GFPS School Board Recording - 02/23/2026

001All right. Uh, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this February 23rd meeting of our school trustees. Um, I call this meeting to order with a friendly reminder to everyone here. This meeting is being recorded, which is why we have these lovely microphones. um and it will be posted on our website um as soon as possible. So, please when you do come up to report or if you do have a public comment, make sure um that you're speaking into the microphone so that it can be heard in that recording. So, thank you for that. Um with that, Mr. Decons, can you please do roll call? >> Thank you. Trustee Scoringowski. Um Gordon Johnson, >> excused. Uh, Trustee Scornski >> present. >> Trusty Bronson >> here. >> Trusty Dove >> here. >> Trustee Henning >> excused.

002>> And Trusty Sunchild. >> Trusty Thompson >> here. >> You have a quorum with which to work. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. I'll stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> I'm open to a motion to adopt the agenda. >> Madam Chair, I move that we adopt the agenda as presented by staff. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda as presented. Is there any comments or questions from my fellow trustees or from our community? Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting the agenda as presented, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Motion

003passes unanimously. I'm open to a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Chairman, I have a motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. >> Wonderful. It's been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda as presented. Are there any questions or comments from my fellow trustees or our community? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the consent agenda, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes unanimously. On to communication. First up, we have Character Strong from Lewis and Clark Elementary School. Miss Maywary, would you like to introduce our guests? Good evening, Chairman Scoragoski, members of the board, members of the public. Uh Lewis and Clark Elementary is slated to be here today. They had students that are coming down with the bug that's going around. So they

004couldn't didn't have enough students to wonderful. We look forward to seeing everyone those those students when they're feeling better. And we have anyone from Mal? >> Madam Chair, not at this time. We do not. Thank you. >> Perfect. Uh, moving on to superintendent report. Mrs. Hoyer. >> Well, thank you, Madame Chair, members of the board, and members of our community. It is my pleasure this evening to uh walk you through my superintendence report. And before we start scrolling through the slides, I want to draw to your attention and give a very special shout out to one of our fabulous lunch ladies up at Valley View Elementary. So, this is uh Miss Diana Pettit. She noticed that some of our kindergarteners had the wiggles and were having a really, really hard time staying in their seats

005at lunch. And so she went and got a tray and she sat down with them and she worked at modeling good conversation and how we behave at lunch. And she did this um a couple times and we now have kindergarteners who have a better understanding of what it's like, although I think maybe they get the wiggles now. So she comes and sits with them. Um but it's just a great example of collectively how our staff is pulling together. Um this picture was snapped by Trustee Henning um when she so was in there one day and saw them um having this interaction and just dug a little deeper as to what was going on. So um thanks to our staff for all they do to support the work that's happening in our classrooms and some of

006our more unstructured settings. So for our first slide, this is um this month one of the things I had promised to share with you are days of recognition as laid out by the last legislative session. We had two of them this month and a thank you to uh Miranda Murray who helps push this information out across our district. And so we had Washington's birthday on February 22nd. Um, and then we have Abraham Lincoln's birthday as well that we celebrated. Um, when we did this, we had interactive video tours of Mount Vernon and Ford's Theater. We had reenactments of famous addresses that were pushed out, primary source collections, bell ringer prompts, national archive links, and daily announcements. Miranda's just done a fabulous job keeping all of this information as a steady flow out to our teachers.

007Um, and as a reminder, I'll be sharing them at the end of the months that they occur in so we can show and and um capture them in our minutes for uh a requirement for the state legislative process. We have a couple of new administrators who I wanted to um call your attention to and and as we fill our administrative slots, we'll have them all come in in April because we still have a couple more to fill. Um but u Mrs. Rihanna Madano or Ray as we call her. It would is the new principal at East Middle School. She'll be taking over this summer after Mr. Behringer officially retires. And then the young man in the picture, I had to chuckle. That is not the fish, although that's a really nice fish. And not the

008young man in the front who's really, really happy, but his dad in the background. Um, and that's Mr. Mike Hodgeges. He is currently a chemistry and geology teacher at Gay Falls High, but he will is the next associate principal at CM Russell High School. Um, and he will be filling in for Mr. Nate Aenbach who will be starting his retirement journey this summer as well. Um, so as we have some new folks come up to our leadership ranks, I'll be showing you those photos as well. Speaking of leadership ranks, Mr. from Molino. Um I'm going to have him come up to the lectern and talk with you about March because March is National Youth Art Month. We have a proclamation and then while we might not have the 108 concerts that we had in the

009holidays, um it's awfully darn close. So I'll let him explain this to you. You do have in front of you, I believe, this comprehensive list that actually runs out in April, although his work does not run out in April. So sir, it's all yours for a moment. You're Goodbye. I Thank you, Dusty. So, we'll go ahead and roll on to the work that I have been going out and doing um in the buildings, taking some of pressure off of Jackie and Lance, doing the the third um quarter data reviews with my principles. um and taking a look at some of the really cool things that they're doing. So, um I'm not going to bury you with all of the ones that I've done the last couple of weeks, but that we will stretch it out

010doing about five of them every board meeting between now and um the end of April. I know we saw three of them last time. So, I'm going to start by highlighting Sunnyside Elementary under principal Durban Thompson. um for her healthy, safe, and secure schools when they did their data reflection as a building, they're seeing a consistent and steady decrease in behavior, although you'll notice her barrier on the side is really the balance of significant behavior. So, we took the ultra significant behavior and we kind of sat it aside. We took the look at the rest of the behavior and they're seeing a nice decrease in their behavior. Um they're working hard on building social skills in unstructured areas as long as the school is not flooding. Correct, Mr. Boyd? um in in part because they

011have formed some really important partnerships with Yellowstone Girls and Boys Ranch and their support services that come in Bison Buddies Big Brothers Big Sisters and then the lift students out of Paris Gibson for student achievement. They're focusing on using their data schoolwide grade levels identify so the teacher teams get together identify deficits when they take a look at the data much like the data we just looked at during our work session. They identified one focal point between now and spring and they figure out how they're going to address that as a team of teachers. Um that focal point, one of the things Durban pointed out was her fifth grade. She's really really proud of her fifth grade because they decreased their MAP strategic band by 11%. That's huge. Um so good work to them on

012their student achievement. And then for stewardship and accountability, really focusing on making sure their staff makes those personal phone calls home, starting with the positive. So in the event that something not so positive has to go home, that relationship is established. And then Durban is doing a principal week at a glance newsletter and a teacher newsletters go home as well with academic tips for reinforcement. They're also doing candle light lunches to teach the students some of those soft skills that happened around a more formal meal. And I know there were some pictures online with some of our other elementaryaries doing those candle light lunches as well. So that's fun. Moving on then to our next elementary. This is Mountain View with principal Kim Marzoff. Oh, sorry. Sunnyside. She gave a couple of teachers that she

013wanted to get or staff members to give shoutouts to. Um that's Ashley Mundon and Annette Bowman as her um classified and certified folks that are just doing above and beyond making the wheels turn at Sunnyside. Um Khalip Kim Larsoff at Mountain View. Um they're very excited as the staff because they're starting to see their students internalize their universal expectations that they have set up for behavior. Um they also have the secure walls up at Sunnyside that provide additional safety and hallway flow. Um if you haven't been into Sunnyside lately, I would encourage you to do so because when you walk in and if you move beyond the security doors that used to be the library and then the classrooms were all open, there's now um a series of walls that are up. So there's the

014library. you walk through the doors in those walls into the classrooms and it's open setting beyond on the other side of it. Um, but that's something that has been really important to Kim to get in place to add a level of security to her building. For student achievement, super proud of her second graders. She shared that they showed a 20% growth on MAP from fall to winter. And she said the consistency with her aid staff. Every single one of her aids returned to her this year. And that's really important on helping the learning environment. And for stewardship and accountability, she's really working hard on parent involvement. Earlier this year, I showed you a picture of the family game night that they did for engagement. Kim also has planned bingo night on March 5th. If anybody

015wants to come and play bingo at Mountain View, they're invited. And they're also going to do yard games um some night in May when she knows the weather is going to be good. And so, and this is teaching families to build oral language and numeracy skills through play. When I asked her about her barrier, she said really the turnover of teachers um is really been hard. Mountain View is a unique environment to teach in that open learning environment. It's not for everybody. And so, she'll have teachers come to her building but then leave because the learning environment is just different with that open concept. And so, that's been difficult, but it's something they're working on. She wanted to give shoutouts to Julie Radnage and Olivia Hayes as two people who are making the work happen

016behind the scenes there at Mountain View. Um the next one was one of my favorites and this was the Elf Center um with uh Mrs. Barbara Dowy. um for the ELF center healthy, safe, and secure schools. She's working on collective efficacy of ALF staff on teaching ready to learn skills because they lean so heavily no matter where those littles are and they're all over because of the setting of the ALF center. Um just teaching them this is what it means to look like you're ready to go to school. For student achievement, their goal this year is um 70% of the students will be at benchmark by the end of the year. She wanted to send an invitation to the board members because ELF looks so different than our elementary schools. They assess difference. It's pretty

017fascinating the way they assess. Um, and they also have some different ways of approaching intervention that if you want to reach out to her independently, she would love to walk you through how that looks, how the assessments look, and how they build their inter intervention plans off of the assessments. I learned more about words, strokes, and all sorts of things when I sat down with her. It was pretty fascinating. um she is working really hard to focus on communication between paras and teachers because the pairs are always with the students in those unstructured areas and much of what we know is establishing those strong social skills um and working to intentionally strengthen her teams. She also said that parent square has just been a huge help to them. The barrier for ELF is interesting because

018it is the unavailability of of subs but specifically subs who can carry on the work of early educators because it's a very special skill set and so there are a lot of people who avoid Elf Center and as a result they they don't often get subs up there. Um she wanted to give shoutouts to Becca Fulgrum and Christine McNees as two of her staff members who are making it work behind the scenes. And then we have Lincoln Elementary is the last one that we're going to talk to you about today. Lincoln is led by principal Steve Yates. Um for his healthy, safe, and secure schools, he ran staff surveys last year at the end of the year to help determine PLC topics. And as a result, he has brought in Mark Wilmarth who's worked on

019team building because his staff identified team building as a need. Andrea Savage to come in and do some more focused and intensive work on student and staff mental health because that was identified as a need. And then Holly Burwell to come in with math as well. Um his student leadership use or student leadership group is really using their universals um and character strong as well as the teachers with the RCD. They're seeing have seen a 15% reduction in major incidents. So between growing capacity in his students and then all those other pieces they're putting in place, they're seeing some cool things happen there. For student achievement, he talked extensively about how much his teachers have grown in teaching the new math curriculum. He's really, really proud of his teachers and that they have seen a

02020% growth rebound from fall to math assessments. I think you heard Becky Frisbee talk a little bit about that, how we don't normally see a strong rebound. Well, they sure did at Lincoln Elementary. Um stewardship and accountability um spent time discussing as a staff the math specifically. Um Steve has even jumped in and has worked on trying to teach some of the lessons and then he and his staff sat down and go through what went well, what didn't go well. as a former history teacher, this has been a challenge for him and and he had admitted to that and and talked about how fun it is to learn to teach the new way. Um, and then they're working collaboratively as a group to tackle that new math curriculum. And they're really focusing on embedding the

021profile of a learner in all of their cultural beliefs and all they do. his barrier is just the impact of poverty on both attendance and family engagement and how he's trying to reach out to his families who are most in poverty and getting them to get hooked to Lincoln Elementary. Um the shout outs he wanted to give are Josh Müller and to Denise Pitcock for the work that they're doing with students behind the scenes. So that's the update for those schools on the strategic plans. You will have more coming of course next meeting as we work through. With that, uh, my data of the day for today in this board meeting actually is a report from our restart. And so with that, I'm going to call Mr. Corey Reeves up because he's a mister for

022us or mayor, but Mr. Corey Reeves up and he has a student with him and wants to discuss with you. Restart. Madame Chair, trustees, Superintendent Hoyer, uh, Great Falls Public School staff, and yes, thanks for giving us a minute to talk about Restart. Um, Restart is in its second year, as most of you guys know. And the restart program is focused on kids that are seventh, 8th, 9th, and 10th grade. And these are kids that are, for whatever reason, are not engaged in the traditional school setting. Some have disciplinary issues. Some just don't do well with 12, 1300 or other kids. So what happens is their principles and associate principles from the respective schools recognize that so- and so has some potential. They just need that that oomph to get them re-engaged and stuff. So

023they refer them to the restart program and then they come and joined me for an entire semester. Last year um we did things a lot different. Last year you could be in the program anywhere from four weeks to 16 weeks. So there was constant movement. And so when I debriefed with Mr. Boyd over the summer time I said, "Can I just have every student for one semester? That way there's consistency and there's not a lot of movement." And when you would join and you'd been here for 12 weeks and someone else would have been here 16, it was just tough to to keep things going. Um, just some stats from last semester. Kia, I'm going to let her do most of the talking. She uh just uh completed the restart program last semester, but in

024semester one of this year, we've served uh 1168 meals. Uh we gave seven hygiene kits away. We did four food boxes. And part of the restart program, as you guys know, is is certainly academics, but we also focus on savvy living, life skills, managing their emotions, uh mindfulness, so much more than just academics. So they all do egenuity. Um but there's so much more. And so outside of the managing emotions, two of the eight kids that were in the program last semester also did individual counseling after restart. So, what I'm most proud about, and I could not wait to tell Heather and Lance this, is that for semester 1, we had a 90.25% attendance rate. So, these are kids that never went to school before and then crushed it last semester. Last all of school

025year, uh, in last year, the first year of restart, we had an 88% attendance rate. So, we're we're climbing up. So, without further ado, this is Kia. She just uh successfully completed the restart program. Uh Kia will tell you her story, but she was a kid that did not go to school at all before restart and she is crushing it now. So Kia, >> I had a lot of issues with Great Falls High and public school with how many kids there were with how some of the teachers taught and everything. A lot of them didn't like to explain stuff. So I didn't have that extra help I need. And after I didn't get any of my classes, so to restart and restart helped a lot with social anxiety, with going to school, getting my work

026done. A lot of things I had issues with beforehand because it was just a smaller environment. I was more comfortable, less people, and they helped explained a lot. regular school. Just a lot better for learning environment than being rushed into everything else with normal school and bunch of people and everything. >> I'm at Paris Gibson now. I'm doing a lot better. I've missed one day out of the four to five weeks I've been there. and I'm getting a lot more work done than I have in past two years. So, I'm doing a lot better. Research helped me a lot with school and getting to where I needed to be. So, so that's kind of our report. We're happy to answer any questions you have about the restart program or anything. >> Any questions? >> Yeah.

027um how many students like what's your capacity for number of students that you can >> Great question. So I only have eight students per semester. So I really get to know my students very their families. Um another reason why we do eight students is because when we go on field trips on Fridays we go somewhere in the community whether it's to district court, city court, the fire station, we go down to uh Central Avenue meets they learn the art of butchering. I'm I try and get them involved. We only have eight seats in the van, so that's really all I could take. Um, unless you don't want them wearing seat belts, which I don't think we want. So, okay. So, um, but it's it's really like like said that it's I wish I could have

028so many more kids, but I do find so much value in that small group and I think they do too to get that one-on-one. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. And some of our partners, if I didn't say, obviously Alliance for Youth, we're housed at Alliance for Youth in the basement there. So they provide all the food for us. Um the van that we use for our Friday field trips. We partner with youth court services on th Wednesdays and Thursdays. Uh youth court services a probation officer comes in and teaches savvy living with me and man and uh savvy living and uh mind mad skills. Geez mad skills. We also partner with health for managing emotions. There's a therapist by the name of Ken. Ken works with the kiddos that I'm not involved in that part

029of it because it's the therapy stuff, but Ken works with them every Tuesday on managing emotions. Um, so like I said, we we work on academics certainly every single day. Uh, but it's so much more than academics because that's what these kids need is kind of those wraparound services to to move forward. So, okay. Thank you very much. >> Well done. Nice job, K. And so with that, madame chair, that is um brings to completion my superintendence report. So I am open for questions if you have any additional questions. If not, um we can move on. >> Any questions? All right. Um I don't see any audience communication. Um so we will move on to action item A. Mr. Decon. >> Thank you, Vice Chair Scoragoski, members of the board. Superintendent Hoyer and members of

030our audience. Tonight we are in a position to finalize our audit. So Mr. Boyd, if you could pull up Mr. Brian Stavager from Eid ID Bailey. Um he is here to give us our final report um so that you can take action on this this evening. With that being said, I do want to say thank you to Brian. um he's put up with a lot with us new people in the business office going back through others paperwork and postings to figure out the pieces that go along with the audit. So, thanks for your patience. You've taught us a bunch, Brian, and thanks to my staff for breaking that down for us. With that, I'll turn it over to him. >> Okay, wonderful. Just confirming that you can hear me. Okay, >> we are good to

031go. >> Nice. Okay, wonderful. Uh thank you for having me once again. Uh thank you for the introduction, Luke. Um I presented approximately two months ago, mid December. Um really this exact same uh presentation that I'll go through tonight, but tonight will be uh much quicker because uh there's really been only one one change um that I wanted to point out. But just as a a reminder and I think uh Luke did a good job in the agenda to kind of describe where we were at in mid December and where we're finally at today uh which is we were really um at the at the whims of the state of Montana and their compliance supplement um in in mid December. they uh update that. It's essentially an audit guide for local government audits and they

032update that update that periodically and they were going through an update process uh last I I guess mid mid to end of last year 2025 calendar year 25 and it was currently in draft format in mid December and they had indicated to auditors and audites that they would not accept any audits until that uh compliance supplement was finalized and issued. uh and then audit firms could uh ensure that they were auditing against that audit guide. Uh so shortly after our meeting in in mid December um we did get that final version worked through uh a few things related to that um and then as Luke mentioned um just worked on wrapping up uh really everything else uh in relation uh to the audit. One of the biggest things we were waiting on uh was something

033from the state of Montana and we had asked them to verify the comprehensive school and community treatment revenue. Uh of course when we reached out which we thought would be a pretty simple email with a response. Uh that person was out of the office and they were out of the office for about a week. Um finally were able to get some information from them. Worked with Luke and Alli to reconcile that to the records. uh it did identify uh essentially a a duplicate um not deposit but a duplicate uh receipt that was recorded in the district's general ledger which did result in a slight reduction in the cash balance um but really was to get it to be accurate and not double counted. So I'll point out uh that graph where that was impacted that

034was uh I think about $267,000 uh decrease. Um but outside of that nothing changed from the uh preliminary uh draft reports that I presented in December. So if you want to uh advance the slides all the way to like slide 10 uh the cash and investments and if you're there uh if you look at the cash and investments I'm not sure if you've got that in front of you that fiscal year 2025 amount at the far right uh that total uh was reduced by that approximately $267,000 of that duplicate receipt uh that was discovered through that verification process with the state. Uh that was really the only change. Um you can see in the grand scheme of things, well that uh you know definitely is a lot of money. Um but when you're talking about

035you know the millions of dollars of cash and investments that the district holds at the end of the fiscal year, um really just a very small slight reduction. Uh but overall um as I mentioned previously no other changes uh and we are finally at the point um where we are able to finalize this audit, get it submitted to everywhere where it needs to get submitted uh pending approval from uh the board of trustees this evening. So, with all of that, um, with that update, I'll just allow an opportunity for, uh, any any added comments or questions that you may have in relation to the fiscal year 25 audit. >> Um, do my fellow trustees have any questions or comments for Mr. Stavinger or for Mr. Decons? >> Thank you for that um, report. as you

036mentioned, you know, this was information that we went over in more in depth in a separate session. We appreciate you bringing this to the full board and uh providing that update for the community. Um and we also appreciate Mr. Duke Decon and your team in in kind of going over some of those little bumps um to getting us to this point. Um with that, I'm open to a motion. Madam Chair, >> at this time I would move that the board approve the general purpose financial statements with auditor's report for fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025 as presented. >> Second. >> It has been moved and seconded to approve this auditor's report. Um, are there any questions or comments from my fellow trustees? And how about from our community? Right. Seeing none, all those in favor,

037please signify by saying I. I. All those opposed, same assign. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Brian, for your time. >> Thank you. You're welcome. >> All right. Up next, uh, Mr. Dots again. >> All right. Members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the community. Um, our next item is for the financial report and check register for January 2026. Um, couple things to point out here. Trustee Bronson did send me a message over the weekend. He had noticed Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch keeps coming up. Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch, just so that you all know is one of our service providers for CSCT. Um, not only do we use them for CSCT, but they're also private providers for individual students who need special services sometimes as well. So, just a

038little heads up on that. you see those, don't feel bad about asking questions, happy to explain them. With that being said, um nothing is out of the ordinary. It's all there in front of you. Um so I'd ask that the district board accept the monthly financial report and approve the register payments for January 2026. >> Wonderful. Thank you, Mr. Dun. >> Madam Chair, >> yes, Trusty Brown, >> I move that we accept the monthly financial report and approve the register of payments for January 2826. >> Second. All right. It's been moved and seconded by multiple people to accept the monthly financial report as presented. Are there any questions or comments from my fellow trustees? And how about from our community? All right, seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. All

039those opposed, same sign. Thank you. All right, moving along. Miss, welcome. Welcome. Good evening, Vice Chair Scornoski, Superintendent, members of the members of the board. I am here tonight to talk about the reduction in force processing criteria um to be used in the event a becomes necessary. budget committee will be developing budget recommendations for the next school year. It is necessary to have the reduction enforce process in place should reductions in programs not essential activities and or necessary. All right. Thank you. I'll entertain motion on this. Madam chair. >> Yes. Trusty Sanch. >> I move that we declare the possibility of a reduction in force to adopt the attachment process. >> All right. It's been moved and seconded um to declare the possibility of a reduction in force. Um is there any questions or comments

040from my fellow trustees? And how about from our community? Right. Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. All those opposed, same side. Right. Thank you. And what more? >> I'm also bringing to you the temporary non-tenure teachers with positions expiring June 5th, 2026. They are um employees or teachers that were hired after December and due to their late hire and funding they are one year only position. So it's just their position will be ending and they will qualify to go through the industry process. >> All right. Thank you. Open to a motion. >> Madam chair. >> Yes. Trusty Sunchild. A request to nonrenew teachers listed. They are a temporary position that expired June 2020. >> Second. >> All right. It's been moved and seconded. Um are there any questions

041or comments from my fellow trustees? And have from our community. All right. Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. All those oppos. >> All right. Thank you so much. >> All right, up next, we're back to Mr. Tox, the Lewis and Clark Elementary School roof project. >> Thank you, Vice Chair Scornoski, members of the board, members of the community. Um, I'm here to discuss quickly the Louiswis and Clark Elementary School roof project. Roof projects are something that we try to do on a yearly basis on a rotation as they are high cost and things that always need to be repaired or replaced over time. Lewis and Clark is the one that's up on this year's docket. Um with Lewis and Clark um it is over the $80,000 bid. The project

042was advertised in January out there in the tribune and CTA architects who had completed the study of all the roofs are the the architecture with Brady Gower. You'll see his letter um as well attached that explains the process that we went through and why this is an acceptable lowest bidder. Um the contractor that we did decide on was Jimmy's roofing out of Spokane, Washington. The base bid was $719,400. The alternate one, which is section E, was $293,000 and alternate number 2F, was $287,000. The roof projects have been budgeted for this current year. So, we are recommending forward with all three pieces at a total of $1,299,400. This project will be paid for through school funds. um in terms of the general fund probably out of interlocal as well and building reserve fund to make all

043of those pieces match up. With that, my recommendation is the board is requested to award the Louiswis and Clark Elementary School RP project base bid, alternate bid number one and alter bid number two scheduled for the summer of 2026. The lowest qualified bidder was Jimmy Swuffing with a base bid of $719,400. Alternate bid was number one to be included with section E for $293,000 and alternate bid number two to include section F $287,000. Total cost of the project is1 million $299,400. >> Thank you for that information. I'm open to a motion. >> Madam Chair, >> yes. I motion we award the Louiswis and Clark Elementary School base or roof school project as outlined. >> Is there a second? >> All right, it's been moved and seconded um to award the Louiswis and Clark Elementary School

044roof project as presented. Are there any questions for Mr. Decon? Are you seeing the costs of these projects continuing to go up or are we leveling off at all? >> In general, most of the bids that we do have going out, you do see about a 10% increase on. This is one that's a little bit different. This bid came in, I believe, at almost dollar for dollar with the same number of square foot that we did Morningside about two and a half years ago. So, it it it there's a lot more competition. Most of the bids that we have coming in, instead of having one or two bids coming, there's usually about seven. So, little bit of a positive outlook. The architects are appreciating the number of bids that are coming in too, and they

045do feel it is providing more competition, which is a better price for us. >> Thank you for that information. Um, are there any comments or questions from our community? >> All right, seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. >> All those opposed, same side. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you so much. And just keep it rolling. Mr. Deans, >> they gave me a break this time at least with somebody in the middle. Um, but the next item, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the community. Um we have the resolution estimating revenues and mills for tuition adult ed building reserve flexibility fund depress depreciation and transportation levies for the upcoming school year fiscal year of 2026 27. Want to just remind you these are estimates because we're using tax values

046from the fiscal year 25. The new ones are not out and the budgets are not finalized for our school district as well. So we're working through that process. However, when it comes time to adopt the final budget in August, these numbers will all be updated to represent the actual amounts that will be asked for. This does have to be published out in the newspaper and on the district website no later than March 31st. And if you remember from the last legislative session, not only do we have a$100,000, 300,000, $600,000 home that those have to be noted on the farm, but those percentages of the mills that go along with it have changed a little bit. So, in that regards, we've been using calculators that have been put forth by OPI to help us with that

047process as well. Um, a couple key things to point out within this is always with these there's costs that are going up. Um, if you look at the sheet that's up there, when you talk about adult education, it's a pretty fixed number that comes into our district each year. Easy to predict. That one probably wouldn't see much difference. Bus depreciation is the same way. These are our type B buses. Um, being able to take some depreciation on those over the time adds up to some monies that are allowed for us to use to replace those particular pieces. With transportation, of course, big sky bus lines, our costs will go up. We also have a negotiation here with bits guide bus lines. So that one maybe is a little bit flexible but I think it's fairly

048accurate based on the last few years that we've had the transportation with tuition. One thing that you're going to note here is the high school has jumped quite a bit. Um there's a reason for that. There's been past lawsuits over this um school year and with those lawsuits it's required us to educate those who want to come back do not have a traditional diploma um from ages 19 to 22. Those are usually our highest need students is what we found out and without a doubt we have three of them in our our um schools right now that we do have to still continue to educate. So we plan for that accordingly. Also within the tuition um we account for students that go out to uh certain types of hospitals for care um with mental health

049and the number of students that transfer into Great Falls Public Schools versus students transferring out through selection school through the state with the building reserve. The nice thing about building reserve and I remember Brian always talking about this sitting in this seat but we have to have to remember we want to maximize what we get out of building reserves. There's what's called the small box and the big box. We want to make sure that they match up and in the end by us levying the mounts that are in there, the state matches the other sides of it. So it's about a 3 to one match with Great Falls Public School so we can maximize that building reserve. So even though it says 262,000 on the elementary right there, it really is more like 826,000 because

050the match from the state, but we have to make sure we maximize that on both sides and justify it as well. And then when you look at the total, you look at the amounts that are there in the elementary dollar-wise, we're looking at about $587,023. The high school, an increase of $447,867. In terms of mills, based on the fiscical year 25 tax rules, we're looking at 3.69 additional mills, high school, 2.94. That is very similar to what we've um additionally levied in the past. You look at the total amount for the the cost per house, you look at the elementary and the high school, you can see $4.99 and 396. And if you jump over to the last column with the $600,000 home, about 29,000 or $2932. Lance moved up a little bit quick there.

051I wasn't quite ahead there. Um, and at the high school $23.78. Just a reminder, these are estimates. And with that, I would ask you to um make sure you note that we have reviewed these permissive levies. There's been a few small adjustments, nothing major work session of the budget. Um so the recommendation for the committee is to adopt a resolution estimating changes in revenues and mills to the adult education building reserve flexibility fund bus appreciation transportation and tuition levies for the fiscal year 202627. >> Thank you for that madam chair. >> Yes trusty. I move that we approve the recommendation of the budget committee to adopt the resolution estimating changes in revenues and mills for adult education building reserve flexibility fund bus appreciation transportation and tuition levies for school fiscal year 2026 2027. >> Right.

052It has been moved and seconded to approve the estimated permissive levies. Um, are there any questions or comments from my fellow trustees? Are there any questions and comments from our community? >> Vice Chair Scornoski, just one thing to point out. I don't think I mentioned flexibility fund went through a change in the last legislative session, too. So, you're going to see the number of mills asked there is zero because we're no longer able to levy amounts into the flexibility. >> All right. Thank you for that. All right. Seeing no comments from our community, all those in favor of um passing the permissive levies as presented, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Wonderful. Thank you for all that work and the work that led up to this. >> All

053right. >> You're welcome. Next up, I think we're still still with you, Mr. >> You are with me still. Uh, Vice Chair Scorowski, members of the board, members of the community. I am going to pass this off to Trustee Bronson, though, in just a moment. And I want to say thank you to Trusty Bronson, Trustee Scornagowski, and now Trustee Henning um for sitting on our budget committee because on February 17th, we have had an opportunity to um go through the budget process and um they had great discussion, ask lots of questions. Um so I'm going to turn it over to Trusty Robson to go through this particular agenda item. >> Thank you, Mr. Decon. Uh I was requested to do this tonight. Trusty Henning, formerly Trustee Geroski. She got married this weekend. We should all

054congratulate her. Ask me to present this report on behalf of our budget committee. This is probably the one of the most important things that the board is obliged to consider every year. Most of you, I'm sure, are familiar that our system for funding public education is based on state law. We work largely with appropriations from the state of Montana, from the legislature to fund the bulk of our education system, but we do under the law have options to levy certain mills within a certain range, usually every year if we wish to add to our overall budget. In this particular year, we do have an option uh to levy up to 6.92 mills for both the elementary and secondary if we so chose. However, the budget committee is recommending to the full board that we not

055request a levy for those amounts for the 202627 fiscal year. The reason we're doing that uh basically is this. The budget committee has met for the better part of a year, actually more than a year, addressing this ultimate question of what you sometimes hear in other districts as the fiscal cliff. In other words, at what point do we really decide to reach out to the community to make up what could be a sizable difference uh in what we really need to have and what we don't what we currently have available for resources. But in making that decision, the budget committee and I think this board over the last year has worked with an understanding that before we ever again go to the voters of Great Falls to ask for any additional revenue above and beyond

056what we've already requested from that we can ensure that we have looked at every option available within our existing resources to achieve maximum efficiencies. So for example, when we know that as a district, like most districts across the state, our enrollment is declining overall, we know that we reach a point where we will continue to offer programs, but we may not offer as many courses in a particular program that would lead to not having to hire or maintain perhaps a teaching position. Likewise, we know that there are efficiencies that can be achieved in straight event. We already did that last year when our administrators decided that we would abide by a system where we had one less executive director we had in previous years and we're already doing that. But again, the feeling is is

057that we have to show the taxpayers in good faith that we have made every single effort to achieve those efficiencies. And the same time where we know we have funds in reserve that we can use within the restrictions that apply to each of those reserve funds. We expect that the taxpayers would look to us and say, "You need to do that first before you come and ask us for more." Interestingly enough, this year, if we were to ask the board to approve a levy for consideration during the May election, the amount that we could raise would still not be enough to overcome a potential deficit in funding next year. we would be short about $800,000, which tells us again that it's important to achieve those efficiencies as much as possible. And we're also recognizing that

058we may have also reached the limits of what we can ask our local taxpayers to do given the way the current state funding formula is structured. Most of you are aware that currently there is an interim commission of legislators and others who are looking at the funding formula. We remain optimistic that they will make recommendations to the legislature that would change the formula in such a way that hopefully in future years we would have to depend less on local taxpayers to make up these differences. And so after all those considerations and again the the budget committee working with Mr. Decons, Mr. Hoyer and other staff uh we didn't just meet once or twice for an hour or two. We have met for several hours. We've done our own independent research. We've thought about this and

059we've also processed it through our mindset not just as trustees but the fact that we are also taxpayers in this community and therefore considering how this impacts all of us in the community and considering also the needs of some of our other entities of government particularly the city and county and their needs. We determined that we can proceed for another year without requesting a levy, maximize the efficiencies and many more that I talked about, take advantage of portions of our reserve funds that we can utilize this year and within that range make our budget for the 26 27th fiscal year. So that is why we are recommending to the full board that the decision basically that we not request an additional levy for the 26th 27th fiscal year. Mr. Decod said I and I know

060Trusty Scorosi are available to answer questions. >> Let's start with having a motion on the floor and then we can open it up to questions and comments. >> And and Madam Chair, I did note too because this is a committee recommendation does not really require a second. So I would simply move that full board adopt the recommendation of the budget committee to not request a levy for the 26th 27th fiscal year. >> All right, with that um certainly we open the floor to questions and discussion. Um initially we'll ask my fellow trustees there's questions or comments. I' I'd just like to thank my fellow trustees that have worked uh very hard on this and um to everyone who has worked >> and put in a lot of hours and a lot of thought into um

061being as fiscally responsible as possible. Appreciate that. >> I'd like to open it up to our community for comments. Right. Um so obviously this trustee Bronson noted this is a very significant decision for our district. Um we are in the position where we had 10 years of really tough decisions that had to be made um when it came to cuts and when it came to asking our community um for their support of our schools. And we've worked hard during those years and the years since um to build trust with our community um so that they know when we do ask for money that um we are doing it um with their trust and and because we truly truly have no other options. Um and so with that um I will ask for um if everyone

062who supports this recommendation please signify by saying I >> I all those opposed same sign. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. And thank you so much to um our school leadership who um took took the time and the work to really u make sure that we were making strategic decisions. And up next, Miss Hoyer. Well, thank you, Vice Chair Swinagoski, members of the board and members of our community. I bring to you the second reading of revised board policies 1210, 1310, 1770, and 3510. Um, as of this afternoon, I've had no feedback, I'm sorry, on 1210, 1310, and 3510. Um, I did work fairly extensively with um, uh, President Cubage on around 1770 and just some points of clarification. So I do want to bring those points forward to you um to be sure

063that they are on record. So if you take a look at page 75 of your agenda that is policy 1770 and the opening paragraph is what uh President Cage and I talked about today. This policy because it is a 1000 series is under section one board of trustees. And so that and it calls out specifically and I'll I'll just read it for the record that this uniform complaint procedure is intended to be used for all complaints except those governed by a specific process in state or federal law that supersedes this process or governed by a collective bargaining agreement. Matters covered by a collective bargaining agreement will be reviewed in accordance with the terms of the applicable agreement. And so this policy oftentimes addresses concerns and complaints that come forward to us from our um community

064members, from parents, and in some cases from students. And so um with that um Mr. Vice Chair, I bring forward to you no other changes uh for the policies in their second reading. Thank you, >> Madam Chair. >> Yes. At this time, I move that the board approve revised board policies 1210, 1310, 1770, and 3510. >> All right, it's been moved and seconded to approve revised board policies. Is there any questions or comments from my fellow trustees? Are there any questions or comments from our community? Right. Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Right. Motion passes. Thank you so much to the policy committee for your work on those. All right. Uh with no changes made to the agenda, we'll move um to

065reports, discussions, and policies and begin with the Great Falls Education Association grant team report. Miss Hoyer. Thank you, Vice Chair Scornagoski, members of the board, and members of our community. At this time, I would like to invite President Tom Cubbage from GFA up to the left turn along with his team, his star team, which is the grant team. They're going to fill you in about their mentoring program. Chair Scornagosski, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the community, and uh our early career educators. Um we're the GFA STAR team. Uh we received a grant from NEA uh three years ago. Thank you for the opportunity to share what we've been doing and I'll turn it over to the members of the team to explain some of the stuff we've been doing. >> Well, hello

066board. I'm Joe and I'm a member of the STAR team and I'm going to tell you a brief story. Uh, it's a familiar story. There's a young teacher that we all recognize. She arrived in Great Falls full of purpose, prepared, passionate, and committed to her students. She stayed late. She asked questions of veteran teachers. And she tried again and again when something didn't work. And then she was gone. Not because she didn't love teaching, not because she didn't care about her students, but because loving the work wasn't enough. Now, we're not here to point fingers. This is not an isolated story. It's a nationwide pattern. But we should be aware that Great Falls Public Schools has been losing educators in their first five years at an alarming rate. These are teachers who want to be

067here, who chose Great Falls, who believe in public education, but less than half of those hired stay past their first five years. A little data to support this. In 2020, Great Falls Public Schools hired 80 new teachers. Next year there were 73, then 43, then 37, all the way down to 32, and finally 24. That's a 70% attrition in 5 years. This can be helped. It's not about effort. It's not about commitment, but teachers work on average about 10 hours past their contract hours. And I will say as a for as a relatively recent non- early career educator, I would say 10 hours is a very um underestimated value there. These are things that work. There are things that work, but these actions require support. This story, sad as it is, doesn't have to be

068our story. There's another version of this story. a story rooted in professionalism, in commitment and caring, and in educators showing up for each other. I'm going to hand it off. So then the GFA STAR team um came to be and STAR stands for um I knew I was going to do this, supporting teachers through advancement and retention. um within that group um it's built of educators, those who are veteran teachers who have been with the district for a while and also we have early career educators on our team as well which was part of the stipulation of the grant. Um we don't feel that early career educators need fixing they just need our support. So our mentor team on the next slide will go through. So we have Tom Cage, myself, Stephanie Olsen, Joe Lloyd,

069Kayla Underwood, Michelle Johnson, Sher Stoddall, and Haley Milton. And then we have a couple who have been coming to a lot of our things that are here to say a few words here in just a minute. So on the next slide, what the star team has done. Um we had educators step up when Tom even mentioned it to me. I was 100% behind this going for the grant. Grants are a lot of work. Um but I was in it 100%. So our early career educators showed up. They were eager to learn. there's a lot to do at the beginning of the year when they start and so we were just kind of that support to go through and talk about things more in depth with them. Um we had trainings at our GFA office on

070Saturdays, believe it or not, and those turnouts were fantastic. Our last one we had 32 participants come on a Saturday. Um the trainers and the trainees were paid for their time through this grant. We've also done um what we have is a a new teachers closet we call it. So when teachers are retiring or resigning and they're cleaning out their rooms, they can come and bring those supplies to our closet, donated if they're still in good use. And then the new teachers can come and take whatever they want at no charge. We call it a garage sale, but they're not paying for anything. So they have left with boxes of things and they come back. We open it a few times throughout the year, but more so at the beginning of the year when they're

071setting up classrooms. We have special events and social activities being held every month. Um every single month we meet the first Thursday of the month at a coffee shop and just to sit and visit. There's no agenda. It's just a time for people to talk to meet other colleagues who could be in their same position but in different buildings. Um ask questions, vent if they need to. Um then we have social events every month. So as a matter of fact, just last Friday we did bowling at the Black Eagle Community Center. We've done um pumpkin painting, um coffee roasting, baseball game. I mean, we try to do something every single month just to get them together um in that safe space. Um there's connection and there's support that's fostered with that as well. So on

072the next slide, we just have some pictures of just a variety of our events where they come and um gather with us. And we I'm going to actually on the next slide, I'm not going to read these comments to you on the next one, Mr. Boyd. Um, but we did have some people comment that couldn't be here tonight that wanted just to share their thoughts with you. But we also have a couple here that would also like to share their thoughts with you. So, I'm going to invite Athena and Kayla up. Um, as an ECE, this program meant a lot to me. I was one of those really quiet quiet shy teachers that really had great teaching partners, had a great network in school, but getting out of school to those other ECEEs, it was

073almost impossible. So, this gave me something to look forward to each month. It gave me almost like that purpose as a new teacher in a community that you kind of were able to reach out to and everybody understood what you were going through. Hi everyone. Um my name is Athena Hall and I am a secondy year kindergarten teacher at Sunnyside. Um I spent I know um I spent 11 years as a def department of defense contractor at Mstrom Air Force Base and subbed in my spare time. Um so when that contract went away um I was like what am I going to do with my life? And so I decided to become a kindergarten teacher. Um, but one of the things I really lost when I left the m the group at Malstrm was my

074community and I have great co-workers. I've got great administration. Um, but it's a little bit different when you're not meeting with your co-workers and your school and you can ask different questions. Well, this is how we do it. How do you do it? Um, but just getting out and doing community things and um hanging out, getting asked questions or um my you're crazy. Are your kids crazy today? That kind of thing has just been great. So, and and the training is great, too. I too am short. This work matters. This work matters a lot. Um this work has to be thoughtful, strategic and human. We have to meet our new teachers where they are. It supports growth, prevents burnout with our new teachers. Connection. So there's lots of times when there's a teacher that you

075might be the only one in your building, but we have other schools. So that isolation really does feel less. Retention and satisfaction can replace departure. And um that is incredibly important when you start to lose years and years of experience. If we're not rebuilding with our ECEs, it also creates stability for students, which means improved outcomes. Mentorship is vital. It's an action word. Me mentorship takes action and it needs and it has been supported by years of research. If you have a great mentor, it can lead to job satisfaction, which in the end really does maintain that retention. Teachers stay in the profession for a career. And this is this is hard. It's five and out. And lots of these teachers are or less, sometimes three and out. Lots of these teachers have spent thousands

076of dollars on their education to say, "Yep, I'm not doing this." But a great mentor can keep them in the profession. So the next part is shared values. Great Falls believes in community and stability. So supporting early career educators is incredibly important. So, as I maintain my position on this team, um part of part of what I really find um vital to let you know is there's lots of research that shows how important it is for students to see teachers who look like they look. We need to be looking for, recruiting, retaining teachers of color and teachers who look like our students. So, Great Falls Public Schools and GFA with collaboration, if we can reflect on those values and work together, that is what will move this retention piece forward. >> So, unfortunately, our grant

077is ending. Uh we've had three years of NEA funding. Um however, we're really dedicated to this program and the um activities we've been doing. So um we do have plans to continue collaboration in particular with the mentorship program that's uh that is uh going on between GFA and GFPS. Uh support for every new educator to ensure that every one of the new folks that join our district uh really feel like they belong and that they can have a career here in Great Falls. and including that training and retention uh that sets those new employees up for success. So, we do want to thank a few people. Um we really would like I'd really like to thank our early career educators, those in their first five years who've showed up and come to all the activities

078we've put on the last uh couple three years. Um, in addition, some local businesses, uh, Morning Light Coffee, Schulties, Wheat Montana, Celtic Cowboy, uh, Black Eagle Country Club and Bowling, and Wendy's Corp, who donated chili for a couple of our events. Um, and the funding and training and support from this NEA excellence and education grant program and their teacher quality program that's provided a lot of training for us. So, thank you for your attention or do you have any questions for us? Trusty Branson. >> Yeah, Mr. CB, thanks to all of you for this presentation. I think this was wonderful. And as Mr. Cubbage knows, my mother was a high school teacher. Her last 13 years were at CM Russell many years ago, but there wasn't anything like this years ago. And sir, when you

079said I think was it 10 hours more, I think it was more like 20, >> at least in my memory. >> The general public doesn't appreciate. So, I really applaud you for seeking out this grant and doing it. But my question, I guess, Mr. Cubage, and others, is with this grant going away, do you think you're going to be able to continue this program at the level that uh you've done? And if not, uh maybe we have to find some other funding sources for this. >> Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we're we're dedicated to the fact that this is really important work and we need to continue it, but the reality is we don't have a budget as the union to do this. So, we are looking for other grant funds currently from NEA and other

080other sources. >> Thank you. >> Trusty Thompson, >> I just want to thank all of you for not only the work that you guys do in the classroom because it's so important. Um I mean you you're the ones that are touching our students and helping them to grow into you know the the best humans that they can be and it's such important work and thank you also for mentoring others. Um I know the classroom has changed a lot since um I I've seen how it's changed since my kids were in elementary school and so the job's getting harder and I appreciate you even more than I used to. Thank you. >> Yes, trusty Sanchild. >> Thank you, Tom, for finally. I've been asking you to come for such a long time. I'm like, bring them

081here. You guys are wonderful. They took a need that was so great and they they turned it into something spectacular. >> Thank you. Yeah, we just truly appreciate you um for coming in and tell talk telling us about um your work. Um but obviously beyond that, we appreciate you seeing this need and stepping up to meet the need um to creating a community within our schools and then also connecting our new teachers to our community here in Great Falls. Um, and I really do think that this will pay dividends for our district for for years to come. Um, and obviously that took time and heart um and creativity on your part. Um, so we love to see those things that we hope are representative of our of our district as a whole um be be

082reflected and embraced um by our union as well. So, thank you all so much um for all that you do um for our schools and for our teachers. >> Thank you. >> Of course. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. >> Yeah, you truly are wonderful partners. We're we're happy to have you in our district. All right. And Mr. Boyd, are you ready to give us a CTE report? >> You're wearing two hats tonight. >> It's okay. 6 27 school year. Good evening, Vice Chair Scoragosski, board of trustees, superintendent Hoyer, cabinet members and guests. My name is Derek Singer, the career pathways adviser for Great Falls Public Schools. And together with Ronnie Griffith, we want to thank you for allowing us to share our CTA program, uh, how our CTE program connects to the Great Falls Public

083School mission. So, educating students to successfully navigate their futures. February is CT is National CTE month. CT is more than just an elective class. It is a pipeline to the workforce that develops real world employability skills, connects students to hands-on learning, promotes dual credit and industry recognized certifications. CTE is good for students, good for business, and good for communities. CTE in Great Falls has a proud history with significant expansion starting in 1975. Vocation education was renamed renamed career and technical education in 2006 with the Carl D. Perkins career and technical education act. The primary funding sources uh for CTE is Perkins the national grant federal grant MTAO state VOED and community partners. A portion of our funding is linked to CTE concentrator status, meaning that they have completed at least two credits for semesters in

084a specific pathway. GFPS had 532 concentrators in 2425. We operate across eight CTE departments with 44 educators. This includes Air Force ROC, business and computer science, family consumer science, health science, industrial technology, stage craft design and video production. And we have seven career technical student organizations or CTSOs. And one thing to note up here is host is now referred to as future health professionals. and our CTO groups uh will be presenting in May following all of their state and national competitions. We have 10 studentrun businesses. Our growth is measurable. We are currently trending upward in almost every key metric. So even though we see our student enrollment declining, CTE enrollment is increasing. Um, also note that when we look at some of these things that uh on the graphs and go through some of the

085statistics that MAOA is reported by calendar year, not school year. So we take uh the second semester of the year prior and group it in with the first semester of the current year. So we've had 202 internships, apprenticeships. That's up from 184 and exceeded the goal of 190 students. That's a 9.78% increase over the last calendar year. 383 students enrolled in and are eligible for dual credit within the CTE field. That is a 2.1% increase over last year. Second semester should result in in the goal being met or exceeded for the year. Significant pathways in our dual credit matrix include Build Montana, a partnership with the Montana Contractors Association, John Deere University, Medachchieve Montana with Tural College of Osteopathic Medicine, Enhancement in early childhood education at Great Falls College, MSU, and U of M Western.

086students reported workplace learning, workplace experiences for the 2425 school year. Examples of this includes our CNA program, uh, health occupations for pre-apprenticeships at the high school house and early childhood, the welding cohort, internships, job shadows. We have 442 students reported in taking part in workplace um, experience in the first semester of this school year in the works, which things that we are really pumped up and excited about. Right. First off, we are uh proud to announce that we are working on a cosmetology pathway for next year. And uh so um we're currently prepared to pilot the cosmetology program uh as students have indicated an interest in this career pathway. GFPS listens to our students. Also in the works, uh we've had some ongoing HVAC discussions um as industry has indicated the current and future need

087for trained staff. Once again, GFPS listens to industry. >> Great Falls Public Schools is proud to offer opportunities to our elementary and middle school students building a pipeline to high school. Success doesn't start in the 12th grade. As Mike Row has said, the trades people you need to hire are currently in the eighth grade. We are engaging our younger students through Worlds of Work, Girls in STEM, youth entrepreneurs, summer construction camp, Montana Air National Guard open Hangar event, and also the Air Force Base um open house. The student triumphs we see in our CTE programs are the result of a team effort. The students are successful because we are supported by Great Falls Public School leadership. We have outstanding instructors and we have built and continue to build collaborative partnerships in our community. These relationships

088have created opportunities for our students to experience the skills they need to be successful on the job. These businesses and organizations share the same vision in wanting our students to thrive. We have jointly created several career pathway opportunities and we'd like to share some of those valuable experiences that our students have had this year as a result of connecting with our partners. Worlds of Work, the WOW event, four zones with exposure to 62 business and industry exhibits exposing students to all career clusters. Governor G, Governor Gianforte and celebrity Mike Row met with the Skills USA and Build Montana folks along with visiting the high school house that is built in partnership with Neighborworks. This program receives additional support from Johnson Madison Lumber Herren Heating and Cooling, Brennan Heating and Cooling, Palagi Plumbing, Sutton Construction, Danderson

089Construction, Southwest Carpenters Union, Minot Builder Supply, Homebuilders Association of Great Falls, Great Falls College, and the Great Falls Builders Exchange. We continue to build new partnerships each year, so this list is always growing. Calumet Refinery and Montana Renewables opened their lab to students for the first time to experience a variety of hands-on applications and opened their eyes to possible employment opportunities in Great Falls with an engineering degree. They also opened up their plant for a tour of operations that included pipe fitters, welders, and other trades people. As a result of these interactions, they are working to possibly offer an internship for our students. Students participated in Medachchieve in collaboration with Toro Medical School where each participant had a medical student mentor. Business students spent time at JCCS, an accounting firm, and were exposed to all

090aspects of that profession. Students took part in a welding cohort at Great Falls College where they will receive their welding certificate prior to high school graduation. Junior ROC cadets celebrated their rank and ribbon ceremony supported by our military community from the Montana Air National Guard and Malstrom Air Force Base. They also recently went to Cushing Terrell where they were exposed to art applications in the engineering field. A visit to Riverside Cabins and Protek Steel along with Montana Shed Center and Waterjet Technologies provided insight to relevant career possibilities and reinforced the value of their CTE training. Students were on site for the Build Montana field day provided by Montana Contractors Association and Sutton Construction. business students attended the GFDA Ignite event and heard from 29 businesses regarding their future investment in Great Falls. We had one

091instructor and nine students take part in a welding workshop and training provided by Lowen Bro. We have a student working with Northwestern Energy exploring a career as a lineman. Students are scheduled to tour the Montana Grain Labs this month and will learn about grain testing and grading and the many certifications that they offer. Soon we will have a tour of the HVAC operation at the Great Falls Clinic Hospital and hope to generate interest in a possible apprenticeship. TDNH Cushing Terrell and LPW architecture all offered the opportunity for student visits. We want to acknowledge the fact that every student request has been met with a positive response from business and industry within our community. As a result, we've been able to enhance current relationships and establish new partnerships. Career technical education works because it's grounded in

092clear purpose. It offers direction. The learning leads somewhere. Students embrace it because the training feels real and they learn more when it belongs to them. Great Falls Public School CTE students continue to be involved in our community and continue to the success of many programs. Collaboration with our community partners is key to providing opportunities for exposure and real world experience for our students. We recognize the importance of community partnerships and how much they matter to the success of our CTE programs. We are developing our future workforce together. The governor's 406 jobs and future ready programs are focused on preparing students for high-skilled, high demand careers. Great Falls Public Schools is supporting that effort through our outstanding CTE programs. February is National Career and Technical Education Month. It celebrates how CTE is an essential way for

093young people to prepare themselves for good jobs and lifelong opportunities. CTE is good for students, good for business, and good for communities. Thank you. Do you have any questions? >> So, you got the 101. Now, I'm here on the funding side. No, just a huge thank you to Derek and Ronnie. uh as you look to the future of what is public education and public funding in education, CTE is going to pay play a very large pathway in that in the future. And when you look at future ready uh and the payments that the OPI and the Department of Labor and those things are working through, it became very evident a summer ago that you have to have somebody more than one person that's going to be able to go out into the community, interact with

094business, interact with partnership, but then also keep track of the massive amounts of data uh that we have day in and day out that we have to report four times a year to the Office of Public Instruction to guarantee that the money is coming in long term, not just through those three funding streams that he mentioned, but through a future stream uh that's coming our way. And so when I teamed these two up, let's note Derek was in the classroom at the beginning of the year over at East Middle School. He interviewed for the job like two weeks before school started. And Lance, I need to be in the classroom to start. I need to get my class settled. I need to get these things done. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. But we also

095have a lot of work to do in the community. when we brought Ronnie on. Uh sometimes it's pulling the reinss back a little bit uh and slowing things down, but at the end of the day, this report shows Great Falls and shows Great Falls Public Schools that we're on the right track uh with CTE and that we're just going to continue to move forward because our partners are asking us all the time for it. So, thank you. >> Thank you both for your work and for your time. Really appreciate all that you do. Um and certainly um we really believe that that Great Falls Public Schools is leading the way um in kind of the future of education and that's that's due in great part to both of you. So thank you. >> Just one

096final brief comment and we also have a request from you. Um first Derek and I are new in our positions this year. So we want to thank you all for trusting us to do this job. We sometimes feel like we're floundering figuring it out this year, but um it's it's a great it's a feel-good job and and we love what we're doing and it's been a great partnership to work together. Um but also um we have the CT teachers that we have um are amazing and they're the ones that do the real work with the students. So, um, we have some cards we're going to pass out to you because of course we're developing partnerships and all of you know someone either you are in a business or you are married to someone in a

097business or you have a cousin or a uncle or a brother or sister that's in a business that could be a potential partner with Great Falls Public Schools. So, we're going to pass out these cards and that gives you the contact information. So, let's get connected. We want to get connected with all the people that are connected to Great Falls Public Schools. So, Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Up next, Trusty Thompson, superintendent evaluation. All right. So, two weeks ago, we evaluated, we gave um Superintendent Heather Hoyer her um performance review uh behind closed doors. and I just wanted to give a a report about it. Uh this was the first school year that um that we aligned the superintendent's evaluation with the district's long range strategic priorities. The updated process is intended to

098strengthen um accountability, clarify um communications, and ensure that the leadership performance is assessed in direct connection to the goals guiding Great Falls Public Schools. The evaluation in included feedback from all seven trustees and incorporated comments from um submitted um community members. Trustee ratings and comments reflected progress across all four evaluation standards which are part of the strategic plan and that includes shared mission, vision and core values, student achievement, healthy, safe and secure schools and stewardship and accountability. trustees reported to Superintendent Hoyer um that she is consistently meeting and is in several areas exceeding board expectations as she leads the district's work under the long-term plan. Uh, trustees also noted that Superintendent Hoyer's consistent emphasis on the district's mission and belief statements, her clear communication with the board and the broader community, and her activity involvement

099in community, state, and professional organizations on behalf of Great Falls Public Schools is exempl exemplary. Um, trustees also cited her uh, effectiveness in keeping the board informed, providing clear and timely information, and aligning district's efforts with um, defined strategic objectives. Um, with that, I guess I will um, uh, finish up my report by saying that um, it was a strong overall performance this past year and we look forward to another great year um, in the next school year. You Thank you for that report, Trusty Thompson. Any additional comments? We've all had the opportunity to share them with Miss Hoyer already. All right, with that, we will move to discussion committee reports and comments. Um, let's start with Trustee Sunchild. >> I'm glad we kind of changed how we did that superintendent evaluation. We got to

100come back tonight and share what we had talked about because how we normally did it is we go behind closed doors and talk until late into the night and then we come back out here. Nobody's here because it's nine o'clock. So, we decided to come back and share that. So, that's important that other people get to hear that. That's a better way to do it. Um, thank you to Jackie, Lance, Rachel's not here for the work session. Um, that's tough stuff with the testing. It's kind of one of those hot button issues and we kind of came a little bit full circle tonight. So we go in there and you hear the data and you hear about the testing but then we bring these people and that's the human element to what we do. So

101it's it does become this full circle. You see the numbers and the data and here's who does it. So that was that was a good way to end the night. >> Trusty D. >> All right. Thank you. First off, I want to say a huge thanks to Mr. Cubbage and his star group. It's a really important job that you guys do. I know whenever I get to teachers here in the community or if I'm in one of the schools, that's always one of the first things I talk with them about. I was like, how do we get teachers in here and how do we keep these great teachers we have? That's always one of the first things I always talk to people about. So, thank you guys for the work you do both in the

102classroom and with the start group. Also for our CTE representatives, it's an important part of schools these days. I appreciate the work you guys are putting in that as well. and also Bill and the uh budget committee with the work he did on the levies. Thank you guys for that. There's a lot of time and effort behalf and to the district. Thank you the work you guys are doing. Mr. Malu I think is left and I look forward to the uh grease play and go with some teacher friends of mine Friday. We're all going to go check it out. So looking forward to that. I've heard good things and so thanks for the work you guys are doing in that too. >> Trusty Bronson. >> Thank you Madam Chair. I'm I'm going to start by

103echoing some of the comments that were made by my fellow trustees, but just maybe emphasize it this way. This probably uh this meeting tonight was probably one of the most enjoyable ones I've attended uh many years on this board. And and I say that because what I saw tonight in a number of things in Corey Bree's presentation and the young lady's remarks on behalf of Restart, the star group, and obviously the presentation on CTE all exemplify a lot of the wonderful things that we're doing in this school district. strides that we have made and it makes my job a lot easier when I go out to the public and talk about what's going on in Great Falls Public Schools. And obviously I received three very good messages tonight that I'll be able to share with

104my colleagues in this community. Hopefully build a better base of support for us in the future. I also want to uh comment on the work session like trustee Sunchild did. Digging into statistics of how students are performing initially can be a little droll and obviously some of my fellow trustees have heard some of my pointed comments about testing. I'll leave that for another time for more explanation. But I do appreciate the fact that we get these updates from time to time. And once again, we have a lot of information to share with the public about a lot of the great strides that our teachers and others have made with our system. And then finally, something that hasn't been talked about, but I know that everybody on the board received notice. It was heartening to get

105that report from the foundation a few days ago that we now are in a position to set up a fund for the arts and supportive arts programs in public school. Once again, the wisdom of having a strong nonprofit arm working with us, getting funding from other sources and allowing us to do things that we simply cannot do with the public resources that are available. So Stephanie, I know you're here obviously extend my great appreciation to your board and to the rest of your staff. Glad we finally made it forward. So thank you. >> Trusty Thompson. >> Well, I echo a lot of what my um fellow trustees said, but I just want to um maybe wrap it all up with something that Ronnie said that I thought was kind of telling of the whole meeting

106today. They learn more when it belongs to them. I think that's what we saw with the restart program. Obviously, you see that with CTE and um also I think that when our teachers understand what they're giving to the students, they um take more ownership and they're getting more out of it. So, thank you all for all of the hard work that you do as teachers and mentors and administrators and trustees. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much. Uh I'll have you all turn your attention to upcoming events. On March 5th, Thursday, March 5th, we will have a community town hall on the budget. Um essentially to present um some of the information that that you've heard of today, as well as looking at uh what what the long term looks like um as far as as

107our budget and our budget needs. Um, our next regular board meeting is March 9th. Um, and I encourage you all to go to Greece if you haven't already. It's fabulous. Wonderful performances and wonderful production at Great Falls High. Uh, with that, I open for a motion to adjourn. >> So moved. >> Meeting adjourned. Thank you all for being here. We appreciate you.