001and welcome to this October 13, 2025 meeting of the Great Falls Public Schools Board of Trustees. And I remind you that this meeting is being recording recorded for future posting on the school's website. With that being said, Mr. Deakons, would you please administer the roll call? >> Thank you, Chairman Johnson. Gordon Johnson >> here. >> Kim Scornoski, >> excused. >> Bill Brunson, >> here. >> Craig Duff. >> Marley Sunchild >> excused. >> Amy Thompson >> excused. >> And Paige Terowski >> here. >> Awesome. You have a farm to work with. >> Well, thank you, Mr. Dickens. And Mr. Hobble, would you please lead us in the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of America to the standice for all >> Thank you, Mr. Havl. Mr. Chairman, Trusty Bronson, I move that we approve the
002agenda as submitted. Second >> been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda as presented. Any conversation or questions from our board of trustees? Any commentary from our gallery here with us this evening? Hearing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of adopting the agenda, please signify by saying I. I oppose the same sign. We have an agenda from which to work. Thank you very much, >> Mr. Chairman. Trusty Bronson move that we approve the consent agenda as submitted. >> Second. >> Been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda as presented. Any questions or comments from our board of trustees? Any commentary from our gallery hearing? Seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda, please signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Same sign. Thank
003you very much. That enables us to move on to Roman 4 communication report of student representatives. Mrs. Maywary. >> Good evening, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer. Uh it's my pleasure to introduce our student representatives. One of the best parts of the meeting. Uh we have lots of activities going on in our schools this evening. So uh it was a little bit of rock paper scissors for who had the earliest event after this. So CMR is going to go first and then Great Falls High and then Paris. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, and members of the community. My name is Emerson Hammond, and I'd like to start our presentation. Starting off with community service, CMR HOSA was busy doing good in the community this week. They not only
004helped to support the Lost Enzyme project and Montana's Alzheimer's Association, but they also decorated sidewalks to thank nurses at the hospital. CMR Key Club volunteered to purchase and serve food to all their fellow students while they built their class floats. In addition to that, our schools decided to create a take one leave one rock garden to uplift students and brighten the day of staff members as they walk out to the parking lot. The painted rocks are beautiful. The first lesson we loved, uh, Mrs. Ingamman's honors English 56 classes began reading The Crucible. The students were introduced to the accusations of witchcraft by creating and presenting posters of the characters in the play. This allowed the students to gain a solid understanding of the role characters roles and their relationships throughout the play. Uh fall sports
005are nearing the end of their seasons. Golf wrapped up with the state tournament in but congratulations to our all state placers with Jack Pinsky in third, Jackson Hegman in 14th, Quincy Wayoth in ninth and Brooklyn Hegman in 15th. Soccer competed in their second cross town matchup of the season and will face the Boseman schools this week with playoffs starting next week. Cross country had their first in town meet at Anaconda Hills during homecoming week and we will compete at the cross town meet on Wednesday. Uh varsity will head to head to state the following weekend. Volleyball beat both Sky View and Senior this weekend after beating Great Falls High during homecoming week. They will have their senior night tomorrow against Billings West. Football after winning their homecoming game against Billings Senior went on the road
006and defeated Bosezeman. Uh they have one game left before Cross Town and then the playoffs. The second lesson we loved. Students in Mr. Allen's AP US history class got to debate whether they would have been federalists or anti-federalists in 1787 when the constitution was fighting to get ratified. This lesson was engaging and allowed the students to see the valid arguments for both sides. They reasoned and debated in a fun environment that encouraged learning and understanding. BPA had their fall leadership conference. During this conference, students plan their program of work for the year, collaborate with students from around the state, and attend leadership seminars. They also took third place in their Shark Tank event. BPA is ready to tackle the school year. In Mr. Hibbert's AP chemistry class, students got to determine the percent copper in
007a brass sample. First, they created a stock solution with copper ions and made a standard dilution series to create a calibration curve. Then they dissolved a brass tab using nitric acid and ran that solution through the spectra photoometer to determine the concentration of copper. >> Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, and members of the community. I am Lydia Commtock, and I will continue tonight's presentation. On the performing arts side, our drama department is hard at work practicing and memorizing lines and stage directions for the Adams family performances in November. It's going to be a great show. And there's the poster there. And then continuing with performing arts, students from CMR's Chamber Orchestra are continuing to raise funds for their trip to the National Orchestra Festival in San Francisco by busing tables
008and playing at Boris along with attending the Baroque and Blue concert put on by Steve Olsen, Joy Geller, John Craw, and Mark Barry. We also have some fall concerts coming up. We kick off our fall concert season with band tonight at 700 p.m. and a choir concert tomorrow night at 7 p.m. Our musicians will also be participating in the All State Music Festival Wednesday through Friday of this week. And another lesson that we loved was in Mr. Comtock's AP English class, students got to draw an object and an idea from cups and write an essay combining the two. For example, one student may have been asked to compare isolation and parenthood. It was very difficult and had students practice the structure of an AP essay. Our student government members worked hard all throughout homecoming week
009building floats, decorating hallways, and putting on events kept them busy. Now they are busy preparing fundraisers and events while they wait for the MASC student conference in November. It will be held at CMR here in Great Falls and several of our students will be speaking and leading workshops. And another lesson that we loved was students in Mr. Berg's class are learning about the different components in circuit boards. To apply their knowledge, students built a circuit that introduced transistors and demonstrated what it was doing in a circuit with the brightness of the LEDs. Their futures are bright. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyers, members of the board, and members of the community. My name is Addy Chris, and I will be finishing this presentation. Our high school house students proudly held carpentry tools donated in memory
010of Dan Wrigley. Dan worked many years as a carpenter in Great Falls and later with Great Falls Public Schools before retiring. Though he passed on November 1st, 2022, his love of craftsmanship will live on through the students who now learn with his tools. A special thank you to his wife Mars Marley's Rigidly for his generous gift that will inspire the next generation of builders. High school house students took a break from building walls and were invited to Selton job site tour. A great way to learn. So we had homecoming this week and our dressup days included meme day, chef versus ref. The class themes were sci-fi for seniors, juniors were romance, sophomores were musicals, and freshman were fantasy. Then we had formal and finally green and gold. We are so proud of our homecoming court.
011Reagan, Ben, Olivia, and Kellen represented the freshman. Derek, Seth, Kingsley, and Stella represented the sophomores. Ian, Jordy, Adriana, and Zoe were our junior royalty, and our senior princesses were Grant, Hunter, and Scotland. Our senior princesses were Elena, Bri, and Joy. Finally, our king and queen, Dalton, and Cameron were crowned. We had an action-packed homecoming week. Friday of the week before, we kicked off with the color run and beginning of the long hallway decorating process. Shout out to our class of 2027 for winning the hallway competition for the third year in a row. On Monday, we had powderpuff football where the juniors beat the seniors and the male wranglers gave a wonderful halftime performance. On Tuesdays, our boys and girls played hard in the cross soccer games. On Wednesday, we continued foot building. On Thursday, we
012had a big assembly to celebrate the week and we had cross town volleyball. On Friday, we had an early out to go to barbecue and watch and participate in the parade. Congrats to the freshman for winning the best float. Then our wrestlers played hard at Memorial Stadium and practiced hard at the dance afterward. The Rustlers are showing up by the hundreds to school events and activities, supporting each other, having fun, and making memories. Our students are Rustler Pride. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, Trustees, and members of the community. My name is Caitlyn Fulbright, and I'll be starting our October presentation. Keeping the bison tradition, the students of Great Falls High truly showed what it's meant to be a bison. The halls were filled with daily themes,
013laughter, and fun. On Thursday, we had a wonderful assembly where we got to meet our 2025 candidates. We got a performance from Rap City Choir of Mission Impossible while ending it with group dances by our royalty candidates. On Friday, we got to end the week with whole school barbecue, the homecoming parade, and ended it with our 2025 King Coulter Devos and our 2025 Queen Eve Green. Congratulations to both of you. You truly show what it's mean meant to be a bison. We also had float building. One of the best times we get classes together at Great Falls High is homecoming float building. Classes, clubs, and teams had a week to come up with the best designs they could. The seniors were able to create a wonderful float with a design of Love Island and won
014the float contest. Great job, class of 2025. To kick off a great homecoming week, we had our annual color run where 200 students showed up. At our color run, we raised money for one of our fellow Great Falls High students who was putting through a tragic accident. Great job, Bison. Keep up the good work. Our fall sports are winding down with our varsity football team having an awesome homecoming, destroying Sky View 42 to zero and defeating Belgrade 27 to6 last week. The varsity girls soccer fought for a two two-point cross town win over the CMR. Both our boys and girls cross country teams have had a great races both against Anaconda and Helena. A lesson we loved in Miss Stub's marketing class. We they have been hardworking creating colorful and creative posters to showcase the
015four phases of different products in the life cycle. Each group has been learning how to prod produce, grow, and peak and eventually decline while all showing off their design skills in the process. We also have a new thing called teacher highlight at Great Falls High. and it's where some of our students pick a teacher of the week and also a staff member of the month to highlight in our Instagram page. We are so thankful for the impact of these wonderful people and what they are doing at Great Falls High. >> Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, trustees and members of the community. My name is Weston Stole and I will be finishing our pres and I will be continuing our presentation. Leadership High School students participated in a professional development day at CMR. The f
016they focused on personal insight and explored their personality types and learn how to use their traits to collaborate um with others. In the afternoon, they part they participated in interviews with professionals from various agencies across Great Falls, gaining valuable experience and confidence. A lesson we loved. In Miss Bowman and Gretchen's culinary classes, kids have been busy cooking up delicious meals, including parfets, pizzas, baked mac and cheese, and so much more. They are new culinary teachers, and we and have been doing a great job teaching and trying new cooking techniques. Class of 1970. The class of 1970 sponsored the landscaping of the Jack Fischer Memorial Sculpture Garden. and recently kicked off their 55th school reunion with music and ice cream in the space they helped create the high school house. On September 11th, Great Falls Public
017School high school student house started work on the 48th house. A huge shout out to to the neighborhood works and all our other community partners. Looking forward to another great year. World of Work Day. Our sophomores had a blast at the annual World of Work event. They had the opportunity to explore hands-on career experience like welding, fire, firefighters, healthcare, and construction, and so much more. This is an awesome event that brings our community together to inspire the next generation and give them a glimpse into the exciting career path available here in Montana. Bison BPA BPA leadership had a kickoff conference to start the year at Fairmont Hot Springs a few weeks ago. They met kids from all around the state to share a common interest with to share common interests with them about business and
018team bonding. We are excited to see how our BPA team does this year. >> Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, trustees, members of the community. My name is Seth Royer. I'm a senior at Great Falls High and I get to finish off our presentation for this month. Uh this is our National Custodian Day. Uh this month we celebrated and thanked our amazing team of custodians on our National Custodian Day. Uh from keeping the campus clean to the multitude of behind the scenes tasks that they do to keep our school running. Uh these individuals are truly the unsung heroes of our school. We're so grateful for the pride and care that they constantly take in their work to keep our historical building in tip-top shape. Uh my lesson we loved is that in Mrs. Wild's AP
019physics class, uh students are learning about the base fundamentals of physics. Right now, uh we had toy cars that moved at a constant rate and used a metronome and poker chips to determine their velocity and acceleration. Uh there's a really fun class that I'd recommend to anybody that likes math a little bit. Um and it really helps students understand the basics of how natural forces in the world work. Next up, scholarship night. Uh, at Griffals High's scholarship night, some 130 students and parents were able to learn about all the amazing scholarship opportunities available to our students this year. The Great Falls Public School Foundation's Stephanie Schneider presented some very valuable information to those in attendance. A big thank you to the Great Falls Public Schools Foundation and all of our Great Falls High School counselors
020who work to educate and promote all these great opportunities to our students. Next is uh arts and fire. Our amazing Grey Falls High and CMR art students were out in force volunteering at Paris Gibson Square Arts and Fire. Even our Great Falls High thespians were running a booth. Uh in addition to all the student volunteers, we had many faculty and their families enjoying this awesome free event. Now we get to do something a little fun. Uh this is something new that we're going to be doing in our slideshows where we'll have a little bit of school trivia history. And so we got two questions up there. What year did Great Falls High School adopt the color blue? And what specifically is the name of that blue color? And we're going to turn around them, the
021educators this time. You guys get to turn and talk um to your neighbors. And so, Chairman Johnson, you're going to be the the spokesperson for everybody. So, I guess discuss and then once you have an answer >> for for the um the name of the shade of blue. >> Yeah. What do you got? I'm going to pardon me. Oh, the year. >> Either one. >> Okay. The year would be >> I'm going to say 1952 and it's navy blue. >> Okay, that's it. We'll go to the next slide now. >> Uh, you were wrong. I'm sorry. >> Nuts. >> It's okay. We'll do it. Do it next month. It's okay. Uh, it was we adopted it in the year 1900, >> which was before our building that we're in right now was even built, which
022is really cool, I think. And the answer is uh what color it is? It's Yale blue >> because way back in the day around that time, like the the powerhouse of education and sports and all that stuff was like Yale College. And so we I won't say took their color, but like Yeah. partnershipped their color. So that's our is a really >> No. No. So yeah, our official school color that you'll see that that really dark uh almost navy blue is is called yellow blue. And that's that's all we have for this month. And we'll we look forward to talking to you guys next. >> Well, that was very good. Thank you. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, trustees, and members of the community. My name is Aspen Logan Swacki, and I'm here to present
023Paris. So, I am a senior at Paris and I want to after high school go to college to get a degree in history or social studies and secondary education. I want to achieve my goal of becoming a high school history teacher. I love kids, animals, fishing, spending time with my family, and I also enjoy debating about politics. >> All right. >> Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, trustees and member of the community. My name is Caitlyn Mccclair. I am a junior at Paris Gibson and I work two jobs when not at school. I currently do different dual enrollment classes a every eight week sorry every eight weeks through Montana State University. I've done criminal justice classes. I've done medical math classes and I'm starting anthropology soon. So that way I can kind of decide what
024I want to do when I go into college. I have two cats and a turtle at home. And in my free time, I enjoy doing nails and pottery. I also love the outdoors and a good book every once in a while. Students got to learn the history of the UK and got to try some of the unique snacks from the area. Everything ranging from pickle chips to wine flavored gummies. Once a month on a Friday, students receive a new Yum Yums box from a new location to learn about the whatever location it's from and try different snacks from it. Students got to separate honey from beeswax and experience the process of collecting, processing, and jarring honey. This year, we got a total of seven gallons of honey. Students were given a jar to take home
025with them. Students also got the opportunity to pick peppers from the school's garden, chop them up, and dry them. When the peppers are dry, they will be bottled for hot pepper shake using a student designed a label called Loki's Ghost. Students also had the opportunity to take a field trip to the University of Providence to learn about different colleges from throughout the West Coast. This was an amazing opportunity to learn about what you might want to do after high school. We are gearing up for the GFPS pow-wow. Students learned about regalia, simple sewing basics, and basic embroiderying skills. It was time to freshen up items from our inventory. Students could also check out inventory to dance at the pow-wow. Textile students could also bring in their own clothes to alter or start brand new projects.
026Each month, one or two Paris students earn their CNA certification through a program through Great Falls College. Students are able to train to become a CNA for no cost to the student. We had one student pass in September and two started this October. Students are able to go straight to a good work good paying job. And this year, Paris student and CNA grad Jasine helped teach the seminar to her peers after having completed this September class. Our blood drive. Students and staff showed up to save a life by donating blood. As usual, we met our goal and gained the first few time donors. Students can earn a red graduation cord by donating or volunteering at the check-in table three times. Leadership High School. Three of our parish students attended the Leadership High School rep oh
027reception at the Newberry. They spent the first week or the first session at a golden triangle gym where they worked on team building and leadership skills. The second session was spent at CMR where students worked on interviewing skills and did interactive activities according to results from personality test. We had scholarship night. We held two scholarship information sessions in September. one during the day and one at night where parents and students could learn about GFPS foundation foundation scholarships and learn how to apply. Word from the foundation is that we have already already have some scholarships application submitted. We had two geology field trips recently. We had one to Monarch where students took a trip to Memorial Falls. We went 6,600 ft in elevation and got to take a look at the waterfalls and surrounding areas. We
028also got to visit Cougar Canyon where we searched for million-year-old sea fossils on top of mountains. According to Mr. Logan, who has been taking this trip for a while now, they found the most intact fossils they have ever found. Our second trip was to But the following week, the same students got to the opportunity to drive down to But the Berkeley Pit as well as the Orphan Girl mines, and we went 100 ft underground into the mines. We also got to visit the mineral museum at the Montana at Montana Tech and we stopped by the Finland Hotel and got lunch at Joe's Passy Shop. While in town, we had our WOW weekend where students had the opportunity to experience hundreds of career career career opportunities from 16 career clusters. The hands-on event takes a lot
029to put on and we thank Mara and the team for investing countless hours. We had lunch with a professional where students were invited to attend the Chambers lunch with a prof Yeah. Chambers lunch with a professional event where we went to the Realtors Association conference room to learn about customer service skills from Ed Brown and the CEO of the Chambers of Commerce Commerce. Thank you and have a happy Halloween. >> Thank you. Typically, student reps, um, you would stay and listen to Superintendent Hoyer's report, but I understand that there's quite a few activities in your schools concerts in particular uh, this evening. So I this time around will excuse you to do what it is uh you do as students and to represent us as well as you do. Thank you so much. Again we're
030inspired by what we were doing. Speaking for myself, I'm a little bit envious too. I would love to have gone on those jealousy trips. So thank you. Take care. Stay warm. We'll see you next time around. Communication six, item B, superintendent report. Mrs. Hoyer, >> thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, and um Sherry, Tom, Lance, Jackie, I can kind of name everybody, members of our community. Um, as you can see, the students are very, very heavily involved in everything that's amazing at their schools. And so I want to wish them the best of luck as they kick off music season >> um this evening with their fall concerts and go to all of the different sporting and activity events as well that they have going on. So it's a great start to a
031really fun season. So this evening I just want to walk you through a couple things trying to um customize this a little bit more so I'm not repeating as much as what the students say, but this one does pop up again on mine as it did in Great Falls Highs and it is definitely worth stating twice. So on October 2nd, we recognized our custodians during National Custodian Day. So our engineers and custodians are under the leadership of Brent Cutler. When we are fully staffed, we have 93 employees in that position. They take care of 1.9 million square feet of space in 25 buildings with the average age of the um buildings being 58.4 years old. So, they are incredible stewards of the spaces that take care of our teachers and our students and our communities.
032And these are just a couple of the pictures from Facebook. I saw a couple more pop up today and did not grab them, but it sure has been fun to see the schools posting the pictures and how much they care about their engineers and custodians. This is a very special shout out to Trade Home Shoes. Um, Trade Home Shoes donated 60 pairs of socks and shoes to students at Valley View Elementary. I know um that trustee Terraski was there when it happened. Um, the reports that I had is the students absolutely loved their shoes and they were showing them to everybody who was new or stopped to ask them about their shoes and their socks. And so, um, we can't do the amazing work of educating kids without community members taking care of kids. And
033this is one great example. So, a special thank you and shout out to Trade Home Shoes. Um, October 2nd and 3, um, Jeff Hobble and I went up to Montana Futures at Work Career Technical Education Summit. Jamie was she had homecoming, so she was unable to to come with us, but she had been invited as well. And this was a um gathering of individuals from the office of the commissioner of higher education, from collegiate partners, um education programs, 406 jobs was happening at the same time for the department of labor and industry just across um the venue where we were at Flathead Valley Community College. Um education design labs was there, the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation. Um and we had two PK through2 partners in Great Falls and Callisville that were there. Um, and
034we talked a lot about what does Montana's future at work look like and how can we begin to leverage some of the flexibility in the stars act um to start looking forward to helping students explore their future and keeping them here in Montana. Um, it was a uh summit that I thought was pretty good for our um our partners, our collegiate partners. Um we will work maybe with OHI to be sure that is a little bit more focused on the third leg of the stool which is that PK12 partnership um moving forward but it was a good start a two-day summit. Um talking about partnership with our community um I had the opportunity to go over and be at the Mark and Robin Jones School of Nursing that opened here. Their campus here in Great
035Falls is the first of five across the state. um incredible gift from Mark and Robin Jones um for Montana State University and then got to tour the facility. Um there were several of our employees there. Nurse Erica Harp was one of them and and she kept grabbing stethoscopes and testing things out when she was there. Um but it's an absolutely beautiful state-of-the-art facility where our students can receive their entire um nursing degree here staying here in Great Falls. And so we're looking forward to the opportunities that that's going to give to our high school students who want to pursue to pursue nur nursing. Then it seemed like we had all of these different events. There was a community convening by the University of Montana the day after this happened. Um and Mr. Hobble was there,
036Mr. Genton was there. Mrs. Manewearing was not or not Mrs. Mainwearing. I'm looking right at her. Yeah. Um Mrs. McGra was not able to make it. Um, but there were representatives from benefits and the clinic. Um, there, let's see, Ed Brown was there from the chamber. We had two legislators there. We had Steve Fitzpatrick and Melissa Nicola Caucus. Um, and a variety of individuals who all came together to say not only how can the University of Montana better serve our school, our public school partnerships, um, but how can they better serve our community? And so I felt like we could get we were able to give some pretty good feedback to President Bodner um and some information moving forward on how can we strengthen these partnerships as we start to learn more about the future
037ready payments and and um additional money coming into our schools. Partnerships like this are going to be really valuable. So I felt that that was a really good meeting for us to have to establish some foundation and some groundwork with University of Montana. This is cool. Um, I want to give a huge shout out to Julie Shottnikoff who is our transportation lead and safety technician and to Becky Nelson, our community connections coordinator. So, a couple months ago, um when we had um an unfortunate incident um around one of our elementary schools where we had a young student um who was injured in a crosswalk, I was talking to Superintendent Welts down at um Helena and he shared with me that they do a campaign every year during October, which is National Pedestrian Safety Month, where
038they do use reflective tape and they put them on students um and make a big deal about it as the days get shorter. and you start to go to school in the dark and go home in the dark. Um, how can we just bring awareness to our kids who are walking and the parents oftentimes who are walking? So, I shared it with Julie. She grabbed it and just ran with it. It was pretty awesome. So, on October 21st, we are going to raise awareness during that day and Julie is calling it day or night. Make sure you're in sight. and with the help of the executive directors, she purchased feet and feet and feet of reflective tape. And she is going to put um reflective tape on all of our elementary kids PK through six
039um and raise awareness with the community. the SRO will be involved, the media will be involved, and we're really going to just let folks know, please keep an extra eye out, extra close eye out um for our smallest learners um and their parents who are walking them to school during during this time to start. So, more to come on this. You'll see it um you'll see it hopefully in the media. We're pretty excited about that. Um I had the opportunity to work with Colonel Brian Low. He is the commander of the 341st missile uh mission support group out at Malmstrom and as an honorary commander. So he and I are going to be partnering um over his stay here in Great Falls um as he teaches me more about Malmstrom and I teach him more
040about our community in our school district. And so just very very excited about the opportunity. His wife is an employee for us. She is a paraprofessional at LY. She's an aspiring teacher. So, it's cool to see her um excitement when it comes to dealing with kids and he also has several children in our school. So, um it's a very natural fit and I'm looking forward to everything I can learn from Colonel Brian Low. Um coming up for your radar is Night Without a Bed on Thursday, November 20th. I know this is well in advance, but this was kicked off on um last week with a 24-hour event that um happened down at the rescue mission with Jim McCormack where he um stayed outside for 24 hours and had conversations with different community and civic leaders
041about the impact of homelessness here in Great Falls. And so I had an opportunity to give him a half an hour of my time. Jim is just this amazing human and this wonderful spirit. Um I could have talked with him all day, but there were lots of people who feel the same way and they wanted to visit with him. And so we started with conversations on a bench and it um I I'm glad it wasn't like today. It was very very chilly that morning, but it wasn't nearly what it was. This deals with McKenna Vento and uh Mr. Boyd and several of the people who work under him um through some of our title services work a lot with McKini Vento. We have three liaison that's Lee Hoo, Tony Forester and Aaron Booker. And McKini
042Vento is the homeless assistance act. And so what it tells us is that we need to be sure that homeless children and youth have immediate access to public education. We need to work to provide them stability and the support they need to um be or thrive academically and succeed. And it also defines homelessness. Most people think of it just as a student who's living in a car or a tent or we always use the term kind of under the bridge, but this truly is a student who doesn't have a consistent home or over their roof over their head every night when they go home. And through McKenna Vento, we gather some pretty um some really tough data about the number of kids and families that we serve who are homeless. Next month, your data or
043next meeting your data for the day is going to be the homeless numbers. And Aaron and Tony and Lee are actually going to come and they're going to present that final slide of my presentation as we look to what our numbers are now. What are the hurdles of identifying the students and their families who are homeless and what are the things they do through that department? And finally, this was something Brian started to share for us last year. This is our open enrollment data. As we start to look at students who are um coming into Great Falls from from outlying districts or going out to outlying districts, this is kind of a moving target. As Ally worked with me last week on this, um we have some districts who have not turned in their request
044for reimbursement yet. Um there's not necessarily a cuto off day, so it kind of es and flows throughout the year. As we look here in Great Falls, we really do two. We do a a fall session and then we do a reenrollment again in the winter as we look forward to students coming to us the following year. So, of our um local schools, you can see that Belt, we have 17 stu a difference of 17 elementary students and six high school students that uh transfer out to Belt. Cascade, it's a difference of 11 and one. Uh Fairfield, we have we gain one in each level from Fairfield. Um Fort Benton, looking at the high school, we're losing one more student to Fort Benton than what we're gaining. um power. We're losing two elementary and one
045um high school. Sun River Valley. So, when we're looking at Sun River Valley, we're looking at elementary and we're losing 10 students to elementary. M um is 29 students. Most of those students transfer back to us and come into us to the high school, but not all. Those that's where you'll see the offset um in Cascade. Uh Centerville. Right now we're up eight and up seven, but that's because Centerville is one of those districts that has not yet um requested um transfer from us. So we don't have the numbers yet from them. Um Conrad, we're up one um in Conrad on the high school side, up one from Gerald Dean on the high school side, and we're up one from Helena um on the high school side. I would assume um that that student is
046probably one who travels up here with a parent who is employed in the Great Falls area. Um Carter, which is N elementary, we are up two and then Sims, we're up one in the high school and Bon, we are up 12 in the elementary. Bon does not have a high school. Um so overall, what we're looking is a difference of uh 46 more kids are leaving Great Falls, going to our small schools in the local area um than what we have bringing in at this time. and two high school kids are moving into the Great Falls area above the other ones um for a difference. So that was as of 4:45 p.m. on the 10th. And like I said, that's a moving target. I'll continue to give updates as we get more information. So with
047that, that is my superintendence report for this meeting. If you have any questions, um let me know. >> Any questions for Mrs. Hoyer? None. Okay. Um, thank you very much, Mrs. Oyer, for your report and congratulations on being an honorary commander. >> It'll be fun. Yeah, thank you. Um, Roman six, communication item C, audience communication. I've had no receipt of request to speak before this board of trustees this evening. So, we're going to go on to Roman 7. Action items. A, financial report and check registered for August 2025. Mr. Deacons, >> Chairman Johnson, members of the board, members of the community, and Mrs. Hoyer. Um, tonight I'm here with our bank reconciliation check register to be approved for the month of August. It'll be good to know. We just finished up interviews for our lead
048business technician as well. So hopefully within this week for that position so we can make sure we keep everything up to date as we go through. Otherwise, you'll be looking at Alli and myself doing that work. Um, so we'll keep it in the place that it needs to be, but we'll get that done. With that being said, everything is um nothing out of the ordinary. It's normal. Um, and the data that's there behind this on the attachment. So, the district court is requested to accept the monthly financial report and approve the register payments for August 2025. >> Thank you, Mr. Deakons. >> Mr. Chair >> Trusty Terraski. >> I move that we accept the monthly financial report and approve the register of payments for August 2025 as presented. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded
049to accept the monthly financial report to approve the register of payments for August 2025. Any questions or commentary from our board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from those remaining 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. Thank you, Mr. Deakons. Action item B, approval of easement requests from Northwestern Energy. Mr. Dickens. >> All right. Chairman Johnson, members of the board, members of the community. Um, we were approached in late July, um, I believe it was, by Northwestern Energy and specifically the Department of Environmental Quality as for a need to upgrade their air quality monitoring station here in Great Falls. For those of you that don't know, the current air quality monitoring station
050is right below the district office building, right down here on the corner um, the bridge. Um, not in the most ideal of places. So, Northwestern Energy was working with um the Department of Environmental Quality to find a place where this could possibly work and be a little bit more um efficient and accurate where it is. So, one of the places they landed on was out of the cable Soccer Park. And if you go to the next page there, Ally, there are a couple just um exhibits. You'll see the first one. It's just explaining in the back portion of the Cosaka Parks next to 52nd Street North. What they're asking for is a 15 foot easement from the boulevard. And it's kind of a complex area because there's county land, there's city land, and then there's
051park and wreck along with Great Falls Public Schools. But if you go to the following or sorry, I don't think it's on another one, but where the black line is, there's a fence that goes around there. That's Great Falls Public School property. And what they need to be able to do is put electricity to the south. And what they're planning to do is on that next page, Ally, um, put in a new monitoring station. If you just scroll down a little bit in the back of the Cidal Soccer Park, oh, go back up just for a second. Right there, you can see the location spot where that air quality monitoring station will be. There's a small shop that's owned by Rush Soccer, I believe, on Great Falls Public School property. It's quite a interesting complex
052that's out there. Um, but it has electricity up to the back of it. What they want to do is be able to take that electricity over to that that section. And right where the point is, there is a chain link fence. So, Great Falls School property would still stay the same. And then the picture below just shows what new site would look like. It's not the particular site there, but it'll be completely enclosed and give us a better um representation of what the actual air quality is rather than all the cars parked down at the street and we're looking at it on a daily basis and so forth. It was interesting that after I brought this up, Mike Canterburg came over and it was one of those mornings about a month ago where air quality
053was a little bit questionable. Um, but when you look at Great Falls, Great Falls was orange and every place else around us was green. So he's like, "Oh, well maybe that's a better understanding." So once we know where these are, there really is no cost associated with this. Um, but they do need this space. So, what we're requesting is for the board to approve the 15oot easement request from Northwestern Energy for the purpose of running a power supply to the new Montana Department of Environmental Quality Air Quality Monitor. >> Thank you, Mr. Deakons. Mr. Chairman, Trusty Branson, >> I move that we approve the requested 15oot easement for Northwestern Energy for the purposes of running the power supply to Montana DEEQ's air quality monitoring station as presented by Mr. >> Second. >> Been moved and
054seconded to approve a 15 uh foot easement request from Northwestern Energy. Any questions or commentary from a board of trustees? questions or commentary hearing and seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. >> Opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Thank you very much, Mr. Deakons. Roman 8 action other nothing was pulled from the consent agenda. We will move on to Roman nine reports, discussion, and policies. a summer 2026 innovative learning program. Mrs. Hoyer. >> Well, thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, and members of our community. Um, I'm really excited about the possibility of this project. So, the innovative summer learning grants comes to us through the innovative tax credit program that we have here with Great Falls Public Schools. So that's the first
055thing that I want to lead with is this is entirely funded um by the money given to us by generous donors through the innovative tax credit program. Um I have this incredible group of individuals who have come together um helped really shape and mold the possibility of providing this opportunity to teachers. One of them is here this evening is Jerry Jennings. She's my community member on this. Um what we know from the individuals who have really helped us with the innovative tax credit is that field trips and um experiential learning opportunities for students are really really important. And unfortunately when we look at reductions in funding to public education or any education for that matter one of the first things that often goes as field trips. This also came about when I watched a group
056of young students this summer have an experience um in a local in our local community or in a local community that neighbors us. Um when they didn't they didn't realize through their summer learning something as what I consider as a biology teacher as basic as there really are living things besides fish in our running waters around Great Falls. They were absolutely amazed at the the macroorganisms that you can find if you're turning over rocks and and you're digging um you know in in the the foundational um elements of the the river beds and the creek beds themselves. Um and then they had not done something like eating a hot dog over a campfire because hot dogs are usually things that you have at home when money's running low. Um and they had this just beautiful
057experience. So, it kind of was a culmination of all these people coming together. So, I um put the word out to my principles and said, "Hey guys, let's let's take a look at the innovative tax credit and how can we provide free opportunities for students and families in the summer um that we use this money for, but that enhances their learning and gives them some pretty unique experiences." And so Jamie McGra and Jeff Hobble both jumped on it right away as you can imagine um because we're going to be running as you'll soon see one half of the experience out of their STEM centers and their innovative learning centers. And then Nicole Heinselman who is the principal at Riverview and Ben Jakes who is the principal at Lewis and Clark joined us as did Justin
058Zeller from transportation because this is going to take some coordination with buses and he's going to help with that. And then Jerry Jennings is our community member. So in front of you, you'll have two pieces or two documents. Um, and these are the um the guidance documents that go along with this, but I'm going to summarize them for you. The idea behind this really was to break down the silos that we sometimes see between our elementary and then our middle and high school teachers and get them working together to provide educational opportunities for students. Some of this came from Mr. Hobble and his vision um that he had of taking students when they go to the innovative learning center during the school year and they have the the partial day immersive um programming at the
059school then moving them into the high school class and allowing them to do activities with the high school kids and high school teachers to see themselves as high school students and to get excited about some of um the opportunities. So, we want to start to break down those elementary and middle school silos. We want to be sure that this is free, so it's not a barrier to any of our families, and it is high quality and standardsbased, and that it does expose students to a mandatory field experience. Get them out of in front of the television or the phone or whatever it is, and get them outside into the fresh air and the amazing world around them um in and around Great Falls in Montana. and then also to utilize those spaces that we have.
060So the details, this is for students in rising grades one through eight because we don't know our kindergarteners or their needs. Um and so we want to really focus on our learners in those age groups. We will be able to provide elective credit through transformational learning opportunities for students in grades 9 through 12 who want to be mentors to those young students during this um this event. We're looking to fund six opportunities at the minimum, six two-day opportunities up to 10 and we'll um make them equal on both sides of the river. That's mainly for parents to be able to get their children to the buses and to the the sites for learning. Um we're so as a result, we're looking at 15 students minimum, 30 students maximum, and that's for busing comfort for that
061second day. We want to be sure that that we're able to have enough adult hands on deck to supervise them and also be able to get them on the buses um as we work through. So, one elementary, one middle school, high school teacher. We're going to start this on the first day of summer and run it until the last day of summer. Um it's important to know that experiences for rising first through third graders must be scheduled after Jumpstart is over. So, that's after July 6th. Jumpstart, if you remember, that is our um mandated learning opportunity in the summer. And what we don't want to have is kids opt out of Jumpstart when they need the numerousy and the literacy help to take this instead. So, we're going to just bump the younger students to
062later. And it will be a two-day experience. One day will be at the school and one day will be in the field. And it will be steam standardsbased. So, our timeline when we set this up um on October 9th, I updated the principles. We had our final planning meeting. We went through and we looked at the documents um and got some things ready. So, this morning, I was able to email um teachers to introduce the program to them and wanted to update you this evening um at the board meeting. On November 3rd, I will do two Zoom meetings if they want additional information. one at 7:30 in the morning before the school day starts and one at 3:45 right after. Um December 2nd, we will have our applications due and you have a copy of
063the application in front of you um by 5:00 p.m. to me. Um and that way I can timestamp them. So if we get the six we're looking for and they all come in as geology, we'll know who first got theirs in first and then be able to take a look and evaluate them. and the committee that I mentioned earlier will be the one that will go through and will evaluate each of the programs um for acceptance. We will announce those field experiences on announcement day on December third. I think it's 13, might be 19th. Sorry. Um, hard for me to read from this distance, but we're going to announce it on that day. That gives students and families time to visit about them. will push out information to parents as well over the holiday break
064because on January 5th, I'm going to lean on Becky Frisbee and how she uses virtual academy registration and we're going to open up student registrations for stu uh for families on that day. Um March 31st, then we will have students rostered into those experiences so our our teachers can actually begin to work together with the families and the students and talking to them about what their children are going to experience when they spend their two days with them this summer. And then in the summer, we're going to let the learning begin. Our goal is to start a little bit small, hopefully grow this to some fantastic experiences um throughout the summer. But through this process, we are able to provide stipens to our teachers. Um and they're also able to have a classroom budget that
065will allow them to do activities the one day that they're there, snacks to the kids if they need them, and then the field experience to include the busing, admission, all of those wonderful things that they can do. um with the kids later. And so loved this quote um by Walt Disney by the way, the way to uh to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. And I think I have the right committee to do that. Um it's really fun and this is just one of those incredible creative opportunities as a professional um that I've been able to kind of dip my toes in and watch the work of other folks um happen. But it it's a really neat thing to be able to think we can provide this free of charge to our
066community. And so, um, this is for everybody else who is here and doesn't have access. I'd be happy to give any of these, um, documents to anybody who's here. But, um, the first one that you see on the left is the learning program grant overview that walks people through things, gives some some examples of what the days could look like. Um Justin did a great job as he worked with the bus company and he was able to say this is what this type of bus going this far you know what the charge will be. Um we're going to encourage the teachers to have guest speakers. Um the high school students who both Mrs. McGra and um Mr. Hobble um have agreed they will have high school students who will be very interested in helping out
067with this because oftentimes it's one of their favorite high school teachers who's usually running one of these and they get pulled right into it. Um but the students will be helping us with um lunches and activities and all sorts of things. And then the second half of that side um is the teacher application. Um far from perfect. This is our first shot at it. I know that we're going to be making adjustments after this year, but we're really looking forward to maybe this being a program we can sustain moving forward with the innovative tax money. And so that was a lot. I want to thank Jerry um and I don't know if Jerry has anything that she wants to share about this, but she wanted to come tonight and be sure she supported it. Um
068so Jerry, thank you for your guidance and your insight. So my only concern is these things and both of us remember they get you besides that kind of thing. >> Thank you. And it gives our teachers a chance to um receive a little bit of a stipent. It also gives them a chance to explore a topic that they just love. And um when you're able to do a little bit of a passion project and expose kids to it um in the summer, it's it just magic happens. And so I'm really really excited to see how this works. Um and I'm hopeful for a very good outcome and I'm hoping that we do have that more kids than what we can serve and we can grow this project going forward into the years to come. So
069I'm available for any questions. >> This is absolutely brilliant. Thank you, Mrs. Hoyer. Thank you, Mrs. Jennings. Any questions or commentary regarding this? Gotta love it. Just got to love it. Thank you so much. >> Roman nine, uh, item B, discussion, committee reports and comments. Mr. Duff, we'll start with you. >> All right. Thank you. So, I spent a little time last few weeks visiting some of the schools around the district and that has been amazing experience. We man the staff is doing an amazing job out there. Yeah, that was really a great experience. I really enjoyed that. I appreciate uh districts helping getting that set up and I can't get over how small the buildings and ground department is for the work that they do. I was like do all of this with like
070eight people. I can't even do my own yard by myself, >> but they do an amazing job. Homecoming week. Love to see the school spirit and not so excited about the snow, but looking forward to winter and what the school school year brings. >> Thank you very much, Trusty Troutski. >> Uh just a couple things. I just want to reiterate what um Superintendent Hoyer said about Trade Home Shoes. Uh being at Valley View, it was awesome. The kids were just ecstatic and just they're walking around with big smiles on their faces and it was really it was it was really sweet to see all of that. And then I just want to give a small update on the new math curriculum. I've had a chance to talk to some of the teachers at least at
071Valley View about it and they seem overall pleased. The students seem to like it. However, what the teachers are running into is the structure of the content is different than the previous one. So for instance, fourth grade instead of doing fractions at the end of the year are doing fractions at the beginning of the year. They're doing them right now. And so there's not quite the background into fractions that they would have otherwise gotten in the third grade going into the fourth grade. And so I would say for test scores coming up that we just keep that in mind that it's structured differently. And so we're going to see maybe a dip in scores or maybe not the bump in scores we were hoping for while the students move through the program. But I would
072guess that the kindergarteners this year would be the cohort to really watch to see that go um as get the most honest view of it that we can. But other than that, it seems like it's going really well and everyone seems pretty happy with it. >> Thank you very much, Trusty Bronson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh number one, I I really appreciate the effort that's gone into this uh summer learning. I can tell you in my own personal experiences in the last century uh field trips were very important and I think I'm safe in saying that sometimes we either learned a lot more or we understood better what we were learning in the classroom when we had those opportunities. So I'm glad to see that we're taking advantage of the innovative tax credit program to
073do that. And as Mrs. Jenny said, "I hope we have more applicants than we have room," which >> is just a sign that maybe in the coming years we can find a way to expand and that's great. Um, second, I I also appreciate all the presentations the students made tonight. uh which you know tell me again one of the greatest I think positive changes in the system over years has been the decision to include everybody in the schools whether it's homecoming whether it's recognition of our custodial staff who really do a tremendous job uh those types of things were not present years ago things were very much less inclusive and I think perhaps contributed to people having less but a really good feeling about their experience in the school system. So to the extent that,
074you know, we've expanded those opportunities and options, I think we're doing the right thing by our people. And then finally, on a more specific note, you know, my apologies as somebody who, you know, had to study constitutional law and our history and still is engaged in it. I really like the fact that students at least in some classes are learning that this country and the American Constitution just didn't appear magically and everybody agreed on it. That was a period of great divisiveness uh in this nation particularly debating that new constitution. Everybody thinks that people liked it, they didn't. And we got that document really by you know the skin of our teeth to be honest with you. So I appreciate the fact that young people are having that chance now to see that there were
075debates that are still ongoing today. Those conversations that were held between 1787 and 1789, believe it or not, are the underpinning of a lot of the conversations that are going on today. So if anything, we just need to do more of that in our instruction and make sure that when they leave here, they have a firm understanding of that. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, on my part, I'd like to share with you that on Thursday of this past week, I received a call from Matt Stevens, a representative from the Coca-Cola Bottling Company, and he uh asked to sit down with me. He and I did sit down on Friday afternoon, this past Friday, and he shared with me information um a cover letter and a history of um the process determining a beverage dealer
076for Great Falls Public Schools. And so this packet um is addressed to me and to my fellow trustees. And so I have it before me now. and you will each receive uh PDFs of the full package uh tomorrow morning for your review. In the meantime, I'm going to uh put this on Mr. Deacon's desk and he will respond to uh Mr. Stevens. But as I said, um there are some concerns on their part regarding the process and um it's it's worthy of of our taking a look at it and uh perhaps we'll learn something from this to make the future determination of beverage dealers uh a little bit more smooth than it has been this year. Any questions for me on that? And if not, then I'll direct your attention up to the upcoming events.
077And there's always a lot going on. There is Amsel and Helena, Trusty Bronson, Trusty Skonagosi, and myself will be present in person, and I think some others online will be joining the meetings. And also, uh, Great Falls is the host of the Montana Music Educators Association conference here Thursday and Friday. Are there other educators convening convening in Great Falls this? It's the music ed people. >> It's just the music education people at this time. >> Yeah, they have their all state concert on Friday night at the Mansfield Theater. So, if you're available, it's a great concert and it's free of charge and you get to see our students, not our personal students from Great Falls, but from all over Montana in action. >> Just to remind you, >> it will terrific. Oh, good little little
078boost to our economy each time it happens. Yeah. Thank you, Tom. And if there's no further commentary or questions, uh, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Thank you. We are adjourned.