001Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'll call this meeting of the Great Falls Public Schools Board of Trustees to order. Today is December 15, 2025. And uh by Montana state law, we are required to record these sessions and they will be uploaded to our website at some point in the future. With that being said, Mr. Deakons, would you please um do the roll call? >> Thank you. Chairman Johnson, Chairman Johnson >> here. >> Kim Skornagowski >> here. >> Bill Bronson >> here. >> Craig Duff >> here. >> Marley Sunchild. >> Amy Thompson >> here. >> And Paige Terasi [clears throat] >> here. >> Thank you. You have a full board present. Chairman Johnson. >> Thank you, Mr. Decon. And if you would rise and join me in the pledge of >> allegiance. Thank you, >> Mr.
002Chair. >> Trusty Terraski. >> I move that we adopt the agenda as presented. >> Second. Been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda. Any questions or commentaries from our board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from our gallery here with us this evening? hearing and seeing none, I will call for the question. All those in favor of adopting the agenda, please signify by saying I. >> I opposed. Same sign. >> Mr. Chair, >> Trusty Scorski, >> I move we approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda. Any questions, commentary from our board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from our gallery here? Seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda, please signify by saying I. I. >>
003I. >> Opposed. Same [snorts] sign. Thank you. Right. Into communication. Report of student representatives. Mrs. Maywary. Good evening, Chairman Johnson. >> Good evening. You're welcome. Members of the board, members of the community, it's my pleasure to welcome our student representatives. And tonight, we will start with Great Falls High. >> Thank you. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, trustees, and members of the board. I'm Weston Stole, and I will be starting our December presentation. Great Falls High had their annual winter formal with the theme of Once Upon a Dream. It was a good way for everyone to get together and show off some dance moves. During prom, we crowned our our prom king and queen, Jericho Jay and Alleta Hagen. Congratulations to both. Keep showing us what it truly means to be a bison. Advanced Chamber
004Orchestra. Our Great Falls High Advanced Chamber Orchestra performed at the Grand View Assist Assisted Living. It was a rewarding way to give back to the community and was enjoyed by everyone listening. Way to go, chamber orchestra. Winter concerts. Great Falls High music department had their annual two-day holiday concert where where choir, orchestra, and band came together to create an amazing concert for Great Falls to see. One of the best traditions of the art department. On our first night, we had over 1,300 people. We had our art auditorium packed. Um, Great Falls High had Great Falls High has a what we do Wednesday program where every Wednesday we take we take a time out of our third period to refresh everyone on how it means to be a bison. This month, our junior student council class
005decided to have everyone show gratitude by writing on a leaf something they were grateful for at Great Falls. We decorated a billboard full of these leaves and added decoration and positivity to our school. Salvation Army bell ringing. Some StuCo members have been ringing bells at Sam's Club and Shields to help raise money for Salvation Army. Look for them on December 20th. Way to go, Bison. We are very proud. Steel Magnolius. Our theater department had their first production this year of Steel Magnolius. It was great. Congratulations, Miss Dwey, and all the cast and crew. A lesson we loved. In Miss Pimton's biology class, she created a skit for her students to perform to show how the electron transport chain works. It was a fun way to get her students out of their seats and learn in
006a fun and new way. Our student council got the privilege to got to the privilege to participate in the annual mass conference with other student councils around the state. They listened to key speakers and took away life lessons and ideas to improve in their school environments. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the community, and members of the board. My name is Caitlyn Fulbright and I'm a junior and I will be ending our presentation. In Miss Stub's marketing class, kids got to showcase their cereal brands and boxes in the hub for other students to vote on. Students worked on this project for two weeks to come up with a target, market, product, price, and place in a survey for their different cereals. This month, we'd like to recognize Miss Schmidt, Miss Temple, Mr. Hopkins,
007Mr. Masco, Miss Sweeney, Miss Warner, and Mr. Dorche for their dedication and involvement in our school. These people are examples of true Vison pride and determination to make our school a better place. Our winter sports are progressing full speed ahead. Boys and girls basketball both already had their first games with the girls in Flathead and the boys at home. Wrestling heads to White Hall and BU for their varsity and JB meets. Big shout out to our boys and girls swimming who absolutely dominated the competition in Callisbell, winning by almost double the amount of points and got second team or second place team. Huge shout out to Mr. Wilds and his video production classes who once again did a fantastic job with the year's Bookathon PSA. This is the seventh year Hitman and his classes have
008worked for the Great Falls High Public Library Foundation to produce a PSA for the library. Thank you for all you do for the school, the district, and the community. Mr. Wilds, another lesson we loved is in Mr. Wild's AP physics, students have been studying circular motion, which is a pretty complex subject with a lot of new ideas, like how when something is going in a circle, even if it isn't speeding up, it's constantly accelerating. Now that we have the basics of that down, we are moving to on to universal gravitation. This month we don't have a trivia, but we'd like to share a cool piece of Great Falls High's history. In 1898, a man named Fred A. Warner came to Great Falls to help his brother at the Cascade Drugstore. His brother died in 1900,
009and Fred took over the business, establishing it as Great Falls Drug Dragon Co. [snorts] He built the building that currently houses the studio bar and the building that displays his name at the top of it. Mr. Warner accumulated wealth over the years as a prominent Great Falls businessman. In 1912, he went to Great Falls High School Board to get permission to give a scholarship to the graduating valictorian, the graduate with the highest GPA over four years. From 1913 until his death 25 years later in 1938, Mr. Warner gave the Warner Medallion to the Great Falls High Valley Victorian. It was made with 18 karat yellow gold. This is currently there is currently one for sale at Miller's Jewelry in Bosezeman, Montana for almost $7,000. And that's the end of our presentation. Thank you. >> Well
010done. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, trustees, and members of the community. My name is Aspen Logani, and I'm going to be starting this presentation today. Art and English teamed up for a shrink and dink lesson. Students created the cutest keychains and ornaments and composed a creative writing piece. What a good way to apply your art talents to make these stories come to life. After reading the novel, English students with Miss McGonagal were challenged to create a representation of Midnight Library for their class. Sage PE painted this stunning image that captured the picture or captured the book perfectly. I'm going to absolutely butcher this, but this is huchel art work in progress. Students learned about indigenous traditions in Mexico for using pine pitch and beeswax to create a media for attaching glass beads. Super cool
011art and science project. They should be completed in time for the holidays. Funding for this project was provided by a foundation grant. Thank you GFPS foundation for your financial support. Our students working on inter intertribal strong and science enrichment units. They did the tedious work that went into wrapping leather around the wire hoop requiring patience and multiple hands. Beautiful dream catchers for some pretty amazing students. Thank you Montana Academy of Salons for allowing our students to explore your education and career opportunities. The tour included station after station of hands-on activities to give students a true idea of what the training includes. So many options for a bright future. Drama art. The elk skin drums are wrapping up. As promised, we have now completed images and have artwork to share. Personalities show through these with many
012different projects as students select art that represents them. There are a few more in the works, but we have to keep them top secret cuz they're Christmas gifts. [laughter] SSD Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes frontier that sank in Lake Superior during a storm on November 10th, 1975 with the loss of the entire crew of 29 men. When launched on June 7th, 1958, she was the largest ship on the North America's Great Lakes and remains the largest to have sank there. Students learned about this vessel on the 50th anniversary of the sinking and students learned why they s like why it sank and why it was too heavily loaded for At Lake. Good evening, Superintendent Johnson or sorry, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, trustees, and members of the community. My name is Caitlyn Mccclure, and
013I'm going to finish off this presentation. What's cooler than clay? Clay club. Miss Walters and her students create some super cool pieces. Watch our schedule and join her for your own chance to express your creativity. Ornament beating. While students primarily loom beans, also beads, also known as brick or pet beading, they learned a new technique during the holiday season. Ornament beading requires a new mathematical skill called European net beating. The holidays are on our mind. Starting our Christmas gifts list early and make sure students have time to complete all their lessons and make sure they're on the nice list. Inflatable Olympics. As a way to encourage students to use their time wisely, we we issued tickets for every unit earned before Thanksgiving. Students were able to put the tickets in buckets and select which teachers
014they wanted to see compete in the inflatable Olympics. Teachers were challenged to a dance off, hopscotch, and a foot race. It's a very fun day. The annual student pow-wow was a great success. The events moved from spring to fall this year. We had more student dancers than ever before and students were able to sell their indigenous artwork. Great Falls Public Schools has a nice collection of regalia available at the event for students to borrow. Dugan does an excellent job of sharing district data throughout the program. His team works together to offer a top-notch event that is open to all. Please consider attending next year's PAW life skills. [clears throat] Sorry, life skills bowling. Once a month, students from all five secondary schools meet at Little Lanes for some bowling. Students are able to connect with
015each other and practice their social skills, navigate the transit to get their to get to their desired destination, practice money skills when placing orders, and problem solve as necessary. I encourage you to join the students if your schedule allows. You you will thoroughly enjoy the conversations and time with the students. Thank you and have a wonderful holiday season. >> Thank you. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, soon and Hoyer, members of the board, and members of the community. My name is Emerson Hammer, and I'll start our presentation. Students at CMR participate in the lunch buddy program where they travel to different elementary schools, eat lunch with the younger kids, and encourage school attendance as well as being good role models. In Mrs. Ingamman's honors English classes, they were assigned an essay project called this I believe. In
016less than 600 words, they had to go in depth on a core belief that governs their lives, and it prompted many students uh to create some very thoughtful pieces. One student used their favorite published essay as inspiration to write about how structure is important for growth. Another student spoke about how childhood magic and Santa Claus emphasize how the world around us is still full of wonder that deserves to be seen. The 48th High School House, which is still making steady progress, was visited by TV celebrity Mike Row and Governor Gene Forte, highlighting our amazing career and technical programs along with the teachers who make it possible. Wells Fargo also gifted $200,000 to Neighbor Works, a nonprofit organization that has been paired with High School House for all 48 years. We would like to thank them
017for supporting our students in CTE programs. In Mr. Hibbert's honors chemistry class, students mix 10 different metal compounds with three other solutions and a well plate, leaving one row open as a constant. They then recorded how each one of the compounds reacted to the solutions and what kind of metal it was. This lab was successful in teaching the different reactions between transition metals and group one and two metals. This lab also allowed students to practice more of their naming of type two ionic compounds. Winter sports have begun at CMR. Wrestling started their season off at the Mining City DS in the White Hall tournament. The girls and boys basketball teams have wins against Glacier and Flathead with the boys hitting a buzzer beater to beat Glacier. Swimming also had their first meet in Callisville. BPA
018students presented student business ideas at the GFDA entrepreneur celebration event and heard feedback on their ideas and got to network with local entrepreneurs. Good evening Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board and members of the community. I am Lydia Commtock and I will continue our presentation. In Pro Petel's Spanish 56 and 78 classes, students finished reading the novel La Vampir. This is a short novel that allowed students to learn new words by using context clues and English cognates. It was a great way to get the mind thinking in Spanish rather than just using repetition. CMR speech and debate has started and students have performed very well in the last two weeks. We've gone to lots of small school meets and last weekend we were in Bosezeman and in this upcoming weekend we will be
019going to Shodto. Another lesson that we loved in Mr. Holland's physics classes. Students used paper, straw, and glue to make cars. But these weren't just any cars. They had to carry an egg safely down a six meter track. It was a difficult challenge, but students learned a lot as they compared speed and safety during this experiment. Our performing arts students have had a busy winter. The Adams family wrapped up a great show at the end of November, and many of those same students also attended the doublea choir festival the same month. A smaller choir group, the Wrestellers, has also had the privilege of performing in our community almost every day in December. They've been at elementary schools and community events for the holiday season. And beyond that, we've been enjoying our yearly holiday concerts with
020orchestra on December 4th, band tonight, and choir tomorrow night. Our student government kids also had the privilege of attending the annual MASC state convention. They got to attend workshops with topics from team building to community change to social media strategy. They shared ideas and got a glimpse of parliamentary procedure during their business session. and we are glad to have one of our own students serving on the executive board, which is myself. Um, and it is really exciting to have our state leaders lead this conference and show all of our students the future of leadership in the states. And another lesson that we loved was in Mr. Allen's AP United States history classes. Students spent the past two weeks learning about the failure of reconstruction after the Civil War. During this time period, the government tried
021to pass movements and laws to make a difference in the divided union, but most efforts failed. However, after gaining a full knowledge of this time period, students had to make the argument of why reconstruction was a failure to Mr. Allen while he debated back. This is an interesting lesson that taught about the controversy in politics and the importance of perspective. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, member of the board, and members of the community. My name is Addie Chris, and I'll be finishing this presentation. We have a wonderful art exhibit in the OC Seltzer Gallery until January 26th. We welcome you to stop by and see their work. CMR hosted and participated in the annual community of Native American Powow. This celebrated the diversity of Native American culture within our district and community. Two CMR
022students were the lead female and male dancers for the event. Morp was put on by CMR student government and was held at the history museum this week. The theme was famous duos and trios and the students had a great time. We are so proud that many of our groups, students, and staff members adopt families at Christmas to help make the holiday a little brighter. Our basketball teams are also donating to Toby's house. It's the week before Christmas and we love to have a little holiday fun dressing up and sharing holiday music throughout the day. Our students and staff are Rustler Pride. We are proud to earn all kinds awards of all kinds, but we are most proud when someone recognizes our character. We received this letter from MHSA last week. I am thrilled to congratulate
023the Great Falls MC CMR wrestlers volleyball team on earning the Stockman Bank team sportsmanship award at the 2025 all class MHSA state volleyball tournament. Your team's exemplary sportsmanship and positive representation of your school are truly commendable. Congratulations again to you and your outsting student athletes. Congratulations lady wrestlers. You are wrestler pride. Thank you and have a great evening. >> Thank you. Such a broad range of activities and crosspollinization between business and arts and athletic speech and debate crosscultural and there's just it just illustrates there's so much to learn not only for you but for us as well and it's also really enlightening for us to see that it's fun as well. So, thank you so much. >> Now, we're fully aware that there's a lot going on and typically we'll release you after the superintendent's
024report, but uh Mrs. Toyer has uh consented to have you leave now should you need to pursue other activities this evening. So if you need to go, you can go. Thank you all. One more round of applause. >> Thank you. Go ahead. And next up in communication is superintendent's report. Mrs. Hoyer. >> Well, thank you, Chairman Johnson, members, and Mr. Decon. He was just asking me what would happen if he got up and left with the students since he's got a lot going on, too. >> Wow. >> And so, um, [laughter] if you see us chuckling over here, that's what we're doing is we're laughing about that. Um, it has been a very, very busy, but boy, what a really cool month that we have had um, here within our district. So, I will jump
025into my superintendence reports. The very first thing that you'll notice is we have some decorations in this room and that's because once a year we come together during the holidays um up here at the district office buildings and we have a um potluck and a a big celebration. It takes months to plan. If you don't believe me, ask the candy crew who did it this year. Um the theme was candy land. We had a candy station with all of the old throwback candies. We had uh Candyland stickers on the floor. You had to walk the stickers. Um Heather was a huge driver of that. Lance on his birthday was carving turkeys and in the workroom so and ham so we could get that all ready and set out. Um but it was a great time
026to come together as I was talking to them. You know, one of the things we do over the holidays as a family is we share a meal. And so, it was important to us to be able to come together and share a meal together. Um, as we head into just some really busy times up here, the Russellairs and, um, Lydia was one of them. Um, they came and they sang for us. They did a fantastic job. I think we had some tears. We had some laughter and we were all just in awe of the amazing musicians that came and helped us celebrate this year. our students are out in the community and you heard one of the groups talk about um going out into one of our senior assisted living facilities and playing music. But
027beyond music, there's so much more that's happening as well. Um the bison drama students were out and and they uh helped serve a meal at the mission and then they stayed and they ate and spent some time with the residents there. um the Christmas draw pop-up shop. Of course, while the students were working really hard to make some money, they were also communicating and talking and learning all of those important soft skills that we really want our students to have. Um JOTC, if you didn't see Becky Nelson's post, they did the wreaths across America. They made 480 wreaths. um this and placed them on the the graves against the tombstones of our our community members who have passed away but have served our country. Um what an amazing program they have. And then Sack Joa
028Elementary of course um did an ice bucket challenge for Special Olympics. I was at Saka Jia today for their Christmas concert. I was uh teasing Mr. Moore that I didn't see him in the ice bucket challenge um picture that I had, but he assured me that he was involved. So speaking about all the different things that are happening, we continue to really keep our eye on achievement. Now this is a uh MAP student growth summary report that you probably remember seeing early or this fall and I wanted to just as a way to bring this forward to your attention. I'm going to show you something on the next slide in just a moment, but um it's really important when we look at the research and how we help students grow in their literacy skills and
029live in a textrich environment. We know that access to books in their homes leads to higher literacy rates and literacy rates influence the greater use of books. It's kind of a um a back and forth relationship. Regardless of the socioeconomic background, their ability to access books in their home is really important. And not all students have or live in textrich environments. And then also access to self- selected books at school and home increase reading frequency and positive attitudes towards reading. So books that the kids are excited to get their hands on, um they want to read and they want to share um with their loved ones, with their teachers, all of the things they're reading. And there's just so much more that goes into having uh having those those books available to kids. So when
030we're looking at our math scores, you'll see that we really focused in on the lower grades, knowing it's important to be reading and having a strong foundation by grades three. We were most concerned about grade four not quite breeding and that's when breeding changes um and and the strategies behind breeding change and we want to continue to see that growth go. our elementary schools, Ally, if you could go to the next slide, started doing literacy opportunities and this is the one from Valley View where they came together with their PTAs and they had two books that they gave to every single student to take home so they could have a book at home over Christmas break. Um, and it's a book that the kids are really, really interested in. And so, how to catch a
031Yeti was done for our primary students and they were all excited when um the principal over there reminded them that now that they were done with their concert to be sure that they grabbed that book on the way out. And then the older students got the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. Um so, this is just one example. I was down at Whittier and Whittier was doing something similar. So you'll see this in our elementary schools as they work really hard to build those environments to help grow literacy skills. Um it's a wonderful gift. It's a wonderful opportunity for students and there's a very important reason behind it. So speaking of elementary school and middle school holiday concerts, um they are in full swing and if you haven't had an opportunity to go out and
032see them, um you need to. It is so cool and so much fun um to watch all of the students just perform and and see their faces light up when they see someone in the audience that they know, be it a parent or a grandparent or a big brother or sister um or just a friend or a neighbor. So up there there's North Middle School. Those concerts easts are happening this week, so I don't have any pictures of them. Um and then of course we had a couple more today. Um but we are seeing just some really fun things. This is what I appreciate about our music teachers though is they're doing a great job educating parents and the community at these concerts behind the reasons for some of the things that they're teaching. There's
033a reason that we teach movement. And Dusty and I were talking about this as a grandparent of a kindergartenner. I would very likely say just hold still. Just see Rudolph. Just hold still. You're going to take someone's eye out. We don't want anybody to be heard. Just hold still. And what the music teachers will tell you is they need to move to truly understand the music. They need to move. And we need to be crossing the midline. We need to be um working with different things like kazoos. Bless the music teachers for giving first graders kazoo and bells. Uh but they're teaching them the beginnings of reading music, the beginnings of breathing, the beginnings of rhythm. Um, there is always a hidden meaning behind the cute things that they do. So, Dusty and I are
034going to work a little bit and do some social media push out to encourage parents who learned music the way I learned music in elementary school not to hold still. They need to wiggle and they need to move and they need to play with music makers and they need to warm up and and to do that type of educating because it's just something fun and unique and I learn something every time I listen to our music teachers talk. So I wanted to bring to your attention um a project that Kathy Rainey out in the data center is working on. And so she is helping the state of Montana with a power school data pilot. So when this opportunity came available and I contacted Kathy who is our power school guru here in the district, she
035took some time and really carefully considered the pilot and she had conversations with OPI um with their head data tech with superintendent Hedelin because she wanted to be sure that us jumping into this pilot in it when it's in beta form um was the right thing to do for our students. knowing that we'll eventually have to do this anyway. Um, she went through the legalities behind data sharing. She talked about technology with me. Um, and she made a, in my opinion, a great decision um, to become the school district that helps pilot the new data share programming with the state of Montana. So, she's working handinhand with OPI. She works every week, I think, with them on it. Um, currently when I visited with her last week, she went out and she showed me all
036the stuff that you see up there on the left. It's really focused on analytics, evaluating possible options for administration and teacher usage. So, when we titled this starting with the school in mind, that's where she's at. She's figuring out if this data sharing agreement that we're working on truly is administratable. can it be used by the administrators and all the way down to the teachers in the classrooms to make a difference in how they provide opportunities for students in their classes. Um right now they're looking at academic and behavioral risk and as well as intervention monitoring. And so this pilot that she's an important part of is laying the groundwork um for future mass data communication and sharing. She told me that the overarching goal is to stream cumbersome or to streamline cumbersome accreditation processes.
037So, I'm looking over at Lance and Jackie. Um, a process that takes us months and months and months hopefully will take us just a few weeks in the future. Um, and it wouldn't happen, they wouldn't get the viewpoint of a large school district without the lady right up there on the screen. Um, and she wanted to remind me, tell them it's a work in progress, Heather, as with many pilots. Um, that's the intention of the pilot, but she's helping fair it out all the problems. Um, and really get to the heart of what we need to do to have better data sharing with the state so we can see can we can see results in our classrooms. So, if you know Kathy, um, she's delightful. If you're up here at the district office, if don't
038take a right right up here, take a left and go into the IT building. She's about halfway back, a little bit more than halfway on the right. And poke your head in and just thank her because she's doing really hard work, not just for Great Falls, but for all of the state of Montana, specifically for the DA's to make this seamless next year when it rolls out. >> So, winter sports participation numbers, I wanted to share this with you so you can see where we're at. Um, basketball, wrestling, swimming for both boys and girls is currently underway. Um, Mr. Hennterburgg, today is is National Athletic Administrators Appreciation Day. Um, but he wanted me to to tell you that we have 45 coaches, but many of them are on minimal stipens. They get several hundred dollars.
039They come in and volunteer because they love the sport, but they love watching kids grow in the sport even more. Um, so we have a bunch of adults out there working with our kids. Our girls basketball numbers are looking pretty strong. Boys basketball numbers are looking strong. Um wrestling their numbers are growing for girls and for boys it's holding very steady over the years. Um and swimming of course their numbers are doing well. Um 13.6% you'll see in 13% that represents the total number of students that in their student bodies that are involved in a winter sport. Not music, not cheer, not spirit. I didn't put those in there but those are ones that are truly just in one sport. Some of them are in two. So it's 175 in CMR, 176 at Great Falls
040High. We look forward to hearing the reports on how these students learn through their sport throughout the year. I will come back in January and share with you um the economic impact of sporting events across our community. Again, um as we see some of our larger events like the wrestling tournaments and stuff take place. Um, this is one of the coolest things that I think has happened this last month. And if you know Jeff Gray, you'll understand the quote at the top. Um, an optimist is a man who plants two acorns and buys a hammock. So, we had an alumni donation from Mr. Gray. He is an alumni son of an alumni. He went on a family trip with his daughter and son-in-law to track uh the World War II footsteps of his father who
041often talked about memories of home when he was deployed overseas getting ready for the war. And he went to Castle Cole, which you'll see up there on the left, and talked to the people who are running the castle grounds. This is where his father was stationed along with about 30,000 troops, I believe he said, um, prior to being deployed to the front lines. And at the time there are these huge oak trees that reminded him of the trees of Montana. Um, and so he talked them into sending him acorns across the pond. and I have in my office um a sealed envelope with acorns in it um that he has asked Great Falls High Botany under the direction of Mr. Brian Sullivan to try to germinate some of these. Um first of all, I got
042to find out if it's legal. Not exactly sure if shipping acorns across the ocean is legal, but we're going to find out. Um but Mr. Sullivan is very nervous, so he's going to try because they have a rebotney researchbased class next semester. It's a one semester class, so they're going to work on that. Takes quite a while to germinate acorns. Um, but his father also graduated from the University of Montana where we have our state arboritum. So, I'm going to send some of them over there as well, and they're going to work on them as well. But they are going to be doing collective history lessons uh with Mr. Sean in in US history and with the advanced students um in science exploration. So I'm really excited about this possibility. I'm excited. The teachers are
043nervous because they love Jeff. They don't want to let him down if they don't grow. So uh but we're going to see what we can't do. Speaking of donations, we had another surprise donation. So you just heard from CMR that Micro and the governor was here. Well, the governor came back last week. Um, I received a phone call um day before. I had actually been talking to Pete Pace and Pete said, "Hey, do you hear anything about the governor coming back?" And I haven't, but let me make some phone calls and find out. Well, sure enough, he was coming back. Um, and it was supposed to be a surprise because he does 12 days of giving. um his promise to the state of Montana is that he would take his wages and he would give
044them back to important projects that make a difference in their communities across the state. So he gave um a fairly large sum to neighbor works specifically intended to support the high school house of $20,694.79. Um he spent time talking to neighbor works but more than that he spent time talking to the students just about the progress. So, I know Paige, you were there. Bill, you were there when we met earlier, and the house is all dried in, the windows are in, the siding is up, they're putting the sophet up. Um, there was mud up to our nether regions. So, a a um cartoon penguin would say this time of year. Um, and so I had warned them to please wear their muck boots when they came out to the high school house. But the students
045had a great time and really had some good one-on-one conversations about the importance of this program um to our community but also to them as learners and uh future community members, adult community members. So data for the day. Um data for the day actually is an update for you from the information that Andrea Savage and Erica Harp shared with us when we did our students and and staff the mental health work session. And so I wanted to share these with you because at that time she was still in progress of collecting information. And then Eric is actually going to come um I think the first meeting in February and give us some really important updates about some work she's doing. But um screening is in for our mental health with our sixth graders. We ended
046up with about 54% of our sixth graders screened which is up a little bit from last year. Um of those students screened 18% of them were having recent ideiations of suicide. 12% had past ideations. Those two populations of students uh received immediate interaction with our therapists and their parents um as soon as their results came in. 2% screened in for depression and 4% for anxiety. So continuing to focus in on the sixth grade as that's our highest presenter of suicidal ideiations um at the hospital. Then we started talking about staff trainings and what are we doing to help our staff understand what's happening with the youth today. So she wanted to let us know that she is um throughout the course of the year. I believe her last one is going to be in March
047and I'm looking over at Lance. Yeah, in March. Um during PLC time she is going out and doing the training and all the staff. To date, she has trained 439 staff members across our district. In 14 schools, she has seven schools left. Um, but all of our stu our schools then received high quality training in mental health um for both the students they serve and themselves and the staff that they work with. Then she gave some great information about Lyft because I know you kind of track the Lyft program. I wanted to share that with you as well. So they are currently doing their sixth grade outreach. There are 104 peer mentors across our district. They have hit 15 sixth grade teams and they are of the 15 sixth grade teams they have hit 13
048of them. So they have one more to do and then every sixth grader will have been um had the presentation from Lyft. that this was one of the coolest quotes from her presentation that she did for cabinet isftyft is driving healthy organic presentations of being grateful. And so it's so much more than just talking about suicide. It's really talking about the whole health um of the student and they're having fantastic conversations. We're really excited to see what they will do. And finally, um, happy holidays from the cabinet team to you and yours. I hope you have a wonderful holiday. Spend a lot of time with family. Um, make memories and we will see you back for my next superintendence report next year. >> So, um, with that, I'm available for any questions. Thank you. >>
049Any questions for Mrs. Hoyer? If not, thank you very much for your report. Moving on, communication. C, audience communication. I do have a request to speak before this board of trustees from Mrs. Mortonson. So, would you please come up to the rostroom? >> Well, we welcome you. So, thanks for being here. this this season seems to be going faster than I am. Uh, and I appreciate the opportunity. This past presentation kind of fits into what I have uh to give out to each of you. There is a bill before the Montana Senate and a joint resolution to study the reasons for the lack of of um enforcement of our marijuana laws. And I would just encourage you all if you have any questions about the research that has gone into the detrimental stuff of the
050marijuana and the TCH and I know you guys all run into problems here and there and everywhere, but this um resolution is um to really start digging into why the marijuana has become so potent, why we've allowed the shops we've allowed, why we're not following the laws that were passed along with the marijuana uh making marijuana legal. And I just want to encourage you all to kind of keep an eye on it, the um research in case you need any information. I have somebody who's a specialist at keeping track of that and it's not me but I'm working on it. Um, and so there's a ton of research out there as to the physical detriment of marijuana and the younger you start the worse it is. But it destroys so many pathways in the brain,
051makes it impossible for nutrient pathways to work and um puts kids at very high risk. But we do have laws on the book already. We just are not enforcing them. So, I just made a copy for you to um keep it in mind where this bill is and keep an eye a an eye on what the legislature is doing and encourage this bill to get passed. >> Thank you and merry Christmas. >> Thank you, Mrs. Mortensson. Do you want to take those and give them to Marley Sunchild and she'll pass them down to us? If not, we can make more copies. So, thank you very much and thank you for being so vigilant. And That brings us to action items. Action item A 2425, financial statements and audit report. Mr. Deakons, >> thank you, Chairman
052Johnson, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, and members of the community. Um, I believe we're just transferring over right now to Mr. [cough] Brian Staventer from ID Bailey, um, who you heard from earlier this evening in our work session with the audit. Um, each year we are required by law to have a single audit and an independent auditor go through our books. Um, you had a chance, like I said, and he'll be doing a brief presentation on it here shortly. Um, again, if you have questions after you hear this, don't hesitate to ask them now or please share them with me and I will make sure he gets it. There are some updates with this that uh, Mr. Staving will talk to you about obviously with just the uh pieces from the state that we
053were waiting on. So with that, we have Mr. Stavenger. >> Yes. >> Hey, Brian, you're up. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Just want confirmation quick that you can hear me. Okay, >> we can hear you. Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. Wonderful. Uh good evening. Thank you for having me. Uh Brian Stavenger, partner with Ike Bailey. Um, and really just uh uh maybe not a reminder but uh forformational purposes uh I met with the board uh in a working session previous to this board meeting. Um that was about an hourong discussion uh that was all recorded and will be made public. So uh that's going to be much more detailed than um this presentation that I give uh at this meeting. Um so just understand that I'm going a little bit quicker because we've already uh
054dove into a lot of details previously. So let's get started. audit results and findings. Uh and this uh audit was as of the year ended June 30th, 2025. So fiscal year 25. What is it that we are attempting to do? There's a variety of different standards that we follow. Let me get my laser pointer uh all up here. Uh got a baseline and then it just gets more and more a lot of it having to do with uh a school district audit. a lot of compliance, a lot of controls that we look into. Everything that we do is to to obtain reasonable assurance, not absolute assurance that the financial statements are free of material misstatement. This means that we're not testing things 100%. Uh we're looking at the higher risk areas where we believe misstatements
055could occur. Uh we focus our time there. Um and we do a lot of sampling. Uh this year, this presentation, uh everything is in draft format currently. uh it will be finalized within the next couple weeks. The reason for the draft format is this highlighted section down here. Uh one of the uh standards that we have to follow is issued by the state of Montana. They issue a compliance supplement um an audit guide essentially that's very specific to the legislative items. Um so they update this periodically. Um up until uh earlier today uh that was still in draft format. uh the state had indicated to all of us auditors that they would not be accepting any audits until that compliance supplement was in a finalized version. Uh so we were u working under the assumption
056of the draft u up until this afternoon literally uh an hour or so before uh the working session with the board. So uh that has now been lifted. Um we've got to go through uh and update all of our documentation to make sure that we've got uh everything appropriate. Um, so we will be bringing a a final version back to the board likely in January. Um, and and highly likely there will be no significant changes um from from what we have in this version. Overall, the district received a clean unmodified opinion on their financial statements. Really means you're following all the correct accounting rules. We believe everything's materially accurate and all the required disclosures in the full audit report um are indeed included. Due to the district spending uh last fiscal year approximately 15.6 million
057in federal awards that triggers a separate federal audit specific to those federal awards. Um we do this in conjunction with the uh normal audit u but technically it is a separate audit but also received a clean unmodified opinion of that audit which is a very good thing. As we complete our audit um there is the opportunity uh to have findings or reportable items. You'll see uh we had six of them uh this year. I'll start with the financial statements which is I'll I'll call that kind of the normal audit. uh four findings in fiscal year 25. These are all very similar to fiscal year 24 findings. Uh we talked in depth uh with the board uh during the working session on those. Um management is already uh indicating or implementing change to uh attempt to
058uh alleviate these in fiscal year 26. Um so we're happy to see that. A lot of this has to do with our involvement um during the process. Um and and honestly really the last couple years there's just been a a decent amount of turnover um which usually when that happens uh in the finance area and other areas um this this tends to happen. So hoping uh more stability um or stability continues as it has in fiscal year 26 um and some of these can be alleviated. Much of the same on Montana legal compliance uh really surrounding extracurricular funds. So those are essentially student activity funds uh and just uh lack of uh formal involvement by students in a lot of instances. Uh the requirement that the state has is the students need to uh indicate
059uh different activity either receipts or uh dispersements by by initially initiallying or signing forms u that just wasn't existent in in all cases. So, um, similar to the findings up above, uh, management has already worked hard, uh, to implement change and correct these going forward. Uh, finally, I skipped over it. I shouldn't have because it's very important. Uh, no findings, uh, on the federal awards audit. So, I'll pause there just to see if there's any questions or comments, and if none, I'll continue on. >> Any questions or comments in the room? >> Brian, uh, you're free to continue. All right. Uh, fiscal year 25, there was a new accounting standard, GASBY 101, uh, that was implemented. Uh, this was required for for all school districts uh, for fiscal year 25. As a result of this,
060it just, uh, is reporting an additional 13.3 million in liabilities for compensated absences, vacation, sick leave, personal leave, severance. U, this just refreshed the standard. uh order was always there. It just wasn't as all-encompassing as it is now. These liabilities are not necessarily new liabilities. These have always existed for the district. The change is that it's now uh reported within your audit report. So, u every school district, every local government has had to implement this. Uh kudos to Luke and his staff for helping us as we uh we work together to get that implemented. Uh thankfully uh fiscal year 26 anticipating no new accounting standards having to be implemented. All right, we'll get into some graphs. Cash and investments. This is districtwide at the end of each fiscal year and we've got seven years of
061historical information on here. Uh what what at June 30th does the district have overall for cash and investments? You can see just under 68 million in fiscal year 25. uh a decline from fiscal year 24 which is really due to spending down the remaining esser money. Um but overall still fairly strong cash and investment balances at year end. We're going to dive into the general fund and the general fund uh within the audit report is officially a combination of both the elementary general fund and the high school general fund combined. Um that's the way it's internally tracked for audit purposes. the requirements are there can only be one general fund. So they are combined. So when I go over this just keep that in mind. So this is really a budget to actual for those
062general funds uh the combined general fund uh budget on the left actual results in the middle and then the variance on the far right from a revenue standpoint. So the money coming into the district in those general funds came in about 1.8% over budget. So took in about $1.4 $4 million more than anticipated on the expenditure side or really what it what it costs to operate uh that general fund. Uh about 1.3% over budget, meaning you spent about just under $1.1 million more uh than anticipated. On both of these though, uh those are very small percentages. When you've got an $81 million budget and you came under 2% for both of them, that is tremendous. Generally on the revenue side, we like to see it 5% or lower. On the expenditure side, 3% or lower.
063Uh and you can see you are right there. Accounting for some transfers out to some other funds, which is very typical uh with with with uh these general funds. Had a slight deficit spend. Uh again, reminder, $81 million budget and slight deficit spend of $116,514. Uh just a tremendous job sticking to that budget. that takes your fund balance or your reserves in that general fund to about 10 a.5 million and we'll analyze that in the next few slides. So it is important to have fund balance for a variety of reasons. Fund balance is then um unfortunately because of governmental accounting broken into several different categories. Uh the big one to to uh really keep your eye on is this committed. you have an internal fund balance policy that that committed amount which is really uh
064an amount set aside for future year budget uh is at 10% of uh the total budget. So that is the goal here is total general fund budget broken down into these different categories for the last seven years. You can see fairly consistent um and really just a slight dip overall in fiscal year 25, but really the last five years very very consistent. Here's that 10% policy that the district has and we'll look at that on the next slide. So 10% is uh represented by that maroon line and you can see really outside of 2020 which was just below that uh six of the seven years maintain that 10% goal of having a committed fund balance uh rolling forward. Okay. Well, I have reached the end of my presentation. Appreciate everyone's time uh tonight. Just final
065opportunity for questions. Thank you, Brian. Very concise. Thank you. Are there any questions from our board of trustees? And we'll open it up to those in the room as well. Any questions for Brian on his presentation? As he said at the initiation of his presentation, he did this uh presentation in some detail for our board of trustees starting at 4:00 and uh has provided us with um information, supporting information in print as well. So, Brian, thank you very much. There appears not to be any questions for you at this point in time. So again, we appreciate your service to the district and for your joining us this evening. >> Mr. Chairman, Trusty Bronson, I'm going to go ahead and make a motion at this time based on the information that we have. I'm going to
066move that we postpone consideration of the auditor's report until our auditors have had a chance to review the state compliance documentation which only became available late this afternoon. >> Second >> been moved [clears throat] and seconded to postpone consideration of the auditor's report. Any questions or commentary from our board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from those in the room? regarding this motion hearing. Seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Brian. >> Thanks, Jeff. >> And I want to thank um Mr. Williams for his perseverance and making this all possible for us to uh hear this presentation. Thank you. Action item B, financial report and a clerk
067register for September 2025. Mr. Deakons. >> Thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, and member of the community. Members of the community, um I do have our September um registers and pieces set forth for our financials reports, but I do want to call your attention to page 42. On page 42, the starting check number 1 140977. If you went back and reviewed the previous months, you would have seen that the previous check number was 140975. Appears that there was a check that was skipped. However, it was actually a voided check for a student who received a scholarship at a Witworth College. Therefore, um we had voided it out. So, it was not noted on the check register just for your information. Other than that, um I don't have anything different on those
068September items. So with that, I would ask you to accept the monthly financial and approve the payments for September 25th. >> Mr. Chair, >> Trustee Trasi, >> I move that we accept the monthly financial report and and approve the register of payments for September 2025 as presented. >> Second been moved and seconded to accept the monthly financial report as presented. >> Any questions or commentary from our board of trustees? Any from our gallery hearing? Seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Deakons. Action item C, financial report and check register for October 2025. Uh, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the community again for October here as we are
069getting everything caught up within our transition. Um, you will see that the the documents for financial report and check register are there to date. Um, I do not have any changes or [laughter] anything that was out of the ordinary. However, I do want to let you know we had planned to bring November's as well. However, um with November payment that came from the county, the protested taxes were taken out of that. So, we are working with the county to get the exact numbers and so forth so we don't have to go back and do revisions. So, the [cough] hope is to have both November cleaned up with the protested taxes when we get back together in January along with December's and we should be caught up and then our goal will be monthtomonth. >> Thank
070you. With that, I would ask that you accept the monthly financial and approve the payments for October 25. >> Mr. Chair, >> Skagowski, >> I move we accept the monthly financial report and approve the register of payments for October 2025 as presented. >> Second. Been moved and seconded to accept the monthly financial report and approve the register of payments for October 2025. Are there any questions or commentary from our board of trustees? Any from others in the room hearing and seeing none I'll call for the question. All those in favor of the motion please signify by saying I. >> I oppose same sign. Motion carries. Action item a D nonrenewal temporary non-tenured teachers with positions expiring June 5, 2026. Ms. Spurs. Welcome. Chairman Johnson, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, and the community. I am
071bringing this list of nonrenew temporary non-tenure teachers. The people or the teachers that are on this list are temporary for one of the following reasons. The position that they hold was less than a full year. So, they started midyear. They sometimes held a position in lie of a teacher that was on leave. So that position is held for that teacher on leave. Um they also started after the August cuto off date. So once they're once it's late in the summer then they're one year only. So um it didn't go through the indistrict process. Um, so I'm just requesting that the non-renew that you non-renew the teachers listed as they are in a temporary position that expire June 5th, and are able to do the IND district transfer process when that opens. >> Thank you, >>
072Mr. Chair. Trusty Skinoski. >> I move that we um can allow the um non-renew teachers listed um because they are temporary positions to expire. >> Second. Been moved and seconded to not renew the teachers listed as they are temporary positions that expire June 5, 2026. Any questions or commentary from this board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from the others in the gallery? Hearing seeing none of call for the question. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed, same sign. Motion carries. >> Thank you, Miss Spursm. Action item E, acceptance of donorf funded building enhancement project through Great Falls School Foundation, Miss Becker. Welcome. >> Thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, and members of the community. I'm here um for a really wonderful
073reason. As you may know, um we reported on two libraries that were completed in June. We reported to the school board trustees. Um that was funded by an estate gift from Nancy Cameron Davidson. Um and she has made it possible for a third library to be completed, which is what I'm reporting on this evening. that the funding that was available for this third library needed to be supplemented uh by another generous family at the Gray Family Foundation that also came forward with essentially half of the funding that was needed to finish Sunnyside Library renovation. In total, 90,000 was put towards this project. Um the Gray Family Foundation uh has a former schoolboard trustee who is a dear friend of theirs. Um and with uh Tanya and Dave Cameron's approval. Um they actually proceeded with recognizing
074Jeff Bright Gray who has been already spoken about at this school board meeting. Um so we were really pleased to be able to recognize his contribution as a trustee um for the district for a number of years um and to honor that donor's wishes. Um I have a few slides that I would love to share with you that just give you a few for the donor visit that we were able to facilitate for the Camerons um and also for Jeff Gray and some others from administration of the district. So this is the librarian with the event Cameron. Um and we just have a number of different photos you can move on through that show students who are enjoying the space. Um and also folks that represent the district that were there to honor Jeff Gray
075um for his contribution and to recognize what these donors have made possible. and then farewell waves from the students as we exited. So, uh, what I am bringing before the board is a request that you accept this gift that came from the donors that have been a forementioned um, and acknowledge that gift with with thanks. >> Thank you. That was a really fun day. Lots of smiling faces in that uh, library that day. >> Yes. >> And I'm sure every day since. So, thank you, >> Mr. Chairman. Trusty Bronson. >> This time I move that we accept the funding of these improvements to district properties with thanks to all of the donors. >> Second. >> Been moved and seconded to accept the funding of these improvements to the district properties with thanks to the donors.
076Any comments or questions? Yes, Christy Skagowski. >> Just a quick comment. Um, as you know, my daughter was a Sunnyside student, >> and I can tell you that this um renovation was much needed [laughter] >> um and much appreciated by those students. So, thank you so much to the foundation and to those donors, of course, for making this happen. It's wonderful to see um schools across our district, particularly ones with um struggling resources and struggling PTAs, have the support of the foundation to make projects like this happen. >> Yep. >> It is one of the wonderful opportunities that private funding allows for is some of those schools who may not have um a very active PTA or the capacity to raise funds [clears throat] at a significant level. So, it's really fun to see that
077merge into the district to support those students for sure. >> Thank you. Any other comments, questions from our gallery? Hearing and seeing none, I'll call for the motion. Uh, all those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I >> cheerfully. All those opposed, same sign. Thank you very much, Miss Becker. >> That concludes action items. We go to action other. There was nothing pulled from the consent agenda that will enable us to go on to reports, discussion, and policies. A state of Montana minimum wage increase effective January 1, 2026. Miss person, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, and members of the community, I am just bringing forth to let you know that the Montana state minimum wage is going up 30 cents per hour as of January 1st, 2026. It
078will impact approximately 90 positions um in our district. And the cost of the minimum wage increase is est estimated to be approximately $3,120 due to the 30 cent increase in wage. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Very concise. [laughter] And uh we'll move on to then B under reports discussion bridged health alliance proposal. You're up again. >> I am. [laughter] So, the Bridge Health Alliance proposal um came from House Bill 332 where the state or the legislature gave the school dis the school districts in general state of Montana onetime $40 million incentive. They did have some requirements. 12,000 employees from 150 districts had to qualify in order for the incentive and they have to commit to a fiveyear participation period. So they have met the John Doran is heading that out and he has
079went around the state talking to a lot of the schools. He has presented multiple times to our insurance committee. I think they haven't been able to in our opinion, the school committee's opinion, um to answer all the questions that we have as far as where the money is coming from, if they've talked to local um hospitals. They have talked to others around the state, but they have not spoken with benefits or the clinic. And at our committee meeting, um, it was recommended that we just wait at this time because once you're signed in, you're signed in for 5 years. And we just want to let them know that we think we should wait until some of those answer or questions are answered and then make a decision at that time. >> Thank you. [clears throat]
080>> Any questions or commentary for Miss Bersen? >> Mr. Chairman, >> Trusty Bronson, >> I'm just going to add to uh Miss Spurs's comments. As you know, I sit on the committee along with administrative staff and while we do not vote, we listen to the recommendations of the various committee members, which includes Mr. Cubbage sitting in the back. And just to echo what Miss Spurs said, based on the last conversations that were held with our consultant uh from Alliance on November 20th, the committee did recommend that we not uh proceed at this time uh with joining the proposed trust until a number of questions >> in fact are answered. Since that time, I will tell the members of the board I received a telephone call from [snorts] Barb Riley, who is a trustee with the
081Columbia Falls School District. Uh, Miss Riley and I both serve on the state school board association. We've known each other for a number of years. She also chairs the bridge alliance or uh, health alliance group that has been working with the consultants on their end to put together this proposal. She did express to me some concerns about why the Great Falls Public Schools was not uh wanting to indicate either participation or non-participation at this time. We did have a very good conversation about a number of the questions that the committee had raised. where we left it uh in terms of the flow of information is that we thought it best that we compile a list of those questions that we present them through Ms. Riley to her board and to her consultants uh in the
082hopes that we would be able to answer those. But she does understand that ultimately it's a decision of every district, every board of trustees whether or not to participate in the trust at this time. And uh she will welcome those questions. I've talked to Mr. Decon about it. I'm in process of putting some of those together, but obviously staff will add a little bit more and then I will funnel those to Miss Riley so that uh she has an opportunity to present those. But uh the board should not feel under any particular pressure at this time to make any decisions about this. We have an independent obligation and I would add a fiduciary obligation to our employees and to the taxpayers of this community before we decide to uh join any particular insurance program other
083than the one that we have at this time. But I appreciate uh this person coming forward and relating the comments of the committee and their recommendations and again this is a work in progress and we will have the opportunity to present our questions to bridge and hopefully that will generate some further conversation and again at some point we can then make a decision whether or not we wish to proceed with joining the trust. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any additional comments or questions for Miss Spursen? If not, you're free to go. >> All right. Have a good [laughter] holiday. >> Thank you so much. With that, we come to discussion committee reports and comments. And tonight we're going to go on a volunteer basis. So, who is going to choose to go first? Trusty Terasi.
084Uh, so last week I got to do my convocation half day and I got to be a PE teacher um over at Morningside. It was a lot of fun. I had a sixth grade class, a third grade class, a first grade class, and two kindergarten classes >> and those kids have energy and I wish I had a portion of it. >> It was it was a lot of fun. Um, it physical education has changed so much since I have been a child. It's no longer, you know, there's no square dancing and juggling. And it's it's focused on not just the movement, but also educating the students on what they're working out when they're doing those movements, what muscles that they're working out, and how it benefits their body, which I love that that's incorporated into
085it. And it was really excellent to see. And uh Miss Peterson over there runs a very tight ship and her kids respect her. And there are many, Miss Peterson. Is she sick? Is she okay? No, she's fine. She's relaxing. Um and then while I was there, um principal Jennifer Martin took me into one of the rooms where the big teach our teachers there who teach the college students were talking with their teaching partners from the university and they were collaborating and she said that there's not only collaboration where our teachers are gaining information from their university teaching partners but vice versa where the university teachers are getting ideas from our teachers, which I think is a really awesome um a really awesome opportunity that everybody has to have that sort of collaboration together and work
086together in that way. And then I also kind of pick their brains about the math curriculum. They seem very happy with it and they really like it. >> So, it was it was a very informative day. I was I was really happy to have um done it. And then >> since our last meeting, we had I think what I would define as a really good budget meeting. and there was really good conversation um and a good presentation of information and I'm looking forward to our meeting next month as well. And with that, I just want to say merry Christmas to everyone. >> Well, thank you very much, Trusty Thompson. >> Well, I get to go to Morningside on Friday to do my substitute teaching and I'm pretty excited about the same things that you were
087talking about. It'll be great to be and that's where my kids went. So, it's I haven't I was back I've been back a couple of times to see since the core school took over, but I'm excited to actually be in the classroom and um get to see this in action. Uh I also got a chance to go to the popup shop and u bought several of the um students um ornaments and and whatnot as gifts. Um, and that it was really awesome to to see how they presented themselves always very professionally. Um, unfortunately I was out of town most of or all of last week so I missed out on a lot of concerts but maybe I'll be able to hit one this week. >> There's plenty remaining. You'll be fine. Fine. Thank you very
088much. >> Jesse Duff >> round out the table. >> Yeah. >> Um, mainly just want to say happy holidays to everyone. Merry Christmas. Thanks for all the hard work everybody here does for the school and for the kids. I appreciate that and the kids do as well. Um recently had my half day convocation. I've almost recovered but not completely. [laughter] And that was at Longfellow second grade. >> Oh boy. >> So [laughter] and I have a sixth grade music concert coming up on Friday. I look forward to enjoy. So hope everybody has a good holidays. >> Fantastic. Thank you. and Trusty Scodagski. >> Uh so I wanted to first say congratulations to Miss Spurs on being officially appointed um the head of human resources. You have earned your stripes um in the past few months
089and congratulations on your first official presentation to us as the new human resources director. So thanks so much for that. Um, I've had the opportunity to, um, sit in on the, um, kind of analysis of a math curriculum pilot program that's been, uh, that a select number of of math teachers have been working on over the last year. Um, they're kind of debating, you know, before we make a final decision on whether to adopt that curriculum or not. Um, of course they were kind of taking on the huge weight of both adopting a new book and new um, KUD's no understand and dues at the same time. So um, this the teachers that participated in that pilot um, were taking on quite the undertaking to to do that. Um I also had an opportunity to
090sit in um with um Trusty Duff on the foreign language um kind of analysis of their um KUDS and um and then over the past um two weeks or maybe it's just last week um I was able to go to Morningside and Longfellow and watch the Lyft students um do their presentations with um sixth grade classrooms um and talk to them about [clears throat] um the gratitude presentations which I know trustee um Terroski had the opportunity to see as well. Um, so to see them interacting with the students and to see those um, young students ask all of their questions um, was really impressive and and um, I had a chance to talk to one of the sixth grade students and I picked out the cutest kid in the bunch um, and asked her about
091what she thought about the presentations and she was able to to rattle off uh, that she had um, anxiety and depression. um from from those sixth grade screenings. And I can tell you if I was that girl's parent, I would have no idea um if not for those screenings. So, I just think it's critical to get as many students as possible screened um so that we can do the interventions, the amazing interventions that our school district's doing right now. So, with that, um happy holidays, merry Christmas everybody. See you in the new year. >> Mr. Chairman, uh I want to start out by thanking you for allowing me to participate in the last meeting by Zoom. As I mentioned to some of you, my wife has been waiting for a year for uh a particular
092surgery which can only be done in Missoula. And so we had to do it that day. But uh and also thanks to Mr. Williams, you know, for setting up the Zoom platform. But you should be aware as Mr. Williams is the way it works right now. When I see you, I'm looking down on all of you. [laughter] So, well, no, it it's I was just thinking to myself, it's kind of a almost like an angelic experience >> and then I realized that's the only time I'm probably ever going to have it. >> I wasn't going to go there. [laughter] >> So, anyway, uh but thank you again for allowing me to do that, but thank you for being with us. On a on a more serious note, uh thanks to Mrs. Mortonson for bringing to
093our attention the uh SJ48. That actually was a resolution that was passed by the legislature to establish an interim study. After the conversation, I was doing some online research. I can't determine as of now what priority it was ultimately assigned, but whether it gets studied this session or not, it is a very important topic and I do uh appreciate the fact that Mrs. Mortonson brought it to our attention. It is a subject that I think we're all going to have to pay attention to uh in the coming years. And then finally, thanks to Superintendent Hoyer for talking about our former colleague, Mr. Gray's trip. Uh most of you know Jeff and I have been personal friends for close to 50 years and he talked to me about this trip beforehand and he was just absolutely
094thrilled that he was going to have this opportunity to walk uh in his father's steps. It's important to me too personally because his father Orville was my law partner for many years until his unfortunate death in 1993. I have Mr. Gray's chairs that he had in his law office and in his service as the US bankruptcy trustee for many years. So, uh, the Grays are very important to me and I'm glad that u Jeff's taken the opportunity to come back and do something with the district and I'll be anxious to hear how the the testing results come out. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty Senchild. I just want to reiterate what Superintendent Hoyer said about the Christmas concerts. I there's so much talk in the community during this time. like you you just don't
095know how important those are and how much it's talked about and you know business people leave to go watch their kids' Christmas come back and they they just they talk about it's it's fantastic and you reach so much >> of the community that way by doing that and and impact is more than you realize when you're just trying to wrangle 25 third graders to sing. you don't really realize what is happening, you know, out in the community. So, and then just a a full circle moment, my daughter subs and she subbed in a first grade classroom in Sunnyside on Friday and um she came home and said, "Now I know why you were so tired for [laughter] I god somebody finally realized." So, that was that was pretty good for me. >> Thank you. Well,
096I would like to thank is it our administrative team who provided these winsettias for us? That's so thoughtful. Thank you so very much and for the little snacks. Sherry, thank you for keeping us nourished in between meetings. Appreciate that too. And I'll draw your attention to the board. Um there is a meeting in on the 22nd board policy. Then we launch into the new year. start a fresh after our break. And I want to wish everybody happy holidays and I think we're all very grateful for this wonderful district, for this fantastic, dedicated, passionate team that we have looking after the children of our city. And for that, we're all grateful. And again, enjoy each other during these next several days. There's still some school left, so go to those activities and see for yourself. witness
097for yourself the wonders that take place in our school district. So, thank you very much. If there is no other business to come before this board of trustees, >> move to adjourn. >> We're going to call it adjourned. Thank you.