are going to be presented to teachers or staff or little gifts for like teachers birthdays and things like that. So it's our it's our special learners working with our sixth graders again. And we call that our unified leadership program. Uh Special Olympics, we had our little young athletes at last. It was an amazing assembly. It It blew me away. We had our kindergarteners in our self-contained classrooms uh in the gym going through an obstacle course. It's all part of Special Olympics. Miss Stephen did a great job putting that on. Uh thank you, Miss Boston, for being there. It was important to me that there was a board member there to see what what goes on
022at West Elementary. So, more on our student activities. Um going on at West, obviously there's athletics. Boys, sixth grade this year, won the basketball. Pretty proud of that. Girls played hard. Fifth and sixth grade, it was amazing. Volleyball was super fun to watch. We hosted a lot of those games at West. I think we host all of them except for maybe the championship game. So, volleyball was fun. Track, that's still a bitter subject, but that's okay. We're over it. It was actually a really good lesson. I I got to sit down. I had fifth and sixth grade in the lunchroom at the same time, and they were just finishing their lunch. Before I sent the fifth grade off to recess, I was able to tell them about just competition and what it means to compete
023and how special that day was. Right? It didn't matter that you lost by 0.25, right? Matters that you were there and you competed and you gave it everything you had and it was an amazing competition. Hats off to Ilrest 2. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, moving on. Uh so, but no, it was a great opportunity. It was a teachable moment for us because they're they're griping. They're complaining. They want to know how. They want to know why. So, it was a great opportunity for me to just sit there and say, "Hey, man, that's life." And you guys stepped up and you competed and you did what you needed to do. So, track was great. The kids did a phenomenal job. Uh, spelling bee. Again, thank you, Miss Boston, for coming up and reading the words. None of
024us teachers wanted to slaughter them, so we appreciate that. Um, spring concert went extremely well. Miss Roush did a great job with the kids. I love the fact that it was like 90s themed and it wasn't just some songs that no one's ever heard before. So, I thought that was pretty bored. Um, Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Uh we have we have 10 uh big brothers and big sisters that come down from view high. Um so that's been a great little program. It's been really exciting for me because I got my daughter involved in it. So and they do great things with those kids, those high school students and they are amazing role models to those young kids. So I love seeing them when every time they come in the building. And then we've incorporated some
025some STEM stuff. So sixth grade we're making these videos. So we'll talk about that here in a minute. But that's right smack dab in the middle where it says good morning. And that's one of the videos we've made. Uh we got a new 3D printer. It's run in four colors. Um we got it up and running. Casey made a little fourcolor boat the other day. So, and he's getting the kids involved in this and doing the programming and and just really taking off with the STEM program. They're doing morning math. So, in the morning, they'll come in and do some math programs like Dreambox and things like that. So, there's a lot of great great things going on at West. But, I think one of the things that I'm most proud of, again, this is
026something that we added this year, are these videos. And yes, it's kind of taken from other elementaryaries and middle schools. Um, difference is is we're not using YouTube. We're actually using uh the stream on on 365, so it's all school district stuff. Um, so Corey, if you wouldn't mind, this is just an example of what the video is. We don't have to watch the whole thing. So they use some AI in it. So this is our young athletes assembly. So that's pretty neat. You can go ahead and skip forward a little bit. That's good. So, painting eggs with prek. This is when East Middle School came down during Buffalo Buddies. So, East Middle School came down during Buffalo Buddies and put on a nice little uh um not a presentation, but they they went in
027and read books and then they got to take some of the preschool or the pre-K kids and the kindergarten kids out to the cafeteria and do some coloring and stuff with eggs. So, and then we just highlight these in these videos and we show them every other week on Fridays. So, um, we sign every teacher, we get every teacher to sign up for a Teams meeting. They pull up Teams right after the morning announcements. I get on Teams, say a little word or two, and then I, um, this was the science where they shot a little the bottle cap across the room. But, uh, so yeah, I get on the team's meeting real quick and then we play these videos. Oh, you can get rid of that one. That was Of course, you clicked right
028there, didn't you? Well, we got Mr. Denny, too, so that's okay. So, but it's kind of fun and and the sixth graders put all this together. They go around take the pictures, take the videos, and they do a phenomenal job. So, that's what's going on in the sixth grade. Um, moving on. Thank you, Cor. Looking ahead, how we're going to finish the year here. Uh, May 28th, we got our unified national banner recognition recognition celebration. Um, hats off to Mr. Kell and and Miss Steppen for really making this happen last year. So, on May 28th, um, everybody's invited to this, too. Please show. I think it's going to be a great day. May 28th, we're going to start the assembly. This will be the banner drop assembly. Banner is going to go um in the
029gym. Uh and it's going to be a big presentation with a little bit of a field day afterwards. So, we're really excited about being a nationally recognized um unified school. So, I think East has won and now West has won also. So, we're going to turn that into a really big fun day. Uh May 30th, we got our glow stick party. Your MAP scores uh increased because of some incentives. They really took off on this glow stick party. Uh they love the idea of glow sticks and black lights and glowing and dancing. Um and I think our map scores are definitely up because of these little incentives. June 2nd will be our schoolwide uh color run. Uh we'll have Black Dog Crearyy there. We'll have some lemonade ladies. Uh PTO again's putting all this on,
030bringing in all these outside people. Uh June 3rd through the 6th is obviously or excuse me, June 3rd, uh our sixth grade will have their celebration. That'll be at 10 o'clock. That's our last day for sixth graders. June 5th is our prek celebration. We got little caps, we got little gowns. They're going to look absolutely amazing. So, it's going to be adorable as all heck. And we're going to really do that up for the prek kiddos. And then obviously, uh last day for instruction for prek through 5th is June. So, those are things coming up. And it's not doable without your staff. So, first person up there, admin assistant secretary, Kaylee Fathers. She's been absolutely amazing. Righthand man, she goes above and beyond. She takes care of pretty much everything, including myself. Uh Barb's been
031huge with the scrapes, the bruises, the bumps. Uh kitchen staff, heard, I don't know where you found those ones, but they're good. So, kitchen staff is amazing. Uh they show up regularly. They do their job. There's no complaining there. Cleaners and engineers, very, very fortunate to have the ones that I have. Apologize, some people don't have their picture in there. trying to get to them. Wasn't able to track them down in time. So, but they keep this school clean. Um, these are people that are kind of behind the scenes that no one realized how important they are to a school. So, they're extremely important to the school and what happens. Uh, just making this environment safe for all of us. um counselor source, uh Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch. They do a great job meeting
032kids um handling anything from discipline issues um with my counselor all the way up to just dealing with the mental health needs of our students at West Elementary. So, they're phenomenal. Speech uh PT and OT with Misty, Sarah, and Katie. Um again, three amazing ladies that come in and just work hard. They give you everything they have every single day and the kids really love being around him and interacting with him. Braden psychologist, he's great guy. Um, probably too smart for his own good. Love having him in the building though. Um, playground monitors, Stephen Brittney Brown, they work so hard out there and the kids just gravitate to them and they're just fun to be around. So, love being with those guys. Uh, talk about a right-hand there's one right there, Jen Lea. without your
033reading coach, your test coordinator, whatever title you want to give them, it's almost impossible to do. These people are huge in what we do in the schools every single day, at least for me. Uh Casey Dan, funny little picture there. We're handing out the shirts for the track meet and there's a small kids small and we kind of made him put it on. So I wanted to share that with you. It's about the smallest shirt case he's ever been in. But no, he does a phenomenal job in library tech and taking off with the STEM program. So really proud of what he's done. Title one Jory Leva, I don't think they come any better. just salt of the earth. Uh tell you what you need to do, what you need to know, and just gets
034your job done, works your butt off. Resource teachers, I don't care what anybody says. They're not two of the best in the city. They're two of the best in the state. Um Sarah and Sarah, they're they're amazing. Happy to have those two. Uh PE, art, music, adaptive PE. Again, I don't have Miss Lross on here. It's not better time. Probably could have dropped a picture in there somehow, but Bob's there every single day with the adapted PE kiddos. Does a great job. Um Shelly, amazing job with the kids in the um PE uh took them out to the tennis courts on this day. They got to play tennis out there. So just something different than being in the gym. Get them outside on those nice days. PreK Paris uh Maddie uh and Miss Conway, they
035are great. They're um phenomenal people. The kids just gravitate to them. I mean, you never see them grumpy. You always see them happy with a big smile on their face. Just love working with those little kids. uh self-contained staff, Miss Cox, Miss Fully, Miss Groen. Uh go above and beyond for our self-contained kiddos. So, can't ask them. Can't ask for a better group of people right there. Uh Sped Perez with with Brady, Genie, Lorie, Sabino, and Julia. Again, missing a picture of Julia there, but um great people. They work so hard. Um and the things that these pairs and monitors do, you just it just blows your mind. It absolutely blows your mind. and they're there every single day um asking for more. These kids are extremely lucky to have this staff at West Elementary.
036Um prek teachers kind of stole the same picture. Apologize for that. You got Morgan and Keely. Uh two young teachers, very energetic, full of life. Uh love being around the kiddos. Um and you can just tell, I mean, you can walk into a room and you can know that teacher loves to be there and these two love to be there. kindergarten of Beman Hall and Morell. Again, I could say the same thing about every single one of these. Um, they're in the building regularly. They don't take days off. They they love to be around the kiddos. Um, the PLC's are amazing. They they're just great people. Uh, first grade teachers with Miss Harper, Miss B, Miss Wilcox. Um, I couldn't say enough about these three. They've really boosted their kids test scores. Um, they've had
037a pretty tough group to start the year and they're finishing the year really kind of smooth and you're starting to see their numbers go up, their tests go up, their dibbles uh stuff go up. So, uh, hats off to them for the phenomenal work that they're doing. Um, second grade, Kelly Christovich and fellows. Never hear a word from them. They get there, they do their job. Um, never a complaint, never a gripe. They're just amazing people. Uh, third grade, uh, Pots, Denny, and Quist. Again, they had to have their hat, their picture by their sombrero. They're pretty proud of their May 5th project there. Um, so, but again, really good group of people right there. Miss Denny, she's huge in the PTO. Um, Miss Quist was our head track coach. Uh, Miss Pototts and their
038contribution from her business to the school. You just just hats off to them. They just give everything they have to these kiddos. Uh, fourth grade with Miss Doyle and Miss Gilboy. Very, very structured. This is how it is. This is how it's going to be. Um, they really start that transition from little kids to kind of growing up getting ready for fifth and sixth grade. And you couldn't ask for better teachers to do that. Um, Miss Conway, Miss Bellier, and Miss Bazani in the fifth grade. Um, again, just just great people. Salt of the earth. These are people that, you know, if I wasn't around, you'd ask to raise your kid, that fifth grade group. They're amazing. And then sixth grade with Miss Pharaoh and Miss Anderson, preparing kids for middle school. That's what these
039two do and they they're are great at it. Sorry, I felt like I could have probably bragged about them a little bit more, but I also wanted to save you guys a little bit of time. So, again, thank you for having me here. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to be at West Elementary and uh, I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you, Eric. That was a wonderful presentation and thank you for all your hard work and congratulations to West on a great school year. Thank you, Judy. I appreciate it. All right, moving on to the next one. Again, we appreciate your time, sir. Next item on the agenda is summertime administration hours. Mr. Patrick. Madam Chair, members of the board, I just want to give you an update that we'll
040be going to our summer hours uh once school is out. That's 7:30 to 3. Miss Jonart, water testing. Madam Chairman, members of the board, I wanted to give you an update on the water testing. We were contacted about a couple weeks ago from But Silver Bow and they had indicated um that um we possibly have a speestous um concrete piping in our supply lines at West and Hillrest. Uh so we did some and they weren't they weren't really sure about Hillrest. They were pretty sure about West, but they were not sure about Hillrest. So they did some drilling at four different level um areas at Hillrest and all four areas indicate that that um uh dis supply line is made of steel so it isn't a speestous concrete piping there. Um however there is at
041west and so we met um we met briefly with but silver bowl of d uh uh the DEEQ and the DNRC at the state level to identify you know what steps should we take and the first um first plan of action is to do some testing um so and this supply line goes from the you know but silver counties line into um in into our schools. And so they wanted us to do the first thing is to do some testing and um and get that tested and sent to ALS ALS Environmental in Cincinnati to do the test. It should be noted that they said this at um the state level that they have never had a positive test in the state of Montana when they tested um these asbestous concrete pipes. So they don't think
042that you will find that in their water. Um the test will come up negative, but um on we're trying out of abundance of caution, we're testing it. Um then after we get the results back then we'll go back to um with but silver bow and the DEEQ and the DNRC and determine what our next plan of action is based upon the um um results of the test. Thank you ma'am. Um any questions about that? Um it was this was just all of a sudden we got a call and it just h we had never been contacted ever before about this. It just came up. So we're we're moving along and um taking action. Any questions to Miss Jonard? Thank you, Miss Jonard. Appreciate it. Mr. Billine, Montana School Boards Association update. Uh thank you, Madam
043Chair. Um, trustees, I just wanted to get an opportunity to get on the agenda real quick. Um, sort of recap an update of TSBA um provided you with a couple documents that um, uh, executive director had asked for us to share um, with our with our board um, for you to review at at your leisure. Uh I did want to kind of point out that top one though. Um 100 years the MTSBA has been in existence celebrating that 100 years this year. And I think it'd be even more important if you look I think at the back of the DNA document there's actually been um um school boards in existence in the state of Montana for over 160 years. So really kind of speaks to to the importance of education, public education in our state
044in particular. But um with regards to that first page, kind of wanted to take a minute to highlight that advocacy section. Obviously, we're coming off of a legislative session and I would argue one of the more successful ones for school and that's nice for a guy that is in the judicial branch that was freaking out every day that he went to work this this session. But um I think between the stars act and some of those other highlights on that first page, um it was a it was a good year for public education. And I think we as members of MTSBA, not only but also that whole coalition of um let me make sure I get it right. Coalition of advocates for Montana public schools stamps that were up there every day between our association,
045MASBO, SAMS, I think MEA, they really did a good job. Montana public or the Federation of Educa of Teachers did a really good job this session of of of making sure that public education was was taken care of. um seemed a little less contentious this year with regards to the charter stuff and whatnot. So um wanted to just take a minute to to kind of highlight that stuff and then also um remind folks uh upcoming opportunities. I think there's two training opportunities actually this week. Um, usually I highlight this for newly elected trustees, but with um both of our um um up ones that were up this year coming in and acclamation, but always encourage somebody to get on that newly elected trustee series if you're if you haven't yet or um just good information
046in there and then that HR series as well May 21st, but those are always recorded too. So just another piece of that puzzle there of what MTSBA provides to us as members. Um also want to remind folks that June 4th is our annual meeting and that you can um be in attendance either in person or virtually um between 2 and 4. So um another opportunity for a review of the legislative session, but like we do um starting to put the the wheels in motion for next session and getting prepared for that. um this coming I think it's this upcoming year prior to the next legislative sessions the dennial study which is a big big deep dive into state education system they do this um overview um every 10 years obviously see high school I know
047what denial meant so um so um some of the annual meeting will kind of be prepping for that there's a big finance um training that's bringing in all of the um um representatives that that sit on both um education committees in the House and Senate. Um and then the other part that June 5th is that schoolboard leadership um training. So um obviously it's not easy to get to all of that stuff, but if you have an opportunity to sit in on any part of it and again they're being held virtually. Um and then as far as um MEL this year is going to be held in October in Helena. Um, next month, um, my position as your representative on MTSBA will need to be reappointed, um, going into my ninth year representing you folks and
048appreciate that opportunity. I just work my way through the officers um, cycle. So, I'm coming off as the immediate past president. um more than happy to continue with that, but also um you know, if there's anybody that has an interest, I'm not arrogant enough to think that I'm the only person that can do this. So, you know, respecting if anybody has an interest in that. Again, I've been doing it for 9 years. If there's somebody who has a potential interest, I'd definitely be open to having that conversation with you, but again, um happy to serve in that capacity. Um as well, um I think those were the highlights I had. I don't know if anyone has any questions or whatnot, but there's always, it's funny, there's always seems to be rumblings post legislation of what
049MTSBA does for the especially the double A's in particular. So, I I think I mean it goes without saying I think they do a good job for us. Um, and it's definitely worth the worth the money that we put in um into it. So, any questions, Mr. Builty? Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you. Anyone wishing to speak on any matter not on the agenda may step forward now. Please identify yourself before you begin. I must caution anyone wishing to speak. You may not discuss personnel issues, student issues, or pending litigation during the comment session due to time constraints. Each speaker will be allowed 3 minutes. Do we have anyone wishing to add public comment on items not on the agenda? Hearing none, moving on to consent agenda. Approval, payroll claims, budget transfers, revenue reports,
050travel request, expenditure report, view high and east middle school activity fund reports. Motion from trustees. Is there a second? Second. Has been moved and seconded. Do trustees have any questions on this? Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes. We've done a little change in our um agenda. We are going to do our business first and then go into the par because we have some things on the par that we have to approve in the agenda first. So, moving on to the business agenda. Second reading and approval policy 2250 community and adult education 2250NF/AD adult continuing education authorization for emergency care and acknowledgement of risk. Miss Jonard. Madam Chairman, members of the board, I request your approval of 2250 as presented last uh month at the in
051the first reading. Motion from trustees. So is there a second? Second. Has been moved and seconded. Do trustees have any questions? Miss Jonart? Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. All those opposed. All those opposed. Motion passes. Request for review and approval of policy 1230P. Clerk, Miss Jonart. Madam Chairman, members of the board, this is a first reading. And because it is just a procedure, it only needs one uh reading. This is a uh a clerk job description that we need um in our policy for the stars act. Um if we um having this job description outlines the duties of the clerk and when we um having this policy will allow us to get one FTE quality educator payment for Mr. um Patrick our clerk. Motion from trustees. So moved. Is
052there a second? Second. Has been moved and seconded. Do trustees have any questions regarding the request for review and approval of policy 1230? Clerk hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes. Approval of the agreement with Interquest Detection Kines for the 2526 school year. Miss Jonard. Madame chair, members of the board, this is our annual um agreement with um Interquest Detection Canines for the 2526 school year. Uh they go to but high but high career center in East Middle School. Motion from trustees. Is there a sec? Is there a second? I know. She just whispered it over here too, but it has been moved and seconded. Do trustees have any questions? Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. I. Sorry. All those opposed.
053Motion passes. Approval of theou with big brothers big sisters for the 2526 school year. Miss Jonard. Madam chair, members of the board, I'm requesting approval of theou um for the 2526 with big brothers and sisters. Motion from trustees. So moved. Is there a second? Second. It has been moved and seconded. Do trustees have any questions of Miss Jonart regarding theou with big brothers big sisters? Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes. Approval to dis Oh, sorry, missed one. Approval of trustee requesting county conduct county conduct elections. Madam chair, members of the board, this is an annual resolution. Uh the request must be made by resolution of the board. The county election administrator accepts um then they will perform our election. So it's just an annual thing
054we have to have done by June 1st. Um, and then once if you guys approve this, then I take it to the county and then if they they can decide whether they want to run a election like they did um, two years ago. Motion from trustees. Move to approve. There's second been moved and seconded. Do trustees have any questions to Mr. Patrick regarding the approval of requesting the county conduct the elections? Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes. Approval to discontinue the substitute retention payment paid from Esser money. Mr. Patrick. Madam chair, members of the board, I brought this to you last June and then going through it. We were kind of going through some payroll things and I noticed that I had the date wrong. Um,
055I had July 1st of 2025 and so I just need to make a correction. It should have been July 1st of 2024. Motion from trustees. Move to approve. Is there a second? Has been moved and seconded. Trustees have any questions to Mr. Patrick regarding the approval to discontinue the substitute retention payment. Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. All those opposed? All those opposed. Motion passes. Approval to advertise and hire for high school credit recovery. Miss Jonard. Oh, no. Miss Johnson's here. Miss Johnson. Madam Chair, members of the board, I'm asking for your approval to hire two English and two math teachers for the high school summer program. Each teacher will teach 45 days of the um program to give us enough hours to count for credit. And this program run at
056the BUI career center. The BUI students. Motion from trustees. So move. Is there a second? Second. It has been moved and seconded. Do trustees have any questions? Miss Johnson? Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. All those opposed. Thank you, Miss Johnson. Next one. Approval to advertise and hire one adult basic education teacher for summer school. So, this will run the adult basic ed program for June 16th to July 17th. The teacher needs to be approved through um TA approved to test the students so they can take their high set through Montana Tech. We will continue to go to the star program and also offer um English as a second language at the public library during the summer. Motion from trustees. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded.
057Do trustees have any questions to Miss Johnson regarding the approval to advertise and hire one adult basic education teacher for summer school? Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes. Approval to advertise and hire for middle school summer program. Miss Johnson. Madam chair, members of the board, I'm asking for your approval to hire three uh regular ed one special ed teacher for the summer school program that is held at East Middle School. Motion from trustees move. Is there a second? Second. It has been moved and seconded. Do trustees have any questions to Miss Johnson regarding advertise and hire for middle summer school program? Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. All those all those opposed. Motion passes. Approval of the CSCT services contract for
058the 2526 school year. Miss Johnson. Madam Chair, members of the board, I'm asking your approval to approve the contract for the YBGR CSCT programs. This YBGR is running at all schools except Whittier and at Bugle High School, which will be Western. And I'm still waiting on that contract. Motion from trustees. So moved. Is there a second? Second. We have a second for Miss Pepa. Do you have any questions for Miss Johnson regarding the CSTC services contract? Yes, sir. Um, Miss Johnson, if by chance, not assuming anything, that Western's not able to provide that service. Do we think that YBGR would pick up those other schools or is that something to be determined? Yeah. So last year we thought we were going to run into that in around I mean October of last year. If we
059do cut the service, we hope that those employees will go work for YBGR just because they would be unemployed. I did meet with Western though last week to say that this is where we're at with ours. So he's supposed to get back to me on that, but I have met with YBGR and Sh um Sherry and Bill Lings to say that if we do need to come in for those schools, they'll be ready. Um they're just lacking therapists. So that could be the bigger problem. Yes, sir. So, in that event, would we have to do a new contract or would this contract cover that? I guess I'm just I think we'd have to amend to add Whittier and um View High onto there, but their services would still be the same in our district about
060when they can use our schools and their employees, what they're approved for, and what our billing rate is. And that's the difference between Western. They want to look at a different billing rate. And so, Kevin and I need to get together to make sure the district can do that. Thank you, Miss Johnson. We have a motion on the floor. All those in all those motion on the floor. Those to approve. Oh, it's been so moved. Oh, yes. I I I I I because we can't ask questions until we approve until we motion. Uh all those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, Miss Johnson. Thank you. Approval of the sponsor to school food services agreement for but central elementary 2025 2026. Mr. Marthaler, Madam Chair, members of the board, I'm requesting board approval for the sponsor of
061school agreement for this next school year 2526. This agreement is for the school nutrition and service to provide View Central Elementary meals um administrative service and submit claims for reimbursement. Essentials has been part of our program for our federal program for years and so this is just a different process that needs board approach. Motion from trustees moved. Is there a second? Second. Second. Any questions? Mr. Marthaler regarding the contract for B Central Elementary Food Services. Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. I. All those opposed. Approval of the contract for the 202526 school year with Katie Pit Pippenich, Best Life Simplified Dietitionian and Nutrition Services. Mr. Marthaler. Madam Chair, members of the board, I'm requesting board approval to renew the contract for the dietitian Katie Pippenich. Uh she works for Best
062Life Simified. Um this contract will be for the next school year 2526. Um, it's based on a $55 per hour, 20 hours per week, and paid a monthly flat rate of $4,767. Um, as you know, Katie has done a great job with our wellness program. Um, she's a big help for me with my menus, etc. So, I'm hoping you will definitely approve. Make sure you look good. Thank you. Absolutely does. Motion from trustees. So, moved. Is there a second? Second. It has been moved and seconded. Trustees have any questions for Mr. Marthol regarding the contract with Katie Pippenich? Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. All those. All those opposed. Motion passes. Thank you, sir. Approval of the Montana High School Association annual application and fees. Miss John Miss Jonart. Madam
063Chair, members of the board, this is our annual MHSA fees. It covers the liability and concussion insurance with MHSA. Um, as you can see, the amounts are uh $6,500 for the annual dues. A liability plan is 1339 and concussion insurance is $226. I appreciate your approval. Motion from trustees. Move. Is there a second? Second. It has been moved and seconded. Do trustees have any questions, Miss Jonart, regarding the approval of the Montana High School Association application and fees? Hearing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes. Approval of the Montana Sports Medicine contract for the 202526 school year. Miss Jo Miss Jonard. Madame Chairman, members of the board, this is our uh sports medicine contract that we have with St. James um for our trainers for at the high
064school and the middle school. Um this is a three-year contract and uh but we bring it a bo um in front of the board every year. There are no changes um to the cost um and it would go into effect June 2025 through May 31st, 2026. So it covers the summer. Motion from trustees. moved. Is there a second? Second. It has been moved and seconded. Do trustees have any questions? Miss Jonard. Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes. We are now moving into the um FAR with the human resources director. Miss Ally is unavailable. So, Miss Jonart will be doing this approval of the FAR for May 19th, 2025. Miss Jonart. Madam Chairman, members of the board, we have 12 certified appointments. We have six uh appointments
065for classified personnel. We have five resignations. We have two inactive removals. And we have two resignations of supplemental personnel. Thank you. Can I have a motion from trustees? Is there a second? Second. It has been moved and seconded. Student trustees have any questions to Miss Jonart regarding the approval of the PAR or may I can't vote on this. Okay. So, you're going to vote related? Yeah, I know. Okay. Okay. Sure. Kelly's going to recuse himself and I am going to recuse myself. All right. Five. We have five. All right. With no questions, we have a motion on the floor. Um, all those in favor, please say I. I. I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes. Next is the approval of exhibit A. Miss Jonart. Madam Chairman, members of the board, um I'm asking your approval
066for uh to approval of these non-tenure teachers that will receive a nonrenewal notice effective June 6th of 2025. We have one non-tenure teacher. Motion from trustees. Is there a second? Second. It has been moved and seconded. Do trustees have any questions, Miss Jonart, regarding the approval of exhibit A? Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. All those all those opposed. Motion passes. Approval of exhibit B. Miss. Jonart. Madame Chairman, members of the board of the board, um with your approval to nonrenew um the uh temporary teachers that we have on staff right now, um they will receive non-renewal notices effective June 6th of 2025. Motion from trustees. Is there a second? Second. It has been moved and seconded. Do trustees have any questions, Miss Jonart, regarding the approval of exhibit B?
067Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. All those all those opposed. Motion passes. At this time, we have completed our business with school board for the month of May. Entertain a motion to adjurnn. So move. Is there a second? Second. It has been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. I. I. All those opposed. Thank you very much. Appreciate your time tonight.