001to order. Uh, I'd like to let everyone in the audience know that this meeting will be recorded and posted to the Great Falls Public Schools website um as soon as it is available. Also, just a friendly reminder, if you have your cell phones, make sure to mute those um so no one is embarrassed when you're when we hear your goofy ringtone. All right, with that, uh, Mr. Deacons, can you please do roll call? Yes. Chair Scoroski. Gordon Johnson >> excused. >> Kim Skornagosski >> present. >> Bill Bronson >> here. >> Craig Duff >> excused. >> Marley Sunchild. >> Amy Thompson >> here. >> Paige Troski >> here. >> You have a full quorum present. >> Wonderful. All right. Can we all rise? And Seth, will you lead us in the pledge of >> allegiance to
002the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nationy and justice for all. >> I'm open to a motion to adopt the agenda. >> Madam Chair, I move we adopt the agenda as presented. >> Second. Wonderful. It's been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda as presented. Are there any comments or questions from my fellow trustees or from our community? Seeing none, all those fa in favor of adopting the agenda as presented, please signify by saying I. >> I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes unanimously. Madam Chair, >> Trusty Tarovski. [laughter] >> I move that we approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Wonderful. It's been moved and seconded to accept the consent agenda as presented. Are there any comments or questions from my fellow trustees
003or from our community? Seeing none, all those um supporting the motion to approve the consent agenda as presented, please signify by saying I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes unanimously. All right, moving into communications. Um, first up we have our report of student representatives. Miss Mainwearing, we welcome you introducing our students today. Good evening, vice chair, members of the board, uh, Superintendent Hoyer. Tonight, we'll do our student reports. Um, we have Great Plus High going first and then we'll move to Paris and then CMR will finish us up. Pretend Hoyer, members of the community, me members of the board. My name is Caitlyn Fulbright. I'm a junior at Great Falls High, and I will be starting our November presentation. Our Great Falls High School choirs have had some amazing performances this past month.
004We're extremely proud of our all our seniors and would like to thank everybody who came out to support these talented students. A lesson we loved in Miss Bman's culinary class. We have been cooking away. Something fun we did this month is do a week of Halloween treats, including making pizzas with cute ghost face on them and also worms and dirt with gummy worms and chocolate pudding. We also are in our Italian unit right now making food like pasta and Italian desserts. This month we celebrated one teacher each week for being a positive impact on our school. Congratulations to Miss Gunlock, Miss Row, and Mr. Bulgum for going above and beyond for your students and putting in the extra time outside of the classroom to support your students. Students from each of the high schools in
005town had the great opportunity to tour the lab facility at the Colt refinery. These lucky students learned how about renewable energy and how the refinery is leading the way in these energy sources. They were also shown how fuels were tested for quality control and some of some were even to help able to help with the testing. Another lesson we loved is in Mr. Crayo's geology class, kids got to step out into the realm of art of making jewelry. These students got to pick out a rock and cut it into a shape of their choice, then polish and sand the rock to make it look clean. This was a fun way to experiment and use the resources we have at our school. We extremely thankful for the equipment we have to make this possible. >> Excuse
006me. Uh, good evening, Vice Chair Swaragowski, uh, Superintendent Hoyer, trustees, and members of the community. My name is Seth Royer. I'm a senior at Gear Falls High, and I get to finish off our presentation this month. My first slide is, uh, our Queen City Rumble for speech and debate. Our speech and debate team headed to the Queen City Rumble in Helena and did extremely well. Kalissa Ward, Gabrielle Patterson, Delini Lock Schlagger, and Isabella Boss all won first place in their events. Next to them, we had one second place winner, four third place finalists, and some students placed fourth, fifth, and sixth. Overall, a very good debate, and we're all really proud of these amazing students. Our prom had a theme finally decided for it. Uh, and uh, it's planned and on the way. Students in
007good standing with the school who have good attendance records, good grades, etc., uh will be able to dance the night away with a once upon a dream theme December 6th 7 through 10. Another lesson we loved is zombie wounds. This one is a little graphic. I'm sorry. Uh but it's all fake. Miss Dixon and Mr. Medvid combined art and anatomy and physiology in a lab where art students were able to create lielike scrapes, burns, and cuts on anatomy students who have been learning about the epidermis and dermis along with how they react to injury. This is a really cool but also kind of creepy lab that combines heart and biology biology. It's good that they did this around Halloween because it's pretty cool. Next is our sports. All our fall sports are pretty much fully
008wrapped up besides football who won their first playoff game 21 to4 against Helen High which hasn't happened in four years. So that's pretty awesome. Uh and while those Bison are powering through the playoffs, boys and girls basketball and swimming have started their preseason activities. We're so excited to be starting winter sports and can't wait to see what this new wave of bison athletes can do in their seasons. Next, our host blood drive. Our awesome HOSA members hosted our annual blood drive October 28th in the old gym. Anybody ages 16 and up could donate blood, and we had an awesome number of people show up and give the gift of life to someone in need. These students and staff are a great example of our bison pride. Uh, next lesson we loved is friction. Uh, in
009Miss Wild's AP physics class, students had fun sliding through the halls to calculate the coefficient of friction, which is a measurement of how rough two surfaces are when pressed together. Students timed and measured how far they could slide before stopping and used these to calculate friction. This is an awesome lab to show how we can use math to find real like tangible values. And a buddy of mine was wearing some wool socks and he slid and went like farther than five meters and he didn't expect it. And we like wobbled like four times like this. It was really, really fun. It's an awesome lab. I love that class. And we're going to finish it out. It was a little short this month. Sorry about that. But we're going to finish it off with our trivia
010again. And so last time, our two questions were, "What year did we adopt our official color blue?" And what is our official color of blue called? The answer number one was 1900, and the answer to number two was Yale Blue. And we had two more questions this month. And since uh chairman Johnson isn't here, vice chair Skornagoski be the the voice of the people, I guess. Uh so the first question is, yeah, [laughter] huddle up, I guess. Discuss. Uh the first question is, what year did Great Falls High School adopt our official mascot? And then in that year, how would you spell our official mascot? Discuss. All >> [laughter] [laughter] >> right. How about what? Well, let's let's go with let's make it a 100 years. to say 1925. >> Okay. >> And how to
011spell it? >> Sure. >> Okay. >> BUFF. [clears throat] >> Uh, I guess we can go to the next slide. >> Okay. So, the answer to number one is 1929. You are really close. >> That scared me a little bit right there. [laughter] >> For [clears throat] for many years, people around the state called us the blue or the electrics, probably because of, you know, the city we're in. Uh but by 1928, Billings Billings Senior High School had adopted the Bronx as their mascot and we followed with adopting ours in 1929 and we spelled it uh B I S O Ns. So we were the Bisons. Uh which is kind of interesting, I guess, but it makes sense. Uh so yeah, we were known as the Bisons for a couple decades after that till we
012eventually changed to what we are now, the bison singular. And then the last slide is just uh our social media. Make sure to follow us and you get updates on basically everything we talk about just before we talk about it. So, it's pretty fun. And that's all we have for this month. >> All right. Thank you so much. Good evening, Vice Chairman, Superintendent Hoyer, Trustees, and members of the community. My name is Aspen Logan Swaki, and I'm here to present for you today. American Indian studies and intertribal strong co-presented with science enrichment on an amazing elkin drum making lesson. Students learned about the chemistry and the ways of processing hyde. Curtis shared a pre practice practices and stories about what the drum symbolizes. Amazing learning opportunities for everybody. Next month's report will include images of
013the beautiful and meaningful artwork that students created. Culinary hosted fancy ramen day. A few weeks ago, students crafted an a variety of pickled foods and kimchi. Today they opened them and made these masterful ramen creations with the pickled and fermented foods. Thank you MSU Northern for hosting this automotive meets science learning opportunity. Talk about hands-on opportunities after graduation. We toured the campus and learned about certification and degree programs such as automotive, diesel, plumbing, electrical, welding, and fabrication. We also got to enjoy an all you can eat lunch in the cafeteria and check out the dorm rooms flavor tripping at Paris Gibson. The ma the miracle berries messed with our brains. The seminar is all about our senses of taste and smell. Word of the day was retroasal olificification. There's a bunch of crazy science words
014here. Um and it was absolutely an interesting activity. The peppers have been dried, grounded, and bottled into their Paris Gibson's own Loki's ghost product. Using sparingly, these ghost peppers are definitely spicy. Culinary students served up some of the fun holiday themed treats this week. One student made a staff an Ouija board themed cake. Talk about taking the staff back to their childhoods. School nurse Erica Harp offered training for students to earn their certification in infant, child, and adult CPR with the AED machines. Students are able to add this credential to their resumes, making them more employable and prepared for any situation. Hold on to your waiters. English and science in action. Students learned about recycling metals, purification methods, mold pouring, and powder coat painting fish jigs. While roing while rotating between their task, Mr. Fetchner
015posed the deep question of what do you fish for in life? Students brainstormed, drew an illustration, and wrote an essay about their passions. Good evening, Vice Chairman, Superintendent Hoyer, trustees, and members of the community. My name is Caitlyn McCclar. Young Parents Education Center trick-or-treating. Young Parents Education Center is open to the past and present students, Great Falls Public School staff, and community members. We love having these young people in our school. They add the community feel, and the cuteness factor is always a bonus. Kids geared up in their costumes trick to trick or treat around the building collecting treats and spreading cuteness. Technical math. Math in the treats. Second quarter. Becker and Francage are co-eing a newish math offering called technical math. Students explore different areas of math in real life. Each week we will
016each week will consist of a seminar on Monday and Tuesday and an outing guest or activity Wednesday and Thursday. The lineup is highlighted by welding, agriculture, military, and co and and culinary to name a few. This class is great for students who need math, love field trips, and want to answer the angel question of math. When will I ever use this, our bison harvest guests from Fort Benton, Helena, an Indian family health clinic along with some airmen from Mal Malstrom attended the bison harvest with 50 students from GFPS. Dugan felt like this is one of the best harvests we had because we were able to share more information about the bison than ever before. The ceremony usually occurs outside, but we were able to get out of the wind and use a building. Harvest attendees
017feasted on a cooked heart, liver, kidneys, and tenderloin at the site, so everybody was able to try fresh bison. I am Paris. The is the I am Paris award is meant to promote success in and out of the classroom. The students are nominated by staff and nominations are reviewed and selected by a committee. Two to three students are chosen per month. For a student to be wellresected citizen, they must be able to balance many different areas of life. They must exemplify outstanding characteristics both as a student and as a citizen of the community. The students must be able to handle many different aspects of student life while maintaining active participation in the classroom. The award is designed to nominate and select students who promote and take pride in Paris and in themselves. The award recipients
018for the month will have their picture displayed on the second floor hallway for all to see. They will remain displayed throughout the year. October's award winners are Lily Bonai, Sander Smith, and Alex Cole. JMG activities. JMG students have been busy this fall. They attended the fall leadership conference in Helena at the end of October. Paris earned third third place in the logo competition, but did not have anyone enter for the trip to Washington DC. Last week, they toured local businesses and use public transportation to get around town. Thank you. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Good evening, Vice Chair Scornagowski, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, and members of the community. My name is Addy Chris, and I will be reporting for CMR. Our CMR Key Club and volleyball team volunteered at Salvation Army trunk retreat recently.
019In addition to that, our Key Club wrote letters to veter veterans to show their appreciation at as veteran day approaches. Both HOSA and Key Club celebrates their respective weeks by featuring days of kindness and good deeds. HOSA also held a blood drive that was a huge success. A lesson we loved. The chamber the CMR chamber orchestra and symphonic band had the chance to listen to Fernanda Lstra talk about her life and conducting career. Her words were inspiring and students had the opportunity to ask questions about pursuing music in their lives. We have a group about 10 of about 10 peer mentors that take one day a week to have lunch with the students from Miss Underwood and Miss Blair's classrooms. The week of Halloween, they had a little party get together including mummy wraps, pin
020the nose on the witch, and lots of smiles. Mold day. The chemistry classes at CMR had their mold celebration on October 24th, even though the recognized day is the 23rd. The door opened at 6:02 a.m. in recognition of the chemistry constant. The students brought snacks and drinks and made pancakes. They played games and reviewed the projects that they made. Pro pencils combined Spanish 56 and 78 class. Begin watching the movement movie Tambian la Viva or even in the rain. It is about the filming of a realistic movie on Chris on Christopher Columbus. The director wants to portray the exploitation of the Tano people but is filming in Bolivia to find cheap labor. The Kachim Baba waterways water wars um were also taking place during the time of the filming. The parallelism between the early 16th
021century and current times is one things that students should take away from the film. Almost all of our fall sports have come to a conclusion. Cross country had cross town on October 15th and completed the sweep of Great Falls High. Both boys and girls teams won, making that 15 in a row for girls and the first for boys since 2019. They also had both individual winners. The state meet was in Missoula on October 25th. We had two all state finishers with Stella Deionovich coming in 10th for the girls and Emerson Hammer coming in eighth for the boys. The football team had their first round playoff match against M but on October 31st, winning 42 to6. This was their first playoff win since 2014. Their season came to a close with the 3213 loss to Missoula
022Big Sky on Friday. The volleyball team finished off the regular season strong with their second cross town win of the season. On Thursday, they had a play they had a play in the game against Belgrade. They won in three sets and will head out to the state tournament in Bosezeman on Wednesday. Congratulations to all our athletes. Another lesson we loved, our art students were able to bring in graphic designer and freelance artist Brenda Wolf to learn from her for a week. She shared her experiences as a working artist and helped critique and provide suggestions for our students work. BPA had their second official meeting last month where students picked their team individual and testing events. They will get started on their presentations in preparation for the first competition in January. In Mr. Hibbert's AP chemistry
023class, students ran a gravimetric analysis lab. A solution containing berium chloride and potassium sulfate was put into a centrifuge to help precipitate berium sulfate out of the solution. The students used water washers to clear all potassium and chloride ions from the samp sample by determining the mass of the bering sulfate. One could also determine the concentration of potassium sulfate in the original solution. Seymour speech and debate team had their first tournament of the season. The team got third place in a tournament sweep stakes and Bristol and Lydia took first place in their individual events. In addition to that, we had 14 other top eight placements. Now they prepare for their home tournament this weekend. Also, we still need judges if anybody has the time to watch incredible students Friday and Saturday. In Mr. Hibbert's honors
024chemistry class, they had the opportunity to change regular copper pennies into gold pennies. The students started by submerging the penny in zinc chloride heated by a Bunson burner to change the penny silver. They then reheated the silver penny by placing it directly in the flame of the Bunson burner until it became gold. This was a fun experiment that allowed students to continue practicing the safe usage of Bunson burners in the classroom. Um the performing arts. So the Adams family opens this weekend. Be sure to catch one of their six shows. Tickets are $10 and our freshman class will be selling concessions to fund raise. We also have the AP art and design exhibit that will be displayed at CMR until December 3rd. In addition to the musical and art exhibit, we had 34 of our
025choir students in audition and earn a place at the All Northwest Honor Choir. Congrats to them. Um, another lesson we loved was in Mr. Mrs. Rollins AP stats class. Um, they launched Barbies from the top of the staircase using only a few rubber bands. They changed the amount of rubber bands they were using to collect data and practiced problem solving. A good time was had. All except Barbie. Our CMR peer mentor group has been going through some changes and will now be called CMRyft. Lyft stands for listen, inspire, foster, and trust. They continue to be a resource for students struggling with their mental health, and we are so lucky to have them. Um, in Madame Davis's French 34 class, they learned about the superstitions of French Disney World and the ghosts George and Timmy that
026are known to inhabit certain exhibits such as the Haunted Mansion, the Pirates of the Caribbean, and Tom Sawyer's Island. Our wrestler families have been blessed by huge donations from our drama department. Each year they take the whole Saturday to collect donations from two different grocery stores in town. We also had an outpouring of support from the community. Our students were able to tour the lab facility at Colt refinery last week. They learned about renewable energy and how the refinery is leading the way in this field. Students were shown how different fuels are tested for quality control. Some students even assisted in the testing. CMR students are continuing to show up and show out for all our sports and other activities thriving throughout the school. We are especially proud of our pink volleyball night with which
027focused on raising money for the Susan G. Coleman Foundation. Each volleyball player took the time before the game to share names of breast cancer survivors they would be playing in honor of that evening. We have loved our school year so far and we can't wait for the rest of the fun as the seasons change. Go wrestlers. Thank you all so much. Wonderful. Thank you so much students. We always um just really appreciate hearing from you and appreciate you being brave enough to get up and speak and taking the time to put together these wonderful presentations. Um, I think it's just critical to our work to hear about what you're learning um, in school and um, and just about all of the other activities that you're able to participate in. So, thank you so much for
028all that. Um, we'll invite you to stay for um, the superintendence report. Of course, if you're busy, we understand. So, um, with that um, Superintendent Hoyer. >> Thank you, Vice Chair Sornagoski. And once again, it's always so hard to follow these guys. They are so articulate and it it's fun to see their schools through their eyes. Um, I am happy this evening to present the superintendent reports to members of the community and trustees as well as vice chairs. So, our first slide is November is National Native American Heritage Month. I put just some general information up there um that I took off of the national web page um that it was established in 1990 by President George HW Bush. Um the goal is to honor the rich history and traditions of indigenous peoples. Um we
029see this consistently reflected in the work that Dugan and his department does across our district. Um and it also provides an opportunity to educate the public about indigenous history, rights, culture, and contemporary issues. And I believe the lovely ladies from Paris uh spoke to the bison harvest that just happened. Um but we had members of our military that were there. um Colonel Brian Low, who I share an honorary commander um position with out there, he went and he texted me the next day and he said never had he ever dreamed that he would be standing on the prairie in Montana in the rain um eating raw kidney and learning about the rich history of the amazing cultures of our indigenous people here in the Great Falls area. And he had just the best time. So,
030it was really cool to hear that um through his voice and what he shared about it. Here in Great Falls, we are serving as of last week 69 different tribes. In the last month, we started to serve students from Alaska and South Carolina. And in conversation with Patty, they are also ready to serve indigenous Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders if requested. They just haven't had that request this year, but they are ready to do so. and especially with some of the connections they've made over the last year. Um they know that they have the resources available when that call comes in. Very proud of that department. Um continuing with that department, our community pow is coming up on Saturday, November 22nd. Uh vendor forms are due to Patty Hodson at Paris. Um or you can call
031her and register. Um she wanted to make everyone aware that because of allergies and health concerns, they're not going to have food vendors at that time or if they do, they're going to be very very limited. They just want to be sure everybody feels like this is a safe environment to go to and not have to worry about food allergies. She said everyone is welcome. Um there's often the misunderstanding that this is only for our indigenous community and she and the more people in our community that come out and celebrate this event, the better. So best of luck to all of the people who will be participating in the pow-ow. A huge shout out to Sherry who is taking notes back there trying to hide in the middle of the the community groups. Um we
032had our golden age tailgate party um for this last fall and we alternate falls between Great Falls High and CMR and then alternate. So in the spring we'll be over at Great Falls High. Um, the Golden Age Tailgate Party is open to residents of Great Falls who are age 62 or older. With their Golden Age pass, they get admission to regular seasons MHSA events here in Great Falls. So, they have to be a member of our community going to those events, but they also get open swim admission at the Great Falls High School Pool. Nothing made me happier than asking Mr. Interestingly, when he came in to get his Golden Age Pass, if he knew that he could swim at Open Swim um for the Great Falls High Pool, but we had 100 Golden Age
033Pass carriers connecting with our community and showing up. Um kudos to Jeff and Jamie for speaking so eloquently about the passion that they have for their schools and Jamie for hosting. It was a beautiful event. Um I think we've outgrown your mezzanine though. We're going to have to take it to the floor because we're starting to get a lot of alumni of Great Falls Public Schools now that they're retired coming to this event. It was packed and it was just a lot of fun. We sure enjoyed it. We also had our garage sale last Friday. Now, for people who are not sure about what our garage sale is, um it's a way that we can reduce unused items that are in storage. Um, and it allows us to save storage space for inuse items. And
034it is never fails to amaze me how quickly if we have open space in our district, we fill up open space in our district. So, every now and then we have to have that garage sale. Um, principles did have an opportunity to review the items that were turned in for the garage sale to see if they were items that were needed or could be used in their buildings um, before we put them out for the public. All items were asis. Um the majority of them are damaged. Um some of them are very significantly damaged, some of them are not. Um the remaining items are then scraps. So I asked Ally, "Where do the funds go when they're deposited with because we get money for these things?" Because we sold bookcases, cabinets, appliances, washers, and dryers
035that didn't work. If there was someone industrious that thought they could fix them, there you go. Chairs, rolling carts, you name it. There was quite a big there. Quite a few things there. and Ally told me that we actually have a um loss of assets revenue account that we put the money in directly for that. What then we can use it for? I'm going to have to ask Mr. Decon because >> we've done a lot of what it's been used for in the past, but generally it looks like it just rolls from year to year into in a year accounts. Um hasn't really been spent necessarily on anything. It just goes back into the general fund at the end of the year. So, it's a good way for a community to get their hands on
036some sometimes not so gently used items that they can upscale or repurpose. Um, and and it's a good way for us to open up some space for things that we need to store that are in use this coming Thursday. There is a lot of things happening this Thursday. Um, you all should have received an invitation um to a day of recognition. This is November 13th. uh Governor Gianforte and so special guests will be coming to the high school house. Um that's an invitationon event because the high school house is small in size and we can't pack a whole bunch of people in for the lunch period. But then we will later go to Great Falls High for a panel discussion on workforce development um with experts that'll be coming to this. This is a picture
037of high school house number 47. We are currently um in process of building 48, but we are really looking forward to that day and to visiting with the governor about his vision for workforce development and what Great Falls Public Schools is doing. We will have some former students speaking on a panel with him as well. So, we're excited for that opportunity. We had a day of caring last week. Um, we went out and we rad. And I'm happy to say that I actually forgot my boots and so I had to rake in my dress shoes and my dress clothes. But Becky Nelson had the perfect house. It took three of us not very long um to rake this house and to get the pieces of of debris picked up and thrown away. Um, so much
038so that when Mr. Williams said, "I'm done with my meeting. I can head out." Uh, we had to text him back and tell him we were heading on our way back. Jackie and Luke were here kind of holding down um business here in the district offices, but we worked for um United Way of Cascade County. It's the It looks sharp. That that lawn looks pretty sharp and it was a lot of fun. Gives us a chance to um break a little sweat uh visit with each other and take care of our community. So, my data for the day is enrollment and attendance. And this is a graph that I often use that was pulled together by some demographers that we had here um in the district several years ago. And they were really looking at
039an extended look at what does the historic enrollment look like for Grateful Public Schools over time. As we know um population is going down, school age children across the nation. And so I started tracking this for some of the community presentations that I do. And so I wanted to show you on the first day of school this year. We all know that funding, our funding is mainly driven by the number of little bottoms and seats we have across the district. So this year um when you take a look, you will see that we are at um 9,713. Now that is enrolled students and program students. Um I think we have about 13 students uh between 13 and 15 students that we are serving that we don't actually get um money for but they are included
040in that. So you know what our enrollment is in 2022 just so you can see the trend line we are at um or I'm sorry 2024 we were at 9,873 in 23 9,965. In 22, we're up at uh 10,149. And then in 21 at 10,259. The reason that I show this is because we are above what our projected enrollment was, but it is following almost identical that downward trend as we look at enrollment and attendance here in Great Falls. So, moving on to the last page, um the last data for the day is also our average daily attendance. An average daily attendance is the number of students present on the official collection or count or collection day. And it's a metric that our state uses when we're looking for A and B um average number
041of belonging. But we also use this for accreditation. And so we have our elementary students average daily attendance on that day was uh 92.8% of our students who were fully enrolled were actually in our schools. At the middle schools, 91% of our students who are enrolled were actually in class on that day. And at the high school, 88.95% of our students who are enrolled were actually there. Um, our goal is 90% or higher. So, we have a couple groups that are there and pushing upward. And then our high schools are working really hard to get there. I'm going to show this to you every quarter throughout the year. So, you can see what our average daily attendance is and how it hits and misses um throughout the year. and I'll have Jackie help me pull
042that um at the beginning of each quarter. So, and with that, that is my superintendent report for the day. If you have any questions, I am open to answering them. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Superintendent Hoyer. Um I'll look to my fellow trustees. Are there any questions on the superintendent's report? Perfect. Um I do have an audience communication. Um Sarah Whitney, I welcome you to the podium. >> If you can just um state your name for the record. Thank you. >> Turn this off because it's probably gonna with him. My name is >> whatever you need Absolutely. >> Show up every day for many others across the district right now. about Another vital understanding. We now have a training program that allows great opport professional growing educ. level. They would also retain love.
043children. >> Yes, thank you so much for those comments. Thank you. [applause] Yeah, we truly appreciate you coming and taking the time. >> No, absolutely. Yes, >> absolutely. Thank you for your time and for your advocacy. We appreciate you. All right, that is the only um audience communication that I have. So, we'll move on to action items. And students and principles are welcome to move on with your busy lives. We appreciate you so much. All right. First up under action items, we have a second reading of the links graphics KUDS. Miss Maywe, >> Vice Chair Scornoski, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, Becky Frisbee is back with our second reading of the Kuds for links graphics. Good evening, Vice Chair Scornagosski, trustees and superintendent Hoyer and our community. Every time I get up, they all
044leave. Uh, today is our second read of the links graphics KUDS. Those have been um available on our website um for the last two weeks. I've received no comments or um interest in those in any way. So, at this point, I would like um for I recommend that we go to a vote and approve those KUDs as written as much. >> Madam Chair, >> yes, Trusty Trust, >> I move that we approve the new links graphics KUDs as presented. >> Second. >> Wonderful. It's been moved and seconded to approve the new links graphics kuds as presented. Are there any questions or comments from my fellow trustees or from our community? Seeing and hearing none. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. My apologies trustee. [laughter] >> No, no worries. I I I just I just not a question,
045but just I want to thank you for always um explaining these to us and um giving us a chance to review and giving the public a chance to review. Um I just I think it's a really important part for us to um you know, make sure that everyone in the community understands what our kids are learning. >> Thank you, Trusty Thompson. All right. All those in favor of approving the KUDs as presented signify by saying I. >> I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes unanimously. We'll move on to B. Second reading of family and consumer science resources. Vice Chair Scornagowski, members of the board, superintendent Hoyer, members of the public. Again, Becky Frisbee with uh some materials to purchase. Hello again, um, Vice Chair Scornski, trustees, superintendent, um, Hoyer, and our community. Um, we
046have had our books available for the last two weeks in my office. Um, I did not receive any public comment or opportunity to review. I do have one change I'd like to notify you of. um are quote expired on Halloween and they um sent the new one and there is a slight change. Shipping has increased by 73. I know it's not much, but I do want you to be aware that the now total cost will be $36,983 87. I did request um that they honor their original quote. they guarantee that quote would be good all the way until the end of the school year. Um, so there is the possibility it'll go back to the original price, but if you vote tonight, I do want you to be aware that it could be 73 cents
047more. >> All right, I'll open the floor to a motion. >> Madam Chair, >> yes, Trusty Bronson, >> move that we approve the purchase of the family and consumer science textbooks as presented by Mrs. Frisbee. >> Second. All right, it's been moved and seconded to approve the family and consumer science textbooks as presented. Is there any questions or comments from my fellow trustees and from our community obviously thank you for that um detail in transparency. [laughter] Um all those in favor please signify by saying I. >> I. All those opposed same sign. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. >> All right. Next up, we have um Superintendent Hoyer, approval of Raiders's course at Paris Gibson Education Center. >> Well, thank you, Vice Chair Scornagosski, members of the board, and members of
048our community. I am here tonight to speak um to this request for approval of a Raiders course at Paris Gibson Education Center um on behalf of executive director Lance Boyd who unfortunately has I think the stomach bug that is going around our high schools and our schools. Um the Raiders course is actually it's a really exciting thing and if you ever want to see some teachers faces light up, meet with the junior ROC teachers when they talk about the Raiders course. Um for those of you who have ever been affiliated with the military, you will recognize Raiders courses. Um they are often used um when we see like u basic training. So it is the balance beams, it's the wooden climbing walls, um it's the monkey bars. I know they don't call them monkey bars
049in the military. Um but it's the monkey bars. It's all of those setups. And right now, our junior ROC, which is covered under Perkins, um, has requested to spend $5,000 of their Perkins money and work with Red Horse to get this installed. We did work with our insurance to be sure that they would allow the engineers at Red Horse to install this. Um, please know that there are some things that will be removable. The ropes that they use to climb the walls and then there's another um I don't know what you want to call it event um that where it's poles and they have to run ropes between them and then they have to balance on the ropes as they move across them. Um those ropes will all be removed so they are not used
050by the public when our JROY kids are not there. Um this will be installed above the the track at Paris Gibson as well as down on one flat. Um they have Paris has been part of the conversation as well as Mr. Hobble who's not here right now to speak to it um and the Jay Rosy instructors um Mr. Boyd and then Mr. Decon. But um we're very excited to be able to bring this forward as part of their physical fitness and wellness activities. And with that I'm open to any questions. I think Mr. Decon and I could probably both answer them. We are requesting that you approve the Raiders course installation at Paris Gibson Education Center for our J Roszi program. Thank you. Wonderful. I open the floor. >> Uh, Madam Chair. >> Yes, Trusty
051Trroski. >> I move to approve the Raiders course installation at Paris Gibson Education Center for Junior Reserves Officers Training Core Program. Second. >> Wonderful. It's been moved and seconded. Are there any comments or questions from my fellow trustees? Any comments or questions from our community? This is a wonderful opportunity to continue a wonderful program. So all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you so much. All right. Next up, uh, Mr. Williams, approval of the purchase of servers and storage for virtual environment. Vice Chair, excuse me, Vice Chair Scorowski, Superintendent Hoyer, trustees, and the public. Um, I think I might want to take a break of this before I start. Thank you. I come before you today to take and ask your permission to
052follow through with the plan submitted to you for the hypervisor or the virtual environment for the district. Uh the cost of this is spread over three years per the plan. And after we get into it, I can answer your questions to this. Quite simply, this is kind of like having a transmission in your car that's going. You know it's going, you know, you're going to have to replace it. We just didn't know when we were going to have to, let alone what it was going to cost at the time the quotes were going to come in because as you all know when someone or corporation gives you a quote it's 30 days. The VMware support and licensing was going to be going out in September as per the technology plan that was submitted to you
053last year. you're all notified that this was going to coming up and at the time we were going to have to take either decide to extend the support or not extend it depending on how we're dealing with the situation. I chose to extend the support simply because it would get us through till August, the end of August. We need that time in order to take and create another environment to move all of our virtual servers over to and leave the VMware environment alone. Uh the reason for this for the public that's not quite aware is about see I think it was 2023 a company called Broadcom bought the product VMware. VMware is the hypervisor or the software that allows you to have virtual servers on a physical server. They bought it from Dell. At the
054time Dell owned it and was using it on their own uh computers and servers. They were selling it as a package deal which is how Great Falls Public Schools bought it. Unfortunately, when they sold VMware to Broadcom and this was a conversation past uh technology director Tom Herring, myself and Chris me had even before I moved here about the cost elevation Broadcom was making on this product. uh operate 300% of the time. I think if I remember correctly, they were quoting Great Falls Public Schools $300,000 for a three-year licensing on VMware, which is absolutely off the scale. U so we weren't able to do anything about it then because we still had licensing through this September. Tom being Tom said basically, Jeff, I think this is going to have to be across the bear. So
055that's how I got here today. The reason I'm asking you to allow us to do this is this. The quote I have in front of you, although it is $91,000 odd for the hardware is because we have already paid for the VMware at $50,000 for the support until August. That is part of the package from Dell. Now, I know that sounds like a very large sum, and believe me, it is. I really hate to be the person standing up here in front of you asking to do this, but if it makes you, which it kind of makes me feel a little bit better, the original quote for the hardware was not $91,000, but $161,294 for the hardware. That means we would have still had to pay $50,000 for the VMware support. After making several requests
056and doing whatever I could on the phone, we got the next quote which gives the $91,000. Now, could we do without it or breast time? When something goes wrong with the VMware though, we will not be able to we will not be able to support the cost it will take to keep that VMware environment up and running licensing wise. $50,000 sounds like a lot and it is for the short period of time we have the VMware licensing. They guarantee me I will never see that cost that low ever again. So we will be locked into continually having to be whacked by the tail, so to speak, by this company and their licensing requirements. We're not the only ones. Every school district I know of has VMware and they are all in the same boat. Unless
057you're a Fortune 500 company, I don't think you're going to be able to contend with this cost anymore. But this is what they're doing. So, I do apologize for being here in front of you to ask this, but I am going to ask you to allow me to take and pursue this plan as I've laid it out for you for those reasons. Any questions, please? >> Any questions? >> Open the floor to a motion. Madam Chair, >> Trusty Bronson, >> I move that we approve the request to expend $91,87798 needed to purchase the new servers and network storage to host the district's new virtualization platform as outlined by Mr. Millenniums noting for the record that the purchase will be funded across both the 2026 2027 and 2027 2028 fiscal year technology budgets at $45,938.99 plus
058interest. >> Second. >> All right, it's been moved and seconded um to purchase the new servers and network storage um to host the district's new virtualization platform. Are there questions? Trusty Thompson. >> Uh maybe just a clarification. I just want to make sure. Um were you saying that um you've talked with other schools and this is what everyone's doing? >> I won't say this is what everyone is doing. Everyone who has VMware is in the same boat. They when their licensing goes out, the new licensing structure from Broadcom is you are not able to buy one and two licenses. you have to buy this package and that's the only way they're selling it. So there and they have in the last two years since like I said the summer prior to me coming here they
059have heard from just about everyone I know of the doubleA's the technology directors have all said the same thing they literally do not I don't think they care about the level of customer that we are in or the a certain level I think they are somehow thinking they can recoup or they can take and dictate the price as high as they can At one point I did read on the internet that it went from 800% to 1500% for some people from the licensing they bought it originally. That is an astronomical uh it's like having the goose golden eggs and trying to strangle it. I don't know why they're doing it and they've heard from all of us that this is ridiculous but they are not paying attention to what we're asking. So whoever has this
060software, whoever has this virtualization platform will have to take and transfer to something else, not just schools but other companies as well. >> Thank you. >> So and then to further clarify, this contract is intended to give us some transition time to find other options. Is that right? or is this our other option and we're hoping to negotiate on the price >> this contract the proposal before you supplies us the hardware to use the new virtualization and I probably didn't say this but let me clarify when Dell bought VMware and was using it they keyed their hardware to use only this software >> so we can't take the servers and wipe them and put Microsoft on them it won't So therefore, that was a pretty good deal for Dell. Hey, I'll give you a package
061deal with all the equipment and all the software you need. When I sold the software rights to another company, now those of us who are locked into the software because of the hardware we have are unable to do anything else but additionally buy different hardware to create another environment. It's not going to allow us to find time to do a different solution. This is going to give us the ability to do another solution. Gotcha. >> Madam Chair, >> Trusty Bond, >> I I was just going to note for the record I I appreciate Mr. Williamson's explanation and apology. I don't think any apologies are necessary in my limited layman's understanding of this world. This appears to be but another example of what's happening technology industry and what they're doing to the customer base. And we
062don't have a lot of options other than to do as you proposed and use this as an opportunity to move forward and perhaps we'll find something better, but we don't have many options. So, we have to proceed as you suggested. So, thank you for your your comments. >> I'd like for you to all understand I really hate being backed into a corner on anything, but right now >> you think you do. [laughter] >> I really don't like it. But, you know, >> yes, >> until we can wrestle these big buggers to the ground, it's going to be more than us. It's going to take a lot more than just one school district. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um, seeing no further comments or questions from my fellow trustees, are there any
063comments or questions from our community? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. All those opposed, same sign. >> Motion passes unanimously. Thank you for your time and attention. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. >> All right. Next up, Superintendent Hoyer, second reading of revised board policies. Well, thank you, Vice Chair Swornagoski, members of the board, and members of our community. Um, tonight I bring forward to you policy 2150, 2334, 2450, 2600, and 5124. With the exception of one policy, I have had no comment from our community. Um, but Mr. Cubbage did have a very good catch for us on policy 5124. If you take a look on page 55, line 17, um 55, line 17, it reads, "A retired teacher must have 27 years of experience or more
064was left out of the policy um when it was uh written." And when you take a look at the MCA that is there, he was right. He caught it. He thought it was just kind of odd that they called out 27 years. Um, so he went back and double checked that and that was a correct catch. So, thank you to Mr. Cubage for that that check um and that catch on that. We appreciate that. But with that, I ask for your approval on those policies as written to include the one change on 5124 as presented to you. >> Madame Chair. >> Yes, Trusty Drosski. I move that we approve revised board policies 2150, 2334, 2450, 2600, and 5124 as presented. >> Second. >> Wonderful. It's been moved and seconded to approve the policies um as
065presented. Are there any questions or comments from my fellow trustees um or from our community? Wonderful. And thank you for for reviewing those policies, Mr. Cubbage. Um, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. All right. Since our agenda was adopted as presented, we're now moving on to um reports, discussion, and policies. Miss Mainwearing, we now get to hear from you on the fall student achievement data. Good evening again, Vice Chair Scornagoski, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, our community. I just wanted to give you a brief overview of where we're starting off the year um in regard to student achievement data. Um and um summary a little bit. We have some more data from the end of the year last year.
066So, we'll start off with some math data. Uh this is our math fall map data report. And this is a hopefully a form that you become accustomed to seeing. And I'm just going to describe a couple pieces to it. I'm gonna move over here because I'm teacher point. [laughter] Trusty Bronson, >> I I assume, Miss Mayor, you'll have this data available to us by tomorrow, so studied a little bit. >> Yes, for sure. >> Okay. mast data. Well, there is a chart with a whole bunch of lines on it right there. Uh mast test is a Montana assessment through the year. Uh so that this is an assessment that we give to third through eighth graders each grade level and they take it this year they're going to take it three times throughout the year
067test splits and it's intended to be more of a in the- moment testing rather than an end of the year final assessment like many of us are used to with ITBS or CRT or ESPback or any of those predecessor tests. So, this is meant to be after the students learn the the material, they take an assessment on it. And this is um the test that we have been piloting in Great Falls for a couple years. This past year, 2425, the whole state took the test. So, 23 24 we were piloting. We were the largest district, I believe, to be piloting. And so, then this past year, now all the schools in Montana moved to this. So, this is ELA and math. And what you see on that chart uh is that we are scoring about
068where all the other kids in Montana score. We're right in the they're virtually imperceptible the differences. So, across grade levels and across subject areas. So on on the mass data that data is reflective just to clarify >> is this now reflecting statewide data or is it still that smaller sample group? >> No, this would be the statewide data and this is the this is the first year that everybody took it. So we're still baseline. So it's not um something they're using for accountability wise. This is this was the first year that they're using anything. So we're going to see what that does this year. It'll be more valid going forward. They continue to make changes and adjustments based on our feedback and feedback from other schools in the state. >> Right. Perfect. I think and
069are other states doing it as well testing. >> I'm not sure about the answer to that. >> Yeah. I don't know. They may have something similar, but okay. So then we talk about our high schools and the achievement test that we use at the high school level is uh the ACT test and our juniors take that. 11th graders take that in the spring each year and it is all of our juniors that take that test that assessment. Um, so on gems I've that's the state site on OPI. I've been looking to see how the state did on average how juniors across the state have tested and there is some discrepancy that is hard to tell based on what I see right now on on gyms. And so I have a call in to to OBI
070to see if I could get some clarification. So, I wanted to share with you what Becky Frisbee shared with you last spring in that our average, we take all of our high schools and do our average in 2024, we were scoring at an average of 19.1 and last year in 2025, our our juniors scored an average of 19.3. They're composite. So that's taking ELA, math, all the all the subtests, filing them into one. And with that, any other questions that I can or can't answer. >> Uh yes, Mr. Cage. This was from last spring in April. Yes. as juniors in 25 April. Yes. Yep. April 24 to April 25. Is there discussion on the ACT? From my of changing the test from my understanding, colleges are shifting what tests they want to see. The information
071we have is right right now is that the state will continue that at least this year to require ACT as our um state level assessment at the junior level. And and then I was wondering if um kind of going back to the MAP data um do we look at um students spring test scores to their fall test scores to get a to get an idea about summer slide and what kind of what we're seeing for summer. >> That's a report that we can pull. >> Y >> that could be could be interesting to see obviously out of the district's hands. >> Yeah. um what what happens there and then I wasn't sure if um now would be the time or if perhaps another um presentation in another either data for the day um but to
072speak a little bit about the new kindergarten readiness test and how that is rolling out and whether you feel like that's been a good shift. >> Sure. So, we could we could talk about that. Think about >> any other questions or comments. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you so much. All right. And that brings us to discussion committee reports and comments. Let's start with Trusty Sunchild. I just wanted to share that my son was home from this last week and got to go to Miss Boy second grade classroom at Louiswis and Clark and speak with their CKLA. They were doing um ancient Greece uh marathons and he marathon in DC. So he t I it's I don't even I don't even know how that happened but anyway [laughter] um he got to speak
073on that and democracy and talk about some of the monuments and how he had all three second absolute were angels which I mean I I was stunned. Mrs. boy was sending me pictures and they all held their hands up and they were engaged and and when he left he said that was a good time but I it's too hard. [laughter] So, but that was that was a lot of fun. He enjoyed that. >> Awesome. Thank you. All right, Trusty Thompson. >> Well, I I would just want to say how much I love that at Great Falls High they combi combined art and bio. As much as it grossed me out, I thought that was pretty amazing. um that just I love when I love when any time that we can combine our curriculum because I
074really feel like um in one of those students had mentioned this too like realworld applications of math I think it was the the example I just I think that it really helps our students no matter what level that they're at that they they really do need this education and they can apply it in certain ways so I love I love that combination and then um I also Um, I should have asked what is a sny ghostaster. That's what I was going to say. We all have to have a word to look up. [laughter] That's all I have. >> All right. Trusty Bronson, >> a politician. All right. Thank you for saving us all the time of Googling later. >> I know it was on all of our lists. >> Uhhuh. >> Awesome. All right, Trusty
075Bronson. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to note for my colleagues here the uh amazing ability of our administrative team to respond to inquiries when they come up. As Mrs. Hoyer knows, I had an inquiry from a resident of the community this week regarding our athletic program in particular the use and expense associated with our buses. So naturally, I reached out not only to Mrs. Hoyer but also to Mike Hannib because I knew they'd have the data. And sure enough, by this morning, I had everything I needed. Um, number one, you should all know Mrs. Hoyer either obviously does not sleep at all because she responds to emails late on a weekend night, which is very interesting. But, uh, just so you know, Mr. Mr. Hannibberg had this wonderful lengthy analysis this morning
076which is now going to allow me to sit down with this member of the community and explain that we understand his concerns but we've got it under control. So I just again I'm just very pleased at how responsive um administration is to these inquiries and they do a great job of backing us up in situations. Thank you. >> Trusty Trosky. Um I just want to she's not here anymore, but speak on um to our community member who came and spoke. It was, you know, it took a lot of courage to get up in front of all of us and speak, especially with something so close to her heart. Um and Tom, I saw you taking notes during that. And so I I'll be interested to see um how that kind of progresses because I think
077I think the tier system would be something worth looking into. pair of professionals are something that we struggle to get hired and keep hired and they do have a very difficult job and so I I would um be interested in seeing how that plays out going forward and um I was trying to remember what happened since our last meeting. We had our work session. I thought that was really great. I really appreciated the uh Lyft kiddos who came and and spoke and I think they did such a wonderful job. We could tell they were a little nervous, but I think they did a really good job getting up and speaking in front of everybody and we had a good variety of of groups there represented and that was that was pretty great. And then my
078fourth grader got to go to the CMR museum last week and he loved it. He came home talking about all the things and all the things he maybe wants to put in his essay when he gets to writing that. And so >> Oh, it's uh our fourth graders really do love that trip. It's awesome. >> Wonderful. Well, thank you so much. Um the the notes that I had um we actually our students brought to everyone's attention uh speech and debate meet this weekend on Friday starting at 46 and 8 and then all day Saturday. The last I heard was there's still a need for hundreds of judges or more than a hundred judges. Um and then I wanted to thank um our school administration for going out and raking leaves um as part of the
079day of caring. Um it's uh essentially seniors in our community, many of whom are on meals on wheels um who don't have the don't have the capabilities of doing their own yard work. So um it's always wonderful that that our very busy administrative team takes time out of their day to help out in our community. So, thank you so much for that. Um, and then my last comment is um that I had the opportunity as part of our halfday um sub um assignments each year um to spend a day as as a parah and just the diversity in needs in a single classroom. Um you truly do not understand it um unless you're in those classrooms. So, um, as always, we welcome and appreciate parents who advocate for their children, um, and for other children
080like their children. So, that was wonderful to see. Um, I'll bring your attention to the upcoming events. Uh, Tuesday, November 18th, we have a board work session um to do a deep dive on Indian education for all. Our next regular board meeting is November 24th. Um and then we'll have another um work session on the 15th and um our regular meeting thereafter. Um I would welcome a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> All right. Meeting adjourned. Thank you all. [clears throat]