001Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this April 13, 2026 meeting of the Great Falls Public Schools Board of Trustees. And um I remind us all that these meetings are recorded, uploaded onto our website for review at some point in the near future. And with that being said, um Mr. Deakons, would you please administer the roll call? Thank you, Chairman Johnson. Gordon Johnson >> here. >> Kim Skornagoski >> here. >> Bill Bronson >> here. >> Craig Duff >> here. >> Paige Chenning >> here. >> Marley Sunchild. >> Amy Thompson >> here. >> Chairman Johnson, you have a full board with which to do business this evening. >> Thank you, Mr. Deacons. And ladies and gentlemen, would you please rise? And one of our student reps, Seth, is going to lead us in the pledge of
002allegiance. to the flag of the stands. >> Thank you very much, Seth. And thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. >> Mr. Chairman, >> Trusty Bronson, >> at this time I would move that we adopt the agenda as presented with the exception of action item 7B. I propose that be removed to item nine under reports. >> Second. >> Been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda with the exception of >> uh one more time. Trusty Bronson >> 7B. Thank you. Any questions, comments from our board of trustees? Any questions or comments from our gallery? Hearing and seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Thank you very much, >> Mr. Chair. >> Trustee Henning. >> I
003move that we approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda as presented. Any questions or commentary board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from our gallery here this evening with us? 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 oppose. Same sign. We have approved our consent agenda. We're moving on to communication and we have with us this evening our student representatives. Mrs. mainwearing. Please come forward and introduce our guests. >> Good evening, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer. We have our student representatives here tonight and so we'll go in the order of Great Falls High, CMR, and Paris. >> Thank you very much. Good evening, Chairman Johnson,
004Superintendent Hoyer, trustees, and members of the community. My name is Seth Ryer. I'm a senior at Great Falls High School, and I get to start off our April presentation because we had the academic dinner last couple of Mondays, so we skipped it. Uh starting off strong with sports, our winter sports wrapped up nicely with our boys swimming team winning second at state and the girls winning third. Uh we had multiple people set school records and win state titles. Uh notably was Duncan Schroeder. He's a sophomore and he won the boys 500 free and 100 fly. And I'm pretty sure for all of January, he was undefeated in those events. Um and he also broke like a ton of school records. So that was really cool to see. Um, and our Bison wrestling also did really
005well with seniors Jayce Comach becoming state state champ Damon Fmeire placing third and Brandon Shonen and Ross Holliver placing fourth. Uh, some notable underassmen were Kale Floringer and Kobe Noble and Bo Potter. They all placed as well which is really great. Uh and after winter sports, uh we moved right along to spring with softball, track, tennis, and baseball all having their first competitions. And all our athletes are looking forward to seasons of growth and victory. And it's really cool. This is our first season having baseball high, which is pretty neat. I don't think they're doing too hot yet, though. So, we'll hope they improve. Uh moving on to the lesson we loved in Miss Dixon's AP Galk class. Uh we're learning how to find the volume and surface area of 2D shapes rotated around an
006axis uh to recreate a 3D shape with integrals. Um and that shape right there, if you extend like the skinnier part out for forever, it has a finite volume but an infinite surface area. I don't know how that works. So, but there it is. It's really cool. It I don't know when or how somebody would use this in the real world, but we know how to do it. Uh I don't think my teacher does either. We asked her once and she was like, "It's cool." So, we're doing it, but it's it's fun. I enjoy it. Uh, next is our student staff basketball game. This is one of my favorite traditions at Great Falls High. Um, and we're having it April 17th at 2:45 p.m. in our old gym. Uh, hopefully, uh, you'll be able to
007come there. And the teachers don't cheat this time like they have in years past because they've had to they've won somehow. Uh, but while you're there, you have the chance to donate to the Makea-Wish Foundation. Um, so that's a great opportunity to be entertained and give back to the community. Next is our distinguished educator award. Uh each year top graduating seniors are selected as distinguished scholars and distinguished achievers based on the rigor of their classes and extracurricular activities. They have the opportunity to recognize two teachers who made the greatest impact on their educational journey. These students and the teachers are going to be celebrated at a special recognition ceremony this May and featured in the foundation's annual excellence in education publication. So, a big thank you to all our incredible our incredible educators uh who
008make a lasting difference in our students lives. Uh next up is Lincoln Steam Night. Uh a bunch of Great Falls High students volunteered at Lincoln Elementary Steam Night and helped make it a huge success. Uh these students were able to teach elementary students about cells, tissues, and organs using microscopes. But additionally, the Lincoln students were able to play with cardboard roller coasters. Uh, they were made by the Griffals High general and AP physics classes. Um, I don't know. I wish I could have found a picture online. It was really fun. Just like a straight drop and then a loop. So, all we had to do is get the requirements out of the way and it worked perfectly. Uh, so this is a great opportunity for everybody to be able to just learn some new science
009and have the older generations teach younger kids. It's great. And after that, I'm going to pass it on to my associates for now. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Sim Ter Hoy are trustees of the board and trustees of the community. My name is Kayla Fulver and I'm a junior at Great Falls High and I'll be continuing this presentation. A lesson we loved in Mr. Craya's geology class. Kids made sets of fossil out of plaster for elementary classes. Kids got to pick out fossils and make a model of them by molding the fossil into clay and then filling the mold with plaster. This was a fun way to give back to the community and learn more about our earth's history. The JOTC program created an obstacle course at Paris Gib Paris Gibson Education Center to promote fitness,
010teamwork, and leadership. Funded by a $5,000 Perkins grant, the project was designed and built to help with our volunteers. Installation was completed April 3rd through 4th, 2026, and includes multiple obstacles Miss Wild's general physics class is busy. be learning about rotation, interior, and angular velocity. Learning hands-on is an important way to build and understand the workings of physics. Way to go, Bison. Represented us well at the state leadership conference. We had five different students attend with four competing in events. This put a ton of work leading up to this and pushed through some challenges along the way and it paid off big in the end. We're proud to celebrate two gold medalist finishes in medical assistant and biotechnology. Great job to all of our students for their dedication and effort. Great Falls High students recently
011represented our school at the academic world quest competing in Missoula at the University of Montana. We are so proud of them for stepping up and trying new things. The team spent time learning from guest speakers, connecting with students from around the world, and competing in quizzing quizzes and challenges, styles, and even event focused on globe issues. Thank you. >> Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoy Hoyer, trustees, and members of the board. My name is Austin Stole. I'm a sophomore at Great Falls High, and I will continue the presentation. Great Falls High music department on the road. Our music department has been busy packing their bags and spreading their music around the states with band going to Salt Lake City and both orchestra and choir in Seattle. Our Delphian students got the experience to the All
012Northwest Conference of Music Professionals to perform a concert that touched many people. It's cool to see the arts still live and well in Great Falls. Great Falls High junior class hosted a prom to fund raise for their senior year. It was a blast and a great way to earn money for our junior class. Shout out to the junior stucco uh for working so hard to put such a great thing together. A lesson we loved in Miss Dwiey's intro to theater class. She showed her students just how important it was to give every step of instructions for theater. She used making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to show this example. It was a fun way to learn and bring a little bit of laughter to the classroom. East pep assembly March Madness energy was in
013full swing at East Middle School. Our future bison got the chance to experience pep assembly traditions pra p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p practice their school spirit and bring the energy. Students pulled off a big win and took down the staffs in a fun and competitive competitive game. We love seeing this excitement and can't wait to welcome these future bison to Great Falls High soon. Leadership High. Congratulations to our Great Falls High Leadership High School. Uh we have Lauraai, Kagan, Bella, Ben, Iris, Liam, Killian, Connor, Aiden, and Ronnie. They spent one day each month learning about our amazing Great Falls community. And
014they wrapped up this year in the best way possible by giving back through services. We're proud of their leadership, heart, and bison pride they show all year long. Way to go, Bison. All right, I'm back. Uh, it's now time for our stump the school board Trump chumps. I'm kidding. None of you are. Uh, so many of us are familiar with the origins of Great Falls High School, hopefully because it's pretty cool. As the story goes, a long time ago, four young ladies wanted to further their education beyond the eighth grade with the Great Falls School Board and the Great Falls Communities Blessings High School or Griffals High School was established. What year was Great Falls High School established? You can discuss. Yeah. So 1889. >> 1889 is our guess. >> Uh, no, you guys are
015right. The first time is 1893. >> Oh, wow. That was a trick question. Yeah, slightly. Just a little bit. Um, okay. So, one of the four girls who graduated in 1983, like it says up there, which was the first graduating class, is pictured above. Um, can you name the two people in those pictures? >> Nerd. I'm kidding. Uh, actually exactly right. Wow, >> that was amazing. That surprised me actually. I wouldn't have guessed that in a million years. That had taken me forever. Uh, so Miss Josephine. >> Oh, really? That's cool. I didn't know that. Uh, Miss Josephine and Shrigg's family and Charles Russell were her neighbors for years. You probably knew that. Uh, you could you could probably come up here and do this for me, actually. Uh, >> Miss Trigg accumulated quite a
016collection of Charles artwork in her will after her death. She wrote, "This valuable collection of art is to be turned over to the corporation in Great Falls if a suitable fireproof building is built to house the collection within two years. If not, it may go anywhere in the nation with that. The CM Russell Gallery was opened in 1953. So, that was pretty smart of her to kind of like strong arm in the keep room there. So, but that's all that's that's all the trivia for now. And lastly, just here's our social media. It's just Facebook and Instagram. So, all the stuff that we do here, you can find it there earlier and I'm sure they say it much better than we do. So, go follow them and that's it. >> Thank you very much, Great
017Falls High School representatives. Thank you. >> Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, and members of the community. My name is Emerson Hammer, and I will kick off our April presentation. Seymour's Key Club made a fantastic structure at the home and garden show and were able to donate over 900 cans of food to the Great Falls Food Bank. Uh the first lesson we loved, Mr. Hibbert's honors chem class was able to experiment with pH rainbows while first learning about the concept of acids and bases. They put universal indicator in a tube of water and then proceeded to add a few drops of acid in one end which turned the indicator red and a few drops of base in the other end which turned the indicator blue. After a few shakes, the tube
018showed a rainbow as the solution was slowly neutralized. This was an entertaining lab that reminded the students that chemistry can still be fun in the midst of a grueling second semester. Our Lady Wrestler softball team hosts a kids camp every spring to engage with the next generation of wrestlers and support their development as teammates and athletes. Our spring sports are off to a great start with more wins than losses in tennis, baseball, and softball. Track had their first meet last weekend due to a snow delay, but they were excited and ready to compete. Uh, second lesson we loved. Students created book recommendation posters in Mrs. Ingamman's honors English class. This gave the students a break from their ongoing junior research project and allowed them to give ideas of books they really enjoyed to each other.
019This is appreciated as there are always students looking for new reading material in the class. Semr BPA team looks forward to the national competition in Nashville, Tennessee this May. We have six team members competing this year for placing first through third in the following team events. Econ research, small business management, financial analyst team, and global marketing. We also had six individual places from events ranging from tests to papers to presentations. Finally, Eli and Addy Chris took state in presentation team along with Bristol Miners and Emma who won an econ research team. We are so proud of our members and wish them luck at nationals. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, and members of the community. I am Lydia Commtock, a junior at CMR, and I will continue our presentation. We also
020had a class of leadership high school students graduate from CMR. This past week, they had their final session and ceremony. After days filled with volunteering and community change, they presented to their parents all they had learned and done. And from donating to the Alliance for Youth to spending time at schools and retirement homes, these students did it all. Bryce Lachland and Caleb from the CMR Skills USA team took first place in their respective events and will go on to compete at nationals in Atlanta, Georgia. CMR had several other medalists at the state competition as well. Their gold medal work in carpentry, drafting, auto tech, and more will prepare them for bright futures. Way to go. The next lesson that we loved was in a Spanish class. Mrs. Hansen's first year Spanish students are applying their
021learning by creating both podcasts and cartoons. This gave them a chance to practice and expand vocabulary while bonding with their peers. Many came up with creative story lines, and everyone had so much fun. Our performing arts department has also been quite busy. Our music students performed in many concerts to celebrate music in our schools month and encourage younger students. The CMR choir shortly after their concert went on tour to learn from other schools and colleges in Salt Lake City. And after that, District Music Festival has kept our performing arts students busy. Thursday of last week, they performed in large ensembles for scores and feedback. And on Friday, they performed in solos and small groups. They represented our school well, and we are so proud. And now we look forward to our band students as they
022go on tour in Missoula. And with our drama department specifically, they will be presenting the first showing of their spring play Trap this weekend. Tickets are $8 and it's going to be an incredible show. We hope to see you there Friday or Saturday night. We also had 16 outstanding juniors in each department from Semar. We celebrated their achievements in each content area at the outstanding junior breakfast this month. Way to go wrestlers. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, superintendent Poyer, members of the board, and members of the community. I'm Addie Chris, a sophomore at CMR, and I'll be finishing our presentation. Another lesson we loved was in Mr. Gregor's AP biology class that was able to spend the day at the Wiseman Hood Lab and learning all about the research being done there. This was a fun
023opportunity for students to see the things that they are learning being used in real life. Thank you to the foundation for supporting education and thank you to our teachers for taking the time to complete a grant application. We had seven Rushler educated educators award the grant this season. Congratulations to our HOSA future health professionals for placing 20 plac placing in 22 events at state HOSA including anatomy and physiology, career development, family medicine, biotechnology, organic chemistry and phabbotomy. Our career technical student organizations, HOSUS, Skills USA, BPA, DECA, and FCCLA are always completing well at state and earning bids to national. Another lesson we loved was in Mr. Comtock's AP English class. Students began reading their second semester group books. One group is reading Indian Creek Chronicles. This is a memoir by Pete Prom telling his seven
024month stay in the remote mountains of Montana and Idaho. For the final project, the group might have to travel that location and spend the night. CMR nominates students each week for the representing or core values and relationships, learning and accountability. The teachers complete a write up to describe why that teacher nominated them and which rustler their values that student demonstrates. Our students of characters are rust their pride. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. CR Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, Trustees, members of the board, and members of the community. My name is Caitlyn Mccclure, Junior from Paris Gibson, and I'll be giving your presentation today. With supplies purchased through a grant, these students were able to really experience and see where their monthly paychecks would go when paying rent, insurance, and other costs of
025living. Students also love the math manipulatives that make applied math so much fun. Thrive is an amazing opportunity for our Paris Gibson students. It is a wellness retreat within this within the school. We spend three days next door at the Ursel Center learning and growing and healing. We were fed amazing food all three days by the Elks Lodge, Clark and Lewis. The staff at the Elsk lodge and Clark and Lewis. The staff at Paris Gibson put so much love and energy into this event. We are so grateful. Sorry, I don't know why I'm so shaky today. This seminar is specifically planned to follow Thrive. A lesson is reflected on growth. Why do succ what do succulents do when environments get harsh? They adapt and thrive. The indigenous education department along with sisters united brought in
026crow fashion designer Dela big hair stump. Students had the opportunity to work with Dela to create a simple aique design on canvas bags shirts or skirts. Participating students then showcase their work in a small small fashion show on Thursday, March 12th at Paris Gibson. Our very own Jordan Langford Foster, bright trail woman, won a national 40 under 40 award for outstanding leadership and community contributions. She is our indigenous education for all instructional coach for all of Great Falls Public Schools. We are so proud proud of her and very grateful for everything she does for our indigenous community. The Great Falls Public Library hosted Young Art Youth Art Month. They featured some of our students art. How lucky are we to live in a community that put such value into local art? Miss Walters took a
027few groups of students to various locations and they got to really experience and partake in our week. Dugan made this Incredibles Raiders outfit and danced in a fashion show during our week. Evelyn Kale is a sophomore at CMR and she also danced beautifully in the fashion show. Jasine, Clover, AJ, and Caitlyn are Paris Gibson's four very deserving recipients of the Outstanding Juniors Award. We appre we appreciate their love and dedication to their education in their school. It has been so fun to have Lincoln Elementary fifth and sixth grade students and teachers in our building while they're waiting for the roof to be repaired. Thank you for that report from Paris. Very much appreciated. And thank you again, student reps, for sharing the news of what's going on in our schools. And uh it's always an
028inspiration. So, we're going to continue on in communication with a report from our superintendent, Mrs. Hoyer. >> Well, good evening, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, members of our community. It's my honor to go ahead and give you my report for this month. Thank you. um last month for allowing Mr. Boyd to go ahead and give this for me as I was out of town. But the first person that I want to tonight's a night of celebration. Jackie has no idea that this picture was coming at her. She probably doesn't even know I have it. Um so congratulations to executive director uh Jackie Manewearing. She was recognized by Brigadier General Trent Gibson. He's a former bulldog. You probably recognize him. I think believe we went to school with him, Mr. Hobble. Um she was recognized
029specifically now he's the adigent prof general at joint force headquarters at Fort Harrison. So he oversees all of the armed forces for Montana. She was recognized for her work with and support of Starbase. And so he came in last week wanted to thank her um shake her hand gave her a wonderful um coin that's framed in a letter of thank you. So a very special thank you for to Mrs. remain wearing for all she did to support Starbase. Speaking of Mrs. main wearing and the crew that she works with really really hard over at the core school. Um the core school last week hosted Lewistown public schools to University of Montana and Ochi as we looked at taking the program that we're having success with and expanding it to the east to our partners down
030in Lewistown. Then on April 21st, we just got done with our accreditation process. I believe we just got the last letter actually today. Um, Mrs. Mainwearing and the crew over at the core school is actually going to help Western with their Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities accreditation process when they work with Mr. Jack Herring. He's the associate vice president for academic affairs at Western Washington University and he is going to come to check and see if the distance program that is being delivered by our teachers as off-site professors um is delivered with the integrity and fidelity of the onampus programs which we know and can guarantee that it is. But we're excited to welcome them and we will be helping Western with their accreditation now that our accreditation is over. Another celebration that we
031had, and this was in mid-March, um we were able to celebrate with the CM Russell illustrated letter contest winners for Great Falls Public Schools. You can see all of our elementary schools listed up there, as well as the students who won for their school and the teacher that works with the classes where the winning um student came out of. the little young lady on the bottom left hand corner, Maren Miller. I said her name wrong when I announced it. Um, she is the overall winner for Great Falls Public Schools. But if you didn't get an opportunity this year to see those amazing illustrated letters, I'm definitely worth taking in next year. It's a lot of fun. They do a fantastic job with both their illustrations and writing their letters. This coming Wednesday is the day
032you wear purple. So, if you don't have it out and pressed and ready to go yet, you have another day to do so. Um, I do have at each of your seats, uh, the information for Mick 3, that's the Military Interstate Children's Compact Commission. It is the guiding document for us as we work with students and parents who are coming to Great Falls um, to support the military um, and the base here in Great Falls, both the Guard and out at Malmstrom. But we will kick off our day with Chief Joseph Elementary at 8:35 in the morning. I believe you're all invited. Um, as we celebrate the month of the military child. Um, quick question. Do you know why they use purple? Exactly. It's a mix of all of the colors of every branch of
033our military. If we mix them all together, we would have purple. Um the flower that represents is actually the dandelion for a couple of reasons. Dandelions we know are incredibly resilient and they grow where their seeds are planted. And so there's a lot of symbolism that you'll see, but we will recognize members of our military and the office of public instruction will also be here um that during that day to celebrate um our Purple Star winners and also um everything that our military does within our community. I have another group of individuals I want to recognize and I'm actually going to have them come forward. So these are our 71st annual National Merit finalists. We have Camry Kai or Camry and Kai. If you guys want to come on up real quick. Um Lex from
034Great Falls High is not here. She's actually back in Washington DC working with the Montana Congressional Delegation um for public education. You'll, as you can tell, these guys are un underachievers. They always make me feel so unaccomplished when I listen to the work that they do. But for both uh is it Camry or Camry, honey? Camry. Camry and Kai are they are three Camry. Sorry. Um there are three of 15,000 finalists representing less than 1% of high school seniors across the nation. over 1.3 million juniors from over 20,000 high schools entered the the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking part uh in the preliminary SAT National Merit Scholarship qualifying test in October of 2024. Um and these guys represent the very very best of the best. We've known it for a long time, but we're
035truly blessed to have them within our school district. I wanted to give you an opportunity to shake their hand as they work towards graduation in their future plans. Speaking of best of the best, while we have outstanding students, we also have outstanding teachers. So, Jordan, I'm also going to have you come up for a moment on and uh shake the hands of the board. Congratulations to Jordan Bright Trail Woman for receiving the national 40 under 40 award. She's being recognized for her nationwide leadership in indigenous education, her work on regalia protections for students. She also serves as the chairwoman of the Montana Advisory Council on Indian Education and the president of the pot latch fund. Um the award that she received recognizes Native American citizens for outstanding leadership and community contributions. 40 under 40 honores
036exemplified leadership, initiative and dedication and have the individuals have made significant contributions to their professions and communities. Ever the teacher when I sent her this picture and I said, "Oh, congratulations. Well done." She sent me a picture back of herself doing thumbs up. she was doing that she was making videos for science students at Great Falls Public Schools. So, while this is important, she sees the work that she does for students of the utmost important and her eightpart series, 10-p part series on science for indigenous education is well done. You need to check it out on the website. So, Jordan, did you want to say a few things? Don't worry, Jugan didn't write my speech, so I'll be quick. Um, I just wanted to say that um, I wanted to thank everyone so much for
037their continued support you've always given me. I feel grateful to work with such amazing people. I cannot express how much I appreciate you and this job is truly my honor. Um, Joe Medicine Crow said that when a warrior succeeds, he or she gives presents to those who helped make the success possible like parents, relatives, teachers, and friends. And so last week I had a celebration and a class giveaway for my students because I couldn't be a teacher without students. Um and I had a blast. Um in a perfect world I would have a stack of Pendleton blankets for you all. But alas, I do not. Um so I'm just going to come around and please accept my very humble gift of appreciation for you all. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, we will continue on
038with the last three schools that will give you the spring wrap-up of our strategic plan. So the first school that I want to share is East Middle School. This is principal Brad Behringer who is just wrapping up his tenure with us as he gets ready to retire. For healthy, safe, and secure schools, Brad shared that their goal was to reduce the number of major referrals and they were doing really well until December at which point um it evened out. They're a little lower than what they were last year, but it came up a little bit right before the holidays. um he appreciates the district level model of hearing panels. He said it makes them, their staff and their students feel safer and he wanted to share his thanks with the board for the work you
039do with that. He also attributed changes in group behavior due to COVID. He said that student behaviors are back to where they were before shutdowns that he thinks that they are developmentally appropriate. He told me clumping versus grouping um as seen in the past, they're getting back to uninhibited play that you would see from middle school students. And so he is just really excited about what the growth that he is seeing in his students. So they're putting down their phones, they're playing, and they're interacting socially as middle school kids should. For student achievement, their math scores are showing growth, especially in math. In fact, it was larger than expected. So he was tickled pink. Um he enjoys the connected curriculum from sixth grade to 7th grade. He think that's that's really important and is driving
040progress and he said um it allows them to have an easier way to integrate intervention than with the other models that they have used. Um parent communication has been relational encouraging parents to work directly with the teachers to meet to goal set and to plan. he feels like things are just really coming full circle. Um for stewardship and accountability, here's another shout out to parent square, Mr. Williams. Um it's important for the communication of their weekly blasts and the profile of a learner is a mesh throughout their entire school within the goals that they're set. His barrier, he said, of course, is truency and the loss of community enforcement of of being able to um entice students to get to school um through the truency process. A shout out for him, sorry, shout out for
041him was uh Karen Fulbright in the attendance office and then teacher Jen Newman. Strategic plan Lewis and Clark, another outgoing principal, Ben Jake as he gets ready to retire from us. his um shoutouts are for teachers aids Britney Tilman and sixth grade teacher Sandy Harrington. Healthy, safe, and secure schools, 35% behavioral reduction when compared to the same point in time last year. He really attributed that to empowering teachers, building relationships, and supporting families. Um he says stuck staff work with behavior team on Monday morning. So what he meant by that is anytime staff get stuck on a concept and they know they can't professionally um move beyond as far as helping a student with behavior, they team and they give each other tips on how you work with hard to work with students. Um he
042loves his sixth grade fabul or team he called them fabulous his leadership team. Um, those sixth graders are doing a lot of philanthropic work and fundraisers throughout the community. For student achievement, both ELA and CKLA has been a strength of this year's um data. They're working systematically to uh monitor and to work to improve their digital documentation. He described his math leadership team as super solid. Anybody who knows Ben knows that he loves these wonderful um labels. So, super solid math leadership team at Louiswis and Clark Elementary. Um, they train, they reassure, and they built the confidence of a very veteran staff when they're working on the new math implementation. And his ELA was showing growth from 65% that was their goal to actually 67% of their students showing growth and 72 to 73% in
043math. So, they're ahead of what their goal was. Um, and they're really excited. for stewardship and accountability. This is one of I loved this event that he did. I'll explain it to you. So, they had a family dance which I was thinking as an elementary kid, would I really want to go and dance with my parents if we dressed up as our favorite book characters? Because my dad probably would have been Darth Vader. Um, but it would have been a heck of a lot of fun. But they dressed up as their favorite book characters. They earned dance tickets based on their literacy tasks. They would do the family dance, so this theactic dance and then they would pause in the middle of it and they would do and model strategies on what you can do
044at home to read together and to build literacy skills and they would continue to dance then. So it was quite the evening that they had. Um parent square want one more shout out Mr. Williams on parents um square and um parent and family attendance at events has improved from 40% to 60% across his school. So I'm very excited. His barrier of course is the mental health of students and the engagement of the unengaged. And our last school Mrs. Jinx is Paris Gibson Education Center highlights concerns of barriers. She wants to give a shout out to April Sanger and Katherine Beckner. Um, two of her teachers who work really hard with students, healthy, safe, and secure schools. They're seeing developmentally appropriate behavior. So, very much what Mr. Behringer is seeing, but at the high school level.
045Quarterly award ceremonies recognize character strong and acade academic achievement. And they have um a character strong hall of fame. Student achievement. Open communication has always been a key to success at Paris, but they continue to leverage that as a strength, helping them to be proactive in tackling their issues. Um, great relationships with restart and with the comprehensive high schools allow them to get students the help and assistance in the right place. I'm looking at the high school. They don't have any fun together, those three high school principles, by the way. Um, and the traditional referral process while working feels like we're still missing some students. She admitted she um loses sleep I think over students that she knows that she's missing that she could help. For stewardship and accountability, student voice is very strong. She
046gave me the example of the Thrive event that are students and parents I believe they they talked to it when they did their board report. Um and she has a strong student leadership group. Ronnie Griffith and her transformational learning having her inhouse is making a huge difference. um the barriers, the societal factors that often derail students that oftentimes have nothing to do with school but impact school greatly are a barrier that she sees and one she'll probably continue to see with her student population at Paris. So that completely wraps up our um strategic plan for all of our schools. Data for the day are spring sports. And the reason I wanted to share this with you is because when we brought on baseball, I know that we were concerned about emerging sports taking students out
047or reducing students that we wouldn't have any extra students going out and it would just shift kind of the shell game shift one group of students to another one. So I wanted to share with you these are across the last two years for spring opportunities. And if you take a look at track and field, our track and field numbers are up. Um they're up both at Great Falls High and CMR. In fact, I believe for both schools if we wanted to take buses and take all of the kids to track meets, we would need four, three or four full-size buses to take all of the kids to track meets. And if you are the parent of a tracker, you would know that that means that the meets would start about 7:00 in the morning and
048it would end about midnight. And I'm looking at Emerson because Emerson is one of our trackers and he would knows how full those meets are with just the two schools. Tennis is holding pretty steady but is still pushing a little uh up a little bit. Softball's numbers are down just a little bit, but remember that softball and baseball are school or um sports that cut, so they're capped naturally. Um baseball is at 60 for the first time, but for a total this year, we are up. We're up, I think, 33 additional students over last year. If you take baseball out, if you add baseball, we are up 93 total from participation at this time last year. So, we are seeing more kids take advantage of the opportunities we're providing as we continue to um give
049opportunities through emerging sports and established sports. And one final shout out, how did you do at Arcadia? So this was a Nike national invitational track meet that Emerson was invited to and he didn't share that information. So you PR by 13 seconds and in which race that's a huge chunk of time in the 30 judge. Congratulations. Well done. And with that, Mr. Johnson, that is my report for this evening. I stand for questions if you have them. >> Any questions for Superintendent Hoyer? from our board of trustees. >> Thank you very much for your report, Mrs. Hoyer. And continuing on with communication, I have one request to speak before this board of trustees this evening from Mrs. Simpson. So, Mrs. Simpson, if you'd please come up to the rostroom and state your name for the
050record. and welcome. >> Hello, my name is Beth Simpson. I'm a parent of several students uh in the Great Falls public school system, but I'm speaking specifically today about my student at Great Falls High. Um my questions for the board are, is it acceptable for a teacher to force a high school student to hold their hand ways of punishment? Is it acceptable for that teacher to lick that student's hand or to call the student a or to call students babies and mock them and class? Is it acceptable for a student teacher to tell students that they are going to make a baby if they keep touching while they're in class? These are just some of the reports and incidences that have happened with a specific teacher at Great Falls High School. A parent wrote a
051letter to that teacher directly outlining some of their concerns and asking the teacher to do better. No threats of filing reports or making a formal complaint or anything of that nature. This letter made it to administration. Instead of addressing the complaint, administration decided to call the student aggressive and unwilling to feedback. They removed from them from their only remaining elective class one month before graduation. There are proper ways of dealing with undesirable student behavior. If a student is acting aggressive or making rude or snarky comments, there are appropriate ways of dealing with those. However, mocking, belittling, condescension, to my mind, sexual harassment is not included in those appropriate measures. It's hard not to feel with the recent news lately of a teacher's aid at a local elementary school assaulting a student that this is retaliation
052and protection of this teacher in regards to the complaints that were filed. This behavior from the teacher is not what I expect from the Great Falls Public School District. My oldest has been a member for 13 years. My youngest is in the morning sites for school. I have had amazing results addressing issues and bringing feedback to teachers and to administration and this needs to be addressed. Thank you. Well, thank you for coming and speaking with this and thank you for bringing this to our attention. So, at this point in time, um I'd like to excuse our student representatives. um you know the rest of the meeting you're welcome to stay but the remainder of the meeting is um reports, discussion, policies, action items and it can get a little dry and that's why we have
053you guys come first because you inspire us to get done what needs to get done. So thank you for your motivation. Thank you for your presentations. Go in peace. Do what you do so well. Thank you. One more round of applause for our student rats. And that brings us to action items. Action item A, approval of Great Falls Public Schools auditor for years ending June 30, 2026 and June 30, 2022. Mr. Deacons. >> Thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, and the remaining people in the room. remain talking about auditors. I'm surprised I don't want to come back. Um, but tonight I get to talk to you a little bit about our audit coming up in the upcoming years. When we talk about school audits, they are required by law. And therefore,
054since they are required by law, it's a professional or technical service that doesn't necessarily have to go out for an RFP or bid process. We are in our third year currently working with ID Bailey. Really when I talk about talk to the professionals around the rest of the state at the other doubleA's and at OPI about the audit, they like to see districts stay with auditors for somewhere between five and 10 years. When you hit that 10-year time, you should be through that cycle. And anytime you pick up new auditors, they're going to be looking at things a little bit differently. Still within the letter of the law, though, as well. So, we talked to um Brian Stavenger out of ID Bailey to see if they would be interested in extending their contract with us.
055Um and when we talked to them, you can see on the attachment, it gives you the layout of the cost per year. One thing that he did do intentionally on this proposal is there are really the one main audit and then three single audits. Those three single audits come in the form of the federal audits that um uh executive director Boyd is responsible for. We don't always get hit with four, but that's the most that they can really apply to us. So the prices on the back, they could be a little bit elevated. they could be right on um over the course of that time allowing us to work with uh ID Bailey again for the upcoming couple years allows us to work through some of those um smaller findings that they've initiated with us.
056We know what they're looking for there. We know what they're asking us to do to rectify it. So before moving forwards with another firm um wanting to make sure we get those pieces in place as well. Also, when you talk about the audits, um I don't think I put it on here, but there are really two companies within the state of Montana. I Bailey has offices here. They're not technically in Montana as their home station. They're out of Minneapolis. Um the rest of them are New York, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, and they don't even have offices in Montana. So really looking at something a company that has somewhat of a local tie and then down the road knowing when we hit that five, seven or 10 years when we need to really putting that out
057for um another bid. For now though, we just extended want would like to ask you to extend that contract for two years um taking into account the pieces that are noted within there in the fee structure from IDA Bailey's proposal. So what I would request is that you approve I bailey's as a district audit firm to pay the fees as indicated on the attachment propos proposal for fiscal years 2026 and 2027. >> Thank you >> Mr. Chair. >> Trusty Hanning >> I move that we approve I Bailey LLP as the district's audit firm and pay the fees as indicated in the attached proposal for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 as presented. Second been moved and seconded to approve I Bailey LLP as a district's audit 202627 any questions from this board of trustees I do
058have a question should we ratify this um will we as the district be in contact with them right away so that we get on their calendar I'm guessing it's pretty competitive to share their service >> um I believe they serve four of the other doubleA's as well with audits. So, we are still on their rotation. Yeah, >> looking at probably a start date of September 1, trying to finish that up prior to the new year um of next year. >> Thank you. Any additional questions from our board of trustees or Mr. Deons? Any from our remaining gallery? Hearing saying, none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I >> oppos same sign. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Action item B. Cascade County Sheriff's Office
059and Great Falls Police Department reserve school resource officer agreement. Mrs. Hoyer, >> Chairman Johnson, this is the agenda item that we move back to the report section um through the amendment to the agenda at the beginning that Trusty Bronson made. >> Thank you. Action item C, nonrenewal of non-tenured teachers. Mrs. Sperson, >> good evening, Chairman John. Good evening, Super Hoyer, members of the board, members, the community. I am up here tonight to present to you um that we need the non-tenure teacher on the non-renew list is being recommended for contract no nonrenewal at the end of the current school year. We're exercising our right to non-renew the non-tenure teacher without cause. There is an amendment or addendum to your policy that lists who the teacher is. And I just want you to know that this
060is something that we take a lot of time in consideration um because it does affect everybody in in the school and the students, but it is something that we really feel needs to be done. So just asking that you not renew the teacher listed on that addendum. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. >> Trusty Scorski. I move to non-renew the non-tenured teacher listed on the addendum as provided. >> Been moved and seconded to nonrenew the non-tenured teacher listed on the addendum. Any questions or comments from our board of trustees? Any questions or comments from our gallery hearing? Seeing 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. Thank you very much. Action other. Nothing was pulled
061from the consent agenda. We'll move on to reports, discussion, and policies. A first reading of revised new and deleted policies 2311, 2311F, 3215, and 5215. Mrs. Hoyer. Thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, member of our community or members of our community. Um, it gets really quiet in here when all the really intense stuff happens. So, um, for you this evening is the first reading of our deleted, revised, and new board policies that the policy committee recently went over in bringing forward for your review. You will notice I'm going to go first to policy 3215 and 5215. at the end of your packet. These are companion policies to a previously reviewed and approved new policy on uniform complaint procedures. After asking MTSBA for some legal input, u Mr. Decon's had some conversations with those
062folks down in Helena. It was recommended that because it is a uniform complaint procedure that it remain just one. So we don't worry about having to make adjustments to all three policies. and we actually shorten our policy manual by by removing those two. So I would recommend that. The next one coming forward, um, special thank you again to executive director Minewearing for some work that she did with a subcommittee group of individuals including some teachers patterned off of work in Bosezeman that provides guidance for teachers through policy 2311 um, for levels of resources that are supplementary. So I'll walk you through starting on page 33 of your board agenda item. You will notice that with instructional materials, we are now adding three definitions of primary core which are major instructional resources that are integral to
063a course subject to board approval. This is the main chunks of curriculum that you would approve. Supplemental resources. These are additional instructional resources that consistently support and enhance instruction. They have to tie to our standards. They are not necessarily subject to board approval. These are a lot of our intervention programs is the best example of it. Um such as Hagerty. Another good example was the one that Mrs. Oly who is an English teacher over at Great Falls High shared with us at our committee meeting where we have a list of novels through our um ELA curriculum that we have, but we don't have necessarily a novel that is as strong and speaks the EFA standards for an indigenous author. um through that standardized list. So they were looking to bring in an author, preferably a
064Montana author um to substitute that novel in. And so that's an example of what we might use for that second bullet. The third one are incidental resources. These are additional instructional resources that are used occasionally, but not very often. It's really at the discretion of the classroom teacher. An example of this is all of the amazing um um reports and both online and news reports that we saw with the Artemis when the Aremis um did its journey around the moon. Those are things that would happen just really once in a lifetime for that teacher to be able to see and of course they wanted to capture that moment in time for the students and have those discussions. Moving on to page 34 then of that um you will see on lines 23 through 29 it
065calls out the legality of IEPs and making sure that those primary and core materials um are can be adjusted per the IEP team and then it talks to the selection of supplemental resources. We are proposing to add then on page 36 and 37. This is the companion 2311F. So this is the form that would go along with um supplemental resources and vetting documentation where the teachers would fill this out as they're using both those um the two resources that we talked about on page 33. So, the supplemental resources and the incidental resources eventually intervention programs would be part of the curriculum process. Um, as we're working through that curriculum process, and I'm looking over at Jackie because there are some that are and some that we learn in time um as we get uh better
066and stronger um intervention programs. But then as our teachers are using um their more discretionary ones, they would fill this form out. So this form would be kept on file so we could answer questions from parents that our administrators could and we could take a look and review them as well um to be sure that the resources are enriching and supporting curriculum materials um that they are in alignment with supple with our curriculum materials. um and if it does provide responsiveness to student interest and respect and appreciation for cultural diversity, varied opinions and understanding of content. So with that, I would leave these to you to review for a second reading at our next board meeting. Once again, a thank you to the committee for all their work. This was a huge lift, months and
067months of work from executive director Maine Wearing and her subcommittee. So, thank you. >> And I encourage us trustees to read these documents uh carefully and they'll be up for ratification at our next meeting which is on Monday, April 27. So, thank you very much for that. Moving ahead to reports, discussion, and policies B. >> Excuse me, Chairman Johnson. Yes, >> I do need to address uh number 9B, which is the uh school resource officer. >> Just scoot ahead. >> We just did it again. That's okay because this is one that we have had on and then taken off and had on and off. So, we actually have it in front of you this evening. So after multiple months of work with both um the Cascade County Sheriff's Office attorney Josh Rocky um the city
068of Great Falls um David Dennis is the legal guidance that we're getting there and then work with Gene for as well as our safety committee board subs safety committee um we have before you the agreement the resource the school resource officer agreement They call it a reserve deputy. We're calling it a reserve SRO. Um, this was from the presentation that both Brian Black from the police department here in Great Falls came and gave to us along with Katie Cunningham and Jesse Slaughter when we talked about finding a way to get our SRO's an additional set of hands uh to assist with the different work that they're doing within our community. Um, we wrote up anou and then I think the lawyers got hold of it and we realized it wasn't quite as legal as it
069probably should have been because it was written like by a bunch of teachers versus a bunch of lawyers. And so when it came back to us, it came back to us in a whole different form with a lot of um MCA notations and um some different subsections in there. So this is for you. We just came in at 4:39 this afternoon. So, not enough time for you to review. Um, you will have it for at least the next two weeks at which point uh we would bring it back to you for an open discussion and a vote in talking with Chief Newton. Um, he is going to be taking it to the commissioner as well, but it's usually um uh city manager Doyan who likes to know if we will be in support of this
070or not before they move forward as well. So we want to have our discussion very close to the same time they're going to be having their discussions as well. So with that, this is for your light reading for the next couple of evenings. Um as we move forward, >> do we need to appoint a subcommittee of trustees and administrators to go over this together? Do we leave it in the hands of administration? How do we proceed? >> So that has already been done. So, I want to thank uh Trusty Thompson and Trusty Duff. Um they have worked on this as part of our safety committee and went over this with us along with the executive directors and the SRO's as we looked at this. So, it is now um back to the the greater board
071to take a look at. >> Thank you very much. >> Any additional questions for Superintendent Hoyer regarding this document and its impending future? >> Now, we'll go Anything else? Uh, real quick, I know that Trustee Scornoski, you had asked a rough timeline of when, if signed, when this would roll out and in talking to Sheriff Slaughter, it would be next fall. >> Okay. >> All right, Trusty Thompson, we're going to start the discussion with you. >> All right. Well, I would just as as you are wrapping up the strategic plans for the um building by building report, I just wanted to thank you one more time for how awesome those reports have been. Um how comprehensive it is, how it ties to the strategic plan. I appreciate um how easy you make the it for
072the board to understand uh where we're at in our progress. Um, and I love that it gives us a chance to hear from the principles with quickly. Um, and to be able to show off their ingenuity and, um, how every building can do something, have the same goal and do things in a little bit different way and make it their own. Uh, really appreciate that. Um, and I also just want to say that I love that uh uh Yenta Jinx is not um she's not happy enough with a great job and that she's always wanting to uh continue to to serve more of our students in in the best way that she can. So, that's all. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Tus. >> All right. Just quickly, I want to commend our student representatives
073who are always here. It's always great to hear so much great stuff going on at the high school. Great accomplishments, be it BPA or HOSA or sports. It's great to highlight the great accomplishment our kids are doing. It's always nice to hear. Um I forgot what else I was going to say, but oh, I had the privilege of going to the Elf Center today, the early learning center. Um that was insightful. Great job they're doing over there. Great bunch of teachers and staff. um they're really they're doing a really important work over there. So, thanks to them for that. And that's what I got. >> And thank you, Trusty Skodags. >> Um I guess first of all, I just wanted to take another minute to to really speak about Jordan and um what an amazing
074asset she is for our district. um if you ever have the opportunity to talk to her one-on-one about her students, um she just has such passion for education and um for the students that she's working with on a daily basis and inspiring on a daily basis. She's just truly an impressive person and we're so lucky that she's chosen to stay in our district because I'm sure there's a million other districts that would have swept her up and um certainly um taken advantage of her talents. Um, I had the opportunity today to spend time um with the Lyft students um from both elementary schools and um Great Falls High and CMR. There's around 55 of them at Alliance for Youth. They all came together to kind of talk about what they've been working on throughout the
075school year, share ideas um to take home um to their home schools. Um, so it was really great um to see just a room full of really kind kids um you know talking about how to make their schools better and how to help their fellow students. So that's wonderful to see. Um and then I just wanted to point out I don't know if anybody else has seen it but there was a micro national commercial um dedicated to our neighbor works high school house. So, um kind of amazing and and wonderful to see um you know the programs that we've known that are amazing getting um that level of of national attention. So, kudos to everyone. >> Thank you, Trusty Scorowski. Let's go over to Presty Sunchild. >> Also want to give a shout out to
076Jordan. She's she's amazing. that that program is topnotch. Really is. Um, also I do see Caitlyn back there. If you get a chance to go and look at on the Great Falls Public Schools Foundation website of the grants and many grants that have been awarded, they're pretty amazing stuff that the teachers do and come up with and the innovative things are it's it's pretty spectacular. I'm a terrible person to read those and decide because I I just want to give every everything sounds wonderful and um they're great and it just really showcases what our schools do. Um I think it's important to get that information out. Another thing the Great Falls Highway kids that were talking about there when they give their shout outs to their the different faculty members and that's one of my
077favorite things on Facebook. I love it. I have yet to see a teacher on there where I have not been like, "Oh my gosh, I love that teacher. one of my kids had that teacher and then you get to read all of the parents and alumni and everything that they say and it's amazing and it's just one more touch point of how how impactful our our educators are. I love it. >> Thank you, Trusty Bronson. >> Well, first I want to echo all the accolades that have been offered here this evening. It's truly amazing what our young people accomplish and the educators that work with them and I think we can all be very proud of that. The only other thing I was going to mention is I spent a portion of last week uh
078with MTSBA. We had a strategic planning session over two and a half days uh out of town and you will see the final product of that by the time we have our June meeting in Helena. But it was nice to work with other trustees around the state to put together uh I hopefully by the time staff have worked on it. We have yet to see what they'll do. The the intent was to make it a much simpler statement >> uh of adherence to our constitutional values as they relate to what we want to see come out of public education. And uh again, it was a very worthwhile exercise and I'm pleased that we have the kind of trustees around the state to work with. >> Thank you, Trusty Henning. >> I will keep it brief.
079I appreciate the parent coming out and talking. >> Um I always like hearing from parents even when it's something that's, you know, obviously troubling them. I I appreciate hearing that. And then Heather, I'm going to echo what Trusty Thompson said. I've really enjoyed the strategic plan updates from the schools. I like seeing the strategic plan being used in a very hands-on way instead of just, you know, something we do and and it's there. You worked really hard to make sure it's something we're actively striving for as a district and I really appreciate seeing that. Thank you. >> Thank you. And in regards to our uh our audience communication and uh our students being here, I choose purposefully to uh not excuse our students until after the uh audience communication. even though sometimes uh those presentations
080are awkward and critical of what it is we do, but I I think it's important for them to see both sides of of what we as a board of trustees and you as administrators are confronted with. So, I just wanted to have you know that that's a study decision on my part to organize uh organize that sequence as such. And I want to thank Mr. Duff for going to a couple of uh elementary schools and when he makes his visits we'll have uh had our trustees cover all of our 22 buildings. Is that right? Yeah. So we're good there. Um many of us at the table attended a key meeting today at noon kids education. Yes. And I think we all appreciate their efforts and working with us to how do you say influence the
081ed uh the legislature legislators to uh consider us in in what's coming before them in so many months. So thanks to the key organization. Couple weeks ago I did my um service at a third grade class at Giant Springs. I had a wonderful time. I really did. That was just fantastic. And it just made me think how important it is for us to do that, to get into the trenches and the energy it takes and how things move so quickly. And this Mrs. De John's at Giant Springs um is doing a great job as as so many of our teachers do. So that's fantastic. Um I think I I'll conclude by drawing your attention to the upcoming events. A lot on the calendar. I'm sure you're all very conscientious in putting these into your calendar
082and uh we'll see you at many of these upcoming events as we roll through April and go into conquer May. So unless there's any other business to come before this board of trustees, I would propose that we adjourn. >> Move to adjourn. >> And we are adjourned. Thank you.