001Um so it is time to call our um April 27th um board of trustees meeting to order. And um just a friendly reminder to everyone um one if you have a cell phone make sure that um your ringer is muted and two that these meetings are recorded um and will be posted online in the near future. Um oh I'm supposed to do this too. All right. And with that, uh, Mr. Decons, can you do roll call, please? >> Thank you, Vice Chairperson Scornoski. Uh, Gordon Johnson, >> excused. >> Kim Skornagoski, >> here. >> Bill Bronson, >> here. >> Craig Duff, >> here. Paige Henning >> here. >> Marley Sunchild >> excused. >> And Amy Thompson >> here. >> You have a quorum for which to work. >> Wonderful. Um, can you all please stand for
002the pledge of allegiance? Let's have one of our students start us off. >> Go ahead. >> To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thanks. I knew you could do it. >> All right, vice chair. >> Open the floor to a motion. I move that we adopt the agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Wonderful. It's been moved and seconded that we adopt the agenda as presented. Are there any questions or comments from my fellow trustees and from our community? Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting the agenda. >> Excuse me. Chair, we do have um an amendment to the agenda. Um, and I believe uh, Trusty Bronson, I I will probably lean on him a little
003bit to make the um, amendment to remove and table for the time being the Cascade County Sheriff's Office and Great Falls Police Department Reserve SRO um, agreement. Our uh, county commissioners would like additional time to review this process. >> Okay. Um, is would you prefer that I resend the original motion or make an amendment? Actually, Madam Chair, the best way to do it would be to proceed with the agenda and when we take that up as an item that a motion be made to postpone consideration at that time. >> Okay. Thank you, Trusty drop. All right. So, we will >> just don't call me son or names. You're fine. >> All right. All right. Getting spicy. All right. So, um with that said, um all those in favor of adopting the agenda as presented signify
004by saying I. >> I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes unanimously. >> Madam Chair, >> yes, Trusty Bronson, >> move we approve the consent agenda as submitted. >> Second. All right. Wonderful. It's been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda as presented. Are there any comments or questions from my fellow trustees from our community? All right. Seeing none, all those in favor of the consent agenda, please signify by saying, "I." >> All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes unanimously. All right. On to communication, our favorite part of the night. We have um Jackie Manewearing up to introduce our students from Lincoln Elementary. Good evening, Vice Chair Scoragoski, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, members of the community. We have Lincoln Elementary leadership kids up here tonight to talk to us about Character Strong.
005And with them is their principal, Mr. Steve Yates. Come on up. Thank you all for having us. I'm Steve Yates. I'm the principal of Lincoln and we've got some amazing young people here to kind of talk about their story. We're going to talk a little bit about um courage. We're going to talk a little bit about our building cultural beliefs and uh just kind of set the stage. I got to say it's good to see him squirm because if you see these sixth graders, they walk around with some pretty amazing confidence and you never gain anything through everything being easy. So, I'm excited to have these guys up here um doing something that's the scariest thing out there as far as public speaking. So, um if you wanna I'm going to give you the All
006right. So, I do want to talk a little bit about our mission. So, a couple years back when I came to Lincoln, this is my third year at Lincoln. Um we the staff and I came together and just decided to figure out what it was what it meant to be a teacher at Lincoln kind of like our character strong for um our staff and then it's kind of melded into uh for the students and we talk about it all the time but really at my only part in this presentation because nobody came to see me it's just talking about our mission right creating a health a safe healthy environment by embracing all and respecting all and meeting everyone where we're at And I think that's really what we're all about at Lincoln. And with that,
007we're going to move on. So there, the next slide is talks about just an overview of our cultural beliefs. We can slide right by that. And who's up first? Marshall. >> Hello, my name is Macy Marshall and I've been going to Lincoln literally my whole life, even before I started school. I love sports such as swim, volleyball, and basketball. I also love music and play the piano, obo, and clarinet. Okay, our first cultural belief is step up, step in. What does this mean? This means we help in situations that could use our help. Um, what kind of help? The simple answer is any at all. We believe that whenever somebody needs help or could use just a little bit of help, we should we jump in and help them with what they need. What backgrounds
008of students do we need to help? The answer is any at all. No matter their background, who they are, we should be there for them. Um, why do we not always step up and step in? One reason is because of the bystandard effect. Bystandard effect is data that shows that the more people watching someone struggling, the less likely they are to help. This pie chart shows that there is an 80% chance someone will help, they are the only one watching or know someone is struggling, but it drops to only a 20% chance if others are watching. One reason why the people do this because they think others will act. At Lincoln, we start to cancel this problem and others and focus on being the one to step up and step in no matter the circumstances.
009What about Paris? When the roof blew off, there are so many jobs to be done. Within hours, there are many responders stepping in. By the next day, there are firefighters and many others helping out. In 3 days, we were back at school. This could not have been possible without those who stepped in, even when it wasn't their problem. It didn't stop there. From day one, teachers had stepped in at parents. At this point, three days a week, at the end of the day, I'm with a different teacher who wants to do extra math with a couple of students. We have been able to do archery and gym because teacher stepping in to help. We've been able to study rocks, do more leadership, and even more because of others at Paris stepping in. Okay. Hi, my
010name is Kate. I'm a sixth grade student at Lincoln Elementary. I do lots of sports such as swimming, volleyball, and gymnastics. I'm into music and play the flute and obo. I've been going to Lincoln my whole elementary school career, and one thing it has taught me is to not leave a problem unsolved. Go to solution is our second culture belief. It is the belief that I own my own actions and look for positive solutions. It doesn't have to be my problem to be part of the solution. It also means to be resourceful even when it gets hard and you don't have the resources. Okay. Sorry. How does this relate to Paris? When I heard that the roof blew off, all I could think about was the millions of problems. We didn't know when we were
011going to have school. And even when we did, we were still going to have to find figure out recess, lunch, rework our schedules, and we would have to get used to being summer. Everybody contributed, and they went to solution, used what we didn't have, and we are all thriving right now. Hello, I'm Molly Nolles, a sixth grader who has been going to Lincoln my whole life. I love learning about geology and space and I play the clarinet and piano. And I love my two corgis at home named Reggie and Teddy. Our third culture belief is we can do hard things. This is my favorite belief by far. even on a normal day with normal circumstances like if you're having a bad day like any remarkable human being should every now and then and you can
012use this amazing tool to persevere and keep plugging away even if the going gets tough and even now Lincoln Elementary has showed we can do hard things more than ever we've gone through the roof on our school blowing off to teachers in emergency meetings all day to split up into three different schools these are very difficult difficult conditions for teachers and students alike but Lincoln and it staff students and even workers on the roof have shown amazing amazing amounts of resilience and hard work to repair the roof on the top of our school and adapting in new schools to teach and learn. I gave the sixth grade at Lincoln Elementary yes or no question. The prompt was, "Do you believe that putting in maximum effort directly leads to success?" According to the data received, 62.3%
013said yes, it does. The other 37.7% that they did not think only effort was essential to success. Honestly, it could go either way. It all depends on your situation. I feel that effort gets you about 98% of the way there. But that other 2% all depends on who you know, where you are, and what you're doing. Either way, effort can get you to wonderful opportunities and chances. Keep working hard and you will reach your goal and even more. Hi, I'm Brody Schul and I've gone to Lincoln my whole life. I also play the French horn of the Lincoln band and I love to play chess. Our final culture belief at Lincoln is you matter. Here at Lincoln, we make sure everyone feels welcome at home. We believe it is essential to have a good connection
014with our fellow students no matter their background. And we also celebrate our differences and encourage curiosity. One of the biggest parts of the matter belief is we do not discourage our peers when them up. There's no gain from pushing somebody down. At Paris, the staff have done a wonderful job of making sure we matter. They've adapted to us in what we do. While Paris, we've made sure that we all support and make each other feel welcome. The teachers done an awesome job of helping each other in most of the situation. When I first heard the roof blow off, I was scared and excited for the move to Paris. When we got there, I was surprised at how the Paris staff adapted to us so quickly. It made us feel like the top priority. Hi, my
015name is Michaela Le Fountain. I'm 12 years old. I've been a student at Lincoln Elementary for 7 years and I've loved it. I'm a Native American. I'm very involved in my tribe and my culture. One thing I love about Lincoln is that they treat everyone the same. Also, they have an Indian education program to help other Native American students learn about their culture and heritage. also where they came from. No matter what your skin color is, they treat all of us the same and they treat us with respect. This is how we represent courage at Lincoln. Lincoln was a great school with so many supportive people around. If it wasn't for everybody being so supportive, school wouldn't school would have been 100 times harder than it was. Leaving Lincoln was super nerve-wracking, but also exciting
016at the same time. At first, I wasn't I wasn't sure that I wanted to go to Paris, but I found the courage to pull myself back up and start somewhere new. After my first day at Paris, everyone was so welcoming and nice to us. I felt like I belonged here, and I still do. Even though I wasn't ready for a change, I needed to try something new. But it was hard leaving because we've gone there since kindergarten. Now we don't get to go back. Even though we don't get to go back, we still have so many memories there. And it doesn't change the fact that we are Lincoln Lions. It also was a super fun place. People were super nice to each other, and no one really argued. Courage to speak out against social media.
017I want to share a time that I use the courage I have gained to talk about a tragic sit situation that h o occurred in my family. About a week ago, I lost my cousin to a social media challenge. I want to raise awareness that social media is a dangerous and not safe place for kids. Ever since I lost my cousin, my whole perspective about social media changed. She was 11 and didn't know any better. She fell she fell victim to the blackout challenge. I want to raise awareness so another family doesn't have to go through this tragedy, the tragedy that my family went through. When I found out she passed away, I found the courage to keep going. She would want me and my family to keep her spirit alive and share her story.
018>> Thank Thank you so much for this opportunity to speak. Does anyone have any questions? Anyone have questions? We just want to tell you how impressed we are with all of you. Um, it certainly does take courage to speak in front of so many adults and with microphones and podiums and all of that. Um, so we definitely appreciate that. I also want to make a comment that we really appreciate hearing from students. Um uh we've heard certainly from parents and from adults about what um happened at Lincoln and how everyone's adapting, but of course the most important thing of all is how students are adapting to these um kind of circumstances that are challenges that are thrust upon you. So, I really want to thank you so much for um giving voice to your fellow
019students and and then also just a special nod to Michaela because that was very brave and you telling your story um touched my heart, I'm sure touched all of our hearts and you know makes a difference to all the people that are in the audience here and in our community listening. So, that certainly took courage. Um but but showing courage really does make a difference. So thank you so much for that. All right, another hand for our students. Thank you so much. Well done. And I believe we have a Lincoln badge for someone. Ro's going to be brave. All right. right there. Thank you so much for great job students. Great job. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Up next in our communication, we have our superintendence report. Well, thank you ver vice chairpersonagoski, members of
020the board, members of our community. Um it is almost impossible to follow that. So you guys, you did a fantastic job. Thank you for showing courage in a lot of ways, for being brave and talking about um Lincoln. And little did we know when we assigned these character strong traits that courage would be such a fitting trait for Lincoln Elementary. So well done you guys. I'm going to try to do as well as you did. I doubt I'm going to get to do that. So for my superintendence report, I'm going to open up uh first of all with a couple of pictures from Administrative Professionals Day 2026. So, as we happily call it, saving our bacon day. Um, we did chilling and grilling with the best team this year. We hosted a barbecue. The executive
021team hosted a barbecue. So, um, a very special thank you to Mr. Decon's for I don't know how many dozen cookies he baked and brownies, but they were really, really good. I tested them several times to be sure it was a good batch. Um, Mr. Williams did all the barbecuing. So he ran the grill, did burgers, did hamburgers. Uh Mr. Boyd, he made all sorts of salads that we had there. Mrs. Mainwearing did all the condiment trays. Um Mrs. Spursom, of course, as our human resource director was having to be two places at once. So she was at a hiring fair. So she brought all the chips, I did the beans, and um we decorated together and just spent time having a meal and saying things to each other. um to the ladies and the
022men behind the scenes who allow us to lead because they keep us organized and they keep us going the same the right direction. So, thanks to my guide rails right here beside me to always keep me going. So, that was last week. It was a lot of fun. It was a good way to uh wrap up some of the work that we've been doing. So, you have heard and seen the names of a couple of these um individuals, but I am going to have our newest administrators to Great Falls Public Schools come on up to the lect turn. I'm actually going to have Mr. Hodgeges come up first and say a few words because his daughter is a Is Grace a senior? Oh my gosh, he's not supposed to be a senior. Um is a
023senior over at Great Falls High. She has honor society this evening. So, she's helping um with the induction of the newest honor society member. So, I told him he could speak and then hop out for that senior event. Um Mike is currently a Great Falls High School science teacher. I had the privilege of teaching with him in the science department. He is going to be moving to CM Russell High School as their newest associate principal. Mr. Hodgees, >> vice chairperson, Scornoski, members of the board, members of the community that are here. Uh my name is Mike Hajes. I've been teaching at Great Falls High for 20 years. Uh nice job tonight. Uh you're a tough act to follow. I might need to borrow a little of your courage. This is a pretty tough uh thing
024people group of people to talk in front of, but um been at Great Falls High for 20 years and went to actually went to Great Falls back in the day. And so now I get to move on to my next grand adventure. I jokingly say now I get the opportunity to grow up um and work with the crew across the river at CMR. and I really look forward to it having known those guys for uh more than a couple of years. Um I look forward to the opportunity to lead. I look as a teacher, I get to work with kids in a classroom setting every day and I teach chemistry and so more often than not it's based around chemistry and we get to talk about other life things. But um I'm really looking forward
025to working with a larger group of kids on a whole the whole entire school. I know I'll have my part of the alphabet, but I'm looking forward to working with a larger group of kids um to help them find their their way in life and uh become leaders of our community uh like these guys over here. And um I am very thankful for the opportunity that I've been provided. a lot of thinking and I just when I got offered the position I just I don't know it's just hard to imagine at first doing something different but I'm really looking forward to the opportunity. So just want to say thank you for providing me that opportunity and I look forward to working with you and getting to see you all a little more. So thank you.
026>> Thank you Mr. Hodgees. I'm gonna have you just shake the hands of the board real quick. My favorite memory of Mike or I have a lot of favorite memories, but one of them is um Great Falls. He had bet a bunch of senior girls who played softball this time of year that they can Was it back to back or was it their third time? >> He would. It's >> Uhhuh. Yep. And he did and um it was a crowd in front of senior stairs watching Mr. Hodes lose his beard um for the sake of Great Falls High softball. And so, and I believe it kind of shook his kids up a little bit because like all of us, they had never seen their dad without facial hair. And so, they were crying and the
027girls, I have pictures of it, grins like you wouldn't believe on their faces. So, it just shows how student centered he is. Um, you're going to do great. So, best of luck over at CMR. We'll be watching and watching you do great things. Thanks, Mike. I'm also going to have East Middle School's next principal, Mrs. Madrono, come on up to the lectern. Um, and I'm going to have her bring Mrs. Henchman with her. These two ladies are my favorite dancing cows. Um, who I had an opportunity to piouette in a blowup cow costume with at the Christmas concert. And so, um, the fact that I absolutely adore and love these ladies says that I will do anything with them, including embarrassing myself in front of hundreds of people. They are fantastically elegant dancing people. I
028am not. So, ladies, just give you a moment to say a couple of words and shake the board's hands. >> Thank you, Vice Chairperson Scornagoski, members of the board, and members of our community. Good evening and thank you. It is truly an honor to stand before you tonight as the next principal of East Middle School. Over the past three years as associate principal of East Middle School, I have had the privilege of building strong relationships with our students, staff, and families. And that is exactly what makes this opportunity especially meaningful to me. I believe that great schools are built on trust, clarity, and consistency. and I am deeply committed to continuing that work while ensuring that student growth and success remain at the center of every decision that we make. I also believe in a
029simple but powerful principle. That principle is to leave every person and every place better than what we find them. And I am committed to leading in a way that reflects that each and every day. I am beyond grateful for this opportunity to serve in the new role and I look forward to continuing to grow alongside our outstanding community. Thank you and go Rams. Thank you, Vice Chair Scoragowski, members of the board, members of our community. I am Juliana Henchman, the incoming associate principal at East. Uh for the past two years, I've had the privilege of serving as the administrative intern at East and I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to continue growing in a leadership role within within a school community that I care very deeply about. Um East truly feels like home to me.
030I'm especially looking forward to supporting our students, partnering with staff and families, and continuing to build a positive and encouraging learning environment where every student can succeed. And so, I just want to say thank you for your trust and opportunity to serve. As you can tell, East Middle School is going to be in very good hands. And best of luck this summer um to Re as she earns her doctorate. She will be defending um this summer um down in Texas, I believe, is where she will be. So, we will have Dr. Madrono there. If you haven't heard, um, we have some celebration happening within our music education department. We were named for the 15th time in a row, 17th time overall, a best community um, for music education. And best communities lead the way in
031music and and expand access for all students. When I looked at the name foundation um website, it is a nonprofit website or nonprofit that's supported by 10,300 worldwide members of the National Association of Music Merchants. It works to advance active participation in music across the lifespan of an individual. So, it's not just schools, but it's entire communities. Best communities lead the way in music education for all students and all citizens. We are really really proud of the work they're doing and congratulations um to our music department. That's an amazing honor. There is someone else I I'm just going to have her stand up and wave. This is Miss Skyler Reid. She is our steam center coordinator at the innovative learning center over um at Great Falls High. This is our innovative tax um initiative that
032we have. And here are some pictures that were taken by Principal Hobble just last week. If you take a look at the learning space up in the upper left, then I believe that those are our water heaters and our bo the boiler systems upstairs, but our water heaters. Um more learning space on the lower left. And then you can see the plumbers working on the bathrooms. So, this should be done at the end of the school year, hopefully in time for our summer school programming, and you will have an opportunity to shake Skyler's hand when we do our um ribbon cutting later in the year, but we will have a um an event for donors and for board members coming up in short order for this. So, Skyler, thank you for all your planning in
033advance. We're really excited to have you leading that program. As we work through the year and all of these amazing things are happening, sometimes it's easy for us to just blink and forget for a little bit of time about our strategic plan. So, I wanted to bring you up to date. You have heard over the course of the last couple of months each school's independent um response to our strategic plan moving forward. This is what our strategic plan looks like as of today. green being those bullet points that we have accomplished, yellow being those bullet points that we are actively working on, and we're going to come close to turning them all green here shortly. But, um, we're moving and we're moving very well. And it doesn't happen without a lot of hard work from
034our teachers and our students and our leaders. Restart is one of those bullets that you saw that was yellow in part because it's still a fairly new program. But I wanted to share with you a really cool project that Paris Gibson Education uh helped Corey bring to his students. They received some English language arts credits for this and they did the book called Long Way Down. It's 306 pages that tells the story of a 60-second trip in an elevator and a young man who is faced with a choice when the doors open in the lobby. whether he continues a life of trauma and violence or whether he takes a different road. And it's an interesting book in the fact that I don't think that it actually tells you what happens. It leaves the reader to
035decide through the story of his life all the way down. Um it was a 2018 award for best young adult novel and then a Newberry Medal in 2018 as well. Um but it's a a pretty inspiring story by a 15year-old boy by the name of Will. Um, and he's set out at the beginning when he gets in the elevator to avenge his brother's murder um by killing the suspected shooter. And you'll have to read the book to decide what choice he makes when the elevator door opens at the bottom. Excellence in education. A big thank you to Caitlyn Marzik who she was here. There she is. She pulled off an extraordinary evening with the help of her staff. It was so much fun. Um, we recognized a lot of teachers and a lot of students,
036but there were two who ended up with a BNSF award at the end of the night for their outstanding teacher of the year and their contributions to um, education. Tara Melo um, who is the Chief Joseph Elementary Librarian. She was nominated by Riley Robinson. And then Neil Kynette, Great Falls High School Math, nominated by Kinsley Reeves. Um, congratulations to everybody who was recognized, but especially to those two individuals for the work they do with our kids. And a special thank you to Kaitlin for bringing all of this wonderful information um to our focus. Speaking of amazing people, Mr. Bob McName, if you know his son Mac, um this is Big Mac, I guess you could say. Um Bob has been a sub for Great Falls. This says Great Falls High School, but I know he
037subs on both sides of the river. Um, I have a family member, a daughter who loves it when he comes and subs in her classroom. Um, but a sub for Great Falls Public School since January of 2011. So, thank you for 15 amazing years of your contributions to students and substituting. He's also an announcer. He announces multiple events. And so I just don't know what we would do at Great Falls Public Schools without um Ed and Bob, this amazing family who has supported us. But what was really, really cool is human resources director Heather Spursm received a letter in the mail from a young man. And I want to read to you what this young man said. He is a junior, I believe, in high school, sophomore or junior. It says, "I just wanted to
038thank you for always being such an amazing person. Every time students see that you're subbing, we all think you're an awesome sub. Anytime we talk about good and bad subs, you're always on top, but not just as a sub, but as a person. You're always so kind and nice to everyone. We also really enjoy when you do the basketball games as well. Me and my family like you way more than the other announcer. Thank you for being such a kind person. Sincerely, Jace Spill, Great Falls High School. In education, we have a very special award called a good apple award that symbolizes appreciation, knowledge, and we give it to the individuals who make a difference in the lives of our students, our staff, and our schools. And so, Mrs. Spursm, if you would please. Mr.
039M, if you would come forward. We have a good Apple award for you. >> You're you are welcome to say a few words. We can hear that amazing. You're the best announcer voice we have. Last Wednesday, I was standing in a big circle of grass. I'm in Boston my home. You sound gratific. We got a profession because I get I love next year. English and then there's a day and you've seen some really good stuff. school. Middle school. Then I go to the high school. You're going to be over. You're going to have so much There are teachers who just are teachers. That's why I want to make sure I was there. I get out there. I also I'm the old guy. I'm just see the only really Good substitute. I know Bob said he
040was blessed, but I think that uh we can reflect those words back on him that we are very very blessed to have him working with our kids because he does it for the right reason. And Bob, feel free to rub into Ed that you have a good apple because when I told him the other night, guess who's getting a good apple? He said, I don't have one. I said, you need to be as good as your dad then. Come on, math. So, yeah. >> Yep. There we go. There we go. All right, our data for the day. It is that time of year that we start to take a look at enrollment. And what I wanted to share with you was just a reminder of kindergarten enrollment. That's our top line, the projected enrollment. Um,
041as we progress through the years, um, I have moved it from 2021 to 2031 for you. So, you're going to see a 10-year trend line. Um, next Wednesday, May 6th, is the big day when Kinder registration opens. And our goal, if you take a look, for starting the fall of 2026, is to have a minimum of 9,626 kinders in our classroom um for kindergarten registration. And so, and that show up in the fall and we're good to go. Um, a very special thank you to Mrs. Main wearing who helps put this together and Telene who helps run this data for us. Um, as we look at our historic and projected enrollment, you do have on your pages or on your uh at your tables a page that looks something like this. Um, and this is
042our enrollment projections for grades K through 12. And then you can see the combination with our K2 36 78 and then 9 through 12 as well. Um down on the bottom if you take a look at the bottom of that table you have preK and then you also have Paris Gibson as well on there. Um at the very bottom is up here you'll see the dark blue line on the bottom and that is our oh those numbers are wrong. Um, that should be our uh pretty consistent numbers for our Oh, I pulled the wrong I pulled the wrong I know what it is now. That's the project. That's the actual kindergarten ones. I'm looking at that going that was supposed to be the prek, but the prek is always 144. Um, we project anywhere from
043140 to 144 because that's the max capacity up at K. So, I pulled that graph off for you um because I did I thought it wasn't consistent, but there is our our um full enrollment at the top, projected kinder at the bottom. Um hoping to keep our our um enrollment consistent. Next one. Um we had last week at the end of the week, uh update on the countywide multi-dist agreement and we continue to work through information. You have a packet. If you were at the meeting, you received this package from Mr. Decon and myself of all of that information. Um, if not, then I put it in your mailbox for you to take a look at. Um, but we did get uh some information from the OPI just today. We sent it out Friday. I
044asked them if they could get it to us by next Friday and they had it to us this morning with answers as to what this multidist agreement um could do for us and all schools in Cascade County. So, Mr. Mr. Decon, do you have any insight that you want to provide for us? >> Um, I don't think I have a lot to add to that. Uh, those of you that were at the budget meeting last week, you kind of had a grasp of what was happening. But this really did come about because of House Bill 567, which allows uh, counties to have a district countywide multidist agreement and receive additional funds in way of the uh, quality educator payment. So, we're working closely with the other districts across Cascade County. There's seven of seven of
045us, I believe. Um, some with multiple high school elementary districts, others with just elementary to see where everybody is. Hopefully by the end of next week, we will have an idea of what the commitment from the other districts looks like because we have a pretty short turnaround in order to make this happen. If we do make it happen and we feel that it's manageable, we really need to have the agreement in place prior to July 1st, the beginning of the next fiscal year. So, as we work through the process with our county partners, um we may be bringing you more information at a fairly rapid clip um so we can get agreements in place and get um everything signed and ready to go, not just for us, but for all of our our small school
046neighbors as well. So, um, some opportunity that Mr. Decon's brought forward to us as he started to do research into this former House bill, uh, at as of last week when we had our, um, board our board meeting for the budget committee, I believe we were the only county looking at it in the state of Montana. So, um, once again, Cascade County, Great Falls taking charge, leading from the front. So, we're pretty excited about opportunities if not this year, maybe in a year or so. And with that, my superintendent's report is complete this evening. I stand for questions, madam chair, if you have any. >> Wonderful. Any questions from my fellow trustees? >> All right. Thank you so much for that report. Um this is a wonderful time for um parents and students to leave
047and get on with your day if you so choose to do so. Of course, you're welcome to stay for the boring stuff, but we understand you've got fun stuff to do and homework to do. We so appreciate you and your time. Thank you students. Wonderful job. All right, I searched through all my piles. Unless it's hidden somewhere, we don't have any audience communication. >> Not to my knowledge. >> All right. Um, and with that, we'll move on to action item A, our Valley View Fire alarm upgrade. Mr. Decon. Thank you, Vice Chairman, Vice Chairperson Skornagoski, members of the board, Senator Hoyer, members of our audience that's still remaining. Obviously, it's nice to not have those kids here and listen to me fumble through this. They were great tonight. Um, but to start us off today,
048we're talking about the Valley Farm fire alarm upgrade. We have been working over the last several years to upgrade the emergency alarm systems and buildings across our district. Valley View is one that it has been since 1951 actually original to the building um where that system was placed in and with the addition as well in 1956. We did go through the process of putting this out for RFP in conjunction with PD&H and G GPD and Brad Kaufman over there. After that we had our bid opening. Um, and at our bid opening, we had three contractors come, which is one more than we normally receive for fire alarms. Uh, and a low bidder on this one was at Clemens for $154,300. You will see attached in your board packet, you do have the letter confirming that
049is an acceptable bid, can be done um, and what the bids look like. So with that, I'm going to ask the district board to award the bid for replacement of the fire alarm system at Valley View Elementary School to Agent Clemens in the amount of $154 $154,300. >> Wonderful. Thank you, Mr. Deans. Is there a motion? >> Um, Madame Vice Chair, I move that we award the bid for the replacement of the fire alarm system at Valley View Elementary School to AT Clemens in the amount of $154,300 as presented. Second. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much. It's been moved and seconded um to accept this this bid um to replace the fire alarm system at Valley View. Are there any questions or comments from my fellow trustees or from our community? All right. Seeing none,
050all those in favor of this recommendation, please signify by saying I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. All right. Up next, we have action item B. Um procurement of natural gas supply services. Um a request for proposals. Mr. Deox. >> Thank you, Vice Chair's person Scorosski, members of the board, members of the community. Again, um, bringing this back to the board, natural gas, we're talking about this time over the holiday break, we are talking about electricity as a result of Northwestern Energy um, purchase of the previous supplier. And where we're sitting right now, we don't have an option to really renew our contract that's out there. Um, as a result, we have to put it out for RFP so that they can provide their bids for this purpose. This is
051something that we've been working on and knew was coming um near future. So with that um what we're looking at is putting out proposals as of tomorrow once you approve the proposal um having them submitted to us by May 26, doing our advertising and then our service uh being ready to go by July 1. We really had a couple key dates in there because it is part of the bid to make sure that our current supplier, we'd give them at least 30 days. So, it's important that we get it out here after today and get it ready to go for our community. With that, I am going to introduce Jim Lauren from Power Gas Corporation. I know most of you are aware of him, um, but he has a couple points that he's going to
052bring up about the natural gas as well. Thank you, Jim. Thank you, Mr. Deacons. Uh, Vice Chair, uh, Squanowski, uh, district trustees and superintendent Hoyer, and those members of the audience that are still with us. Before I make any remarks, I have to say this is absolutely one of the best school board meetings I've ever been because of those kids that came in tonight. that is inspiring and uh it's exciting and it's it's just great to see the work that's being done in our school district. Um I'm just going to keep my comments extremely brief. There is a sheet that was passed out uh and I just want to draw your attention to that. The reason we're doing the RFP is as Mr. decons pointed out um uh when Northwestern Energy bought Energy West, they
053were undecided whether they would offer third-party natural gas supply. The just recently in the last few months, they decided they would not do that. And so, uh this contract is up uh the current contract that you have is up uh June 30th. uh when they sold the non-regulated portion of their book, they sold it to a company called Jefferson Energy Trading out of Whiteall, Montana, and they are continuing the existing contract that we have under the current terms and conditions until the end of June. So really, the district had no choice but to go out for an RFP. the the main thing that I want to point out tonight uh and this is really the focus I think is what's happened with gas costs in the last few years versus what do we think's going
054to happen to gas cost going forward and the good news is we don't see significant changes in gas cost pricing um we do think it is going to trend higher but not significantly higher nothing like what we've seen with gasoline at at the pumps um So you can see from the history here in the green section uh over the last past five or past three years the average gas cost and this is just for the commodity. There's a lot of other add-ons to gas besides just the co commodity. There's a transmission cost the distribution cost and all those things. Uh it's averaged $149. Just before the meeting today, I went out and looked at the market and for the next three years, you can see the forward 12 month, 24 month, and 36-month prices. And
055although they're going up, and that's not unusual for forward curves because of the there's just risk in in predicting what the prices are going to be, the average cost uh for three years is a $166 versus a $149 over the last three years. So, it's not significant. There are other costs that probably will go up that are regulated costs, but those are things that are co controlled by the public service commission. So, with that, um, that's really the main point I wanted to focus on tonight. Does anyone have any questions? >> Any questions, comments? >> I guess just a a quick comment. We're very fortunate to have um your expertise at the table. Um, and we really do appreciate all that you do for our school district in advocating for us and trying to keep
056our costs as low as possible so that our dollars can go right there. So, we appreciate you, Jim. >> Well, thank you. >> All right, >> Madam Chair. >> Yes, Trusty Bronson. >> At this time, I would request that we approve advertising for the request for proposals for a natural gas supplier for Great Falls Public Schools. Second. Wonderful. It's been moved and seconded um to put out an RFP for a natural gas supplier. Are there any comments or questions from my fellow trustees from our community? Wonderful. Seeing none, all those in favor of this recommendation, please signify by saying I. I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes unanimously. All right. Up next we have action item C our financial report and check register once again Mr. Deons. >> Thank you vice chair persons
057cornagoski. And with that I do have the March information for our financial report check registers within the binder or the reports tonight. um know that everything is in good order. Obviously, as we start to become get closer and closer to the end of the year, the numbers are going to start to uh balance up and look like we're at the end of our budget. So, just be watching that over the next couple months as well. Um with the check register, there's nothing out of the ordinary on that either. Um we're just making sure to get this to you in a timely manner. So with that, I would ask you to accept the monthly financial report and approve the register for March 2026. >> Wonderful. Thank you. I'll open the floor to a motion. Vice Chair.
058>> Yes, trustee. >> I move that we accept the monthly financial report and approve the register of payments for March 2026 as presented. >> Second. >> Wonderful. It's been moved and seconded to accept the monthly financial report as presented. Are there any comments or questions from my fellow trustees from our community? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Wonderful. All right, moving right along. Uh, next up we have action item D. Um, Miss Hoyer, I don't know if you want to present or just go straight to a motion. >> Um, I'll just for the record just reiterate that at this time I am requesting that we table this until further notice um to allow our county commissioners time to review the the proposal that's in
059front of them. >> Thank you, >> Madam Chair. >> Trusty Bronson. this time. Uh, based on the recommendation of Superintendent Hoyer, I move that we table this matter for discussion at such time as the county commission has indicated they've completed their review of the proposed agreement. >> Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded to table this um recommendation. Are is there any questions or comments before we make move forward on this from the community? All right, seeing none, all those in favor of tableabling this uh agreement, please signify by saying I. >> I. All those opposed, same sign. All right, this has been on the docket for quite a while, so we look forward to um seeing seeing where this goes. All right. Um next up, action item E, uh second reading of board policies.
060Miss Hoyer. Thank you very much, Vice Chairperson Scornagoski, members of the board and members of our community. Um, as we move, um, we do action and then we also move into reports. It's going to be a lot of policy for you. Um, so for this portion of our agenda, I bring um to you second reading of policies 2311, 2311F, deletion of policies 3215, and 5215. I did have community input specifically um from Mr. Cubbage as the president of GFA. Um he brought forward some concerns with the deletion of 5215. Um and that when you look at 5215 and then you look at a previously approved uniform complaint policy that we I think it was probably about six weeks ago that we approved it. Um the concern was is that we need to be sure that
061we are honoring staff rights and personnel rights. Um and that we are also allowing them to build an understanding that disagreements with policies and practices can be addressed if they're not within the CBA. That the uniform complaint policy is the way we want them to follow um the process we need them to follow. Our guidance is that we simplify that we don't have three uniform complaints. Uniform complaints is uniform for a reason um under the the guidance of MTSBA and that we reduce it down to just one policy. So what I would recommend we do is for the bar policy committee to take a look at policy 5240 in the future. Um I believe we have a policy meeting later this week. Um Mrs. Clark if I'm correct or next week. Um and that is
062a policy specific to the resolution of staff complaints and problem solving that we adjust the cross references to 1770. We call out the uh collective bargaining agreement um and the uniform complaint procedure and we clarify it through that short policy versus bring in a second or reinstate a secondary policy. So my recommendation is to delete those two policies as proposed and then there is no additional feedback on language changes for 2311 and 2311F as proposed. I stand for questions madam chair. >> All right any questions or comments? So, it sounds like you're recommend that you don't you don't have a concern that in passing this today um that there that that we'll be able to address Mr. Cvage's concerns in a short amount of time and that it sounds like there might be some additional
063communication needed to make sure that everybody understands. >> Yes. >> Yep. >> Um this change. >> Absolutely. And then I'm also I want to be sure that he gets the um next policy meeting which we would review 5240 on his calendar to have him at the table for that discussion as well. >> Okay. And then also to address um the new instructional materials policy. We've had um a few parents come in and express concerns um about um kind of outside of the curriculum materials. Um and and I this policy is designed to address those concerns. Um but I think also while acknowledging something that trustee Sunchild has brought up that we need to um trust our teachers um and that certainly we as schoolboard members cannot um approve daily news broadcasts and things like that.
064So, um, thank you so much to you and your team for, um, addressing those those parent concerns, um, while keeping, um, kind of valuing our our teachers and their expertise. Yeah. And that specifically is policy 2311F. Um, and that comes after a lot of work that Mrs. Mainwearing did and she did it with several teachers. Um, and they work through this process modeling it closely off of another doubleA's process for this to allow for clearer communication between parents, administration, and teachers. Wonderful. Thank you. All right. Um, are there any comments or questions from our community on these policies? Okay. Um, I'll open the floor to a motion. Vice Chair. >> Yes. Trusty Henning. I move that we approve revised new and deleted board policies 2311, 2311F, 3215, and 5215 as presented. >> Second. >> Wonderful.
065It's been moved and seconded to approve the policies as presented. I'll give my fellow trustees one more chance to make comments or ask questions since there's a motion on the floor now. >> Madam Chair, >> yes, Trusty B. Just for purposes of motion, it should be clear that what we're doing is we're deleting 3215 and 5215. Is that correct? >> Wonderful. >> All right. All right. So, seeing no comments or questions, we'll move forward with um the recommendation. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. All those opposed, same sign. >> Right. Motion passes unanimously. And um up next uh we had no changes to the agenda as presented. So we'll move to reports, discussions and policies. First reading of board policies from Mrs. Hoyer. Thank you very much vice chairpersonagosi members of
066the board and members of our community. Um in front of you you have additional four policies for your review on this first reading. um policy 3612 and there are huge kudos to Jeff Williams his team specifically Charlene Ammons um who did a lot of work on district provided access to electronic information equipment services and networks um it feels to me and perhaps um I it's just me but that we are going to be constantly looking at this as technology um just continues to roll and grow and change Um, so it might be one you see every year or coming up close to every year. Um, on policy 3612 on page 88, there's just a couple of things that I do want to call out. This is the student version. Um, because we know that student
067access to this to technology is different than staff access. Um, we made sure both on 3612 and 3612P, which starts on page 90, um, that we have fixed the optin versus opt out per state law. We spent a lot of time talking about that, reviewing state law, making sure, um, that this policy is in alignment with Montana code. Um, and there is a lot to read there, by the way. Um, and if you take a look on page 96, lines 32, there is one correction that Ally, I believe, has already made for us. That correction on line 32 should say policy 3310 P2. Um, we do have a P1 that is student threat assessment, but that's not applicable to this. P2 is academic honesty and responsible use of resources. And so we will make that
068adjustment and be sure that that is corrected for your um second reading. When you look at the personnel or the staff use of this, which is policy 5450F, we made some adjustments. We moved um there's a a strikeout that is on page 98, lines 18, 19, and 20. We moved that to page 100 line eight as a bullet. We felt that it flowed better in that process. You will also see where we went through there were some typographical errors previously in this policy where even though this was staff technology acceptable use and internet safety, there were spots in there that it said students. That's one of the problems of having copied um policies and we didn't catch students. So we changed that to individual because this includes both teachers, it includes any personnel who have
069have access and are using our technology within our um our buildings and our property. And then the last one um is one that uh Mr. Boyd and Mrs. Mainwearing and the crew, the principles, high school principles specifically have been working on with Mr. decons and that is policy uh 4330P and this is under community relations is community use of school facilities specifically um procedures. We have beautiful buildings that are community property however they are used seven days a week every week of the yearround it feels like. Um and what we have found as we have been tracking the use of these buildings is that we are um losing a significant amount of money in the use of these buildings because we through the current structure of rentals. We are not able to even recover the
070custodial time to keep up with keeping the facilities clean while they're in use, let alone the upkeep that happens just from the wear and tear on our buildings. And so we have received um legal guidance. We've also had some legal expertise from u Mr. Bronson. So if you take a look down on page 37 or I'm sorry 106 lines 37 and 38. I just want to be sure trustee Bronson that that is correct where it says this event is not a Great Falls Public School sponsored event. That bolding in ital italics print meets the letter of the law. >> It does. >> Okay. Thank you sir. Um, and then we call out things such as lighting, sound and media, and stage equipment. That is on page 107, starting on lines 32, moving down through uh
07146. As we remodel our auditoriums and our sound and lighting becomes more complex, more technology based, it's also uh much easier to mess up the programming. And so being sure that we put pieces in place to um allow for the use of that under guidance and making sure that it is ready on Monday morning when the kids roll in and we need it for our students who are in that um cause out points of contract uh contact on the next page and then everything from summer requests to sporting equipment, use of district buildings, the fact that we do not rent out our spaces for birthday parties, weddings or receptions. We get requests every year for that and unfortunately that is something that we just couldn't manage. Um and so we don't allow that to happen.
072Then supervision of behavior and this has come historically through the use of it but also from some recent events that we just need to be sure that the expectation of the behavior of the children is the same at these events as it is during our school day. That they're being monitored. um they're not crawling or climbing on things that they shouldn't be. That also includes the adults because at times sometimes that's questionable. Um and under no circumstances um well you will see on line 15 under no circumstances will custodians or any other GFPS staff member be responsible for the supervision. So if you see a custodian walking through, you can't put them in charge of the kids that are crawling on the wrestling mats um or doing other things behind the bleachers. And so, uh,
073this cleans things up, tightens things up. Thank you very much, Mr. Boyd. This has been a kind of a labor of love. And then once passed, we will move forward, um, with proposed rental fee instructions, which will come to you on a yearly basis when we get our um, class fee schedule. You will also get that as well. With that, I stand for questions, madame vice chair. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much for this policies. Are there any questions at this time, my fellow trustees? Any questions from our community? Wonderful. Thank you so much for this presentation. Thank you so much for the work that went on behind the scenes to get this to us. So, all right. With that, we are done with um kind of all of our business for the day and
074I'll open the floor for discussion committee reports and comments. Any volunteers? All right, Trusty Henning. >> I don't really have much to say. Um, but I appreciate my fellow trustees and community members who attended our budget meeting last week. Um, there's a lot of information. And I think the multi-dist agreement has the opportunity to be very beneficial to not just the districts in our county, but the students in our county opening up, you know, further opportunities for students outside of Great Falls and in Great Falls and and um I appreciate the cabinet's work on that and the continued work and um I'm interested to see where that goes. >> All right, trust you. Yeah, not a lot for me either this week. I had the opportunity the last week or two to visit a few
075more campuses. That's been great. Appreciate everybody's time, Jerry's time arranging those and the principles and staff's time for meeting with me. It's always insightful and refreshing and see what's going on. That was great. >> Wonderful. Thank you. >> Who wants to step up? Sure. Trusty Bronson. >> Uh just a couple of things. One, I was able to take in the CM Russell drama production of Trap last Friday. As always, I appreciate being able to attend these events both there and at Great Falls High. And it's true at both of the schools. I really appreciate the fact that our instructional faculty, they're try to include almost every student in the programs and it really gives them an opportunity to find a place in high school. Drama was very important to my youngest son. that gave him
076a purpose and it's stood him well in his career and it's just wonderful to see those opportunities extended uh to young people year after year. I will note however the CM Russell Bill Williamson Hall does need some work on the lights. I know that uh the foundation will be hopefully working on that. We'll see some improvements there in the future. And also just to echo what Superintendent Hoyer mentioned, I had a chance to attend the excellence in education event. I always enjoy going to those and being reminded what a dummy I was in high school and that there's hope for the future with all of these young people. And I especially like the fact that I don't know how they guessed it, but I got to sit at a table with a young man who
077uh set up the the same personal training program for weightlifting that I set up 50 about years ago. So uh it was fun talking to him and learning what he's doing with that and seeing that he was being recognized for his contributions and he's got a great career planned ahead. We had a good conversation about that. And once again, I appreciate the fact that more of our young people today have more direction that I had when I was in high school. So, thank you. >> Thank you. All right, Trusty Thompson. >> I'm gonna pass in my report so that I don't you guys all don't have to listen to me. >> Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. All right. Um I guess just a few comments. Um, you know, I've had the opportunity to um talk
078um with um Bob McMe um at 7 in the morning when he was um on the radio station um and he would jet off right after um you know having started at 5:00 a.m. um jet off to a full day at our schools as a substitute. So, we have many, many talented substitutes that have a unique skill set that I certainly do not have. Um, so we appreciate all of our wonderful subs, but in particular, uh, Mr. McName is is one of a kind. Um, also just a nod um to um, Dusty Molino um, and our music education team. We have an amazing staff. Um but we are particularly um privileged to have him leading that team. Um and I I really truly believe that we wouldn't have that um record of achievement without his
079leadership. Uh I also wanted to um make a comment about u Miss Madano as the new East Middle School principal. Um, just to tell you a quick story that when my daughter comes home from school at East, I ask her if she hugged Miss Madrono and if she hugged Miss Madrono, she has to hug me. Um, so I'm very fortunate. All my hugs are are only because of Miss Madrono. She's 13. Um so also um to speak to the multidist agreement um you know we're very fortunate to have a staff that's um putting in some extra um time and effort into exploring this option which could be um financially beneficial for our school district. Um it will come I I from everything that I'm hearing so far I think it will come with extra work
080and logistics on our part. So kind of the nonprofit person hat um you know we have to recognize that um you know that that that there is value in that extra work and logistics um so to to make sure that we look into this um thoroughly which I believe we have. So um thank you so much for that effort. We'll see if we're able to um kind of pull together all those districts in a short amount of time. I do think that if it makes sense for any district in the state, it makes sense for for ours and for our for our neighboring um communities. But I encourage any of the trustees that haven't had an opportunity to dig into that a little further um to do so, you know, between now and think we
081have to decide by July 1. Um so dig into it quickly. Um with that um we have a whole host of meetings ahead of us. Um as well as events um you can see that on the board here. Um scholarships um celebration on the 6th. Um, we'll be having our re reorganization meeting where we'll um swear in our newish trustees, our renewed trustees. Um, as well as electing our leadership on May 11th, um, high school house on the 14th. It just is going to roll right into all of our many May activities. So, we hope our community will join us for that. And with that, I'll open it up for a motion to to adjurnn. So moved. All right. Thank you all for coming. Meeting adjourned.