001Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this March 23rd, 2026 meeting of the Great Falls Public Schools Board of Trustees. And it's so nice to see a room full of citizens here with us this evening. So, thank you so much for being here. Uh a reminder that this meeting is being recorded and will be uploaded on our website at some point in the future. So, with that, Mr. Deacons, would you please administer the roll call? Thank you, Chairman Johnson. Gordon Johnson. >> Here. Kim Skornogoski. Here. Bill Bronson. >> Here. Craig Duff. Here. Paige Henning. Here. Marley SunChild. Here. Amy Thompson. Here. Chairman Johnson, you have a full board with which to work. Thank you, Mr. Deacons. Ladies and gentlemen, would you please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I Thank you.
002Mr. Chair. Trustee Skornogoski. I move we adopt the agenda as presented. >> Second. It's moved and seconded to adopt the agenda as presented. Any questions or commentary from our Board of Trustees? Any questions or commentary from our gallery? Yes, sir. I certainly can. Thank you. Uh all those in favor of the motion, please signal by by saying I. I. Opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Mr. Chair. Trustee Henning. I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. It's moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda. Any questions or commentary from our Board of Trustees? Any questions or commentary from our gallery? Hearing seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda, please signify by saying I. I. Opposed, same sign. Thank you very much. We're going to move
003on to communication. And communication Roman six eight character strong Meadowlark Elementary School. Mrs. Meanwaring. Good evening Chairman Johnson, members of the board, members of the community. It's my pleasure tonight to introduce our student group from Meadowlark Elementary and Mrs. Lindsey Stoltz, their principal. And they're going to talk about character strong tonight. Excellent. Welcome. We rehearsed it with a little different setup. I'm Lindsey Stoltz. I am principal at Meadowlark and I am pleased to show off this group of kids tonight. Uh we do something a little bit different at Meadowlark for character strong. So each month teachers are able to nominate a student for what we call the character strong Hall of Fame. Uh so each month we focus on the different trait and right now we've been focusing on cooperation. So not only were these
004students nominated by their teachers, they were then selected by the specialists in the school to be inducted into the cooperation character strong Hall of Fame. So, they have their picture taken and they are posted in our Hall of Fame board as you come into the school. They each got to pick a candy bar and then they got a gift certificate for a free pizza. So, we did practice today. I promised they would not have to use the microphone, but they are going to introduce themselves, tell you their name, and their grade level. So, we'll start with My name is My name is Tinley Duffy. I'm fifth grade. So, now Tinley is going She was the brave volunteer. She is our fifth grade student and she wants to come tell you what cooperation means. Cooperation means
005when you work together, you're nice to everyone, and you include everyone. Now, we are going to make you cooperate. So, do I have two brave volunteers from the board? There's one. Okay, come on up. There's two brave volunteers. >> If you don't return, it was nice working with you. >> One step to your left. One step to your left. You're good. Okay, how many steps back? Can you figure out how many steps? How many steps? One step to your left. One step to your One step to Okay, one step Right? One step to your Open your eyes. And then your group has a different approach. So, if you would come down here with your eyes closed. Okay, their approaches follow my voice. This is what they came up with today. Okay? So, remember everything Okay?
006Follow my voice. I'm sorry. Follow my actions. Follow my voice. Okay, stop. Open your eyes. Good job. Okay, now will I follow famous and you come stand up here, please? >> Well, thank you very much for being here with us this evening. We really are impressed by your demonstration of cooperation. And you're absolutely right. It's so important for all of us, whether you're school board trustee, a teacher, a student, a parent, a grandparent, to cooperate with one another. Makes our society and our world a better place. So, thank you again for illustrating for us and reminding us of the importance of cooperation. Thank you. Thank you. Communication B, Superintendent Hoyer is out on assignment this evening. The report will be given by Mr. Boyd. Chairman Johnson, members of the board, members of our community, I'm
007going to cover Superintendent Hoyer's report tonight. We're going to lead off the report with two very special student groups that we have from North Middle School. So, Mr. Reeder, can you and your archery team come up to the podium and tell us a little bit about the great accomplishment you guys just got done accomplishing? And here they come. All right. So, we brought a few of our members that are going to be traveling to nationals in Utah. We competed in five tournaments this year and they won all five of them, which has been amazing, including the state tournament in Helena, which had over 400 archers from all across the state. And these guys won the middle school in both 3D animal and bullseye challenges. So, they won both tournaments, so that earned us a right
008to go to Utah. 19 of us are hoping to go to Utah on the 23rd of April. So, that's that's why we're here today. Well, congratulations. Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. And then we have another student group from North Middle School that we're lucky to have with us tonight. And that is the North Middle School Science Academic Bowl team. If you guys can come up and share your accomplishments. And let's give them a round of applause. I think we can figure that out. All right, I'd like to Is this working is that? Okay. I'd like to present our a portion of our science academic bowl team. Uh we actually North actually took two teams to Billings to compete. There were 16 teams from the Wyoming Montana regional competition. Uh they
009seated us into two three different divisions. Unfortunately, our two teams did were in separate divisions and we played each other in round robin competition in the morning. So, both teams went undefeated all morning long. Wow. And we were seated one and two into our double elimination eight team afternoon competition. It's a double elimination and team one and team two were seated first and second in that eight in that eight team. Uh then then the afternoon they all both teams went undefeated undefeated undefeated until they had to come against each other. Mhm. Mhm. And our team one beat team two. So, now team two had to drop to the losers bracket cuz with double elimination they beat the team they needed to to come back up and go up against team one again. That in that
010competition team two beat team one. And so now they each have one loss and they have to go against each other again. And up until the last two minutes they were tied. Jeez. Until the last two minutes and then team one did come ahead and unfortunately we only get to take one of those teams to national to represent Montana Wyoming region. And so our team up George Ready, Jonah Clyde, Jonah Christ, Henry Smith couldn't be here tonight and neither could Silas Hunt. But the Department of Energy pays all expense paid trip for the five students and a coach to fly to Washington D.C. We have room and board for the five days. While they're there they'll get one day where they get to tour the monuments and the Smithsonians. Another day they have their academic
011competition. There's another day what's called a cyber challenge where they just solve all kinds of problems etc. And then we get to fly home. Oh, yeah. They provide other opportunities as the students in their in their downtime. They provide opportunities for the kids to explore lots of different things. In the past we've gone they've got to fly drones, they've got to experiment with programming different robots. Just they they the organization provides lots of opportunities for them to meet other kids and to grow etc. And it's just a great opportunity. So I'm really proud of them and you glad to present them to you. Well, congratulations and thank you for sharing this story with us. We need a photo op here. So keep your banner high. Get up there mom. Get a picture. Get Get your
012banner there you go. Come on up if you want a photo. Well, I am. Go up in front there, yeah. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you for sharing your story with us. That's wonderful. Uh so I think that's a great way to kick off the Superintendent's Report highlighting student activities uh that our district supports with and sponsors uh and gives kids a variety of skills that they get to work on. As we enter into the Superintendent's Report, uh the first slide, couple sets of slides, uh fall back to Bosses' Night. So a couple Tuesdays ago, cabinet had an opportunity uh to facilitate the 54th annual Bosses' Night uh over at Paris Gibson Education Center. This is an opportunity uh for the district to celebrate uh students with significant special needs and the work that they uh
013do uh is they start their path of joining and entering into the workforce uh up to the age of 21 and the different supports that we offer on that side of it. A program like this uh has to have a lot of components and a lot of people that are connected to it. Uh so a huge thank you goes to Mary Beth Tolan and Kathy Wanner uh for the work that they do uh in the vocational program day in and day out uh at both high schools uh to help facilitate getting our kids out into the community and learning job skills. Uh our 20 26 Employer of the Year uh was the Meadowlark Library uh and librarian Lacey George uh and the work that she does uh with a very special student over there uh
014who's actually going to win an award here later on uh in the slideshow. Uh and then our guest speaker were Kevin and Jill Shaver. Uh Kevin uh is a former student of Great Falls Public Schools, went through secondary life skills. Uh when he was in secondary life skills, he was very hesitant about entering into the workforce, didn't know if it was going to be something he was going to do. Since entering into the secondary life skills and graduating, he's held one consistent job for the last 4 years. So, pretty spectacular for him on that side of it. Up here are the award winners for the CMR Bosses Night for the Patty Cooper Memorial Award, which is the most improved employee students coming out of CMR. Teagan Jansen and Dakota Kennedy, and then the Sidney Nesbitt
015Memorial Award, which is an outstanding employer that works in a company outside of GFPS out of the community on that side of that goes to Hagen and Braden on that side. Then we go to Great Falls High award winners. Again, Patty Cooper Memorial Award that goes to Phaedra Blackburn and Rachel Bollett. And then for the Sidney Nesbitt Award goes to Jamal and Mary Ellen for their outstanding award. As you can see from the pictures, it's a huge night of celebration and a great opportunity for the district to highlight all these hardworking kiddos. And then out at Paris Gibson Education Center, Jayden Grub was the Patty Cooper Memorial Award winner. Sidney Nesbitt Award went to Braden Kotke. And the Patty McHenry Award, which is awards specifically for secondary life skills students that are based out of
016Paris Gibson Education Center, that went to Seth Mondragon. So, just a very special night and a great opportunity for us to be able to highlight our students and all of our teachers in special education that work to get them ready for adulthood. Next one, big congratulation goes to three different departments from the city of Great Falls. Obviously, after you have a roof incident over at Lincoln Elementary, a lot of groups in the community step up. So, I had the opportunity last Tuesday night to go to the city commission meeting and do some recognition with good apple awards for the city of Great Falls and our public works department, the police department, and the fire department. We gave away 48 Good Apple Awards, but a large majority of the awards went to that picture on the
017bottom right there where Great Falls Fire Rescue, less than about 3 hours after the roof was off, we had Chief Verts reaching out to us to let us know that he'd be sending 17 or 18 off-duty firefighters. He'd be calling them in for overtime so that they could help our teachers pack their classrooms and get ready to move. And honestly, if we wouldn't have that team's help right there, we would not have been in school Wednesday morning when we started at Lincoln Elementary. So, a huge thank you to all of these groups that got Good Apple Awards last week from the city of Great Falls. And I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Deacons to talk about Lincoln Elementary updates. Thank you, Mr. Boyd, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, members of the community.
018Just to give you a little brief update on where we're sitting with Lincoln Elementary. We had an opportunity to have four qualified roofing contractors come out to Lincoln last Thursday morning. All four of them are available and will be providing us some bids by this Friday. Therefore, we've scheduled a special session of the board next Tuesday. So, hopefully we can accept one of those bids at that point in time, finalize a contract, and start moving forward with that renovation project to make sure it's up to snuff and get those kids ready to be back to Lincoln as soon as we possibly can. This process is a little bit more challenging than the normal bid process as when you're looking at it, we do not have a full architect design, we don't have a full engineering
019design. However, we have contractors, engineers that have worked on these particular roofs that have completed our Great Falls Public Schools studies on our roofs. So, they have a very good knowledge of what they're working with to make these types of decisions. So, hopefully by next Tuesday, we can make sure that we have it on the board, ready to go, and starting to put our feet on the ground, and starting to make that roof come to shape. So, if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer those at this moment. Any questions for Mr. Deacons regarding the roof? Thank you. Thank you. All right, we'll jump into the final part of Heather's uh superintendent's report, and that is her touch-base points during the third quarter that she does for Jackie and I uh with all of
020our principals out in their buildings to get highlights of the things they're working on uh inside of the strategic plan. So, we'll jump to Sacajawea Elementary uh led by Principal Ty Moore. Uh some of the things he's working on, healthy, safe, and secure schools. Uh he's developed a handheld emergency action plan uh that each of his teachers have in their red emergency backpacks that it just has specific information in them uh related to Sacajawea Elementary and the protocols he has in place there. Uh he's worked with his PTA uh for all of his students in grades 4 through 6 uh to be able to have hands-on CPR training. Uh and that came forward by a couple members of his PTA, so he's very excited for that work in the fourth quarter. Uh and then he's
021working currently uh to get a second buzz-in door uh near the flagpole. Uh his PTA and the district can help support with that project. On the student achievement side, uh academics are showing a direct correlation when students are in school, uh they're excelling, and as one improves, uh the other improves. Uh he does a 30-minute connections uh for every class every morning, where character strong is taught, breakfast is served, uh kids can help pre-regulate prior to the start of the academic day, kind of sets the tone uh for where he's going. And then his team just went uh and did some work with the Desmos coaches uh that did a cafe training uh for some of the new math curriculum and work they're doing on that side. For stewardship and accountability, uh just like many
022other conversation points, ParentSquare is a big go-to. It makes messaging and communicating with parents uh in his building really easy. Uh another cool thing he's doing there is at the end of every day his A team is emailing out uh to the teachers patterns or specific things that they're noticing in unstructured settings, so out of the bus, at recesses, at lunchtime, uh so the teachers can help combat some of that and get ahead of it instead of being reactive to it. And then he's really working hard uh on parent engagement uh and activities uh with kids and teachers both at lunchtime and at other times in the spring uh moving forward from there. He'd like to recognize uh Miss Teresa Bassich, his school counselor, uh for just being everywhere and doing everything all the time,
023uh especially as she works on test coordinator, uh the talent show, and Special Olympics as it heads into the spring, and then this classified uh aid that he would like to recognize is Megan Meadows. Uh Megan is kind of the Deidra's left-hand person in the office and is learning that job well uh and is helping facilitate work day in and day out at Sacajawea. The next school we'll jump to uh is the CORE school uh at Morningside and Principal Jennifer Martin uh leads up that group. Uh things that she's working on uh when it comes to healthy, safe, and secure schools, uh she's showing a decrease in majors and minors, and the leadership team attributes this to PLC work that they're doing uh in their school with the school psych and Aaron Booker uh and
024the training that the staff's been provided on helping everybody get back to baseline uh on that side of it. The calibration's been important when it comes to the work that all of our principals did last year uh for behavior reporting, and then really working on physical altercations and insubordination are the top two areas and trying to figure out ways to combat that and where specifically they can bring in skills for students to practice inside of the classroom. Uh for student achievement, uh every grade level is right is at the top right of the quadrant, which is where we want people when it comes to map uh testing for both ELA and math. Uh it means that the work that the team is doing uh and the work that they're doing in PLCT is working really,
025really, really well uh on that side, but it also shows that the team is also made a strategic focus and that it's not just about the instruction that's given, but also about the attitudes uh that they have towards the instruction when they're giving it as teachers. And then stewardship and accountability, uh she works hard to put out a memo weekly, uh but also have some people in her building uh that work on the counseling corner with Mr. Montana Johnson that just gives and reinforces skills that the kids are working on specifically to help parents learn about the things in character strong and other opportunities uh that they're doing at Morningside. And her teacher that she'd like to highlight is Mrs. Katie Rawls. Uh Katie is a special education teacher in a resource two classroom uh
026over at Morningside and she's just always willing to step up and step in. Uh she teaches a variety of different grade levels, but does a really good job of coordinating instruction with her team of teachers at Morningside and then she'd like to recognize her nurse Sheila Wilson uh who is just all about being in the right places for kids and attending to their needs uh as things come up. The next school we'll go to, school that was just here, Meadowlark Elementary School uh led by Principal Lindsey Stalk. Uh so healthy, safe, and secure schools are seeing uh some great developmentally appropriate behavior, which is a positive. Kids are going to be kids and things are going to happen in school in a lot of unstructured areas and you would would to see that uh going
027forward from there. Her quarterly award ceremonies to recognize character strong that they hit on earlier. And then her character strong hall of fame that you guys got to see uh here tonight. Uh for student achievement, uh staff in the leadership focus uh is matching that achievement and currently they're excelling really well as they historically have uh on that side. Uh this year they're working to maximize the interventions uh that can be challenging especially when you look at departmentalizing and you have teachers teaching very specific subjects uh in a departmentalized fashion. And then she's emphasizing the the importance of using the curriculum materials that are planned, well-planned intervention materials, and then our new program Lexia uh and the assessments that go along with that. For stewardship and accountability, again it's about communication. So weekly blasts that
028go out to her families every Sunday, Parent Square that helps us navigate some of those communications. Uh and then just having a great parent group at Metalark Elementary that is always involved and willing to support the school and the initiatives uh that they have going on on that side. She'd like to recognize uh one of her classified employees, uh TC Hirsch, who's a paraprofessional uh that just goes above and beyond, uh is great with relationships and great with kids and always dependable. And then Miss Brittany Erdman, her admin intern, uh who has stepped up in a big way and is helping lead the building and doing a lot of the things that we got to see here tonight uh through character strong. And then our last building for the strategic plan is Riverview uh Elementary.
029So things that Principal Nicole Heitzelman is working on uh is behavioral buy-in from parents and increasing uh the communication that she puts out of that, uh the data that are shared by grade levels uh monthly with specific discussion points. And then they're seeing direct correlation with their minors and majors as all of her categories are down. The categories that she's dealing with are threat and theft uh when it comes to that. And then they're working on two positive phone calls home uh each week to build strong relationships with families at home. Uh for student achievement in math, uh her students are performing at or above the 65th percentile in math and 68th percentile uh in reading, and that's making huge significant progress uh and is huge kudos to her and her team over at Warrendale.
030Uh she attributes it to staying the course with CKLA uh in the vertical alignment that we have going on in instruction K through 6. Uh all of her quadrants are in high achievement and high growth. Uh and her PLCT work is identified uh on doing things differently and trying to figure out ways that aren't working and changing those concepts uh on that side. For stewardship and accountability, uh again it comes back to communication. So weekly blasts to share map data, uh emphasizing the partnerships with her in the building and their parents, profile of a learner and masked parent square, and then there's a notable increase this year in her parent involvement uh that she has in her activities on that side. She'd like to recognize Amber Sapp uh who's a parent in her resource one
031classroom uh for being super dependable and and always being somebody that she can count on. And for teacher Kelsey Hovland, uh who's a military wife who's super ambitious and really understands the big picture. So the last thing is our data for the day. Uh when we talk about communication, uh we definitely talk about uh the platform that we've been using for the last year and a quarter, which is Parent Square. So this just gives the board uh very clear understanding uh of the ease uh that our district gets to work in from this platform. Uh communication is always challenging, but when you're working with a platform that can have 98.5% of their parents contactable by via email, text, or phone. It makes the contacts that we do from the district level and all the work
032that the teachers in the building, principals are doing to communicate very easy and it's pretty seamless to use. And it's a highlight point I think for most of our principals and many of our teachers. So, questions? Any questions for Mr. Boyd? No questions. Thank you very much for your report. Appreciate that. Communication. Item B. Excuse me. C. And that's audience communication. I have one request to speak before this Board of Trustees. And it's from Mrs. Mortenson. Thank you for coming. Bye-bye. Thank you for being here. Mrs. Mortenson, come forward, please. Nice to see you again. No, we're sincere. It's always nice to see you. Come on up. Thank you, Chairman Johnson and board members and public and staff. I appreciate the opportunity to come before you. I just wanted to give you a little bit
033of an update and encourage your help on the marijuana problem that we are facing in the state. Uh on January 9th and 10th, there was an interim legislative meeting where they tried to put together legislation they felt that would be helpful. They had several uh people who came forward to speak, psychologists, doctors, finances, a variety of different things. The thing that stood out the most was what kind of a conflagration we really have coming over the top of us with the uh um legis- the marijuana problem that has come forward since it has been legalized. The initiative, which was a little bit more than a paragraph that we voted on, is actually 77 pages. There was multiple different safeguards put into place, most of which have not been implemented for a variety of different reasons.
034The information that came from the psychologists, including the um Florence Crittenton Home, the Shodair um hospital and um a couple of other places, particularly out of Billings, was that the marijuana destroys neural pathways. And one of the biggest problems that's coming out of it is depression, serious depression that they have not found any relief for, even when they stop using. The information that we have for a lot of it is that which has been gathered from other states that have legalized marijuana. So, one of the big things that Montana wanted to do was actually to start getting information on that. We know that we can legislate a certain amount of this. We know that legislation is not necessarily going to solve the problem. The problem solving really comes from people understanding that we have to
035be able to comprehend the damage and the um the fact that we don't want it to be something that is acceptable in our society. We've already lost two two or three generations just because of the way marijuana has run ahead of our ability to get these things in place and get the safety things in place. I've given you a um handout on one of it it shows that marijuana, which was guestimated to bring in about $48 million, has actually brought in almost $70 million. That money was earmarked and allocated other than the $37 million that went into the general fund. The fact that the information we're getting from law enforcement, etc., there's not enough money to give the schools the help they need, give law enforcement the help they need looks pretty fishy when you
036look at the numbers. On the backside of that handout is the legislation that has been proposed for this next legislative session. We would love to see this implemented sooner. But what I would encourage the board and your um sphere of influence is to be sure to stay on top of this and let your legislators know how really grateful we are that number one, they set up a tax base that gives us lots of money at some point if we can get to it. And number two, that you as educators um are on the front lines. Your ability to help kids and consequently their sphere of influence understand these dangers and what they will do is so important. I know that you have the um the tobacco settlement money that helps for tobacco cessation. But I
037really encourage you to stay attuned to this and encourage any legislators you might know to um actually take this under advisement and really look at this legislation as it comes up. Uh one of the things we did in 2017 was we discovered a microscopic muscle in Canyon Ferry and Tibor Dam and immediately we had um money, we had agencies organized, we had uh people on the ground to mitigate the problem. This can be handled if all of us as a community and particularly you guys as your sphere of influence take a look at this. I'm just hoping that we can stay on top of it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for sharing this information with us and thank you for your vigilance on this issue. Moving ahead to action items. Action item
038A second read 7th through 10th math resources, Mrs. Mainwaring. Good evening again, Chairman Johnson, members of the board. Uh it's my pleasure this time to introduce Mrs. Becky Frisby, our secondary curriculum coordinator, to go through the second read of the secondary math curriculum. Welcome, Mrs. Frisby. Chairman Johnson, Executive Director Boyd, trustees, and community members. Um I'd like to talk to you a little bit about um our new math adoption. I should have a slide. Okay. Don't make me wing it. Okay. Go ahead. Go to the next one. So, with our new adoption, I want to tell you a little bit more about it before we get to the part about the money. Um this is going to bring about some changes in name. And so, you can see on the slide, Algebra 1 will become
039Integrated 1. Geometry changed to changes to Integrated 2. This is important because those two courses together were simple strands of math, and now we're turning them into multiple strands of maths. And so, in Integrated 1, you're doing algebra, geometry, and then that stats and probability strand. And the same in Integrated 2. So, you're seeing those reoccurring, and we're not single stranding, which is why we're moving to an Integrated. Algebra 2 is going to remain with the Algebra 2 title because it already was multiple strands of maths. It had algebra, geometry. We see those in the form of trigonometry. We also had probability and statistics in there. And so, it already had all of those math strands. Colleges also accept whether we call it algebra, algebra two, geometry, or integrated one, integrated two, integrated three. Those
040are equally accepted at both levels. Another change is um the honors program. So, first let's look at the course roll out. And I realized, dang, my slides are in the wrong order. But, that's okay. We're going to kind of bounce back and forth. Do you want to go one more? Go past. Go back. There we go. Honors The honors plan for 7th through 10th grade is going to have our teachers taking those students through five books in the the course of 4 years. It'll look like this. And you guys should have a handout from Sherry that outlines it. So, in 7th grade, they will complete the 7th grade book and part of 8th grade. And you can see there were four topics. Then when they move on to 8th grade, they're going to finish that
0418th grade book, and they're going to start at the integrated one book. As they move on to 9th grade or integrated one, they'll finish the integrated one book, and then complete the integrated two. And in 10th grade, they will do integrated two and integrated three. At algebra two honors, they are currently and will continue to use the precalculus book. This closely follows what they're already doing with a few minor exceptions. At 7th grade, they were moving well beyond 7th grade and focusing more on 8th grade standards. This slows it down at the same time it increases the rigor because they're not going to skip anything. They're going to focus on seventh grade standards to mastery and then begin eighth grade standards until mastery. So even though they're doing what looks like on paper a lot
042this is closely tied to what they're already doing. Becky, do you want to back that up to There we go. So our course roll out is going to look a little slower than we originally intended. And this plan came about from our honors teachers. And um they said exactly what makes my heart sing and they said this is what's best for kids. And I agree. So next year everybody that's taking and teaching honors math will use this program. Our math seventh and eighth students will will use the regular program that we're about to adopt. And that high school will have regular integrated integrated integrated one and two. The following year the '27 '28 year we'll add in honors math eight. We'll also add in algebra two and I'll come back and visit with you next
043fall about that one. Then in the '28 '29 we will be ready to at the ninth grade year roll out honors integrated one and the following year honors integrated two. And you can see where that's going. So then the following year algebra two honors. And it honestly won't change much with staying with that pre-calc book which is what our honors algebra two program has always been. We've done 2 weeks since we last met in. We posted this on Parent Square on the website. And we did our Facebook page. So, community comments, most of them came in the form of phone calls and emails. Um and I actually didn't have anyone come in face-to-face, but those phone calls and emails and then with what I had already mailed in the buildings. So, the first question that
044arose was the transcript language. How will we show that change? And so, it's a little different than what's on the slide. Um so, this year it will read Algebra 1 Integrated 1. And then next year it will say Integrated Math and where you see it says Algebra 1 and then Geometry for Integrated 2. It'll also say um formerly known as f.k.a. formerly known as Algebra 1 and then formerly known as Geometry. The second question that came up was is this program continuous with what's done in Edgenuity? Are my kids getting the same thing if they're in taking Edgenuity or coming face-to-face? And this came from a parent who's current their child is currently in um remote doing Edgenuity, but wants to transition back to face-to-face. And so, they wanted to make sure there wasn't going
045to be a gap. And we had started Edgenuity with this plan based on the standards we adopted last summer. The next I kind of hinted at, but it's our rigor and are we really moving to college prep? So, our if a student takes regular Integrated 1, Integrated 2, Algebra 2, not only are they ready for college, they've met the criteria most colleges are looking for. If they are also an athlete and looking at NCAA, those are all courses that meet their requirements. So, we're good with either NCAA standards or what a college would expect students to come in with. The last was, what if they're a struggling learner? One of the things that I found really exciting, and I didn't know it existed when we first looked at this program, but as we started working
046with the pilot team, we found out that at the beginning of each unit, the students can take a pretest. When they take this pretest, it signifies the gaps or deficiencies that they have for the upcoming unit. It then also provides for the teacher ready materials to address those deficits. So, not only is it going to help our students stay on track and fill anything that was missed, it also does not cause additional stress on a teacher to give this test and say, "Oh, now I have to create 16 different differentiated lessons before tomorrow." So, everything's right there. And that was one of the things that most of the teachers at least tried once or twice throughout the pilot. Struggling learners are not going to be solved by a magic curriculum, but our teachers in the
047classroom are what's going to support our teachers. And so, that is my best advice, that we are out here to support with this curriculum, no matter where our student is from beginning to end. And we're going to support him at those points. All right, it's time to talk about the money. I do want to point out that when I came the last time there was a typo on my slide. It was correct in the agenda. And so the high school was listed at the complete total not at what the high school was, but it was right in the agenda. So let's talk about middle school. It's a 5-year digital license ending in 2031. Teachers will have a class set and I always buy additional books as needed. That 2,209,354 and 5 cents will come from
048both my curriculum budget and the money that I've been putting away in my curriculum interlocal. So you can see the breakdown of what's going to come from my budget and what I'll take from my interlocal to cover middle school. My high school will be 6 years of a digital license. Just luck of the draw. It was easy to do. That's also classroom sets and additional books for the building as needed. Splitting again between my high school budget and my curriculum interlocal. Since we're talking money and the ending of licensing, I want to point out one more thing. Remember that honors rolled out that was going to happen over time? There's no way I could ask you to cover the thousands so licenses when I know that integrated one honors wouldn't use those in the first
049year or the second. And for integrated two honors, it'd be 3 years. So I've already reached out to the company. It still's my budget. My bid does not change, but those licenses will roll out when the courses start. So, we will get those for 6 years, and they will extend beyond. One of the realities is we purchase licenses for the years that we can afford, and we know we're going to have to extend. We now automatically have some of those extended to fit into that honors, and we'll have some of those roll out later. So, that was one of the pieces I was really pleased when I visited with them. Questions? Any questions for Mrs. Frisbee on this math curriculum? Trustee Bronson. Thank you. And Mrs. Frisbee, thanks to you and your committee for all
050your work you've done on this. I know that this process of developing a new curriculum takes time, and so thank you for the effort there. Few questions though. Number one, um do we know if other districts around the country have utilized this curriculum, and if so, what have been the outcomes if they're measurable yet? We traveled 2 and 1/2 years ago, 3 years ago, to Belgrade, and they had just rolled it out. Um the good, the bad, the ugly, um we got to see it in person before, but from talking with the kids and the teachers, there wasn't as much training as they would have liked. So, that's one of the areas I want to focus on so that we have more. So, I do know that Belgrade is using it. Um Bozeman High School
051was also using it. And um they were using it with um basically pre-algebra level kids and seeing some ex- success. And we talked to them in May, so almost the end of their first year. And they were very pleased with it. So, second question here, I want to make sure you understand this. When you describe these as like Integrated One and Integrated Two, is Integrated One a one-semester course or two? Integrated One would be what you would think of as Algebra One during our freshman year. So, it's two semesters. >> And then Integrated Two would be what you would think of as geometry. And that's also two semesters. Thank you for clarifying it because when I was thinking about if they were one-semester courses and as you described the content, it sounded to me like
052that's a lot of math to throw at somebody at that age, at any age for that matter. But given that it's one year, it may be approached a little differently. I don't have that concern. So, thank you. Sure. Thank you. So, would your interpretation be that Bozeman's greater success than Belgrade's is due to Bozeman's having a better um training capability for the teachers? They never said that directly, but that was the implication? >> Yeah, that was the impression I got. Um they also started it when we were there, they had started it with only kind of like what we're doing, at those kids that were struggling, so they called it math lab, something similar to that, in their algebra one or integrated one. So, they were going slow and that's I think that's why they
053felt a little bit stronger about that. Mhm, made a difference. Thank you. Trustee Skutagasky has a question. Um, yes, I have a couple questions about um, the honors math classes. And I guess one I just wanted to make sure that uh, with this the honors roll out, um, and it's coming one year after another, does that mean that any students, um, will miss opportunities for honors classes? No, which is kind of why we didn't like try to jump in. We didn't want to interrupt. So, what we've seen in the past is seventh and eighth grade had a somewhat was the same curriculum for honors for those two years. But then when you got to high school, there was one publisher for ninth, one for 10th. And a different one for 11th. And then they would
054take their dual credit courses um, their senior year. And so, moving to one publisher throughout also helps with the making sure there's this publisher didn't really strength you know, hit this very strong. So, that's going to help. Um, but we don't want to stop anyone. So, if you're in seventh grade honors right now, next year you'll go to eighth grade honors. And then you'll go to algebra one honors. So, it's going to follow behind you because we don't want to change the order or pathways and risk losing some standards because we shifted from one plan to another. And then the other question I had is essentially when we make this switch, if a student isn't identified in seventh grade as an honors student, um how how does that impact like their ability to get on
055the honors track? They could be a transfer student or maybe it just wasn't maybe their math genius wasn't discovered right away um in sixth grade. You know, so I I just wonder um you know, are there still opportunities for students to kind of jump on the honors track if if they're not immediately identified in seventh grade? >> There There is a um I don't know. It's not a policy, it's a practice um for getting honors students in at any point um whether we're talking about adding a student um past that first initial ECS in third grade to adding a student with honors later on. Um there's a process they go through. We can test them on um various measures. That whole plan, it's not like we're saying, "Oh, you didn't get on the train in
056seventh grade, you missed it." Thank you. Mhm. Trustee Thompson. I'm I'm curious about the name change. I mean, it's been Algebra 1 and Geometry for 30 years that I know of at least. Um is is that a national trend that everybody's going to that? It It depends on where you're at. Um it trends up and down. As far as math goes, this isn't the first time our district has thought about it. It's the first time that we'll completely go to this change. One of the reasons that I find it a good solid way to teach is one, every time we release standards from the state, they encourage us not to have a strand be a course. Mhm. Let's look at US history. Um it Well, let's look at any of our social studies. We don't
057want just a history strand, a geography strand, a government strand. At each level, they're learning all of those social studies strands. As they mature and they are ready for the information, it's the same thing with math. So, if I'm sitting in a freshman class, I may get a little bit of algebra, little bit of geometry, and a little bit of probability. And it's age-appropriate. I'm sure none of you have ever heard anybody say, "I'm not taking geometry because you have to do proofs and those are scary and you can flunk if you can't do a proof." Yeah. Well, they start proofs in ninth grade and they they come on very easily. And they build until they're ready. But they don't do it all as a ninth grader. They do some of it as a sophomore
058and they're going to get a few more as a junior. And that's a normal progression. It also allows for a student, when they get to a point where they're like, "I'm just over algebra. I need to do something else." Great. Our next two units are on geometry. We're taking a break. Oh, we're going to do this dance. Think about how we learn math from K to 6. It's all integrated. And so, it's just continuing that way of learning and supporting students with the various strands as they become not only emotionally but cognitively mature enough to handle all the topics. And that's why honors can move faster. Some of those kids are ready sooner. Thank you. Uh one more question to uh it seemed looked you had a lot of feedback more than we've had in
059the past. I know they didn't come in, but I was just curious if it was coming from a different channel. Um, I would say oh, you're going to make me think about it. Um, I would say most of it came from the parent square messages. Uh, one came back to Jackie who she forwarded to me. The others called me directly. So, it it wasn't the face-to-face that I'm used to. Yeah. But most just wanted to ask questions. And one mom said, "It wouldn't matter if I come look at the books. I need you to tell me does it do this, this, this, this?" Yeah. Well, thanks for being available to them. Sure. Trustee Sunchair. Is sophomore year still all geometry then? No, it'll be every year is going to be an integrated. So, in sophomore
060year, they're going to continue the geometry they did not cover in their integrated one course and continue to build including proofs up to a higher level. And one change not only in our state but nationwide is proofs are not the only way we can justify math. So, they're going to be learning multiple ways of justification. It because ACT says justify a million times on the test and they don't always mean write a proof. And so, they're learning those other ways to justify. But no, geometry as a whole doesn't exist in one grade. It lives across all the strands, so they get some in freshman, sophomore, and junior year. They get the same amount. It's just broken up. Any further questions for Mrs. Frisbee? Thank you. Do I need to wait for you vote? Make a
061motion. >> Thank you. Okay. Mr. Chair. Trustee Haney. I move that we approve the purchase of Savvas Envision math materials for seventh grade, eighth grade, integrated one, and integrated two in the amounts of $476,688.05 as presented. Second. It's moved and seconded to approve the purchase of the math materials as presented. Any questions for the questions or commentary from our Board of Trustees? Any questions or commentary from our gallery? Hearing and seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, the same sign. Motion carries. Again, thank you very much, Mrs. Frisbee. Action item B. Approval of girls' flag football as a club activity at Great Falls High School and CMR High School. Mr. Boyd. Uh Chairman Johnson, members of the board, members of our
062community, uh thank you for this opportunity. Uh so, I come before you tonight uh after Mr. Henneberg and myself did a report 2 weeks ago uh outlining the possibility of girls' flag football becoming a club club activity uh as we move forward with it possibly becoming a high school sport uh in the future uh if MHSA drives that way. Uh ultimately, at the end of the day, Mr. Henneberg has spent a ton of time uh over the last 4 to 5 years uh really researching this and trying to decide when the right time uh for GFPS is to enter in uh to this opportunity on that side of it. Uh when we look at the funding implications, I I it boils down to at the end of the day, how do you add something when
063you're cutting uh from the general fund and reducing on that side of it. Ultimately, uh the fiscal implications for this are very simply, it's what every other district in the state's been doing. They're working off of the Arthur Blank uh Foundation money uh to be able to facilitate uh the activity that the girls will be participating. Uh huge kudos goes to Mike uh when it comes to building a budget uh for this. So, each school is eligible uh and will be awarded $15,000 per year. Uh when you look at his yearly budget for flag football, it comes to just short of 15,000. It actually comes to $14,853 uh for a full encompassed uh season on that side of it. We're also working and found out right before this meeting uh that we're eligible now uh
064to do our full application for the Under Armour girls flag football grant, which can have an additional funding source of $30,000 per school uh for as a one-time cover cost. The intention of that money is it allows us to start building a pot of funds. Uh so, if and when down the future, uh flag football does become an MHSA sport, we have funds to be able to pull from uh to be able to meet those needs. The bonus of this sport is it's a very short uh fall sport. It runs 6 weeks, 7 weeks if you qualify for the state tournament. Uh with all travel included, our costs still come to under $15,000. Uh it's a great opportunity for us to get more girls into athletics and into an opportunity uh that we don't currently
065have. So, my request uh is that you approve girls flag football as a club activity overseen uh by Great Falls Public Schools Athletic Director, Mike Hennenberg, uh for the '26-'27 school year and '27-'28 school year. Thank you, Mr. Boyd. Mr. Chair. Trustee Skogan-Gauski. I move that we approve girls flag football as a club activity overseen by GFPS Athletics um as presented for the 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 school years. Second. Moved and seconded to approve girls flag football as a club activity. Any questions or commentary from our Board of Trustees? Trustee Thompson. I thought about this after the last meeting. I know some colleges play flag football in the spring. Is Well, it I'm just curious. Will that ever move or or will it always be a fall sport even once it becomes I think right now
066it's slated as a fall sport. So, until it became an actual MHSAA sport, I don't think there's probably any intention of moving it, but the athletic directors and MHSAA work on those things all the time as sports need to shift and shuffle. Okay. Any additional questions from our Board of Trustees regarding this motion? Any questions or commentary from others in the room? Hearing seen all talk for the question, all those in favor of approving girls flag football as a club activity as presented, please signify by saying I. I. Opposed same sign. Motion carries and I want to acknowledge Mr. Henneberry's work on this, too. Thank you very much. I know you've done a lot of research on this and that's deeply appreciated. Action item C, trustee election by a conditional acclamation. Mr. Deacons. Thank you,
067Chairman Johnson, members of the board, members of the community. We may have roughs that are blowing off, but we do not have to run an election so I'm going to talk you through that process of what we have to make sure that you agree to this evening and take action on. Um since we only had three candidates apply for the positions that were open for the three-year terms on the board, there is no further action we need to go there. You just have to make the motion to move us forward. As part of the regular election process, um you've already given myself the ability to cancel the election, but this will formally cancel that election as well. As you've seen down at the elections office, they already have posted that Cascade County has canceled the
068election. We will do the same once this motion should have passed be granted. Um right now, this is going to allow us to save a little over $70,000 based on what we paid last year for the election. So, it's a great thing for us to have that money set aside that we can use for other pieces for finishing out this current school year. So, with that I'm going to ask the board take action to cancel the election since there's the same number of candidates as open positions and no levy election scheduled for the ballot. The three candidates, Bill Bronson, Kim Skornogaski, and Amy Thompson shall be duly elected by acclamation for three-year terms to the Board of Trustees of Great Falls Public Schools districts 1 and A. Thank you, Mr. Deacons. Mr. Chair. Trustee Henning.
069I move that we take action to cancel the election as the same number of candidates are equal to the same number of open positions and there are no levy elections scheduled for the ballot. The three candidates, Bill Bronson, Kim Skornogaski, and Amy Thompson shall be duly elected by acclamation for three for three-year terms to the Board of Trustees of Great Falls Public Schools districts 1 and A as presented. It's been moved and seconded to cancel the election for reasons stated by Mrs. Henny. Any questions or commentary from our Board of Trustees? Questions or commentary from our remaining gallery? Hearing and seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carries. And all editorializes for just what reason? Second. Thank you
070very much for those three trustees who filed again for school board service. Thank you so much. We appreciate your service and uh your past work has has been um so well accepted by our community. Thank you. So, we have action item D, financial report and check register for February 2026. Mr. Dickens. Thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, members of the community. First, congratulations to the three who have been acclaimed, um saving you time and effort and all those pieces, but we know you would have put yourself out there for the district as well. So, thank you with that. With the financial report and check register register for February 2026, everything is in order. Checks do line up. There's nothing out of the ordinary with the balances. Um so, at this time, I would
071ask you to accept the monthly financials and approve the register payments for February 2026. Mr. Chair. Trustee Skonieczny. I move we accept the monthly financial report and approve the register of payments as presented for February. Second. Been moved and seconded to accept the monthly financial report and approve the register payments for February 2026. Any questions or commentary from our Board of Trustees? Any questions or commentary 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. Opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Um Actually, now that nothing was pulled from the consent agenda, we're going to move on to reports, discussion, and policies. Ms. Thompson, kick us off. All right. Well, I would just like um I wish I could
072make a motion that we always be involved in Character Strong cuz that was pretty darn >> That was fun. I appreciated that. And um you know, if anybody needs photos, I took some. Mr. Dell. Uh a couple things. Thanks to the Meadowlark kids for coming out for Character Strong. I've known some of those kids for a couple years. It's good to see them here and stepping up. Um and congratulations to the North Meadow archers and their science club. I followed some of that on social media. That was pretty exciting news. Um and on a personal note, the employee of the year, the librarian from Meadowlark, I know her pretty well. She makes the library available for an after-school club that I teach. I work with her on scheduling and I'm in the library a lot
073and I see how much the kids appreciate her being there and how much she does for them. She's a great asset to that school. She does a lot beyond being a librarian um that I see with the kids there at the school. So, congratulations to her. Also, went to the C.M. Russell Museum essay awards. That was a great time. Impressive kids. It was a great event. Well done. Also, thanks to Mr. Henneberry on the flag football. I've heard a couple of positive comments in the community on that. So, there seems to be some interest and excitement on that. Um so, thank him for his time he's put into that. And lastly, uh thank you for my fellow trustees who have signed up for another 3-year term. Uh thank you for stepping up you That's all
074I'm going to say. >> Trustee Skwarczynski. Um so I've been on the board since 2017 and we do not have a lot of opportunities where we get to add programs. Um so, you know, big thank you to Mr. Boyd and Mr. Hinnenberg for pursuing those outside for um funding sources to enable this opportunity for our students. Um you know, obviously we want to you know, I wish we could do more um additions rather than subtractions, but but bravo on making that happen. Um the other thing I wanted to comment on really quickly is um just the impact of Parent Square. Um to be able to reach such a high percentage of our parents. You know, I've experienced multiple different communication methods and apps and I don't even know what all you call all the different
075options. Um you know, so just to be able to really go all in on one um system, I think really makes a difference in being able to communicate to our parents. And obviously we saw that impact when we talk about, you know, the the feedback that we got on curriculum. Um you know, we rarely see people take um the the time to to come up to the office and review the books and um but to be able to have that kind of feedback from our parents is huge and to to have such a high percentage that we're able to connect with um is really something. So, I hope that we stick with Parent Square and we we ride this horse until my daughter graduates. Then we're done. Then you So, thank you very much for
076that. Thank you. Trustee Sun Child. One of these times there's not going to be a reason to thank our principals and upper admin for everything I just I I I hope I hope we get there, but um you guys did fantastic and and all that happened at Sacajawea and everything. I don't There becomes a point where I'm like, "How much more can can people take?" So, that was extraordinary and you guys do a great job keeping our school safe. Same with Ty Moore, shout-out. That's tough. That's tough. Um and it was tough for some of the teachers to hear read some things out in the community and that's um we have to remember that we need to rally around everybody who keeps our kids safe cuz those teachers would literally take a bullet for those
077kids. So, that's um and we enter into March and April, it becomes a really really stressful time for teachers, admin. So, if you see a teacher give them a pat on the back. It's a tough time. Thank you for your good words. Trustee Bronson. Along the same lines of Trustee Sunchild's comments, after the news of the events at Sacajawea came out last week, I received a number of texts and email communications from some trustees around the state of Montana that I know through MTSBA and they were very concerned, but by the same token, they were pleased that the community responded the way they did and they were very appreciative of what our district did to deal with the situation. So, that was very heartwarming to get that. Couple other things just briefly, too, related to
078MTSBA. A group of us attended a national school boards conference about a week ago put on by the consortium of state school boards associations. This you may remember from former Trustee Finicum's comments a few years ago. This is the new organization that around 27 states broke away from the old organization to form this group. I have to say that um the decision to go that route was very wise. Probably never been to a program that had more useful, more practical seminars and presentations related to the work that we do as trustees. And I'll be sending all of you some excerpts from that that you might find useful and interesting uh in our work here. One thing though that became very clear after 3 days there was that there was quite a bit of conversation and
079discussion around what are best practices for school boards. And what's you know very pleasing to a lot of us from Montana, and we were from all over the state, is that Montana and this district in particular really follow or tend to follow most of not all of those best practices, which uh is really encouraging and it was good to talk to other trustees from around the country and have them ask you, "Well, you're doing that? Is that working?" And yes, it is. And they're going back to their communities now charged to try and replicate that. The other thing I was just going to mention too is uh I know some of you every year work with the foundation and review scholarship applications by a number of our young people. I did that again this year.
080That's always one of the most pleasurable times for me and my wife both. She does it as well. Because you really get to see the high-quality product that this district can produce. You know, when we push pedal to the metal and really work with these young people. And this year one of the things that really stood out to me, and obviously character strong is working, is one of these scholarship applicants in their application said, "I'm going to be struggling to go to college, but I know there are young people that are applying for this scholarship that are in worse shape than I am in. And if you think they are, I would really want you to award the scholarship to that person and not to me because I'm probably in a better position to find
081a way to help fund my college education." That speaks volumes to me. We've made a huge impact on these young people and we need to remember that and follow through and help them. So, thank you. Thank you. And thank you for representing us at that conference. I appreciate that. Trustee Henny. First, uh Judy, thank you for coming out and always having information and I love that you always have handouts with you and I appreciate that. Um I'm looking forward to the new math curriculum. I I think that the the integrated model is is something that would be very helpful for students. I remember being a student and, you know, getting bored with one or, you know, one of them not being my strong suit and I think that the integrated model will benefit a lot
082of students. Um and then lastly, last week, uh Valley View was doing fundraising for the Special Olympics. Every year we do something called Freeze in for a Reason and that is an ice bucket challenge where the students who donate the most get to dump an ice bucket a bucket of ice water on a staff member. Mhm. And I think this year it was they had Ziploc bags and if you wanted to vote for that teacher, you put the money in that bag. So, we'll see tomorrow cuz tomorrow's our assembly for it and Valley View raised well over $1,000 for Special Olympics last One of the things they did was um tap a teacher day. So, where kids could with their donation money purchase temporary tattoos for their teachers. So, so the small ones were a
083dollar, medium were three dollars, large were five dollars, and then for ten dollars, you could do a neck or face tattoo. Wow. I came away from school, my own son I was like, I gave you that for your teacher. He did two big tattoos on my arm, and then a gal I work with put a tattoo on my neck. And that was by the end of the day, and I was by far not the most tattooed person. Um, it was it was fun, and everyone was wearing their Valley View t-shirts and showing off their tattoos, and the kids just got the biggest kick out of it. They had so much fun. And it paid off, and so tomorrow will be our ice bucket challenge assembly, and we're looking forward to that. >> Are you a
084candidate for an ice bucket? >> No. See, I said I wasn't a candidate for the tattoos cuz I'm not a teacher, technically, but they found a way around it, and they did it anyway. Oh. Fun. Fun. Thank you for that. Well, if you feel the ground shift beneath Giant Springs Elementary School on Wednesday, it's because I'll be in attempting to teach a third grade, Mrs. DeJohn's third grade class, so I'm looking forward to that. That'll be a lot of fun. And uh thank you for our two intrepid citizens for sticking it out. Thank you for being here. And if there's no further business to come before this Board of Trustees, I would propose that we adjourn. Move we adjourn. We're adjourned. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.