001for the meeting. Thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this June 22nd, 2026 meeting of the Great Falls Public Schools Board of Trustees. I remind you that um due to Montana state law, these meetings are recorded and will be uploaded onto our website at some point in the future. And with that, I would like to u ask Mr. Dickens to administer the roll call. >> Thank you, Chairman Johnson. Gordon Johnson >> here. >> Kim Scornagowski >> here. >> Bill Bronson >> excused. >> Craig Duff >> here. >> Paige Henning >> excused. >> Marley Sunchild >> excused. >> And Amy Thompson >> here. >> Chairman Johnson, you do have a quorum for which to work this evening. >> Thank you, Mr. Deakons. Ladies and gentlemen, would you please rise and join us as
002Trusty Duff leads us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic. >> Thank you, Mr. Duff, and thank you all in the room. >> Mr. Chair >> Trustees Scarowski. >> I move we adopt the agenda as presented. Second. >> Been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda as presented. Are there any questions or commentary from our board of trustees on the proposed agenda? Any from our gallery here with us this evening? Hearing seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of adopting the agenda as sent, please do signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed same sign. Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. >> Trusty Scorowski. >> I move we approve the consent agenda as presented with a special notation of thanks um for
003donations to the um automotive programs at Paris Gibson Education Center and Great Falls High. >> Second. >> Been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda with the appropriate thanks. Any questions or commentary from our board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from our gallery here this this evening? Hearing and seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. Same sign. Moving on to room four, communication superintendent report. Mrs. Hoyer, please. >> Well, thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, members of our community. It it um caught me off guard a little bit. I was waiting for one of the student groups to come on up to do this. And so um for my superintendence report on um
004this evening, I want to talk with you a little bit kind of about the comprehensive programming that's happening this summer. We are just starting to get uh updates and pictures of our work happening in school. So the next couple of board meetings, you'll be seeing quite a bit of that. So just as an overview for summer learning opportunities, this really is the first look. Um, these are the students that either are attending, have enrolled to attend, or we're planning on having them. But when you look at our innovative summer learning camps, we currently have 68 elementary students and about 14 high school students that are doing their astronomy camp, which already happened. Code Quest, which is happening this week, and then Rocketry, which will be happening on August 5th and 6th. Um, as a reminder,
005the elementary students, and I shouldn't say elementary, it's actually K through rising or through 8th grade. Um, when you're looking at that, the high schoolers then come in as peer mentors beside them. So, they're not actually participating in the learning as much as they're hap they're helping and they're the extra set of hands. The extended school year, we have 77 students participating in our extended school year through student services. Summer jumpstart, uh, prek through three. This was the legislative initiative that helps with literacy and numeracy. We have 151 students across the district in high school, summer school. As of last week, we had 118 students. That fluctuates as students earn credits, enroll for other classes, or come in and start to earn another class. And then culture camp, um 20 students. So that's about 448
006students across the district are taking advantage of extended learning through a variety of students. That does not count our um virtual academy that Mrs. Frisbee helps run and so there will be some extra numbers coming at you. So 448 really is our minimum number of students. One of the really cool things that our students do every summer um and this was not reflected in that previous slide that I showed you, but we had 40 fifth and sixth graders gathered to learn about construction basics. They built birdhouses and tool totes and they donated planters. Um, this was a free opportunity June 15th through 17th. It was held at CMR. Um, you'll see some individuals you may recognize. There are some students there, some community partners. Brian Tucker, who worked with us for a year now, works
007up at the college, is the one that's on the right hand side. Uh, lowest picture helping out our students. Um, really, really excited. We capped it at 40. They f it fills up really, really quick. And it's looked forward to. We get a lot of phone calls about when registration opens starting about February. I think they start calling and asking us about it. Just as a reminder, while we're working with students on academics, we are also making sure that they are receiving meals and that no student goes hungry throughout the summer as well. We have a lot of opportunities for students to connect with our free summer meals program and um that Jessa runs along with some of the park pals activities in our parks. So um there it's available at Giant Springs Elementary, Chief
008Joseph Elementary, Sunnyside Elementary, Valley View Elementary, Gibson Park, Carter Park, West Kanas Park, and Roads Park. Um all of those meals are eaten on site. the activities throughout Barry. Everything from um learning about the fire department to doing crafts to doing reading time. So, it's a really an awesome opportunity for students and families. Anyone who's 18 years old or or younger, no questions asked, no registration, just show up and and eat a meal. Speaking of people showing up, um wanted to give a special shout out. You've heard throughout the year that we've had some generous donors and gifts provided to the district. The most recent one was actually the Arby's Foundation. And the Arby's um AES Foundation started in 2020 when founder um and CEO John Wade was riding in a car with one of
009his other executives and they were following a school bus that stopped to allow a student to get on a bus from what the two gentlemen thought was a shack in this rural part. Um I believe that it was West Virginia. They decided at that time they needed to be sure that children were taken care of and no matter what their capacity was. So they started the AES Foundation. This is the second year that Great Falls Public Schools has received the roundup day of giving gift from Arby's and that's where on a given day that they actually do it two times a year at both Arby's. Um you can round up your order or you can choose to donate an extra dollar and all of the money that is collected then is given to a local
010charity. This year they gave $2,420. They wanted to help students in need and really focus on families that were struggling to pay for school lunches. So Jessa took that $2,420 and she helped 98 families pay for their lunches right the very last week of school. So a special thank you to manager Alexis Martinez. I'm looking over at Mrs. Frisbee because Alexis is a student that we worked with at Great Falls High. I'm really really proud of her leadership and what she's doing with her life. It's cool to get that phone call from her every year. Um, and a thank you to Luke and to Jessa for working on a process to really help students and families and me pay for lunches. On Saturday, June 14th, executive director Jackie Maywar and I were able to attend
011the flight day celebration. We had let you know earlier on the students who won prizes from the Great Falls Association of Realtors. They won um gift cards or cash prizes and then one of the things they were able to do was read their essays um in front of everybody on flag day at Over Park. And it was an absolutely beautiful morning and the students did a fantastic job sharing with our community what the flag meant to them. and we had students from West Valley View, Riverview, and Mountain View represented. In front of you, you will have a copy of the year-end strategic plan. And this wraps up year two of our three-year strategic plan. You'll notice that everything is green or yellow, which means that we um are have either completed if it's green or
012are working towards completion points if it is yellow. Um, and just a couple of things I want to point out to you about the strategic plan. Um, the very first one under student achievement applicable action steps, the first bullet of common content and state assessments. We're really going to be working at the building levels next year. This is a lot of work is being done with our curriculum directors and um with our executive directors to work on the common content and state assessment data discussions as we start to um build our understanding of the changes that have come to us in assessments across the years. The second one then is professional development and the use of assessment data to impact instruction. Uh focusing on what do we do now that we have that data? What
013do we do with that data to help us inform our instruction? moving down to healthy, safe, and secure schools. Looking the one that I have the most notes on are the staff mental health emergency plan um was evaluated and adjusted. Andrea gave me some fantastic information um on this as we looked at it that we provided resources and support to Longfellow Lincoln Giants and Giant Springs through staff PLC this year. Um we're expanding that to different buildings next year. We have trained all staff members on QPR across the district. They had only one school left at the time that she gave me the data and that was completed. Um they did poly bagel training at Lincoln long fellow and Louiswis and Clark restorative groups at Lincoln. They filmed videos with the lift students. They did
014mindful march and they just got done in Bosezeman. They did a whole session on students and staff mental health for the summer institute through the OPI. So we're very very excited um about the work that they're continuing to do. When you look down at the bottom for stewardship and accountability, that top bullet is yellow versus green. We are in the final stages of um the final proof of the comprehensive communication plan and then we'll be pushing that out to buildings to take our district level one and to build the plan that fits their buildings starting next year. Um, under the second bullet with the town hall meetings, we just were not always real happy with the number of people who don't attend our town hall meetings for budgeting. So, having some really good internal conversations
015about how can we encourage our community to become more involved in that. Um, taking a look down then, you'll also see that the continued principles to policy initiative is highlighted. We had several principles who took advantage of this and the feedback that we got from them was really good. I'm trying to encourage more principles to actually come to our policy meetings to learn how policy is developed at the district level and how it drives and and how it impacts them at the the building levels to build that capacity within them. And then we will continue to work on pushing out that strategic IT plan and then always recruitment and retention of staff continues to be a focus for us. So next month you will get same similar look um of this but you'll get it
016for the next school year. Everything will be white because we haven't started addressing any of it yet. And throughout the year I'll give you the quarterly updates as we start to archive things and turn them green. So some data for the day that I wanted to share with you. Um just some highlights for this. So this is our stewardship and accountability or social media reach information that Lee Larson was able to pull for me. we did incorporate parent square. So the next couple of slides and Sherry will email these to you. Um but when you're looking at this information, uh Sher, if you just go back real quick. No, my fault. Um you'll notice we had a slight uptick um this year in both our social media, Facebook and Instagram um engagement with our public,
017but then parent square. We're seeing a lot of engagement with our parents square. So now hit the next page. So this is what the diagnostic page looks like when we start to take a look at parent square. We know that with parent square we have about 9,446 students and those students have 10,383 parents who are contacted. We do have 99 guests who are on Parent Square as well. Um, sometimes that's a steparent. Sometimes, um, that parent square can also be, um, a daycare that's right next door to a school. So, if we have an emergency situation, a daycare is right there. Um, staff and teachers. We have 1885 individuals, staff, teachers, coaches that are on there. But the interesting part is what does that interaction look like when we're talking about interacting with parents on
018Parent Square. Um, if you look down at the bottom, so we had 1,299 comments that were sent back and forth on Parent Square. Um, 2,713 appreciations. But when I look at the volunteers, 1742 parents or guests volunteered to do things within their schools through the Parent Square platform, which I think is really powerful when we're talking about building um opportunities for our parents to become involved in the education of their students. 4,879 direct messages sent to and from teachers and parents back and forth using that to communicate in there. Um, I also had to chuckle because we had 317 signed permission forms probably I'm assuming from the high school in parent square and the number of times we forget to get things signed sometimes in the high school. Um, but it was actually a very
019powerful platform wellreceived good investment for us at this point. Um, and after multiple years that you as board members heard us talk about just struggles we had with a mass communication tool that was uniform K12, I think we found one that's working for us and we're really excited about it with safe and secure schools. Mr. Boyd did some number crunching for me um actually the day after school got out. So these numbers are very very current. Um, you will see that this last year we had a reduction of 18.88% 88% across the board. When you looked at our top areas that we were looking at, um, aggravated assault, assault, remember that's the school definition. That's not necessarily the legal definition. Attendance, disorderly conduct, fighting, insubordination, and school threat. The school threat number is greatly inflated.
020it went from 12 to 137, but that's because for the first time, we unified the way that we're starting to track our threat assessments. And so, we weren't always putting them in the same way. Um, we had different ways of of logging them. And so, Jackie and Lance worked really, really hard to be sure we had consistency so we see a clearer picture about the number of times that a school threat. Now, it can be anything from a excited utterance that happens on a student to something more significant or severe. Um, but on average, school threats take about 40 hours of combined time with the administrators and the counselors who address them. Down below, the big number that we were looking at is when we collectively put all those together, you can see that bar
021is decreasing where we had the really low number right in COVID when we didn't have a lot of students present. it ballooned up and then as we're starting to reinstill those um expectations for behavior through things like character strong and responsibility center discipline, we're starting to see those numbers go back to where they were um prior to our shutdown in CO student achievement. Just wanted to show you a couple of uh bars that are good visuals. So when you take a look at the upper left and the upper right, you'll notice that there's a it looks like a missing bar and that's because that's where mast began and we did the board work session earlier this year on mast. So the number represented above it is that number that we're looking at really for our
022baseline. So once again, starting to see our students reach those numbers that we're looking at um just prior to or during COVID and then prior to CO um getting us back on track with the hard work that our teachers and our leaders are doing out in in the buildings. Uh math proficiency levels are on the left, English language are on the right. And then we wanted to measure things this year, this um strategic plan on progress and students who are showing a year of growth, no matter where they were, whether they're a struggling learner or a learner who is in advanced um academic areas because they're they're more academically able. So when we're looking at uh progress, our district is showing 60% of our students are showing progress in reading compared to 50% for the
023state. 65% in math as compared to uh the 50% for the state. And then English learners um 31% of our English learners as compared to 32% for the state. So we know we have some work to do with that sub population as well, but there's just a quick snapshot of student achievement. Then we went to the ACT and oh, we had a mess with the ACT this year. Um, when we got our numbers, you probably received some emails from us that the numbers came out and the numbers were wrong. Mrs. Frisbee, God bless her. She knew that when she got the statistics that they were off and she just kept harping on College Board, making phone calls, sending emails, these numbers are wrong. They don't line up. The math doesn't math. Something's going on. And
024about a month after she started making daily phone calls, they called and said, "Huh, the math doesn't math. There's something wrong." And they were wrong for everybody who took the ACT, not just for Montana. So, we often hear that Montana's kids, their average ACT score, they struggle. So, I thought, let's take a look at how Montana does. So, I pulled the top states where at least 90% of their students are required to take the ACT for essentially high stakes testing. When you're required to take the ACT, where does Montana fall? And then where does Great Falls fall? Montana falls first of all of the states that are required to take the ACT with greater than or equal to 90% student participation. It's not quite the narrative we always hear about our students struggling. And where
025does Great Falls fall? We fall right at 18.7, which is that red star. So upper lower top half or not lower top half, but kind of right in the middle. Um, right above Tennessee, right below Wyoming, but that's where our students would fall at 18.7 compared to the state average of 19.5. So, just did a little bit different look at the ACT as we move forward. Some of those states will drop off because they will no longer require the ACT for their state test. Um, Montana will be taking at least another year and we're going year by year for those conversations, but it gives you just a little bit of a different look. The states that score the highest, including the District of Columbia, whose averages are up around 27 or 28% or 27 or
02628, their scores on the ACT, have usually less than 10% of their students taking the ACT. So, they have different indicators that we can't necessarily compare ourselves against for those reasons. And with that, that officially wraps up the school year. Um, and I stand for questions. Thank you, Mrs. Hoyer. That's quite a bit of information. Thank you very much. Any questions for our superintendent regarding your report. >> Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. And once again, you'll get the full report from Sherry. So, as you dig into it, when you have questions, please reach out. >> More time to spend with it. Thank you very much. >> Moving on to audience communication. I do have a request to speak to this board of trustees this evening from Mrs. Mortonson. So, to come forward, please.
027Welcome back. And if you turn on the mic, it makes a Good evening. I appreciate you're letting me come in and um give you a little bit of information on what I've been working on as far as the problems we're seeing with substance abuse, primarily marijuana. I've been in contact with a majority of people I thought cared about our kids enough to really take an interest in what's happening in the state. And there are a lot of people who all of a sudden have decided this is a problem. I know that across the nation we have a substance abuse problem which is not a secret. Uh in Montana that we've been working on uh hoping that this problem would go away but it's not going away by the the things that we are doing so
028far. So after having visited with multiple professionals uh multiple people who just care about and work with our kids, my conclusion is that the only place we can start making a difference is when we start with parents and children. And of course, the school district is first in line on that that population and the presence that we have in their lives. Um, Superintendent Hoyer's information on getting some parent participation and that sort of thing is really encouraging because one of the things that I have discovered um, working with some of the mental health professionals etc. is that we just don't have parents or kids listening to or attending to what we really need to get across to them. Not only the dangers of marijuana, but the fact that the next three or four generations are
029going to be impacted by what you and I do at this point. Since 19 since 2021, in fact, the legislature has tried to pass um laws that would kind of put some guard rails around this and they have been voted down every session. This year the the um committees the interim committees for legislation have really been busy and um and shortly I'll give you some information on that that you can kind of take home and get an idea of what's coming up. The important thing is that we are as the adults in the room are going to have to step forward, really show our support for some of this stuff. after having visited with Andrea Savage and with um Beth Price and with other professionals uh around the state and around the city. I think
030that there's two major things that come up. Well, maybe three. Um, one is that OPI has stopped supporting or endorsing the substance abuse programs that we presently have in place. My goal would be to work with OPI in hopes that they will again start endorsing those substance abuse programs and also for us to get more money for those programs. Um, I touched base with Luke on what it would take to get another professional in place like Andrea and he tells me it'll only take about 110,000 a year. Um, just a minor part of your budget. Another thing was to um hopefully help encourage and um endorse the programs that Alliance for Youth has in place. Uh Beth Price tells me that she's just been working her tail off to be able to answer calls from
031around Cascade County to to provide um counseling for kids not necessarily with mental health problems, but who are just so stressed out. And since t co I'm sure you've all seen what co did for stressing our kids out. She seems to indicate that the marijuana is really um endor in encouraging enhancing the pro the problems that kids are having. My own research has shown that one of the first things that marijuana does is destroy particular pathways. And I if you've read anything about this, you know that the marijuana destroys brain cells. It doesn't just u put them to sleep like maybe alcohol or something like that does. The marijuana begins destroying those pathways immediately. The um Florence Kittington home has found prenatal problems showing up more and more from parent marijuana use. So the use
032of the marijuana is really devastating to our society. One of the things that um you'll find with the um legislation that's going forth is hopefully to get more of those dollars that the marijuana industry is already paying in taxes. The the statistics were that there was a guess we might get in around 40 $45 million. Well, we got 68 and a majority of that went into the general fund. I mean, a big share of it went into the general fund. We also have taxes, county and and city that are available from marijuana taxes, which we are hoping to be able to take some of that to plug some holes. So, um, with that, I want to really encourage everybody to be aware that the legislative session that's coming up will again be introducing bills. Ron,
033do you want to hand those out? Uh, thanks. Um, every year these bills have been introduced and every year they've been shot down. We have a a we have two big opponents. The marijuana policy project which hopes to make marijuana not only available but make it um uh possible for everybody in the country to get it very carefully and very easily and pretty cheaply. And um number two is the Montana Cannabis Association. Very active out soliciting all the time. So, if you have a legislator you're familiar with, or even if you're not familiar with your legislator, please be aware that these bills are going to be coming up and that your support and your help will be greatly appreciated and probably you'll be bugged again by me when they get up there. >> Thank you,
034Mrs. Mortonson. And and we appreciate your vigilance. And I would ask if there's any questions for you before you leave from our trustees or anybody in the room regarding this issue that she has brought before us. And again, thank you. Thank you for sharing your research with us too. >> Thank you. >> Ladies and gentlemen, we're at Roman 7, which is action items. Action item A is the 2627 Great Falls Public Schools TRS Purse Administrators and Supervisors Compensation. Mrs. Spursen, welcome. >> Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, members of the community. I am here sorry tonight to discuss the administrator and supervisor compensation. It includes 47 employees. These employees are critical to the mission of the district. They set the climate, implement the board's goals, provide instructional leadership, and maintain the
035safety and discipline that allows Great House Public Schools to continually perform at high levels. The base salaries for the employees listed in this unit are adjusted by 3%. Positions include two executive directors of student achievement, one director of business operations, one HR director, one director of technology, one director of special education, two co-cordinators of curriculum and instruction, one coordinator of athletics, one coordinator of music and art, one coordinator of indigenous education, two coordinators of student services, one coordinator of student services title one, one coordinator of student services at the Elf Center. Two high school principles, six high school associate principles, one alternative high school principal, two middle school principles, two middle school associate principles, 15 elementary principles, one supervisor of facilities, one assistant supervisor of facilities, one supervisor of food services, and one coordinator of
036the college and career readiness center. The superintendent's not listed above as the parameters for her contract were already previously settled. I have attached the schedules um for this. The recommendation is requested to approve the 3% increase to for the Great Falls Public Schools administrators and supervisor salary for 2627 as presented. >> Thank you. Mr. Chair, >> Trusty Scorski, >> I move we approve the Great Falls Public Schools administrators and supervisor salaries um for 2026 2027 school year as presented. >> Second. >> Been moved and seconded to approve the Great Falls Public Schools administrators and supervisor salaries for 2627 as presented. Any questions or commentary from a board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from others in the gallery? Hearing seeing none, I will call for the question. All those in favor of the motion, please
037signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Thank you, Mrs. Spursm. >> While we've got you, let's go on to section item B. >> Okay, this >> Great Falls Public Schools support personnel compensation. So this one is a unit compromised of 35 employees. These employees are critical to the mission of the district. They set the climate, implement the board schools, provide assistance to leadership, support students health, and maintain technology and business protocols that allow RFalls public schools to continually perform smoothly at the district level. The base salaries for the employees within the following units will be adjusted by 3% increase. The unit includes behavior support specialist, mental health therapist, part-time school psychologist, student meth mental health coordinator, transition services coordinator, exempt secretaries, computer services hourly, non-licensed support, and licensed support. The
0383% increase in base salaries will result in an approximate salary budget for this group of $1,989,779 and it's approximately $61,285 increase. So I'm asking you to approve the Great Falls Public School support for snow compensation base salary by 3% for the 2627 school year. Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. >> Trusty Thompson. >> I move that we approve the Great Falls Public Schools support personnel compensation base salary increase of 3% for the 2026 2027 school year. >> Second. Been moved and seconded to approve the Great Falls Public Schools support personnel compensation. Are there any questions or commentary from a board of trustees regarding this motion? Any from others in the room? Hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Thank you for your
039good work, Miss Spurs. Appreciate it. Action item C, driver's ed class sessions held on Saturday. Mr. Boyd. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, members of our community. Uh I'm here tonight with Miss Jodie Hicks who also supervises drivers education uh for the district to get your permission here in a little bit uh to be able to continue to offer Saturday drives for driver's education. So I'll let Mrs. Hicks explain the why. >> Um so at this point the driver's ed teachers are teaching the classes from 3:30 to 5:30 Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday during the school year. the amount of time that they have to use to uh do the drives with the students would just put them way too late into the night or extend the amount of time that driver
040would take. So, the driver's ed teachers are asking that they can do the drives on Saturdays and they have they have done that already. It's just now that we need board approval, we're asking for that. Up to this point, the driver's ed teachers for this school year have told me that they've done 500 plus drives on Saturdays. Um, because each of the students has 12 hours of driving and when they've got 30 students in a class, 20 to 30 students in a class multiple times in a year, it takes that much time and they're just asking for the permission to do it on Saturdays. >> Thank you. Mr. Chair, >> Trusty Thompson, >> I move that we approve the um the um conduct of driver's ed sessions on Saturdays. >> Second. >> Been moved and
041seconded to approve the conduct of driver's ed sessions on Saturday. Any questions or commentary for Mrs. Hicks or Mr. Boyd? There's a question from Trusty Scorowski. Um, well, I guess I just wanted to maybe give you the opportunity to explain to our community. We hear from parents a lot about um the desire for more drivers ed classes and opportunities for students. And I just wonder if maybe you could take this opportunity to explain why um why there's more need than than than spaces available. uh boils at the end of the day the number of instructors that we have to teach driver's ed in the state of Montana. You have to have an endorsement just like you have to have a license or endorsement to teach uh in the classroom and there aren't very many people
042that go after that endorsement uh anymore. We've seen that over the course of our time uh in the district and it's something that limits the number of students that we're able to have based on the sessions that the instructors can offer. Chairman Johnson, may I add something to that as well? Please do, Mr. Deakons. Yes. Um, my understanding is the only place that they can do in class and you have to do this in class in person is in Miles City. >> Correct. Now, it's all in Mile City. So, it's very difficult to get someone to commit to that. As far as the Saturday drives, that's nothing new, but this came about as a message from Mr. Big from Montes School Boards Association sent it out that this should be something that's being requested even
043if it's not a credit bearing course within your school district to make sure you have it on file. So this will be something that will come to you yearly as a request to drive on Saturdays as well. Thank you. Any other questions from our trustees? Any questions from our gallery on this? If not, I'll call for the question. All those in favor to approve the conduct of driver's ed sessions on Saturdays, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Oppos same sign. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Makes a lot of sense. Um Roman 7, item D, professional development pupil instruction related plans for 2026 27. Mr. Boyd and he's being joined by Mrs. Frisbee. >> I'm back again. And so this time I'm going to invite Becky Frisbee up to the lect turn so
044that she can review the 2627 uh PI plan and proposal for the upcoming school year. >> Thank you. >> Chairman Johnson, superintendent, trustees and community members. I'd like to present to you today the professional development budget plan specifically for our PS or people instruction related courses. Uh just a reminder that each year teachers must complete 18 hours. That's both required by the CVA as well as the requirements from OPI and uh MCNR. For the 26 27 school year, our PI steering committee decided to add two additional opportunities that we've never had before. So we have two um Great Falls Public School summer institutes, one in June and one in August. This allows teachers to come in in a two-day opportunity to just take a big conference type. Everything's all in one place. We no longer
045have um one PI teacher balancing against another one and ending up canceling each other out because neither one of them can get enough enrollment. Just to give you an idea of how well this went over in June, 1,981 hours of professional development was earned in June in our two days and they were nine hours long each day. So we have about 30 teachers that are completely done with their PIR because they went to nine hours each day of summer institute and experienced everything from uh our administrators giving them more information. Lance was one of our presenters. He talked about tier three behavior and we had people coming in from Carnegie Learning, from McGraill, from Amplify. These are all included in our purchases. We had administrators offering a variety of topics as well as many of
046our teachers who do this every year. Because we had so much increased involvement by administrators, we were actually able to cut the budget from last year. Right now, our budget for both elementary and secondary and student services is $16,557.75. Weird, I know, but when you teach a session that's only two hours, it gets a weird amount. Student services will cover $2,862 of that. and the elementary and secondary budgets together will cover $13,695.75. I do have one last thing I want to tell you about before I let you vote on these. Um, we talked to you last year about the PI steering committee had changed the requirements to apply to be a presenter. Those came about by changes in legislation. Those will carry over this year as OPI has changed what it takes to become a
047provider. Another way is the person that presents them their um renewal units. And so we will be reapplying as a district and that will take place at the end of October, beginning of November when it switches. And we're in that process right now. And that will be part a piece of the new accreditation. With all that information, I just request that you approve the budget for professional development at that $16,557.75. >> Thank you, Mrs. Frisbee. >> Mr. Chairman, >> Trusty Duff, >> I moved that we accept the recommended professional development plan for the 2026 27 school year as presented. >> Second. >> Been moved and seconded to accept the recommendation of the professional development plan for 2627. Any questions or commentary uh from our board of trustees? Trusty Thompson. >> Yeah, Becky, I was just
048curious uh with the different format, were you able to offer some different courses than is that you have before? >> One of the things that I thought was really cool was we have people that have never presented before >> and it's very intimidating to say, I'm going to do a six-hour P and I've never ever done this before. But it's a lot less intimidating to say, "Oh, I can try two hours." >> Okay. >> And so we had a lot more people come in and do those little two-hour chunks. They have the the opportunity to do two, three, four, or six, and then we had some people that repeated them the next day. >> So there was quite a bit of interest. We also had food trucks out at lunch that made it nice. You
049didn't have to leave. Um just a lot of really good input from it. So I think it was fun. >> What were a couple of the highlights, the popular ones? >> Um the standing room only and people like fighting to get in because they were in classrooms. >> Yeah. >> Um was Carnegie Learning and they came and Rachel and I perused their menu of topics and um we chose like grammar was one of them. Uh very popular. uh it's one of the topics that she's seeing being asked for at the elementary level. There was one called um mystery units and how you teach. It's all about student engagement. It was also people got turned away because they couldn't get in. >> So that was a really good one. And forensic science. Uh John Davis does
050this one every year for us and he's really very stern with his um population. If you've taken this before, you cannot take it again. It does not give you credit twice, but they learn they do a lot of uh things that are very specific to forensics, but the underlying message is this is all about engagement and how you do these activities and how can you transfer the idea of a hands-on inquirybased and engaged activity into your classroom and so it's another really really popular one. >> Nice. Thank you. >> Sure. >> Thank you. Any additional questions from our trustees? Any from our galler gallery here? Hearing seeing none call for the questions and it's to accept the recommendation p uh personal development plan for 2627. All those in favor of this motion please signify by
051saying I >> I >> oppose same sign. Motion carries. Thank you for the report. >> Thank you. >> Very interesting. Romans 7, item E, second reading of board policy 2410 R. Mrs. Hoyer. >> Thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, and members of our community. As of this afternoon, I had had no public comment um or feedback on policy 2410R. This is our um regular publication of graduation requirements. Just as a reminder, there were some changes that Mr. Boyd went over with you last time. Um that includes on page 41 of your packet uh line 22 changing algebra 1 to integrated math to make it more current with our current offerings. Then also going down on lines 40 and 41 the class of 2024 may substitute well we're beyond the class of 2024 in
052that state uh mandated change for financial literacy. So that has been struck as well. Um, the committee did a fantastic job of making sure that we also had updates on our cross references and our legal references reflected on page 45 and 46. So with that, my recommendation is that we approve this policy as written. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Chair, >> trust. I move we approve the revised board policy 2410R, the publication of graduation requirements as presented. >> Second. >> Been moved and seconded to approve revise board policy 2410R. Any questions or commentary from our board of trustees comment >> trustes Kronagowski. Um, I guess I just wanted to to make a quick comment that our graduation requirements are actually higher than what is um required by the state. Um, and that is something that
053we've really prided ourselves on. Um but it is also something that has come up um as we talk about um potential budget cuts in the future um that we may have to um un potentially lower our requirements um if we do not um see more financial support either through a levy or through um state fund additional state funding. So, I think it would just I just think it's important to point that out and um you know to hopefully be able you know we hope to be able to continue to to press our students um to to really rise above the bare minimum. >> Duly noted. Thank you. Uh any other questions for Mr. Boyd or Superintendent Hoyer on this policy? Any questions or commentary from our gallery? Hearing and seeing none, I'll call for the
054question. All those in favor of approving the revised board policy 2410 R, please signify by saying I. I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Thank you very much. Action item F, second reading of the 2627 student handbook. Mr. Boy, uh, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, members of our community, I come back to you tonight uh, after review of our 2627 student handbook at the last meeting. Uh, at this time, I haven't had any public comment other than feedback from the board uh, specifically thanking us for the format that we created it in. If we go back to the last meeting, remember the reason for the format change is so that we can have a student handbook that can easily be understood online and followed through online. A ton of work went into this from
055Jerry Rollins in my office, Sherry and Heather's office, and Mrs. Hoyer as we work through the final edits uh to get it to that point in time, but I ask tonight uh that we're able to uh approve the student handbook for 2627 so that we can get it to print and get it published on the website. >> There we go. >> Mr. Chair, >> trusts. >> I move that we approve the revised 2026 2027 student handbook as presented. >> Second. been moved and seconded to approve the revised 2627 student handbook as presented at the previous June 826 board meeting. Any questions or commentary from our board of trustees from our gallery hearing? Seeing none, all those in favor of the act motion, please signify by saying I. >> I oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Thank
056you very much and good work on that revision. Action item a G, financial report and check register for May 2026. Mr. Deakons. >> Thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the community. Um, tonight I do have the May financials and check register ready for your approval. As you peruse them in the agenda, you probably noticed um we have plenty left to make it through the end of the year. However, remember as we hit the middle of June, um we have large teacher payrolls and so forth that come out. So, as we get ready to close up this school year, you will see these amounts and percentages that are in those different particular accounts starting to go down quite quickly and balance up eventually with our TFS's. Um, you'll also notice
057with the check register, the checks, the numbers and amounts are all up to date and are in relation to the last time that we approved this. So, with that, I'll ask the board to request and accept the fund monthly financial report and approve the register of payments for May 2026. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Chair. Trusty Duff, >> I move that we accept the monthly financial report and approve the register of payments for May. Second. >> Been moved and seconded to accept the monthly financial report and approve the register of payments for May 2026. Any questions or commentary from our board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from our gallery? Chairman Johnson, just really quick to just note we did turn off um the majority of spending as of May 15th. Um so you will
058notice those accounts payables and so forth will go down this next month. And also knowing through our budget committee work where we are sitting for next year. We're trying to do our very best to be somewhat frugal but make sure we can get everything taken care of for this year. So hopefully we can move a little bit over to that interlocal to help to make up that deficit that we've talked about earlier in the year. >> Thank you. That commentary is appreciated. Any further questions or commentary from our trustees? Any from our gallery here? None. Okay. I'll call for the question. All those in favor to accept the monthly register report and approve the register of payments for May 2026, please signify by saying I. >> I oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Action item H.
059Lease agreement in Cascade County with Cascade County for county extension space at the early morning family center. Mr. Deakons. >> Thank you, Chairman Johnson. This is an extension of the lease agreement that we currently have with Cascade County and the Montana Extension Agency up at the Elf Center. Um each every three years we do go through this process with them. It is a fairly drawn out process because we do have to go through Cascade County which requires us to go through two sessions of their meetings to get approval and then it comes back to us to get final approval on with it. Really the only change that is in here from the previous contract is the amount. We did raise that amount by the 3%. That was it. Um they were very understanding of that
060matter and we still do enjoy having a group like that up there in the L center that shares that space. They put it to good use um and a good use for our community. So with that, I will let you know that the rent will move to $28,360 per month. Um, and that's sorry I said 3% I think I was thinking of the raises but 1% increase. And then the uh district board I would ask you to approve the agreement with Cascade County to continue the early education family center lease through June 30th 2028 as presented. >> Thank you >> Mr. Chair. >> Trusty Skodani. I move that we approve the agreement with the Cascade with Cascade County to continue the early learning um early learning family center lease through June 30th, 2028 as presented.
061Second >> been moved and seconded to approve this agreement with Cascade County. Uh any questions or commentary from our board of trustees? Any from our gallery? Hearing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I >> I >> oppose same sign. Motion carries. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for your good work on this action other. There was nothing pulled from the consent agenda. So, we'll move on to Roman nine reports, discussion, and policies beginning with a first reading of the new introduction to automotive KUD. Mr. Void, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board. Becky and I are back and this time I'm going to ask Becky to go through the KODs uh for intro to automotive in our high schools. Thank you.
062>> Welcome back. >> Hello again, Chairman Johnson, superintendent of your trustees and the community. I returned with our QDS for intro to technology. So at our high schools we have a course called intro to it IT and in that you can take a quarter of each area and it consists right now of woods, electricity, welding and drafting. Um that limits who can actually teach those and it that's further limited by their endorsements. So this set of kods was written and proposed by the actual IT teachers. They thought that if there was more opportunity um they could change up those rotations and um have more offerings for students. So drafting and electricity are two that depending on who we have teaching at the time, it's hard to get the endorsements right so that we can actually
063offer them. And so you would have to fall back and be like, "Oh, well you can have two woods or you can have two welding." So adding one more provides more flexibility. Um each school will get that ability to do this. Won't be limited to either side of the river, but they'll have those um KUDs to set back on. They've already been posted on our district website. If you go to the curriculum page at the very top, there'll be a link to the draft KUDS for Intro to Automotive. And there'll be a second set in my office as we always allow people to come in and view those in the hard copy. Um they're very straightforward. The intro classes are very basic, but they allow students that ability to kind of dip their toe in
064the pond and experience a course and decide, do I want to sign sign up for this for a semester or a year? And since automotive is new to this, we really hope to build up and boost those um automotive courses and the numbers that they receive. >> Terrific. Thank you. Any questions um for Mrs. Frisbee regarding this. Thank you for sharing this with us. >> Thank you. >> Reports of discussion and policies. We're at B. And uh let's start off with Trusty Scodagowski. >> I have nothing to report. Enjoy your summer. >> I'm speechless. Bravo, Mr. Duff. Top that. It's a hard one to follow. Um, shout out to the innovative learning camp. The coding camp gets good reviews today. I heard it was a lot of fun. And one other thing I just wanted
065to say, and I mentioned this to superintendent a while back, made me think of even talking about the AES Foundation helping kids in need. So, I was at Sam's Club of all places and witness them take care of some of our high school kids. No matter how I plan my day, I'm in Sam's Club the same time the high school kids are. I feel like they go at the same time and I don't, but we're always there together. And on a side note, they're always very well behaved when they're in Sam's Club. Um, but just happen to be in the right place at the right time. I'm sure it goes on other places that we don't see. Um, but they really hats off to the ladies working there taking care of our kids. Um, and
066that's it. >> Thank you, Mr. Jeff. >> Trusty Thompson. I'm just still laughing about Kim's short report. It's amazing. Um I just wanted to um just comment on your report about parent square. That is very exciting um to me to see how well uh that parents are stepping up and volunteering through that platform. Um, I know from my days in PTA, uh, we were always told, and I believe this to be very true, that a lot of times people just have to be asked. And if they're not ask, then they'll never volunteer. And so this is just yet another platform to be able to not only be asked but also recognize that there is a need because I think that the other um thing that holds a lot of parents back is just thinking that
067there's not anything that they really could do to you know help enhance um anything in the classroom. So um that's just really exciting and I mean I know that we need to try to build up parent involvement. So it's pretty exciting that we've got another platform to do that. Thank you very much. I'm just going to conclude by saying that we got a lot of stuff done tonight and what we do as a board is ratify the good work of what the people in this room and and the people who work for our district and I'm very proud of what it is we can accomplish through the great resource of personnel that we have. So, thank you very much. We appreciate you. And then upcoming events, take a look. Next board meeting is July 13.
068And uh thank you for your impassioned presentation, Mrs. Bortonson. And with that, if there's no further business to come before this board of trustees, I would propose a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> We're adjourned. You say