001um board Great Falls Public School Board of Trustees meeting to order. Um a friendly reminder that these meetings are recorded um and will be posted on our um website as soon as they are available. Uh if anyone has um public comment this evening for an item that is not on the agenda, please note that there are forms right outside the door to fill out and to get those to me right away. Um, with that, um, roll call. Mr. Deox, >> thank you. Uh, Gordon Johnson, >> excused. >> Scornagowski, >> here. >> Bill Bronson >> here. >> Craig Duff >> here. >> Marley Sunchild >> here. >> Amy Thompson >> excused. >> And Paige Terowski >> here. >> You have a quorum from which to work. >> Wonderful. Let's all rise for the pledge of allegiance.
002Lisa, do you want to start us off? >> To the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nation with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. I'll open the floor to a motion to adopt the agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. There is a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as presented. Is there any comments or questions from my fellow trustees from our community? Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting the agenda, please say I. I. >> I. All those opposed, same sign. >> All right. Motion passes unanimously. I'll entertain a motion on the consent agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. It's been moved and second to accept the consent agenda as presented. Is there any questions or comments from my
003fellow trustees? And how about our community? All right, seeing none, all those in favor of approving the consent agenda as presented, please say I. >> I. All those opposed, same sign. All right, motion passes unanimously. Communication. I believe we're starting with the superintendence report that begins with um Lisa S. Come on up. Wonderful. Any questions? Trusty. Trust. >> Just a comment. Thank you for all you do. my my dad was in the army and so it it really hits home that you're doing all this for the families and I think educating the teachers on you know because it does there are struggles for the kids when their parents are deployed and it's really hard on them and it can really be a struggle so just educating the teachers on all that's awesome so thank you
004so Thank Thank you so much. We always appreciate your presentations whenever you're available to give them and we appreciate your work on a day-to-day basis. Yeah, I think I was at a presentation last week where Mr. Decon said we have around 1,200 military students in our schools. Um, which is more you somewhere around one in nine of our students have a military tie. So, we we need you and we need the that um relationship. Thank you so much. >> All right, Superintendent Hoyer. >> Well, thank you very much, Vice Chair Scornagoski, members of the board. Um, real quick, I think Lisa probably understated the amount of work that she puts into that PI. So the the former teacher and her comes out and she absolutely shines as she gets our teachers ready um to support
005our military families. So Lisa, thank you. You do a lot of work for that, too. Um before I begin, we have a couple of birthdays I just want to draw attention to that will happen either from today um or the next couple of days as we head towards our next board meeting. So happy birthday to Trusty Bronson and happy birthday to Trusty Terraski. Thank you for all you do and I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating you and everything you everything you do for our community. So, I'm going to start my superintendence report with recognizing a group of individuals and this was IT professional day that we celebrated on September 16th. You'll see a picture right there of our IT department. Um that is a 22 person department led by Mr. Jeff Williams. There
006is one administrator. There are two data integration coaches, one data center lead, seven data specialists, one tech lead, and 10 tech specialists that all go together and are combined to do a lot of things for our district that happen behind the scenes and often go um unsung. So you could you could say because they do so much. So on the next slide, you'll see a comprehensive list that Mr. Williams actually helped me put together last year. I tweaked it a little bit for this year, but these are all of the things that happen in a day's work in our IT department. Everything from refreshing devices, pushing out upgrades, app upgrades to um -ate, which you heard a lot about as the board security cameras, um NFHS maintenance, that's the the video maintenance for our sporting
007and activity events that we do. um they work on assisted technology for our students and teachers who need the assisted technology, power school, um you name it, it's there. And there's lots and lots that they do. So um seeing that list, recognizing everything they do for us, it was easy to celebrate them on that special day designated just um to bring recognition to the job they do. So thank you to Jeff and thank you to the IT department for keeping us rolling behind the scenes. They make it all happen. Speaking of making it all happen, I know that we've talked about this before, but it's definitely worth reminding folks about. Tomorrow is Wow, our worlds of work. It's our third annual now um WOW event for the third year in a row. We should have
008absolutely beautiful weather as thousands and thousands of students from all over central Montana come to Great Falls um to the combined campuses of Great Falls College MSU and Providence to experience hands-on um activities and um get to explore the world of work that interests them. Um there's a quote down there at the bottom. I believe that that came from Bob Kelly, but when he said that this was a dynamic event which allows students to explore diverse professions by engaging directly with industry experts and trying real workplace skills, it all happens tomorrow. It is absolutely magic, but there is an incredible amount of work that happens behind the scenes on the part of our community to make this happen. And so, um, if you get a chance, get out and watch it. It's really, really cool.
009Um you will see everything from kids learning to give sutures in stitches um to students learning how to use cameras if they want to be a videographer and maybe be a sports broadcaster. Um maybe they want to be a judge and so that is there. There's someone doing heavy equipment. The military is there. Everything with the canine dogs to all of the different things that they can do in the military. Um there will be other industries there. Last year they learned how to climb telephone poles. short distance um telephone poles if they wanted to be alignment. They were running chainsaws made me a little nervous but um they had a fantastic time. The helicopters are out there if they want to be a helicopter pilot. You name it, it's there and the kids actually get
010to experience it. So it's pretty fantastic. Definitely worth seeing. So everybody please take the chance and go out and just see the work that comes together. It's lots and lots of work. Um Great Falls Public Schools works really hard on building character. So, a couple of ones that I want to draw to your attention. Um, Arts on Fire happened. Our visual arts students volunteered to help with the annual Arts on Fire on Saturday, September 13th. They gave six hours of their time um to come forward and help support this event. Special shout out to two CMR juniors who actually won the t-shirt contest for this. We had Mariah McI and Liam Harris. Mariah or Ryan, as she goes by, took first and Liam took second. um but they spent the day supporting the arts in
011our community. The other one is the leadership high school class of 2026 that you'll see in that elongated picture down below. And this was our students from Great Falls High, CMR, and Paris Gibson. And they come together with students from four other school districts across our area to learn um about leadership and all of the different pieces that make communities work. So, we're really excited to see what they're going to learn and for them to give their presentations at the end of their year as they do their uh leadership high school cohorts. So, congratulations to all those students for representing Great Falls Public School so well. We're very very um proud of them. So, a thank you to our community. Um, Independ Independence Bank does a debit card where every time you swipe your debit
012card, they give a five cent donation to one of the two local schools, local high schools, um, CMR and Great Falls High. So, just to let you know, um, in 2025, CMR earned $1,49040 and Great Falls High earned $1,37325. Those checks were given directly to the schools um as the schools look to do activities that support students and teachers. U Meadow Gold, you'll see down there on the bottom right, they donated 200 chocolate milks and 50 white milks to our um ground, not groundbreaking, but our business after hours that we're going to be doing at Louiswis and Clark Elementary's new inclusive playground. And so we're bringing cookies. Meadow Gold is bringing milk and we're going to have a large celebration on th this coming Thursday from 4 to 6. This follows up the ribbon cutting
013when I believe that Mr. Boy I don't want to say flipped. It's hard to flip a hot dog, but you rolled about 500 hot dogs. Is that right? And I think you gave out every single one of them. And so um it was a wonderful evening of celebration. We're going to bring our communities. This is a familyfriendly business after school or after hours event at Louiswis and Clark. So, we're encouraging our business members to bring their families and see what that new inclusive playground is all about. Um the students from Lewis and Clark Elementary were on the radio this morning talking about the importance of that playground. So, if you get an opportunity to hear that um interview, please take a moment and listen to it. It's pretty cool. And there's another boy that's being
014highlighted on the radio this morning. Heard she did a fantastic job. lot better looking than you and I heard she gets her radio skills from her mom. Very well spoken. Yeah. So, it was cute. Um she did a great great job. Um in the middle, you'll take a look at the um if you give a child a book, you give a child a chance, the reading and the book drive that KRTV did for us. And so, just so you know, they raised $8,317 through 97 viewer donations. that did not include the dozen or so um individuals who plan to send or or drop off checks. And so that was their tenative initial amount that they gave to us. They had matching funds through the Scripps Howard Foundation. So their oneday total was $16,634 which they
015said quote blows away our previous best campaign total by a wide margin. Um they had a $4370 internal match. So, in total, they were well over $20,000 with several weeks left to accept donations. Very, very excited about the money they're bringing in so they can buy books and give every child at least one book. Um, I might believe that Sunnyside, is that correct, is the school that they are have identified and will support this year through this campaign. So, it's a fabulous campaign and a great way um to bring literacy and literature into students and students homes. So we're very thankful for their their support. So as we all know, we all draw names at convocation. So last Friday, I had an opportunity and I I smile at the opportunity because I Kevin, the first
016engineer at Longfellow Elementary, was the one whose name I drew. And Kevin is notorious for not taking time off. Um, but he called me on Wednesday, I believe it was, and wanted to know if I could cover for him during lunch at Longfellow Elementary School. So, um, he had everything well laid out, everything well prepared. He needed to do go home and do some things in his yard, um, and around his home so he could get prepared for the fall and the winter and some other activities he likes to do on the weekend because I believe he's a big hunter. Um, and so I I chuckled because I covered for Kevin. It was fantastic. The kids at Longfellow were amazing. We had a good time until I tried to clean the floor with the automatic
017scrubber. And it's not about what you know, it's about who you know because I accidentally hit the eject button versus the scrub button and the whole thing kind of went and fell apart. So, um I called Tim Wagenman at Great Falls High who's the first engineer over there and said, "Tim, help." Um, as Tim always does, he just said, "Heather, what did you do?" And I said, "I broke the floor scrubber and I there are pieces everywhere and I don't know what I'm going to do and there's water." And so he said, "Set down, feel underneath, lay down if you have to, and I'll walk you through." And he helped me put it all back together, you know, on the phone. So anyway, um, it was fantastic. The floor looked awesome by the time I
018left. Um, I only had ketchup and ranch down one side of my pants from lunch. And so, um, I hope this Kevin had a fantastic time on his time away. Um, I learned how much the students really love and appreciate him because they wanted to know if I was Mrs. Kevin, I can be Mrs. Kevin. And then the first thing they said is, "When is he coming back?" And so anyway, it was a lot of fun. Um, had a really, really good time doing that. So, thank you to Longfellow and to Kevin for giving me that opportunity. Data for the day. I wanted to share a little bit uh with you about the commemorative days that we have um that are enshrined within Montana code annotated um thanks in part due to a legislative initiative
019and a law that was passed in the last legislative session. So you will see if you remember all when we adopted the policies all of these different holidays that we need to specifically um call out and do commemorative activities for within our schools. Um the last bullet on the bottom gives us guidance that when these commemorative days fall on a Saturday or Sunday um the expectation is is that our exercises are conducted the preceding Friday. So we have a wonderful teacher on special assignments. Her name is Miranda Murray. Some of you may recognize Miranda's name. She used to work for Indian Education. Um and she is now helping us organize this by doing a lot of preloading to our principal. So, our principles all know these days are coming. Many of them were doing activities
020anyway, but she is being very, very specific in providing them with additional information. She organizes daily emails. She organizes scripts for the teachers and the administrators to read in classes or over the intercom. She does lessons, activities, and resources for the teachers. For example, on Constitution Day, um, one optional script that she sent out was, "Today is Constitution Day, a day to celebrate the signing of the United States Constitution on September 17th, 1787, 238 years ago." The Constitution is an important document that outlines the rules for our government and protects the rights and freedoms of the American citizens. It begins with the famous words, we the people, to remind us that our country is built on the idea that power comes from the people. Then she gives fun facts. She gave the Constitution is the
021oldest written national constitution still in use in the world and it's only about 4,400 words long. Happy Constitution Day. So, as we look at Constitution Day being in September, there are some other ones that she's providing the same guidance for. She is providing guidance for American Indian Heritage Day on September 26th. And then the last full week in September, we will celebrate Freedom Week. Um so we can educate students about the sacrifices made for freedom in the founding of the United States and the values in which our country was founded. Some pictures for you as to our Constitution Day. So a little bit beyond just the the data for the day. Um this is a thank you to KRTV and Mrs. McDermott's first grade class as well as Becky Nelson who came in to take
022pictures of the kids and their activities that they did in Mrs. McDermott's class over at SAC. Um, and one of the quotes was that they gained an initial grasp of democracy, liberties, and their responsibilities as future citizens knowing that they're very, very young. This is a really good introduction to them to help build on lessons in the future. And with that, madame chair, um that is my superintendent's report for this month. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. And is there any questions from my fellow trustees on that report? All right. Perfect. Uh moving on. I have no audience communication. um this would be an opportunity for the folks in our audience um to leave if you have other things that you'd rather be doing. Just saying. If not, um we'll move on to action
023items. Um the first um item on our list is the financial report and check register for July 2025. Mr. Cogs. >> Thank you, Vice Chair Scorowski, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, and members of our community. Um, I'm here tonight with one of these items, the financial report and check register. As you will see attached on page 35 through 38, all the documentation of the fund reports along with the check register. Um, it was a great learning opportunity being here for the first time running this through to see all the pieces that put this in place to make it work. So, with that, um, everything should be in line and ready to go for keeping us on our financial position throughout the school year. So, I'd ask that the district board accept the monthly financial
024report for July and approve the registered payments for July 2025. Madam Chair, >> yes, Trustee Bronson, >> I move that we accept the monthly financial report, approve the register of payments for July 2025. >> Second. All right, there's a motion and a second to approve the monthly financial report. Is there any questions or comments from my fellow trustees? Seeing none, is there any questions or comments from our audience members? All right, seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. All those opposed, saying sign. Wonderful. Motion passes unanimously. Uh, next item on the action agenda, Mr. Decon, the uh, Great Falls High School shop renovation. >> Excellent. Thank you, Vice Chair Scoring, members of the board again, Superintendent Hoyer, and members of our community. Um, on September 9th, we had an
025opportunity to have seven bids submitted to us as a result of the innovative tax credit that's been earned over the last four years. Um, it's really a pretty exciting opportunity for us because we're looking at an innovative learning center at Great Falls High School. But in order for that to happen, we have to do some renovations, especially with the HVAC system um that's in the current old shop um to do some updating to make it workable space for our students and teachers to use. So with that, we put out to bid the upgrades working with TDNH. And out of those seven, the low bid came in was Wadssworth Company. The base bid was $1,191,900 with an alternate bid to work over in the auto shop side of it to do um the upgrades as well
026to the HVAC system so it can be done in a timely manner and knowing the costs each year that we incur to upgrade something like that and figure it's a time to take advantage of it. So all of this um in total would be $1,296,300. And what this will allow us to do is to create that classroom atmosphere where you can bring in large groups of students to do innovative science STEM type learning um across our district. All of this will be paid for with innovative tax credits. Um like I said, we've earned a little over $2 million in the last four years. Tomorrow is another day or another opportunity for us because there were a little bit of unclaimed tax credits to the tune of about $84,750. We have way more in donations that
027they'd love to give to us tomorrow. But it'll be all dependent on how fast we can type and whether or not we get it approved. So hopefully we'll get at least one out of the five options that are out there or six options that are out there so we can add to that total. And then we'll be um reinstating the innovative tax credit in January where our total will be moved. So instead of being $5 million out there, it'll be $6 million will be available for public schools. So with that, I am going to ask you um to approve the lowest bidder and all of it will be paid for with innovative tax credit donations we've received for in the last 40 years at Great Ballside. >> Thank you. I'll open the floor to a
028motion. Madam Chair, >> Trusty Gerroski, I move that we approve the lowest qualified bidder, Wadsworth Builders Company Incorporated for Great Falls High School Shop renovation in the amount of 1,191,900 for the base bid and $14,400 for the alternate bid for a total amount of $1,296,300. >> Second. >> Right. It's been moved and seconded um to approve the lowest qualified bidder for the Great Falls High School shop renovation. Is there any comments or questions from my fellow trustees? Any comments or questions from our community? Wonderful. All right. Seeing none, all those in favor um of this motion, please signify by saying I. I. >> I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Mr. Decon. This has been a project on our top of our wish list for several years now. Um, and I
029just really appreciate the work of you and other members of our district to take advantage of um those special opportunities um to get revenue to make a project like this happen. It's going to be a great addition for students of all ages. >> Thank you. and we're just lucky to have a community that supports us in the way that we do because that's what is allowing us to >> present this opportunity for our students. >> All right, thank you so much. All right, next up on our action items is the collective bargaining agreement uh with the craft council. Looks like you're up again, Mr. D. >> I am going to work on this again, Vice Scorowski. Um, so with that, our craft council, our craft council is made up of several different groups together. We
030have the local uh brotherhood of electrical workers. We have the painters, the carpenters, the plumbers and fitters, as well as the operating engineers that fit underneath our grounds group in there. They come together to form our craft council. This CBA did end on June 30th, 2025. We've been working really closely with them. It does match up with most of the agreements that we have had including a 4 percent increase in wages for the 2526 school year and a 3% increase in the 2627. There are a few exceptions to that. Um the craft county felt very strong that we needed to look at the grounds side of it. We put a little bit of additional funds in there with 50 cents the first year and 25 cents on the wage the second year to balance that
031up. And then the other piece that comes with it um the carpenters and the electricians. they do gather their health insurance from outside the school district. So, just as we do each year, we assume some of that cost when the increase goes in, we did assume some of theirs. We increase their insurance by what the district would pay by $35 a year. Um, it would go towards their own insurance through the carpenters and plumbers unions for both years. There were um when you look at the budget for this, the current budget was about $980,000 for the 2425. For the 2526 with that increase of 4% and the increase of the 50 cents along with uh um insurance increases that really does rise up to about $1,68,000, which is an increase of about $34,985. And then
032in year two, um same thing goes along with that. Sorry, I jumped ahead right there. For year one, it was 1,34,9 increase of 53,689 2627 1,600 or sorry, $1,68,994 increase of $34,985. The insurance costs truly add up to $2,520 for each because there are six total individuals. And then you out 6* 35* 12, that's our total with for each of those two years. There were a couple of other language pieces. One of the big ones was in the summer. We are working closely in a trial period to do 410s for the craft council. Um that'll start mid June, run through mid August next year, and then we'll come back together at the end of it and see how that program works. And if it's functional for future years, we'll try our best to keep that
033moving forwards. If it doesn't work out for either of us, then we have to re-evaluate that and make some changes with those 10-hour days. Um the the pieces that come with that are personal business that they receive. They would have to use additional vacation on there because they work hourly. So it' be eight hours of personal business with two hours of vacation. Same thing with sick leave, it would be 10 hours or if it's a vacation day, it would be 10 hours. So there are some pieces we had to work through there with them as well. Um, other than that, we did boost the foreman stipen up to a$125 and bereavement leave, like in our other groups we've worked with, we've made sure to align that across the whole district so they all have five
034bereavement days and then the insurance contribution is mentioned there as well. So, with that, I would ask that you ratify the two-year collective bargaining agreement with the craft council is presented this evening. Thank you. >> Sure. >> Yes. Trusty Bronson. >> I move that we ratify the two-year collective bargain agreement with Crafts Council as presented by Mr. D. >> Second. >> All right. It's been moved and seconded to accept the two-year collective bargaining agreement with the Craft Council as presented. Are there any comments or questions from my fellow trustees? Seeing none, are there any comments or questions from our community? Seeing none, uh we will vote. Um all those in favor of ratifying the two-year collective bargaining agreement with the craft council as presented signify by saying I. >> I. All those opposed, same sign.
035Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Mr. Decons, for wearing two hats to help usher through that more complicated um agreement. We appreciate that. >> Thank you. And we'll give Heather a chance here to explain some stuff. I was gonna say. And next up, Mland, can you please um introduce the substitute teacher pay increase for this next school year? to increase um the non-certified pay to $5 a day or increase it by $5 a day and certified substitutes to increase it by $15 a day. Most of our certified subs are retired teachers and they do have to maintain an active license to get that pay. Um, our substitute teachers work seven hours per day. They may not work more than 130 hours per month. The only exceptions are full-time substitute teachers. They're called our core subs. They
036are guaranteed a job every single day for the school year and we rely a lot on them. Um, also long-term subteers. They are put in when we have our current teachers out for an extended period of time like FMLA, that type of thing. I did compare last May, the week of the 12th through the 16th to last week and in May our average was 85 teachers out for that week and we had 71% coverage. Last week there were 52 teachers out and we had 79% coverage. So it would be nice to have the incre you know the increase so that they do maintain working for us. Um this recommendated increase would take effect the first day of school August 27th of 2025 and the recom I recommend the increase for subteer pay. It will equate
037approximately $47,33 per year. I am available to answer any questions. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much. Um I'll entertain a motion. Madam Chair, Trusty Drosski, I move uh to approve the increase for substitute teacher pay to equate approximately 47,000. Oh, sorry, the line. I move that we approve the outline pay increase for substitute teachers as presented. All right, it's been moved and seconded to um increase the um pay for substitute teachers. Is there any questions or comments um from my fellow trustees? All right. And how about from our community? All right. Seeing none, all those in favor of increasing the pay for substitute teachers as presented, please signify by saying I. I >> I all those opposed same sign. >> Motion again passes unanimously. Thank you for that presentation. Very well done. And you're up
038again. >> Here I am. Here I am. So now I'm requesting for subteer incentive pay. This strategic plan for retention started in 2022 23 and what it is is an incentive for teachers to work more often to keep them coming day after day so we don't have those big gaps in coverage. If they work a minimum of 25 days during the twomonth frames I had them listed on the sheet, they get an additional compensation of $400. I do know that it is important to a lot of our substitutes. You know, they work for not a lot of money and they care about the students and I think this really does help retain some of our subs. Um, based on the amount spent during last year, we estimate the additional compensation to cost 27,610 for the
0392526 school year and the total based on the three-year average of subteers who earn the incentive. Um, this additional compensation will be paid out of the district substitute teacher funds. I'm available for any questions. Wonderful. I'll open the floor for a motion. >> Yes. Trusty Sunshow. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All right. It's been moved and seconded to approve a $400 additional comp compensation for substitute teachers. Is there any questions or comments from my fellow trustees and from our community as a whole? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the $400 of additional compensation for substitute teachers, please signify by saying I. I. >> I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes unanimously. I think we all know that the hardest job on the planet is being a teacher only follow
040basically following the fact that being a substitute teacher is even harder. So, thank you so much for that and thank you so much for stepping up um to help our district um through this transition as we look for a new human resources um director. All right. Um, Superintendent Hoyer, we now have um some board policies. Absolutely. Well, thank you, Vice Chair Scornagoski, members of the board, and members of our community. Um, for policy 2050, 2100, 2335 as of coming to this meeting this afternoon, I've had no input from um our community or from our internal community as well on those. um for the second reading. Just as a reminder, when you take a look at um these policies here, um they are language changes as recommended by MTSBA and um a deleted policy is recommended
041by MTSBA. And so with that, my recommendation is that we accept those policies at I'll open the floor for a motion. Madam Chair, Trusty Troski that we approve new and revised board policies 10:15 FE 36. Oh, is that am I reading the right ones? >> Yeah, those are the right numbers. The discussion numbers were wrong on agenda. So, just caught that. I apologize. My >> I move that we approve new and re revised board policies 1015 FE, 3650, and 5430F as presented. >> Second. Wonderful. It's been moved and seconded to um approve new and revised board policies as presented. Are there any questions or comments from my fellow trustee? Is there any comments or questions from our community today? If I may. um policy 5430F was one that deals with fingerprinting and I just want
042to um give a shout out to executive director Jackie Manewearing for all of her work on this. She has worked really really hard uh with legal guidance and also with all of our partners that have as we work through the fingerprint policy. So Jackie, thank you for the extended amount of work you have done on fingerprinting. It's it's appreciated. Yeah, I know that that policy has been a complicated one. So, thank you so much for navigating that. All right. Um, with no comments, all those in favor of approving new and revised board policies 10:15 FE, 3650, and 5430F signify by saying I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion approves unanimously. Thank you so much. All right, we um had no action items. Move to the action item other. And so now we move on
043to reports, discussions, and policies. Um we have a staffing update um from Mr. Come on back. Okay. So, we are the third largest employer in Great Falls, and we have roughly 1,922 staff members, 21 schools, between 9,500 and 10,000 students. 85% of the general fund budget is spent on employee wages and benefits annually. I did do a six-year comparison and in our high we hired 351 people. That was up 21% from the year prior. That same 351 people, it was just exactly even with the average of the six-year time frame. We had 780 applications last year. It was down 2% and it was down 16% over the six-year average. Turnover by year, we had 405 turnovers last year, which was 30% higher than the year prior, and it was two 25% higher than the six-year
044average. Last year, we had 49 retirements. We had 29 teachers, five engineers, custodians, craft grounds, four teacher aids, one food service, one medically regulated personnel and psychologist, one clerical, one technology specialists, three administrators, and four other classified staff. We had 337 resignations that included 41 teachers, 17 engineers, custodians, crafts or grounds, 37 teachers aids, 52 pairs, 13 food service, 12 clerical, one exempt secretary, one data center employee, 12 school psychologists, MERS or mental health therapists, and 151 subs or hourly classified staff. The difference between retirements and resignations is our retirees have been with us for quite some time. They, you know, have worked for us for years and years until they qualify to retire out of the PS or TRS. Resignations, on the other hand, are people that have left either due to moving, going
045to another school district, finding another job. Um, it's just really hard to retain people anymore. However, the good news is since July 1st of this year, not over the summer, but just since July 1st, we hired 18 teachers. We hired a clerical person, 33 paris, 23 aids, seven engineers, crafts or grounds, six food service people, five medically related personnel or mental health therapists, and 33 hourly classified or substitutes. So I think that shows a lot about our recruiting and retention efforts. We are trying to get creative with that sometimes. Currently for openings we have 50 teacher aid openings. We have 14 food service, one custodian, 15 para educators, seven special education teachers. We have elementary classrooms that were condensed eight of them. Seven were intervention was an elementary instructional coach and one counselor. When you
046look on the slides up there, I did a spreadsheet on the number of new hires by group. That's over the last six years. Go to the next slide, please. Okay. So, classified staff, we do a lot of job um job fairs. We have one actually tomorrow at Mountstrom. Two of the girls from HR will be going over there to try to get some people that might want to be teachers aids or crossing guards or food service. A lot of people that are military, if they are able to stay home, they can work hours that their kids are in school and then be out when they're not in school. So, that's kind of a plus. Next, please. Okay. Certified staff. Certified staff. We've gotten kind of creative. We've done the teacher job fairs at the universities.
047We do the high voltage weekend. Becky Nelson is amazing at getting that going. Um, we invite all the teachers from all over the state that are in school to come check out Great Falls. We interview them on the spot. All of that kind of stuff. We also do a lot of social media emailing to deans and professors if they have students that are in that teaching profession and we follow up with emails, postcards, phone calls, that type of thing. Marketing, that's definitely Becky Nelson's baby. She is amazing at marketing. She does a lot of the radio TV ads. She gets the postcards, the flyers, the Facebook live. She gets the radio stations involved, the TV stations involved. All of that to try to reach out to our community and let them know that they can
048make a difference in, you know, their children's education. Networking. We do a lot of networking with all other community partners. um opportunities, the chamber, the little shell tribal office, the library job service, you name it, we're out there trying to make these partnerships because if we can help them, maybe they can help us as well. So for retention new teacher events we've had in the past we've done brush crazy the loose boxes hike teacher trivia night gift wrapping at the great falls rescue mission um receptions the symphony um but we've also reached out to some of our classified staff as well we've had motel down at the Newberry and people can come in and do their whole this is what happened in school today or then or you know and it just creates a good
049atmosphere. Um the luminaria walk I know children see children the kids were even involved with that they had kids playing music and everybody was welcome. So I think that's really important. So next we're find trying to find ways to maximize the pay and benefits based on our budget. We do prioritize recruitment, retention events, trying to make Great Falls appealing, make them want to come. We have some teachers that have done videos that they've posted online, that type of thing. Um, and we just want to provide opportunities for our staff to engage in the community. Any questions? Any questions or comments? Yeah, our district truly goes above and beyond and really works hard um to bring in new employees and fill all those holes. Um we're also lucky to have a partner in our union um
050in providing support for um retaining teachers as well as providing support for those new >> expience and food service and teaching rates and >> you know it takes a village. >> Yeah, this obviously we could not fill um our staff without truly going out and doing extra effort. Um can't count on people walking in the door. Absolutely. >> Thank you so much for for your report and for all of this data. I always appreciate having longitudinal data. So, thank you so much for pulling that together. >> Vice Chair Scoring, can I jump in for just absolutely that's on me because we did not add it in there. But one of the other creative things we did last year was do a really intentional marketing throughout North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota area. Um, and trying to
051find teachers as well. Wasn't super successful. I wouldn't say it blew our doors off, but we had hits from out there that we could watch. Um, and I think it would be a good opportunity for Becky maybe to share that data um with everybody on how that looks when you're using the internet and little blips on a a web page to track who's in there, how many times they're watching the videos and so forth. So, I would encourage us to look at that again probably next year because now our feet are a little bit wet with it and be very intentional about where we um prescribe our advertising to. So, just something I didn't help her with adding it on there, so I wanted to throw it out as well. >> Thank you so much.
052All right, moving on to discussion committee reports and comments. Any volunteers? Give me a second. All right, Trusty. >> I first want to shout out to Louiswis and Clark. They look like they had a ton of people. I heard you were you were cooking all night. So, the opportunity for us to have that playground is fantastic and to partner with MSDB um so that those kiddos have a place to play that's safe and fantastic. Um the other thing I want to Since we have a captive audience, I say this a lot, but I'm going to keep repeating it. These three exec directors have had absolutely rocky beginning of the school you could ever have. And you three continue to be professional. You show up, your phone is never off. Your job is never done. It
053is 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I shout it to the city. I tell everybody who wants to hear it, even if they don't want to hear it. Um, but Heather, Jackie, Lance, um, it it the jobs that you have to do is mind-blowing. And I learn so much that I didn't know about what went on. I mean, as a teacher, you know, but you don't really pay attention to what is happening up here. and Heather for stepping into the HR role. Luke, you're learning your new posit. There's so much going on that you guys hold this together, everybody up here, and it it needs to be repeated. >> Thank you. We'll just keep moving this way. >> Yes, I want to say thanks for all the information. I appreciate the information, staffing,
054and search sort of things. I'm still learning the ropes here and I appreciate everybody being patient while I get up to speed. It was fun at the football game Friday, seeing some school spirit. Outcome maybe wasn't what we hope, but it was a good time for all it looked like and it's good to see the students enjoying it. City tennis tournament over the weekend as well. A lot of high school, current and future high school players that were there. I was watching the things really positive for this year and coming years. Got a lot of good upcoming talent there as well. But it's fun to see the kids and see the school spirit and getting that time of year again. Getting a little cool in the evenings and sports are kicking off and so it's
055a good time. >> Thank you so much. All right, Trusty Bronson. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, a couple of things. One, I know not not everyone was able to attend the opening of the latest high school house, but some of us were there a week and a half ago. Once again, it's nice to hear community members come up to those of us affiliated with the school district and just praise us for making these opportunities available to our young people. Um, you know, it is incredibly important. We need those people in the trades and it's nice to see a lot of young folks stepping up and looking at that as a potential career choice. And again, hearing all the positive feedback from the community. Uh the other thing I was going to mention is and
056I had a conversation offline with Mr. Williams about this last week. I was attending a meeting of the Lewis and Car Trail Alliance in Kansas City, Missouri. We have developed a relationship with the folks at Shannidoa University in Virginia. They have an academic program that's focused on technology and especially developing the potential that virtual reality uh technology has for education. We've, you know, over the course of the year developed a pretty decent VR program teaching people about Lewis and Clark and the expedition. And it's just fascinating to see how that tool can be used to educate uh folks. It still needs some more refinement, but I predict in a few years we're going to be seeing more virtual reality in our educational programs. And uh it's not just a question of whether it's going to
057happen. It is going to happen. Prepared for it. Hopefully, uh we will be able to at least stay ahead of the curve a little bit as this becomes part of our curriculum future. Thank you. >> All right, Trusty Drosski. >> Yeah, not too much. Uh, first thank you for this in the birthday wishes. I really appreciate it. Um, just more to your comment about how much the students love their engineer over at Longfellow. That's the same at Valley View. Mr. Bobby's just beloved by all students and they just they just get a kick out of him. He's so sweet with all of them. It's awesome to see. And then um, a shout out to our grounds crew who's hard at work at Valley View. And our kinder kiddos got a big kick during recess watching
058the diggers and all the all the big construction vehicles move around. I think they just sat at the fence and stared and they didn't even go play. They were they were well entertained. Um but just a shout out to them and then also just all the teachers and all the staff that are working so hard at the start of the year and you guys really appreciate all you do. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. So, um just another kind of push. I really encourage everyone to try to sneak over to Great Falls College um or the University of Providence tomorrow um really between 10:00 a.m. and 2, even if you can just come for a few minutes um to be able to see what our community provides our students for um hands-on experience in
059in um I think there's going to be around 65 um employers um represented there. Um it's grown now to 35 different schools across our region. Um and we're expecting around 2300 students, 200 volunteers, just to give you an idea of the size and scale of this event. Um and of course it wouldn't be possible without um our public schools being right at the table and wanting to provide these experiences for our students. Um my daughter is going to be one of them this year, so I'm really excited. She is really excited. I'll give you a full report on her reaction next time. Um, and then I also wanted to let uh my fellow trustees know um at Rotary Club last week they had um kind of a lastm minute speaker um dropped out and um
060we gave a call to um the students that are involved with Lyft and we had students come and present um on um their work um in in help supporting their fellow peers with mental health and um they gave a 15inut presentation and um had another 15 minutes in questions um and um I think from what I've heard both from the Rotary Club members as well as from the students themselves this was their favorite presentation um on both sides. Um as you know Rotary Club members hear a presentation every week. Um so that's high praise for our students and really just the work that they're doing um to support their peers. So um really eloquent speakers from from that from our from our very own students. Um one other thing is that um as we all
061know there's the um dicentennial study that's going on right now. There's a group of 18 people that are part of that commission um looking at school funding statewide and um how to make the puzzle pieces fit better. Um certainly we know here other schools around the state are experiencing similar um struggles with uh just how that formula comes together. Um there is an opportunity on Wednesday to pro participate in a zoom session. Um unfortunately of the 18 people um none of them are from our community. So this is a really this is really um our opportunity um on behalf of Great Falls to um speak to this committee and let them know um that we need um some changes in in how those puzzle pieces come together. So it's um you could find those links
062um either on the through kids education yes through that Facebook page through that website um or through the state legislation legislator's um website as well. All right. And um obviously we have some meetings coming up. Monday, October 13th, we have a regular meeting and then that's followed up by Mel. Um so some training opportunities for us as trustees and as administrators. Um you can see the full um schedule of upcoming events right there on the board. Um, and with that, I will open to I'm open to a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> All right. Meeting closed. Thank you so much.