001Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this February 9th, 2026 meeting of the Great Falls Public Schools Board of Trustees. And I will remind you that these meetings are being recorded and will be uploaded at on our website at some point in the future. Mr. Deakons, would you please administer the roll call? >> Thank you, Chairman Johnson. Gordon Johnson >> here. >> Kim Skornagoski >> here. >> Bill Bronson >> here. Marley Sunchild >> here. >> Amy Thompson >> here. >> Paige Shaskki >> here. >> Craig D >> excused. Thank you. Thank you. >> Uh ladies and gentlemen, please rise and trustee Sunshild will lead us in the pledge of allegiance. >> United States of America for all. Thank you very much, >> Mr. Chair. >> Trusti, >> I move we adopt the agenda as
002presented. Second. It's >> been moved and seconded to move um adopt the agenda as presented. Any questions or commentary from our board of trustees regarding the agenda? >> Mr. Ronson, do you have that for the agenda? >> Thanks. Any questions or comments? M >> M Mr. Chairman, I don't have the exact number up here yet, but the item on our agenda with respect to the audit, there has been a request that we remove this from the agenda. There is still some information, not available to the auditor prior to making their final report. So, I think we need to remove that from the agenda and we can put back on it. Thank you, Trusty Bronson. Um, this is for to approve the agenda minus action item A 202425 financial statement and audit report. Any questions or
003commentary from our gallery hearing? And seeing none, I'll call for the question. >> Motion. >> We may need to formally amend the motion. >> Yes. >> Put my request in the form of motion. >> Second. >> All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. >> Trusty Terrasi. >> I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda. Uh any questions or commentary? >> I was going to say, Mr. Chair, I think we need to move on the original motion to the original previous motion to adopt the agenda as amended. Is that right? >> I I believe so. I'm I'm looking at Mr. Bronson because he definitely is my Robert's rules. >> A motion had not been
004made. My correction was the first motion. So, I don't think it's necessary to have an amended motion. >> That was my sense. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you. Um, there's a motion. It has been seconded to approve the consent agenda. Thank you. Any questions or commentary from our board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from our gallery? >> Mr. Chair, if I may, uh, while Mrs. McGra is here. Um, in review of this, during our agenda planning meeting, there is a request that once the CM Russell High School HOSA students do their medical squads abroad that they come back and report to us about their trip. >> Sounds fascinating. >> Thank you. >> Excellent. Thank you. Been moved and seconded. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda as presented, please signify by saying
005I. I. >> Opposing sign. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Communication. Mrs. Mainwearing. Reports of student representatives. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, members of the community. Uh it's time for student reports. Our favorite time of the month. Uh so we'll start with uh Paris and then go to CMR and then Great Falls High. >> Super. Thank you. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, Trustees, and members of the community. My name is Aspen. I'm here to present for you guys today. Best-selling award-winning author Jamie Ford visited with the students about creativity, writing, and living with trauma, and the new book that he's been working on. Jamie shared a piece of work that he's just been working on and we were the first people to ever hear about it. >> The science
006class got to learn about the scientific method through a mouse trap mechanical challenge. The talented group really thought outside the box for this one to conquer this challenge. Students discovered the signs in their everyday lives. smoke alarms, speakers, magnetic fingernail polish, also a little friendly competition with paper planes. The students at Paris love foreign Fridays. They cook and sample recipes from all over the world while gaining a little bit of the perspective and the culture. Our technical applied math students took a field trip to the 120th Airlift Wing at the airport. Thank you to the crew at the loadm shop in the fire station for giving Paris Gibson students an incredible opportunity for some hands-on learning. We are so lucky to have Build Montana in our building. It gives students from all three high schools
007an opportunity to explore career opportunities in Montana and get hands-on training and industrial recognization certifications. The program also supports students to get funding and job placements. This course has recently been accepted as a dual enrollment class, which means students taking the class will earn two college credits. Paris Gibson Education Center hosted an archery tournament that the whole state of Montana was invited to. 73 students from five different schools participated in a tournament with three-dimensional targets. They had the chance to shoot at a velociaptor, a standing bear, and a mountain goat. They had a Ian Chandler took first place with the highest score. Curtis Burke took second place. Ian and Curtis are both students at CMR and are on the Paris archery team. Grant Golok from the North Middle School archery team took third place. We're
008super impressed that three kids from Great Falls scored the highest in the tournament. The Paris team won first place in the tree archery tournament. This is a super cool collaboration class with art teacher Miss Walters and English teacher Missagle. students or study of the novel The Princess Bride by William Goldman alongside the the classic film. Students can earn units for both art and English. This is one of our most highly attended classes. We love when learning gets messy. Our chemistry students were able to get their hands dirty and make some amazing creations in their exothermic resin pouring lessons. Aren't they beautiful? Thank you and have a great night. >> Thank you. >> Uh, good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, and members of the community. My name is Emerson Hammond, and I'll
009start our presentation. CMR HOSA students are going to Ghana this summer to work alongside doctors in rural clinics. They'll provide sample size hygiene items, reading glasses, and medication to people as well. Check out the CMR Facebook to find a fundraising link for their trip and details about how to donate hygiene items. First lesson we loved. Um, in Madame Davis's French 34 class, students have been learning about the carnival de Quebec, which began on the 6th and will continue until the 12th of February. This iconic carnival attracts people from all over the world and was very exciting to learn about. Our CMR students are working hard on their high school house. They recently learned to install sheetrock. We are so proud of their hard work and we are so excited to see the incredible home they
010provide for a community member at the end of this year. Our students have the opportunity to tour CalP and learn about exciting careers in STEM, industrial technology, and refining right here in our community. We appreciate when our local industries are willing to share their job opportunities with students. Our winter teams have found success these last few weeks. We're hopeful our boys and girls basketball teams will both be in good position for playoffs. Our swimmers are having their state swim meet this weekend and our wrestlers recently won cross town for the first time in 18 years. Our dance team also had a showcase celebration this month. Another lesson we loved was Mrs. Ingman's classes are detailing their lives as readers by looking back on the books that shaped them. Some are diving back into reading time
011um favorites from elementary school and others are reminiscing about required reads like The Catcher and the Ry or of Men. Students are eager to finish and present these projects. Every member of our BPA team qualified for the state competition in March. We had two teams take first place in their events and eight individuals take home gold medals with their solo events. Congratulations to all our future business professionals. The CMR speech and debate team has been busy as the season comes to an end with multiple tournament champions and two state double finalists. It's been a great year. Their final national qualifying competition is coming up this weekend. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, and members of the community. I am Lydia Commtock, and I will finish this presentation today. Another lesson that
012we loved was in culinary. Our culinary students had the opportunity opportunity to learn from Mariah Gladstone with Indie Kitchen. She joined our culinary classes and made green chili potato homonyy bison stew and sunflower seed butter caramel popcorn. This is a great way to learn about cooking and culture at the same time. We also had our eighth grade parent night. We host this night to share scheduling information and offer a club fair. Our goal is to get students excited about high school course offerings and engaged in clubs or extracurriculars early. As far as performing arts go, our chamber orchestra just wrapped up their annual doublea festival with a wonderful performance and are now preparing for their national performance at the end of the month. They will have a showcase concert on February 17th for the community
013to hear their program before they take off for San Francisco. In addition to that, the doublea band festival is coming up in March, as is the All Northwest Choir Festival. To stay up to date with fundraising for these choir students, make sure to check in with the Spark the Arts Facebook page. One of our AP art students, Nolan, won honorable mention for his analog photography in the Scholastic Art and Writing National Competition. Our students also have an art show February 19th at 400 p.m. in the Dark Horse. Their work is always fantastic and we recommend you take a moment after work to stop by. Another lesson that we loved was in Miss Mr. Davis's Forenses class. The students have been working on their blood splatter lab and analysis. They measure the distance and type of
014splatter with one or multiple drops of blood and it will help them investigate a fake crime scene later this semester. A panel of community journalists joined CMR students for National News Literacy Week. They used their expert experience within the realm of radio, TV, or print media to answer important questions about media literacy. We are so thankful for these community members and for our staff at CMR who made this possible. Students love the experience and we're excited to ask questions of their own. The CMR peer mentor group recently added a new installation in the commons made up of thankful butterflies that our students wrote on. This reminds the students daily to be grateful for all the support that they receive at CMR and the other things that bring them joy in their lives. The next lesson
015that we loved was in Mr. Anderson's class. Mr. Anderson's juniors have been embracing the transcendental era and thorough by creating a one watercolor major scene and writing a poem about the painting. And meanwhile, his freshmen are putting up the hero status of Odysius by having trials. Their jury spent time in del deliberation considering all of the evidence and then finally shared their verdict. And as far as wrestler pride goes, we love having young wrestlers in our building spending time with our students and learning what it means to be a wrestler, which is hard work, integrity, and involvement. Last Saturday, we welcomed 50 elementary students to deliver the halftime show with our Wranglers dance team. Future wrestlers are wrestler pride. And that concludes our presentation. Thank you. I believe we have a question for you from
016Trusty Skonagowski. >> Well, before you leave, we saw your picture up there a lot, Lydia. Can you share what you competed in in, for example, in speech and debate, and we saw some medals there, so maybe share some specifics? >> Yes, I compete in extemporaneous speaking and impromptu speaking for speech and debate, which are both um on the-fly short prep events. I think between now and our last meeting, we had a Helena competition where I took home gold along with a few of my teammates and then we had a competition in but where I was a finalist and state where I was a double finalist along with Brendan Wilmarth. And we also forgot to mention on our speech and debate slide, but this past season, we had two of our team members, um, including myself,
017reach all-American status for speech and debate, which is something that we haven't seen and I think 12 years. So, I'll keep you updated as those acknowledgements are officially recognized. But that's also exciting. >> Congratulations. Very exciting. Thank you. >> Bravo. Bravo. Bravo. >> We see your speech skills here every every month. >> Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, trustees, and members of the board and community. My name is Weston. I'm a sophomore at Great Falls, and I'll be starting our presentation. Choir at M. Um, choir students at Great Falls High and CMR had the opportunity to perform alongside the University of Montana Chamber Corral in January under the direction of Dr. Hiller. It was a great opportunity for those talented students to learn and show off their great skills. Teacher highlights this month. We'd like
018to recognize Miss Rosales, Mr. Defay, Mr. Fillinger. Uh, Mr. Smart, Miss Mr. Sullivan, Miss In, sorry, I'm gonna butcher this. Uh, Miss Imper, um, and Miss Taylor. Thank you for the teachers and staff for doing their best each and every day. Keep up the good work. A lesson we loved. Miss P Miss Pimpertton found a fun way to show different kinds of rock formations with her students in Earth and Space Science with Oreos. A fun way to get out of the textbooks and they got a good snack out of it as well. Our drama department, Great Falls High production of Greece, is coming up and you don't want to miss it. Grab your friends and family and take a seat. Come a little early and they're putting on a silent auction full of lots of
019goodies. A lesson we loved. Students in Miss Moira's US History wrapped up World War I by creating their own propaganda posters as a group. It was a fun way to give students a different way to show off uh what they know and their creativity through history. Speech and debate. Our bison speech and debate team performed well at their state tournament with El Patterson finishing 11th in humor's impression and uh Kalia Warden finishing ninth in memorized public address. Kalissa Award also became the state champion um in informative speech and blood typing. Congratulations. All right. Uh, good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, trustees, and members of the community. My name is Seth Royer. I'm a senior at Great Falls High, and I get to finish off the presentation. Uh, this first slide, um, Mr. Pate, the electricity
020teacher at school, uh, he has a class called Introduction to Industrial Technology. Um, it sounds pretty similar to a class we've had in the past. Um they they almost had the exact same name but um in the past that one had four quarters and each quarter you go to a different uh room like you go electricity welding was automotive but this one is solely in Mr. Bates's room and they go over um drywalling insulation electrical um and recently uh falls mechanical donated a full HVAC system with ducting for six rooms. They got a whole heater head unit. They came in, donated it all. Very, very nice of them. Um, so now students are going to be able to work with ducks and heating systems and that sort of thing. Uh, he's really passionate about this
021class and it's a great way for students to get exposed to a lot of the the different trades that go into building a house at once and I think it deserves more recognition. It looks really cool. I wish I could go back in time and take that class because it looks pretty neat. >> Um, next up is our winter sports. Uh they're rolling full steam ahead. Wrestling and swimming both have had their cross town and senior nights. Those both went really well. I wasn't able to make it to the wrestling one, but I've heard it's really really cool because they have a spotlight and everything like that. Um the swimming cross town was really fun because we practiced together and we're all able to kind of just compete against each other for once. It was
022really really nice. Um boys basketball, they won against uh Belgrade 50 to 34 and 46 to 43 over Boseman. And then girls basketball, they've had wins against Belgrade, Billings West, Sky View, Glacier, and Flathead. So, we're all doing pretty great. Uh, next up is BPA regionals. Our bison competed very, very well here and we're great representatives of Great Falls High at the region 3 BPA competition. Uh, they did so well that we have 28 bison moving on to the state competition March 8 to 10. Next up is Governor Great Gene Forte. uh the Great Falls High School career exploration classes, which is also something new that we're rolling out this semester. Um they had a visit from Governor Gene Forte. Uh he shared his own experiences and advice for a wide range of Griff High
023School students. Thank you to Governor Gene Forte for taking time out of his busy schedule to come and teach our students, make a positive impact on and hopefully their future. Uh next is our student recognition. Um on January 27th um a lot of students were able to kick off the day with a special breakfast to um celebrate them for being just just good students all around that were on our first semester. Um these students were nominated by their teachers for going above and beyond and for living out our core values every day. Uh to do what's right, do the best you can, treat others the way you want to be treated. Um these are really great core values and these people are going to make wonderful human beings. I'm sure we're proud of each of
024them and we're grateful for the positive example that they set in our classes every day. Next up, uh three Great Falls girls, one big opportunity. Um the freshman Danica, Charlie, and Lily have been selected to represent Montana's second congressional district in the 2026 House of Code Congressional App Challenge. In April, they'll travel to Washington DC to present their app, Cursive Create, alongside um top student coders across the country. It's an incredible opportunity for our students to represent our school and community on a national stage. That also sounds really cool. And lastly is our our socials. Remember, follow the hurt. We got a bunch of cool stuff on there. Uh that's where you'll you'll hear a lot of the stuff in here earlier if you follow us on there. And that's all we have for tonight.
025>> Very good. Thank you. Thank you. a lot going on. We're a little bit envious and we've got all these wonderful activities going on and we're very proud very proud of your accomplishments. So, thank you for being here with us this evening. Communication item B, superintendent report, Mrs. Hoyer. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Before I um go on, we do have one of our students who the next time she joins us, there's probably a good chance she's going to be an alumni. And so I want to wish Miss Aspen the very best as she wraps up. I believe it's her final class, >> just just English. So she will be um continuing to join us every month, but um we're really proud of you, Aspen. congratulations on your your upcoming graduation
026and bell ringing. So, I'm hoping to be able to to celebrate you soon. Um, as we were getting ready, um, in the last seconds before we started the board meeting, the, um, elections office downtown did let us know that as of 5:00 today when they closed, we do have three individuals running for three three-year positions here for the school board. Um, so, thank you for those of you who have applied to run for the school board. just a heads up that March 2nd is the closing date for writeins and so we wanted to be sure that we communicated that out and um looking forward to to the next month or so as we wrap up this process. So this evening with my superintendent uh report we have a couple of amazing groups that we want
027to celebrate. They both happened on February 3rd. Um, the first one, two individuals up on the top and we have a whole, we have 29, as a matter of fact, counselors. Um, but I grabbed two who are fairly new to their ranks. The first one is Clint Houston. He's over at Great Falls High. I had to let him know the other day at a school event. Um, I saw him at Cross Town swimming. I said, "I'm putting your fish picture up." And he wanted to be sure it was the picture with the big fish, not the little fish. um he is a former school resource officer who when he left the PD wanted to continue to work with kids and so he is working to complete his coursework um but is one of the school
028counselors at Great Falls High. The other one is Montana Johnson. Um he is our master level counselor at the core at Morningside. He was a therapeutic practitioner and he wanted to be in the school setting. He's also one of our purple star recipients. So, this is just an example of the individuals that we have who work as school counselors who have done something different with their life but are called to work with kids and they're one of many, many amazing counselors who are in our schools and work day in and day out. Another group that we wanted to celebrate was our crossing guards. And so, you'll see two individuals there. You probably recognize them. We have 27 crossing guards across the district. Breezy Champlain, I believe I said that right, um is down at Longfellow.
029She's down on Ninth. Um you probably recognize her as the one who's usually dancing and waving and smiling at everybody. So um I know she gets a lot of of honks and waves back and um to see her work with the kids is pretty cool as they're um heading to and from school. Gary Shenthal, also over at Lincoln. He's one of our longest standing crossing guards and he's really known for greeting kids and families. One of the things with the crossing guards it's important to remember is they often times are the first point of conduct or contact, sorry, uh for our students and families. So, they set the stage for how the day is going to go for so many of our kids. So, that welcoming smile, that hug, that how was you know, how
030was home last night? Did you get your math homework done? I've heard a couple of them ask um you know, are you ready for your concert this evening or this afternoon? Um just they play a really really important role and and it was an honor to be able to celebrate both of these groups um at the start of the month. You just heard about the next group of young ladies um who won the congressional app challenge um in the second congressional district. So these are the ninth graders over at Great Falls High School. Um you heard details and you saw their app. I got on and played on their app the other day. It's actually really um cool. They're they're um the one that they did that they'll be presenting. But here's a little additional
031information. First of all, the teachers, the two teachers that guide code girls are teachers who are doing the innovative summer learning program for our code class. And so they are passionate passionate ladies um about giving students this opportunity to the point that they're going to um provide a two-day class. These ladies will be presenting at the US Capitol during the National Science Fair. Um, and it's the House of Code that will be April 21st and 22nd. There are only two teams from Montana who qualified. A team from Browning who has already been sponsored. So, their full trip has been sponsored and then the team from Great Falls. Um, and so if you know these young ladies and you see their fundraisers, um, shake their hand, tell them thank you. They're doing some pretty incredible work
032and support them as they work to make it to the next level. Um the next one is just a picture. See, Sherry, keep maybe keep clicking through. Um what this is is historic and projected enrollment for Great Falls Public Schools. And this is not um this is not the the definite number on count day. Not all enrollments are create created equal. What this is is the number of students who repres that we have them literally in the building at one point in time during the day. When we're doing count, which we're still working on cleaning up that data, um we then have to break down the number of kids who walk through our doors for service as to the number of kids who are there for a quarter of a day, a half a day,
033threequarters of a day. Um and it breaks down. So that number does drop. But the interesting point about this is as you look, we're starting to move down the trend line, but we're remaining above where our demographers total us that we would be um as we're moving down. So this is just for trend line purposes only, but we remain almost cons exactly consistent as you can see in 2025 um to those numbers. We were at um with our spring count. The other day we were just down a little bit from the fall count and that we're tracing or tracking that trend line downward, but we're not as significant as what those professionals told us um in 2019 when the study was done for the board. Oh, go ahead, Sherry. No, you're just fine. Do you
034want me to do I can do that. You're multitasking tonight. But you can see our trend line go down. So, we match it almost identical. That's okay. No, I thought I had messed up, but it's interesting to watch. So, we're keeping a close eye on that. It allows us to make projections moving forward, although it's not the final number of which we are funded at. So, the next three slides I wanted to to share with you. Um I am going around and doing the third quarter visits to different groups and different schools. um and seeing how they are in meeting the goals of the strategic plan and the work they're doing. And I can tell you this year that buildings and grounds was the very first group to turn their report into me. Um much
035the chagrin of Mrs. Heinselman over at Riverview, who is my most competitive principal, when she turned hers in, the first thing she said was first. And I went, "Nope, Brent and Jack got theirs in before you." So, um, going through just looking at the strategic plan, I want to give you some highlevel highlights of what they're doing and then a barrier that they've identified and then a couple of employees who they say really just make this work happen on the background. So, for healthy, safe, and secure schools, our building and ground reported that they are um happy with the fire alarm upgrades that are helping with a variety of safety drills. They've done their lead in the water, door security and indoor air quality and drainage, which is mold prevention. Um, and securing playgrounds with
036fencing to be sure that our kids are safe when they are stretching their legs outside. For student achievement, really getting them and their department to understand that the state of our facilities and the security during times of uncertainty really helps students and staff feel safe and supported and allow them to learn. If we don't have these individuals putting those pieces in place, the job of teaching becomes really, really hard. So, we appreciate that work that they do that often goes unrecognized. And then for stewardship and accountability, they are doing things like uh training everybody on water conservation um and on energy conservation. They're trying to lower peak demand hours, for example, by slowly bringing buildings up to full power versus a quick turn on which burns a lot of energy very quick. So, they're learning
037these very finite ways to save us energy and save us money. Um, they're continuing to do their building walkthroughs and planning, competitive bids, you name it, these guys are involved in it. The barrier that they're they've identified as staffing um and that it's just it's a constant battle that they have to be sure that they're fully staffed. And then there are three gentlemen up at the top. And I believe we have a family member in the audience who might be pretty cool. Um, but Terry Lidost Stansky, I hope I said that right. He's our electrical foreman. Um, Ryan Stole, who is he comes in, specializes on boilers, HVAC, lead reduction filters, and then Scott Watson. But all three of those gentlemen, um, Jack and Brent both said, "Doesn't matter day or night. If we have
038something happening in one of our schools, they want to be sure it's ready for kids the next morning, they can call on them 24/7, even on holidays, and they come in and be sure our schools are in working order for teachers. So, that is the update for the first semester from buildings and grounds. A quick update from West Elementary. This is Mrs. Lewis in her first year of leadership over at West Elementary. Um, she healthy, safe, and secure schools. They're really focusing on consistency in every class, working on a program called COP being good, which is where they're able to identify kids who are doing the things that are right for the right reasons and not expecting to have um any recognition for it. They're being recognized for that. Of course, Character Strong, RCD, and
039MTSS, U multi-tered systems of support are allowing them to go to the next level of conversations to help redirect kids. They're focusing on fluency and oral language and coaching for mastery. Um, the thing that's cool with this is Lacy is going in and she is covering classes for teachers to gather all of the data so the teachers can continue to do the small group work in her school. So, she's taking that off of the teacher's plate, but allowing that data to happen so they can have those deep um, rich conversations about students and student achievement. And then stewardship and accountability. Um, when Lacy realized that her PTA meetings were underattended and it was really hard for West families to attend in the evening, she started having them on Saturday mornings at a coffee shop and
040um meeting her parents so she can get her parent voice involved at West. And so I'm just really really proud of the work that Lacy's doing in her first year. Um, she identified the barrier of student mental health as being the thing that really is the hardest for them to work to overcome. And the two staff members that she recognized are Randa Curtis and Ashley Weaver. And um by the way, I will be I have been writing handwritten notes to these individuals and thanking them with some very specific comments from their supervisors and principles. The last one then is uh Valley View Elementary and this is Mrs. Dell Dyke. Um she is identifying they're really focusing in on attendance and writing personal notes to families and students. Um she said the number of students who
041are chronically absent who have missed 10% or more is actually down 11% this year because of that personal communication um that she's having with both the students and the families. So they're very very happy with response to that intervention. And then she has something called peanut butter pals um where that's a peer mentoring for social skills and they're seeing some great progress with social skills with the younger kids and the older kids. I'm sure that Trusty Terroski probably knows about the Peanut Butter Pals and sees them in action all the time. Um for student achievement, she listened very closely when she heard the teacher say that they don't have enough time to work with their grade level partners. They want to do training with their grade level partners. So, she's bringing in um I think
042a sub or two and then she's also helping and they're doing coverage across the building so they can have half a day to get together with their grade level peer dig into the data and really take a look at high quality direct instruction. They realize from their walkthroughs that there's a difference between engagement and lecture when the students are doing when they're doing direct instruction with the students. They're honing in on that, looking for the data to support best practices, and they're also including their paras and the PR PLC's for that. For stewardship and accountability, she continues to work with the executive directors and peers um to build their comprehensive building level plan. She also identified the barrier student mental health to student success. And I will continue as I work through my schools to
043give you just quick snapshots of what's happening and identifying best practices as well as barriers and buildings. And the last one is the data for the day. So this is our behavior um for semester 1. As you can see in the upper leftand corner, we are bumping up right against where we were last year. So we're holding very consistent with that line. um when we said last year was our baseline, we're right there again this year um with 1,211. So just down a little bit, but statistically not down a lot from last year. When you look at the specific categories of aggravated assault, remember that aggravated assault is not the legal definition of aggravated assault, but it is just assault um or one-sided essentially. attendance, um disorderly conduct, fighting, insubordination, and threat at school. We
044are seeing a drop um in the assault. Attendance is creeping back up again, which is one of the reasons some of our elementaryaries are focusing in on attendance. So, we're starting to see those those chronic truencies um pick back up again. Disorderly conduct, that's the mutual fight or the disruption to the learning environment. Um, it's also dropping as is regular fighting. Insubordination is better. But then if you notice on the very, very far right, it says threat at school and we're up to 38. That's because we didn't have a consistent way. Last year when we were doing our calibration, we realized that some of the threats that were being made at school, that's either to themselves, another student, a group of students, very rarely it's the whole school, but that's grouped in there, were marked
045confidential. because they involved a threat assessment of some type. And if that's the case, we missed that data point. We couldn't pull it. So Jackie and Lance found a different way to code it. And we're now able to get an actual count of how many times are threats all the way from those excited utterances that you hear on the playground to things that are more significant. Um how much are we actually seeing those when they elicit a response of a threat assessment? So, we're going to watch that number very closely and work really hard with our threat assessment team um as we move forward through the data. So, this is your first semester data. I will come back again at the end of the year to give you the entire picture of how our behavior
046looked as I move through the strategic plan analysis for the rest of the year. So, with that, I stand for any questions you may have. >> Any questions for Mrs. Hoyer, from either our board of trustees, or from anyone in the room? Your report appears to be comprehensive. Thank you very much. A lot of good work there. Thank you. >> Uh moving on, communication item C, audience communication. I have one request to speak before this board of trustees this evening. Mrs. Mortonson, would you please come to the rostroom? Welcome. Thank you for indulging me for a little bit. I would go through the Thank you, Mrs. Hoyer, the board and the people and all everybody's here, but I don't have it down as well as those students do. So, I will just say thank you.
047Um, I just wanted to give you a little bit of an update on SJ48, which is the marijuana bill that we're trying to get introduced into the 2027 legislature. There was a hearing on January 13th which was um a little was quite an information uh gathering for me and also um a real eyeopener on where we what a real uphill battle we're going to have trying to get a handle on this problem. the money being poured into the state by the marijuana industry and the legislators who really have shown little or no information on it or little or more no um interest in it is going to be a big battle. I just appreciate you're letting me come here and updating you on the fact that it's a battle we're all as a community and
048particularly uh with your help and your contacts are going to be involved in hopefully to the point where we can at least get the committee to study the problem. the I don't think there's any question on the harms of marijuana or the rippling results we see within our community. One of the things that surprised me was a doctor from Billings who had some statistical information about the harms that he personally is seeing anecdotal information. He said that about 22% of the patients he sees are under 10 years old. So it is a community statewide and of course national problem. If you have any questions for me or if there's any information you would like, I'd be happy to present it. But I want the school board particularly to be aware that it is a battle
049ahead of us for the 2027 legislature. questions. >> Any questions for Mrs. Morton? If not, thank you so much for your vigilance and sharing the information with us. >> I appreciate your time and attention. Thank you. >> Certainly. Thank you. And at this point in time, student representatives, you're so busy and um active. You need to uh go and uh do what it is you do best and represent us well. Thank you so much for coming and uh again we appreciate your your your uh achievements and we're very proud of you. So thank you. We're moving on to Roman 7 action items. Action item A has been postponed. We're moving on to B, which is second reading of revised board policies 11-11, 2131, 3410, 7122, and 7122F. Mrs. Hyer, >> thank you, Mr. Chair, members
050of the board, and members of the public who are um left with us. Um I there is one change that I'll go over at the end at 7122, but as far as policies 1 or 1111 3410, none of those have received any input um to report to you for second readings. If you look closely though on policy 7122 and in your book I slid um an update that was provided to me by a member of our committee uh trustee Bronson. So I'm going to try to capture all of this and I'm going to have him correct me as we go. So I I just printed off the information. It doesn't deal necessarily with the content of the policy, but it deals with the legal references and how we're making legal references as we move through
051the codification um of the policy itself. So, if you look on page 40, line 57 actually has um amends line 49 within the law. And so the wording to notify the user or reader of this policy that there is a temporary legal change should be reflected as such that 20-9-116 MCA from 2025 is a temporary provision through June 30th of 2025 and the version effective July 1st 2027. the resolution of intent to increase a non-voted levy and notice. And then we should go ahead and strike both lines 56 and 57 on page 40. And that just cleans up the House Bill 22. The main concern is that every legislative session has a House Bill 22. And if for some reason you lose that parentheses of 2025, it is really easy to link the wrong House
052bill to the current policy. And so, um, I want to thank Trusty Bronson for bringing forward how we properly, um, cite that and I'm going to let him clean up the language that I used if I used it improperly at any time. But with that, that was the only suggested change. >> Mr. Chairman, uh, for the record too, there was a typo in one amendment I submitted to Mrs. Hoyer should read June 30th, 2027 and not 2025. So, >> thank you. So with that, Mr. Chair, um I submit for the board's approval um policies uh on second reading and policy specifically um as amended within the legal references. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Bronson. >> I move that we approve revised policies 1.11 election 2131 3410 7122 with the amended reference and 7122F. >> Second.
053>> Moved and second to to approve revise board policies 1111, 2131, 3410, 7122, and 7122F. Any questions or commentary from our board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from our gallery hearing? Seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of adopting the motion, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppos same sign. Motion's carried. Action other. Nothing was taken from the consent agenda. We'll move on to reports, discussion, and policies. Roman nine, figure A, first reading of revised board policies 2110, 3110, 1770, 3510. Mrs. Hoyer, >> thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. What you have in front of you are four policies uh for your first review. They have been modified to meet both statutory guidelines as well as wording as um provided to us or suggested by MTSBA.
054The first one is 1210. That's qualifications, terms, duties of board officers. Um if you notice on lines 23 on page 44 down through 29, that is a replacement. Um, I do believe when you take a look at this that it is better in line that the proposed wording is better in line with Robert's rules of order. Um, best practices for a board chair to be able to actually make a motion as long as they temporarily during the meeting step down as board chair, make that motion, and then step back in again. Um, there was one grammat or a typographical error on line 29. The word in should be on. >> Okay. If you look at policy 1310 once again um it is statutory in nature. Lines 15 through 20 have been redacted and replaced with
05522 through 25. It does help us address um a short turnaround time that we have when we're to looking at federal law and required changes by administrative rule. Policy 1770 is the uniform complaint procedure. You'll probably see things move around most in this policy when we're looking at the ones we're approving. Um, first of all, line 14 on page 48, you'll notice we're replacing the word grievance to uniform complaint. That's consistent with all of our policies. It's also consistent with our handbooks. It's consistent with CBA and with student handbooks. Just makes the language a lot easier to understand when you're looking at the actual policy itself. um lines 18 through 22 have been struck but not removed completely as they are moved down into lines 39- 46. So there's just a realignment um and a
056suggestion by MTSBA to make this policy flow better. Then if you move over and you take a look at I'm going to jump ahead to page 50 itself. Um line five, they removed the administrator's decision and placed it on the level three decision. It just allows in tracking of the complaints to be sure that we're following the correct um complaints for our uniform complaint procedures. And then finally, uh, if you go down to level five, which is with the board lines 32 through 35 on page 50, that is an updated uh, it's a a note that this has been updated for you to review because it very specifically outlines your role in the process of uniform grievance procedure. And then you'll notice finally at the very end of that on page 52 that there has
057been some codification. quite a few of them. You'll notice new MCAs, new arms and then um we have updated and removed the chapter uh 305 as well. Finally 3510 which is school sponsored student activities. This reflects some statutory requirements. >> On page 54, lines 23 through 28 is a statutory reflection um prohibiting or restricting where the district may prohibit or restrict participation in extracurricular activities for homeschool students if they are not citizens of the United States in the state of Montana. And then line 55 is the clarification of um Montana code 20-7-1306. This is in lines 9 through 17 where it is the designated of district sponsored athletic teams or sports as based on biological sex. And so those come directly out of law as per the last legislative session. You will see updates to
058the legal references made as well for those. And with that, those are the next policies up for you to review that we'll be going over at our next board meeting. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Reports, discussion, and policies. Roman nine U B discussion, committee reports, and comments. We're going to start with Trusty Sunsh. That's so true. I mean, when I first came into all of this, I thought each of the elementarymentaries are sort of like cookie cutter. They were all the same. I learned quickly that wasn't the case at all. But yes, it's good for our community to realize the uh unique characteristics of each of our schools. Thank you, Trustees Gordski. >> Uh just a thank you to um our school counselors and our crossing guards. I think you inspired me to look
059into being a crossing guard when I retire. So there you go. >> Um thank you very much for that. And just to let my fellow trustees know and our community know, the school calendar is released to the public. The three choices for not next year but the following year um are out there. I would strongly encourage everyone to write a comment on the Facebook post or share the Facebook post to your personal page to encourage. It's just kicking that post into the Facebook algorithm um to get it out more into the community so we truly can have the community voice represented in that vote. >> Thank you, Trusty Trroski. >> I just want to thank our IT department for diligently working on the YouTube issue that was brought forth by parents at our last board
060meeting. I really appreciate it, especially as a parent who's pretty much banned YouTube from my my kids being able to watch it, which they don't like, but that was, you know, I like it. Um, and then I want to quickly talk about Lexia that the kids are doing on their laptops at school or on their Chromebooks. And it's I think it's a really good program. The kids seem like they're really liking it. It's a very fun interactive way to work on like phonics and word sounds, and they seem to like it. except one little Kinder I work with says that it tricks him all the time. So, he's maybe not a fan, but everyone else seems to be. Um, and then just really quick on a personal note, this will um I will be gone
061at the next board meeting in that whole week and this is my last meeting as Trusty Terasi as I am getting married and will be changing my name. So, >> congratulations. >> Thank you, >> Trusty Bronson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a few things. Uh, number one, as you recall at our last meeting, I mentioned I would be attending later that week the meeting of the Montana School Boards Association. We did hold our meeting. number of very important things did come out of the conversation, but one that I wanted to emphasize for all of you this evening is that we will need to pay very close attention to what is developing in Helena with respect to the revenue situation for the state in the coming bienium. The legislative fiscal division right now is projecting
062a fairly substantial deficit in our general fund, barring any changes made by the 2027 session. A deficit situation could put our public school funding system at some risk in the coming two years. And so we are paying very close attention to where that goes and what might be necessary to make sure that we don't lose any of the gains that we've made in the last few years. But more on that will be coming forward. So please stay tuned. Second, also with respect to MTBSBA, you probably received an email from Deb Silk in recent days on a annual membership survey. Yes. The results of that survey will be important to those of us on the state board in crafting an updated strategic plan for the organization later this spring. Uh I communicated with Mr. Johnson about
063this and I what I would like you to do is don't respond to it individually. We'll have a group discussion about this most likely at our next board meeting where I can get some general input from all of the trustees. on some of those areas that you all have experience with so that we can provide a collective response and I assure you MTSBA will greatly appreciate that. What one of the problems quite frankly is that not all of the member schools are as proactive in communicating a collective vision to MTSBA about where they want to see the organization go and what priorities they want set. And so when we as a double A participant can do that, I think it just helps the organization significantly. So again, take a look at it, but we'll have
064a conversation about it in our next meeting. And then just finally on a on a nice note today when I was making a deposit at one of the banks, the teller asked me, "Are you one of those people that stands in line and hands out diplomas?" And I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that really. I wasn't sure what the answer was going to be. And then I said, "Yes, I am." And she said, "Well, I wanted to thank you." She said, "You handed me my diploma >> years ago when I graduated from Paris Gibson." And it just meant a lot to me. And this is the first chance I had to say thank you very much. >> Well, how nice. So, >> yeah, >> it was pretty good. And I went, boy, that's
065great. >> That's all. Thanks, Mr. Well, and thank you for your representation uh on the Montana School Board Association. Appreciate that. Trusty Thompson. >> Well, I just want to reiterate what Trustee Sunshild said about the strategic budget plan U highlights. That is a another fabulous addition to the superintendent's report and I really uh appreciate how well you uh are able to disseminate the information to so many groups and I really think that it helps to um to to let all everyone including the people that come to the meetings understand how transparent that we are trying to be at the um at this level. So thank you. Thank you. And at this point in time, we're going to uh pause this meeting, a temporary adjournment as it were, and go into executive session in the boardroom.
066And Trusty Thompson is going to take us through the superintendent's evaluation process. And after that, uh we will return to this room and share with u those who are here the results of our meeting. and afterwards uh adjourn the meeting fully. So at this point in time ladies and gentlemen let's uh move to the boardroom. Thank you.