001Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this special meeting of the Great Falls Public Schools Board of Trustes. Today is March 9th, 2026. And I remind you that these meetings are being recorded and will be uploaded on our website at some point in the future. And with that, 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 Henning >> here. >> Marley Sunchild >> here. >> Amy Thompson >> here. >> Mr. Tres. Yeah. Who are you? Chairman Chairman Gordon, it's been a long day. Um, you have a full board with which to work this evening. >> I'll try better on the next meeting. >> Thank you, Mr. Deakons. Nicely done,
002by the way. It was nicely done. And Mrs. remain wary. Would you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the standy? >> Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. >> Trusty Scorioski, >> I move we adopt the agenda as presented. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda as presented. Any questions or commentary from our board of trustees? Any comments or questions from others in the room? Hearing and seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of adopting the agenda as presented, please signify by saying I. I. Oppose. Same sign. We have adopted our agenda. Thank you. Mr. Chair, >> trustes Kagoski, >> I move we approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda as presented. Any questions
003or commentary from our board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from our gallery here this evening? Hearing 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. Communication, I have received no request to speak before this board of trustees at this meeting. So, we'll move on to action item A, Lincoln Elementary School emergency closure. Mrs. Hoyer. >> Well, thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, and members of the community. Um this is a first for many of us and so I I um redirect me if you need to but I'm going to walk you through the background that happened um the response that we have had and then I am going to have Mr. Boyd give a quick update
004as to the plan and then I will come back and make your recommendation for you. So on Sunday March 8 about noon Mr. Yates received word from a neighbor who is in uh communication with often that the roof had blown off of Lincoln Elementary School. Um and he proceeded to go in route to Lincoln. When he got there, he gave uh me a call and got hold of Mr. void as well letting us know that um we were in a a state of pretty severe distress at Lincoln not knowing what was going on but the roof as if a can opener had come because it was a severe wind event an act of God um literally had peeled the roof off the top of the building and the trees in front of the building had
005caught it. Um we have then spent the last 24 plus hours um working very very closely with an absolutely amazing group of individuals. Everything from the busing company to foods to technology, the teachers, leadership, buildings and grounds, the fire department, um engineers, insurance, Northwest Power, you name it. Everybody kind of leaned in and helped take care of Lincoln. And then today we worked very closely with the teachers. Um, and Mr. Boyd's going to give us an update on that. But before he does, I'm going to call to your attention schoolboard policy 2221 and then also Montana code annotated 20-9-86 which deals with school closures and a declaration of emergency. uh Montana code annotated 20-9-86 again for the authority to close a school and then 20-1-301 which talks about the school fiscal year. A couple of
006things that have been of concern both to the staff and to the neighborhood was of course asbestous because it literally looked like we had a snowstorm or a blizzard around Lincoln Elementary yesterday. Um, we do know that the roof that was peeled off of the building was placed over top of the existing uh, roof structure in 1995 um, because it was fairly recent. It was done by Klein Filters who is still an important business um, community partner for us and they were able to work with file depart the fire department to prove or show to us that it was not as based is actually cellulose based. If you've been around Lincoln today, they're out front with a giant vacuum and they're sucking up all of the drifts of white um as we continue the cleanup
007in and around the Lincoln area. There have also been concerns of course about any asbestous inside the building, but our fire department has issued us a uh partial occupancy, which you'll learn about that we can keep part of the building that is under solid cover at this point. Um we can go ahead and occupy that area. And so we will continue to monitor that, monitor any areas of the building that we are concerned about. Um, but at this time we feel very safe being able to occupy it. We want to thank the fire department for their help in their immediiacy. In fact, they sent about 15 offduty fire um responders today and helped our teachers move out of their classrooms and into some other locations. And so and it happened quickly. Boy, the teachers were
008impressed. We were all impressed with um the young men who came to us who normally are fighting fires um helping us move boxes and furniture and you name it, they did it. So um Mr. Boyd, I'm going to have you stand up and give us an update real quick. Thank you. >> Chairman Johnson, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, uh and community, welcome. It's been a busy 24 hours. So, where we're at right now, uh, is a lot better than we were 16 hours ago. So, we've been able to gain temporary occupancy to the north wing and the gym of Lincoln Elementary School, which will allow us to uh have school resume for kindergarten, first, second, and third, as well as all of the specialists, uh, including special education, will be housed in their normal
009locations within Lincoln Elementary, uh, beginning on Wednesday. um as we work to get kids back to school sooner rather than later. At the exact same time that we were working on that, some things had to come together. So, we had to make sure uh that our fire alarm system was operable and able to work. Uh great community partners and Central Technologies were there early this morning, started working on it. They were able to guarantee to the fire department that that would be operable by noon today. It has since been tested and double-cheed with the temporary occupancy becomes uh a process called a firewatch. And so what that will be is anytime students or staff are in the building, people are assigned to be the firewatch personnel where they will be going to the south wing,
010the wing that we are moving staff out of to check to make sure there is no signs or smell of anything on fire. And that will have to be done every hour on the hour uh anytime there are students or staff in the building on that side. So when you look at the south end of the building uh where the the roof was peeled off on that side that is grades four, five and six. So grades four uh will be going over to Lewis and Clark Elementary School. Uh that is three classrooms that will be going over there. Then two fifth grade classrooms will be going to Paris Gibson Education Center as long as well as three sixth grade classrooms. Uh on that side, we spent about two hours a few minutes ago working on
011reworking the master schedule uh to make sure that we're able to get our teachers their preps, make sure our students get all their specialist classes. So Mr. Yates is diligently working uh with Mr. Jake and Mrs. Jake to make that a reality uh here in the short term on that side uh moving forward. The piece that the piece that I think everybody needs to understand is that if that tree wasn't there, the flag pole wasn't there, the houses across the street were not going to be in good shape. I was there three minutes. I was on my way to lunch uh when Steve and Heather gave me the phone call, rounded the corner, looked at my wife, and said, "I think I'm going to be here a while." Uh so much so the pressure that
012the tree pressure that the roof when it peeled put on that tree of steel beam punctured the middle of a 30 inch tree. It's 31 inches in diameter at the bottom. Probably closer to 27, 28 midway up on that side. that tree did its job on that side, unfortunately. Now, now the tree is down uh on that side. So, there's lots of things that are still being done. Our teacher teams today uh were amazing. Uh we had originally planned that we were going to three locations. Uh I was able to meet with the fire department as soon as I could get out of a meeting here uh and meet with Mr. Zerimsky and the team over there. We walked the building. We were able to meet and determine what expectations were moving forward. sign our
013John Hancock's on some lines that we were going to do what we're told we're supposed to do in terms of fire watch and the fire alarm. We were able to gain temporary occupancy. To be able to do that for your primary kiddos at Lincoln is a big big deal. That's their home. That's what they know. That's their safe place to go to another building whether it's short-term or long-term was going to be a big ask for the kids but a bigger ask for the teachers. It's a big enough ask to look at 456, but we'll layer in a lot of supports to layer in a lot of measures to make sure this work as we told the teachers today. This is about relationships. It's about reassurance and it's about starting a new in a different
014location until we determine what the next steps are going forward. So, that's where we're at at this moment in time. Uh there will be messages that we've been messaging parents through Parent Square all day. Uh Mr. Yates and myself have been trying to keep up on it. There will be parent meetings tomorrow night for grades four, five, and six at Paris Gibson Education Center in the gym. Uh, fifth and sixth grade will go from 5 to 5:30 because we have a bunch of sixth graders at Lincoln that also have a music concert they need to attend. And then right after that, we will go with fourth grade with Mr. Gates, Mr. Jake, and myself just doing a here's where we're at. This is why we had to make the decisions we had to make. This
015is what it's going to look like timelinewise. uh and when we're going to be able to start school. Right now, Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. is our is our hopeful start of to return to Lincoln Elementary with K3. And Thursday at 10:00 a.m. will be our hopeful start for Lewis and Clark and Paris for grades four, five, and six. There's just a lot of work that needs to be done. A huge thank you goes out to our skilled trades guys. I think everybody was on the roof when Luke and I got there at 10 o'clock. uh trying to figure out what are the steps to get the water to stop, what are the steps to be able to make sure we have everything that we can have, what does HVAC system look like, what our structure
016looks like. So those guys to have the fire department there today uh was a gigantic deal. The amount of work they did in about six hours took me when I was at Longfellow probably two weeks to get prepped and ready to move when we moved to Roosevelt on that side. It was immense. Uh yesterday we had multiple agencies uh from Northwest Energy and the city of Great Falls and everybody in between on scene at Lincoln where we could coordinate immediately. Katie Brewer with the fire department was on speed dial every time we were asking questions about asbestous and cellulose and all of those things to be able to work through that. So really it comes back to where we live, how we operate, and how we communicate. And I think we've done a pretty good
017job to the best of our ability giving some new things jumped into the game midway through process. That's what I have. >> Questions? Any questions for Mr. Void? >> Yes, trust. >> Do you have a sense of what kind of internal damage beyond just the roof occurred even because even with the snow last night? And >> there's water damage most definitely that has occurred. Brent and the crew uh from buildings and grounds is working on identifying the amount of water damage that we have. We have uh just like I went through a couple weeks ago in another building, we have our dehumidifiers that will be in place and starting to facilitate. We'll be testing the air, doing those things for the next extended period of time as we work through that. But in terms of
018structural damage and all of that, we're working with our people on the roof side to help identify on the architecture side what we need to be able to look at and then work with insurance from there. What I miss, Luke, >> I had another question. >> Go ahead. >> Um I I don't think you missed really anything. It is That's the question I've been fielding all day today is what is the timeline? What are the extent of the damages? Um I can tell you our insurance, they're right behind us the whole way through. OPI is behind us and I've been on the phone with them and we should have a claims adjuster there tomorrow morning um to take a peek at it. It's one of those opportunities that's a true act of God when this
019takes place which allows us a little bit more freedom. So when we talk about that timeline I'd love to say you know we normally go through a bid process with this situation it can look a little bit different based on MCA code and so forth. So, I'm working through those pieces um to make sure we stay in compliance with what we can actually do. But we do want to get this remedied sooner than later. But in order to do the correct remedy, we have to know exactly what we're working with. So, our guys are doing a great job sealing it up so we don't have a problem in the future. Um we were very lucky. I think the one thing that we were expecting when we looked at the roof this morning was there was
020no roof up there and it was just the ceiling down below. the roof when they covered it with the um sloped roof prior to in the 1990s. The roof is still there. There are some cracks. There's numerous holes that they've been filling because of where all the joistices were screwed down. Um but it seems to be in decent shape and with the patching. We're really hoping we can get through this weekend with minimal damage. Um and then start to really make plans for the future at that point in time. Our architect is working on it as we speak to get us some sort of an expedited scope of work so we can get it out there to the community and figure out what we need to do. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Trusts and trust.
021>> I mean, I don't know if you'll have an answer for this, but the number one question I'm hearing from Lincoln parents is if there's any chance that their sixth graders will get back into the building before >> Oh, absolutely. Yeah, we'll get them back in. So when you look at Lincoln as a whole and the rich tradition that that elementary school has as well as many of our other elementary schools, Mr. Gates, myself and the team, we will work to make sure that all of those traditions occur uh on that side of it was the first thing that popped into my brain. We'll get there. And the only piece I'd add to that is we're really going to focus on those traditions like Mr. Boyd said. However, this time of year with a roofing
022project like this, weather is going to be the determining factor. It isn't like we're working late July, August where we get a lot of nice dry hot weather for them to work. It's going to take some time and fingers crossed that we can move through it fairly fairly quickly. And not that we don't need the moisture, but it hits at the right times. >> And Steve's working with his team to develop a readjusted calendar. They had a lot of nights planned for family engagement activities and a lot of other things that just has to naturally be worked. You might not be able to do it at the scope that they do it at Lincoln all the time. You might have to do it in shifts. So a K2 night, a 3, four night, a 56
023night, but it'll be reworked. And the bonus is is that the gym is still 100% usable. >> Mr. Bronson. >> Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Mr. Boyd, can you give us a flavor of how the district and Mr. Yates and the others explained this to the young people? Because, you know, in my day, if we heard that this happened, it was like, whoopee, you know, school's closed. But, you know, as they get older, too, this is this is an important place to them. And I'm sure they want to have somebody explain to them ways they understand what happened and what's going to >> I think do to solve it. So, could you give us a flavor of that? >> Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So, the teachers will start working on with Mr. Yates tomorrow afternoon.
024They'll start working on some scripts to be able to discuss. I think the cool part about Lincoln is when you look at Lincoln's demographic and where that population is centered, it's centered within four blocks of the school. >> So, the number of kids that we all looked at last night when we're in and out of the building talking to the power company, working with the city of Great Falls on getting cattle panels up to keep people away. Many kids know and understand exactly what happened because they could see it with their own eyes uh and be able to also see the cellulose that's running on the ground and looking like snow in their yards. I think the next piece becomes how do you still maintain that community, that sense of community when you're separated from
025the K6 environment and the team that is a very experienced teacher team and that was their focus again this morning. uh when we talked to them early and and started to lay out the plans is how do we make sure whether it's no kids walking back into Lincoln, half the kids walking back into Lincoln or all the kids walking back into Lincoln, how do we share this story? Because this is something you will remember 20, 25 years from now when you were off of school for two days. And it's yes, it's horrible to say that this happened and we never want to have to go through this, but at the end of the day, school's about making memories and you made a big memory. Any additional questions for Mr. Boyd? Any from the gallery here?
026If not, thank you very much for your report. >> Thank you, Mr. Boyd. And just another huge shout out to the administrative team and the teachers and all the people who came together and put in hours yesterday and last night. Um, and Mr. boy showing up I think about 6:15 this morning with roasting pans full of burritos, breakfast burritos and everything for the the teachers so when they come together that they could um we could have a moment to uh break bread together so to speak and just relax and and we had some mindful moments. Um Chairman Johnson was there and so we appreciate that. Um, so at this point I would like to make the recommendation that the district board is requested to approve the emergency closure of Lincoln Elementary School on March 9th
027and March 10th due to an act of God in an emergency closure. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Sawyer. >> Mr. Chair, >> Trusty Henning, >> I move that we approve the emergency closure of Lincoln Elementary School on March 9th and March 10th, 2026 as presented. Second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the emergency closure of Lincoln Elementary School on March 9 and March 10, 2026 to deal with an act of God incident involving the roof. Any um questions or commentary from our board of trustees? Mr. Chairman, Trusty Bronson. >> Uh I just want to express my thanks to Superintendent Hoyer for addressing the asbestous issue. I was on the phone this afternoon with a parent over there who like me is also an attorney and that was utmost on their mind. They suspected
028based on what they saw blowing >> east of the school that a lot of it was a cellulose material, but obviously because of the age of the building, asbestous is a real concern. And both this attorney and I have been involved in this kind of litigation with asbestous in the past. So we have some familiarity with it and it is a matter of some concern. But if our fire department, who I also know is very concerned about that whenever there is an issue like this, has come to the conclusion it's not a concern, then I appreciate that the effort was made to investigate that so we can assure the parents and the community it's not something they need to be concerned. So, thank you. Thank you. Any additional questions, comments from our board of trustees?
029Any from the gallery? Seeing none, I'll call for the motion. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. >> Opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Mrs. Hoyer, for your report and Mr. Boyd, action other nothing was pulled from the consent agenda. We'll skip now to reports, discussion, and policies. And given that we have a regular meeting in six minutes, I would encourage your commentary to be brief. We'll start with uh Trusty Henny. >> I will just share something that a friend of mine on Facebook shared. Her daughter is at Lincoln this year first time like switch from wards and she has been nothing but impressed with the school this full school year but as well as how the school and the district has handled all of this. She
030felt very confident in the information she was getting. and she was really appreciative of it and she expressed that um in a social media post that I I ended up coming across and I just wanted to share that with you guys and thank you guys for that and giving the parents that security and she said the principal's been wonderful. She said you guys have she's been very impressed with how it was handled. So, thank you guys. >> Thank you, Mr. Duff. And not all else, just uh big thanks to the district employees and staff that put a lot of time in the last day getting this sorted as well as our community partners have been a big part of it too. Thanks to everybody for their efforts. >> Thank you, Trusty Scorowski. >> Ditto and
031Trusty Thompson. >> Yeah, thank you everyone for all your hard work. Brownson uh ditto, but also acknowledging I know that a lot of folks in the community have stepped up and approached the school district and offered all different kinds of assistance and it just proves to me once again in a crisis our community is willing to respond positively and I much appreciate. Thank you. And trustee Sunchild >> Okay. Well, I was here at 8 in the morning in this room. It was filled with teachers from Lincoln, staff people from Lincoln. And these people showed up knowing fully well what had transpired and they were in a can do mood. How do we address this? How do we make it right? How do we deal with this effectively in sharing what our responsibilities are going forward
032with community staff and um the kids, primarily the kids and it was just inspiring to be in a room full of so many can do people who had the right attitude to address this. And um I'm very proud of all those people. I'm very proud of our administrative staff who've so effectively addressed this in the span of 24 hours is stunning our community and our city agency. So, thank you all around to um to everybody involved. We have our work remaining and we're going to do it effectively and we're going to do it well and we're going to do it with a smile on our face and with with a knowledge that our community in the end result will recognize how excellent this school district is as a community partner. So thank you. I would
033call I would call for this uh meeting to be adjourned. >> So moved. Second. This meeting is adjourned.