GFPS Board Meeting Recording - July 21, 2025

001and welcome to this July 21st, 2025 meeting of the Great Falls Public Schools Board of Trustees. And I remind us all that by Montana law, these meetings are being recorded and will be posted on our website at some point in the future. Mr. Patrick, would you please administer the role? >> here. >> Excused. Excused. >> Here. Thank you, Mr. Patrick. Ladies and gentlemen, will you please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance? >> I aliance to the flag of America. >> Thank you very much, >> Mr. Chair. >> Trusty Terraski. I move that we adopt the agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda as presented. Any questions or commentary from our board of trustees? >> Any comments or questions from our gallery here with us this

002evening? Seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those uh in favor of adopting the agenda, please signify by saying I. I. >> Opposed. Same sign. We have an agenda. Thank you very much, >> Mr. Chair. >> Trust Skagosski. >> I move we approve the consent agenda as presented with a special note of thanks to Malmstrom Air Force Base for the donation of flat screen monitors and keyboards. Second. >> Been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda with special thanks to Malmstrom. Any commentary or questions from our board of trustees? Any commentary or questions from our gallery here this evening? Hearing and 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 you very much. Communication.

003Here we go. This is going to be fun. Great Falls Public Schools Foundation report. Welcome, Mrs. Becker. There we go. Thank you, Superintendent Hoyer, School Board Chairman Johnson, fellow trustees, and members of the community. We are here for Great Falls Public Schools Foundation's annual presentation on the work that's been completed over the past school year. Um, it's always fun to kind of encapsulate it in a presentation that kind of features all of the areas that we focus on each year. Um, I have with me several of the executive committee members from our board. So, I've got Jamie Marshall as the current board chair, um, Joanie Agimenan as the past board chair, and Emily Morrison as our treasurer. So they'll be covering different portions of the presentation with me. So the first slide that we wanted

004to feature um just covers our board of directors, the current slate um of members that we have on our board. Um there's going to be a second slide that speaks to some of the transitions that we've gone through. Um but it is um it is a wonderful board and we actually have some new members that are coming on that are going to bring unique expertise that is going to help us round out um the skill set that we have on the board. So next slide please. Okay. So um here we have some photos of some outgoing board members. We have four board members that have transitioned to off the board. Um Jared Brown, Candace English. Um and then we also have Drew Buuitt and Stacy Lambie who each have completed their final term on the

005board. Um so we're really thankful that they've committed nearly a decade each of them individually towards this work. Um and of course towards uh Jared and Candace and their hard work over the number of years that they've served on our board. Um we have three outgoing teacher board members. Um usually we have representation at Great Falls High CMR and then an elementary school teacher. Um so teachers that will be terming off the board include Jill Hunt from CMR, Joan Joan Daly from Great Falls High, and Stephanie Olsen from Chief Joe. These teachers serve a two-year term and really allow us to kind of have access into the classroom perspective from teachers that are working with students and their colleagues. Um, and they've done a phenomenal job. Uh incoming board members include um community members Laura

006Christ um Katie Dell Johnson from DA Davidson, Marlina Halco from Calat um and Tom Wy from MTN. Um so they each bring unique skill sets in in way of HR experience um PR media um all uh and fundraising and development. So, we're really excited to have them join us. Um, incoming teacher board members include Nathan Greger from CMR and Schmidt from Great Falls High, um, and Sandy Harrington from Lewis and Clark. Um, and one thing that was really fun this year that's unique, um, is that we actually did a call out for, um, teacher board members. So, there was an invitation for teachers to apply to be um or to submit a survey um to be a member of the board. We've never done a blanket open like that. Usually, it's been recommendations that have

007come through um and we saw great submissions um and a lot of interest from teachers who see the impact that the foundation is making. So, that's been an interesting shift. And these teachers again will serve two years on the board. Next slide. So here's where a lot of the action took place this last year. Um we navigated some some staff turnover. Um our board was really intentional about looking at the work that the foundation does and trying to figure out how it could be structured in a way that would allow it to be sustained into the future. um we experienced considerable growth in the last 15 years that the foundation has existed and especially in the last five or so years. And so it became necessary for them to re-evaluate the structure that we had

008um and what resulted from that um was basically a whole new slate of staff members um and also restructuring how the positions existed within the organization. Um so Michelle Noriega joined us in July of last year um as our administrative assistant. Um she is absolutely loving being in this space and overseeing grants. She is a former school administrator herself. Um and so she it just makes her heart super happy to be able to contribute this way. Um we also added three new part-time positions. um we knew that things needed to kind of be shifted a little bit. So the first um is a chief operations officer um and that is Christina Horton um and that's been awesome to have a senior level position to kind of envision where the organization is going and to kind

009of partner in that work. Um we also added a community programs coordinator. Um, those of you who don't know Elizabeth Hill should probably know her. I feel like she knows everybody in the community. Whenever we go to schools together, she's giving hugs out to people and saying hello and calling people by name. She's been really active in the school environment because of her kids. Um, and also being involved in PTA. So, she's been an awesome addition. Um, and last, this is hot off the press. Um, we have our scholarship coordinator. Um, this position had been filled by Cassie Strauss for seven months and she did a wonderful job. She ended up returning to the museum um and it left us a vacancy that has been perfectly filled by Joan Dey um from Great Falls High.

010So, for those of you who don't know her, she recently retired um as an English teacher at Great Falls High and she happened to be serving on our board for the last two years um and serving on the scholarship committee. So, she has insight um and also experience as a teacher um writing recommendation letters, moving through the platform that we use for scholarship. So, we're very excited to have her join our team. So she'll be on board in August. Um so next slide please. Just as an overview, these are the areas that the foundation focuses on. Student and teacher recognition. Um, and we'll dive into details for each of these categories in slides that will follow, but student and teacher recognition, scholarships, grants, building enhancements, um, and food pantries. Um, you'll notice some photos on

011this slide um, kind of represent different aspects of the work that we do. You'll notice on the right hand side is Lewis and Clark Library which is one of the libraries that has been renovated um thanks to private funding that has come through. In the middle um we have uh one of the workers that does lunch every day at CMR has been recognized with a gold star award um for her commitment there. Um, and then the last photo that you'll see is a contribution from Cruising the Drag um in the amount of 15,000 $15,000 um which is remarkable and that is directed to food pantry. Um that's a new partnership and it's one that they want to continue in the future moving forward. Um and that contribution really allowed us to ensure that this coming

012year we're able to support food pantries at a similar level and in fact increase that level of support for all food pantries within the district. Um by way of context for food pantries they uh were established within the food or the school district in 2012. Um the foundation has been a really critical partner in that work and since 2012 private funding has supported over $500,000 being directed to Great Falls Community Food Bank where deep discounts are achieved for the volunteers to support food pantries for all kids in the district. So that's pretty remarkable and we're very fortunate to be in a community where donors want to see that support happen. Um, so we're excited to have new partners in that area. So, a couple slides that are kind of just general stuff. Um, much of

013which you may already be familiar with. Um, as many of you know, the truck raffle is our biggest fundraiser every year. And that is what allows us to support our grants program um each year and make it possible for teachers to do impactful work in the classroom. Um so 2024 uh the winner of the truck the Toyota Tacoma um was Jod Gronhouser which is the mother of Janna Mora um a teacher over at Great Falls High who sold her the ticket. um and that group supports a scholarship for Bison family members. So that is very exciting for her. Um over $153,000 was raised. The only way that we can do this is because we have hundreds maybe thousands of boots on the ground with the kids. There's not another fundraiser that has that kind of

014reach. Um and we're really humbled that the kids continue to partner with us. the coaches do, the club advisors do. So, we can do something powerful and impactful for education. Um, over 80,000, as you know, for every ticket that's sold, $6 goes back to the group that's selling that ticket. So, over 80,000 went back to those groups for any use that they had in mind. Um, and the remaining funds goes back to our grant program. So, it's a win-win across the board. In total, we had 37 school organizations that participated. And now I'm going to hand this off to Joanie Agimenan to cover the next couple of slides. >> Good evening. >> Welcome Joanie. >> Thank you. Can you hear me? Okay. >> Okay. I'm here to talk about student rec or public relations which

015this year we've really concentrated on the student and teacher recognition. Our the foundation continues to welcome new teachers to the district by introducing them to the foundation and our grant program. Our gold star award program doubled in size this year. And that's a true testament to we have people in place as employees, as a staff to do the work so we can get the word out there. And all funds raised, all the donations raised in the gold star program go directly to our grant program, teacher grant program. Our excellence in education was a little different this year. I know some of you were there. Um, we had a different format this year and it was a little more intimate and we're getting feedback on that now to see how everybody felt about it. I really

016enjoyed it. I kind of walked around and listened and it was really a neat night. Um, it was really great. The Great F or the uh BNSF Railway has always sponsored the teacher of the year grants at $2,000 a piece, but this year they added scholarships for the students that nominated the teachers that won and they each got $500 received $500 for that. And our speaker this year was Jamie Sire and she was a Great Falls High class of and she is on the Food Network. She has a podcast and I think maybe even a show of some sort. So that wraps up our student and teacher recognition or public relations. Does anybody have any questions for me on those? Okay, we're on to the scholarship program. the scholar and I'm glad to say I

017get to go chair that again. I can't wait. I um I've really missed being involved in the scholarship program. So, I'm excited I get to chair that again starting next year or this year. Um the Great Falls, we offered over 150 scholarships and help administer a dozen district held scholarships. There were over 2,000 applications that were reviewed by donors and community members. Um, the foundation awarded $370,000 to 89 graduating seniors and there was nine new scholarships that were added this year including the trades and nursing scholarships and the trade scholarship was partnered with the Oakland family and they launched a new nominationbased scholarship for the trades which we're finding more and more is really needed. So that was great. And then this year we had once again our combined scholarship night with all three high

018schools there and that's been very wellreceived over the years. And a true testament to that was our new new nursing scholarship. Debbie and Dick Olsen extended a nursing scholarship, a single year $5,000 award scholarship. I forget how many they did, but they do four four $5,000 scholarships. and they were so impressed with being able to meet the recipients of those scholarships that they have committed to four re a renewable scholarship for four years for those four four scholarships and they want to continue doing that. So that's a true testament to how wonderful that new program is. The new setting there is working and being able to meet the recipients. And then last but not least, there were 20 $1,000 Heisy scholarships that were awarded to teachers for continuing education. So, any questions about scholarships? >>

019Any questions for Mrs. Agimeny? >> That just rolls off your tongue, doesn't it? No one can say my name. Thank you. >> Because of your kids. >> Yes. Thank you. I'm gonna turn it back over to Steph. >> All right. Thank you. All right. So, I'm back to cover a little more detail on the grant program. Um, so we have annual grants that are awarded um annually obviously and then we also have many grants that are offered um throughout the school year um and they are at lower threshold levels. Um but this is the completion of the second school year that's been able to benefit from this reformatted um grant program. Um so for annual grants this year 28 grants were awarded actually for this upcoming school year. So it's reviewed in the spring and

020implemented or put in place in the following school year. Um that's compared to 20 last year which is awesome. So that's a 40% increase in the number of um qualified uh visions or programs that the teachers are submitting that fit the criteria that we're trying to achieve. Um that resulted in 20 learning enhancement grants that are up to 5,000. six community collaboration grants that requires cor collaboration either with community members or with other colleagues at their grade level um or across the school district. Those are available up to 10,000. And then last but not least are immersive professional learning grants and those um can be up to 15,000. Those are for teachers typically to go off-site to do some really deep immersive learning experiences that they can bring back to the district, share with colleagues

021throughout the district and create greater impact, but allowing them to pursue um in a deeper way areas of passion that they might have that they think can really make an impact and not limiting that to their school classroom, but extending that further. Um so we were very excited to see that type of uptick and those opportunities. The photos on the screen um show you three um examples of that. So, in the upper left hand corner is a student um in Sasha Morris class um over at Corside Elementary um or not core side, Morningside, Core School um elementary where she requested funds to support immersive experiences for the students in the classroom. So instead of just looking at a book and trying to understand the human body, they actually got lab codes. They were able to

022look at materials how um and diagrams and do exercises that helped them to understand the function of different body parts. Um, also another segment of this was um taking fables because there was a portion of their curriculum studying fables and it was recreating the classroom space to be Africa with spiders and snakes and exposing those students to different diverse learning environments um and trying to engage them more deeply in the learning that they're doing. So trying to do something that taps into their imagination and helps them to think more broadly. Um the photo on the right hand side um is a sculpture that was created um with welding students by an artist and resident Mike Holl um who does a lot of the work along the West Bank. Um, so Courtney Herren facilitated this grant.

023Um, and Mike taught Welding students how to envision a project and also bring it to completion and to grow um, in their skill set to be able to accomplish that. Um, so that is an example of a community collaboration grant because it brought someone in to help further develop those skills. Um in the lower leftand corner is Abigail um Hansen um who went to the space academy for educators and she got to experience simulations um speak with NASA dosants um and expand her way of thinking knowing that STEM is an area that's going to continue to grow and a lot of the careers for our kids are not currently in existence. So, it's necessary to help our teachers think more broadly so they can help students to think more broadly about things that may not

024currently exist um but maybe a field or an area that they pursue as a career. So, that is um annual grants, mini grants. We also saw a significant increase in the uptick for those. So 75 many grants were awarded versus 47 from the year prior. Um so that's a 60% increase. Um we have three categories. The first is field trip and expert-led learning. Um this is an area where teachers can pursue oneoff opportunities that they think will help deepen their students learning. Some examples of this are Gates of the Mountains, Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, Great Falls Ice Plex, Buffalo Jump Recycling Center, Great Falls Rocks and Sheds um and the University of Montana Band Festival. So, it's covering all kinds of categories um and helping those students to grow. The second category is professional

025enhancement. Um and that also covered a wide variety of areas. So teachers pursue learning opportunities through conferences um in various locations, math, genetic disease, funological awareness, stu school nurses, library science, AP summer institute. Um so we have teachers in all kinds of categories that are pursuing their understanding so they can bring that back. Um and the last category is classroom enrichment and those are a lot of the environmental things. We often see a lot of these requests at the elementary school level. Um so it could be rugs, it could be seating, books, sensory games, whiteboards, puzzles, lamps, uh you name it. what they think is necessary to engage their students more. Um, and we're giving them access to that. One thing that's been interesting with the mini grants, because of the addition of mini grants,

026we have seen 19 of the 21 schools in the district benefiting from many grants just this past year. So, we're seeing it all across the board. Um, and if you extend it to the annual grants, there's only one school that did not receive a grant this year. So, we're seeing lots of teachers tapping into these resources. I'm going to hand it off to Emily who will cover our financials. >> Thank you. Good evening. Uh, my name is Emily Morrison and I am the treasurer for the foundation. Um, and part of my job is helping the foundation maintain excellent financial records. Um, it's part of building the trust that makes the foundation successful. Um and it's also very important for our donors and stakeholders that we are good stewards for their contributions that we maintain integrity

027in the system and have sound financial management. So some of the systems that we have and processes that we have in place um include an annual audit and every year we have that done by an independent accounting firm and every year we've had a clean opinion. Um we have a team of investment advisors from multiple firms in Great Falls and they help give us um the benefit of a number of different perspectives and we hold an annual meeting with them every year. Um there is also an investment policy in place that helps guide us as well as them. Um and then the foundation staff prepare monthly financial reports and those are reviewed um in a timely manner with me. Um bank statements and reconciliations are also reviewed. Um the board has the opportunity to review

028the 990 before it's submitted. And then the finance committee um a big part of that is we help provide oversight and expertise um with our knowledgeable committee members. We have two exmembers, exeicio board members who sit on the board and help us give that historical reference of um why prior decisions were made and they share that insight with any new members. I'm short and sweet. Uh any questions? Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And welcome Jamie. >> All right. I know I was able to be with you recently to share the first of our building enhancement committee projects which was the recent completion of the West Elementary Library and the Louiswis and Clark Elementary. We have a picture with us here at the top though. That is the West Library. So, if you've not had

029a chance to be in that space, it's a large library and the renovation really is is quite extensive. So, we were very excited to see those completed and wrapped up and ready for this coming school year. Uh we also have the Sunnyside Elementary Library, which is one of our projects in progress right now through building enhancements. This is in partnership with an anonymous donor as well as some of the remaining grants from the estate contribution that allowed us to do West and Lewis and Clerk. So, it's exciting and if you've not been in the Sunnyside Library space, it's also very unique in a very different way. So, we're really excited to see that project come to fruition. And the CMR Auditorium renovation continues in its planning and efforts. So, that is still in progress. Um,

030we were excited to celebrate to a third party and these are a reminder that these are external partners. So typically a PTA, but it could be someone else as well external to the foundation who would like to do something in partnership with the school district, but for fund management purposes, they also partner with the foundation. So for the Lincoln Elementary playground project, that was a $265,000 project. More than $250,000 of those funds did funnel through the foundation. Zakia was a $400,000 playground renovation project and more than $300,000 of those funds funneled through the foundation. We feel like we've really hit a groove with the fund management services. Um been able to work through that process and it's been fun to really partner with some of these external groups in that effort. So there's ever excitement

031in the private public sector partnerships that occur through these building enhancement projects and we're excited to see what the future holds. And we'll go to the next slide. Thank you. Future directions. So I'm excited to share as we wrap up here. We have worked extensively as a board really for nearly the past year on our strategic plan for the next three years. Took a slightly different approach this time than we had in the past and have landed on three core areas that I would imagine you'll continue to hear and see I would say our story of what we're working on. Really continuing to enhance that organizational development and capacity. We're thrilled with the way that the staffing structure has come into play and where that growth will continue to come. So much of what you've

032heard tonight truly is a result of our staff. They've really been remarkable looking at strengthening those core relationships and community partnerships which also will lead to growth. Um we're so very grateful for the tremendous support of this community. We do not have an education foundation anywhere else in Montana like we do in Great Falls and that truly is the result of the community we live in. So we're excited to continue to grow and strengthen those. And lastly is to deepen our impact. Um one significant switch that you'll likely hear about in coming months is that that PR committee um is changing. It will now be the development committee and there will be a very intentional switch in how you see and hear the foundation out working with our current donors, prospective donors, community. We're really

033excited to continue to tell our story and to grow what we're able to do in partnership with each of you. Are there any final questions as we wrap up this evening? >> Any questions for Mrs. Marshall? >> Very well. Thank you very much for your presentation. So, are there any questions for any member of the foundation who spoke tonight? Your presentations were so comprehensive and thorough that they evidently answered all of our questions. and we as a school district cannot thank you enough for what you do to enlighten teachers, students, our schools, and our community. So, thank you so much. We're so grateful. Um, and I know you guys have fun doing it and that that shows. So, it's uh it's brilliant what you do. So, thank you very much and thank you for being

034here today. Communication item B, superintendent report. >> Thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, and members of our community. Ladies, I know you probably or may have families to go to, so please feel free. I won't be offended if you get up and and take off to families and maybe between rain spells that we have here, but um starting the uh my second round of superintendence reports. And so this is really exciting. It was fun to look back and see um what I was able to report on at this time last year. So, you will see some consistencies. I want to report to you on some of the stuff that's happening in our district as far as work that's going on um within our district and also some accreditation. So, we're going to start

035with summer work. And so, there are some pictures for you up there. The first one, the one in red is our warehouse. And that picture was taken just right out here um as they were removing the concrete pad in preparation for um upgrades and the new um refrigerator freezer components that will be coming in. This is being dubbed by subcontractors and they actually have a piece of equipment out there that looks like a giant jackhammer and it's hard to see or actually it's kind of looked like a giant whack-a-ole, but I am not a construction person, so jackhammer is probably the more efficient term. Um, and it was pounding rapidly these big arches in this concrete pad. Well, they removed one concrete pad, thought they'd be good, and then they found a layer of styrofoam

036and another concrete pad underneath it. So years ago when this happened um they for some reason did a concrete pad, a layer of insulation, another concrete pad. So they were the subcontractors were continuing to work on that. Um in talking to John out there, he feels that this will be done in the fall to early winter. We'll be able to take over and start to utilize that new space as we expand our warehouse. So we're excited about that. Um, Chief Joseph is getting new carpeting in rooms 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 20. Um, some in some of those rooms, our um contractors or our actually our folks at the district went in and they built level platforms. If you haven't been in Chief Joseph um recently or at all, it the walls dive off

037in the external walls. And so there are some classrooms where it drops very dramatically in the last like two to three feet of the classroom and in some cases in two walls if they're both external walls. And so our guys, our carpenters have went in and actually built level platforms for the teachers desks so the teachers aren't always running uphill or downhill in the classrooms. But they look lovely. um the carpeting does and and they're carpet squares which means we know um with any learners of any ages things get spilled on carpet and so versus ruining an entire classroom of carpet if something happens to one of the squares we can pop it up and replace the square. Longfellow Elementary is working on drainage. This seems to be a pretty consistent problem with Longfellow. I

038think this is the second time. I'm going to look at Mr. Second time. Yep. Second time that we've done this. We're doing it on door number two and number six in the main door. What happens is anytime we have water like today or the sprinkler systems um when they go off to water the grass for um the students and the neighbors and and the staff there, water backs up and pools under the doors and so we get large puddles inside our building. So they're working to mediate that problem over at Longfellow. So, you'll see if you drive around in that neighborhood um that the doors have been cordoned off as they pour the new concrete. CMR um was a recipient of one of the grants that the foundation provided. And so, this is their coffee

039shop. It has beautiful new flooring and it's also got um some new cabinetry going in. This is easy to clean up. It's smooth surface, so it's super easy for the students that don't have to worry about nooks and crannies. said, "We will spray it down, wipe it down as they make their delicious coffee creations um for the students and the staff at CMR." So, we're excited to see that remodel project complete. And then the picture on the far right is a Lincoln Elementary and they're getting a kitchen remodel. Um so, it's undergoing a major remodel. everything has been pulled out and um in talking with Tracy Hughes, the head engineer over there, he's not sure if he's going to be able to get the um the gym all done and shiny for the first day

040of school because everything in the kitchen is in the gym and we're still waiting for components of the kitchen to come in. So he he used to work for me over at Great Falls High and he said, you know, it's just like at Great Falls High, Heather, if something doesn't get done this summer, I'm going to do it over Christmas break and the kids will have a shiny gym at some point in time, but it's more important that they have a new kitchen to feed them during the year. And so that work is being done just as folks are just doing a fantastic job. For the next slide, each of you has in front of you a copy of the document that was sent to us by the Montana Board of Public Education. So congratulations

041to core school. This is their first evaluation of a charter school done by the board of public ed. Um it's outlined in Mont or outlined in Montana code. All ratings were meets standards or higher than meet standards of exceed standards and in some of the summary quote you will see that they are distinguished in their enhancement of adult support, community integration, um projectbased learning. You saw a picture of that with the foundations reports and targeted intervention. Um a huge congratulations to the staff there um executive director Jackie Manewearing curriculum director um Rachel Cutler and the M Western leadership who are part of this review process. This was an extensive process that was done above and beyond all of the other accreditation processes that took place. And so we just received those reports and I wanted

042to be sure I shared them with you in detail. So, please um if you have any questions about those reports, reach out to me, Jackie or Rachel. We'd be happy to answer um any of questions that you have about that report, but it looks um better than good. It looks fantastic. And so, we're really excited about the progress over there. We do have a community event coming up that'll happen between now and our next board meeting. And so, this is the stuff the bus that um United Way Cascade County does for us every year. It's on August 7th. It also happens to be during our district um and our district leadership human resources uh full training day. So, there won't be a lot of staff available for this. So, I thought I'd share this this

043evening. If anybody is free and would like to help stuff the bus, um I happen to know someone up here who would be happy to take names or you can reach out to United Way Cascade County. It happens at Target and both of the Walmarts from 8:30 to 6 o'clock. And we stuff on the 7th and then we unstuff um on the 8th, I believe. And so we will be doing that. But if you're interested in helping out, reach out um to United Way Cascade County. It's an amazing event and the amount of materials that come in to help our student learners in our classrooms. It's just um it's humbling the amount of work that come or the amount of materials that come in. So, thank you, Kim. Um the next one you will see

044is our year at a glance for the strategic plan 2025 2026. It should look very familiar to you. Um but what I did this time is we went through and we provided questions that were just prompt questions to our principles. So when we closed the year out last year, we provided this to the principles to help them drive discussions with their staff and with their parent groups and with their students on how can we actually measure this. So in front of you, you have a copy of that is I I'll report on this throughout the year as I did quarterly last year. um those questions will go away but I wanted to kind of give you an idea of how we're going to pick the brains of the individuals in the buildings that are making

045this strategic plan work. Um for example if you take a look at um under healthy safe and secure schools the very first bullet is character strong and responsibility center discipline is continuing for us. So, a question that the executive directors might ask or that our principles might ask of themselves or their staff is what does our behavior data look like for the school and when and how do we talk about this data? Who do we share it with? How do we advertise it? How do we push that information out? And so, that's how we'll be pulling the information out for them that we'll be sharing with you throughout the year quarterly. But that is our strategic plan at a glance. Once again, we have a three-year strategic plan. This is year two of our three-year

046plan. So, data for the day continues. And I wanted to give a big thank you to Kathy Rainey out in the um data center. She pulled this information for us. When we're looking at a correlation or looking for a correlation between our students who have FS or N's in the elementary and then Fs in the the middle and the high school and greater than a given number of absences in our elementary and our middle school we went with 20 and our high schools we went with 10. Is there a number that we can really start to drill down on to how do we help these students and put intervention pieces in place? So with her help, we were able to see that 5.9% of our students in the elementary who earned an F or an

047N on their report card had more than 20 absences within the school year. So when you look at a total, we have uh 5,533 total students um enrolled in that. In our middle schools, we looked at a year total as well. So, we had 202 middle school students who had FS and had greater than 20 absences. Knowing that we have 1617 students enrolled in middle school was about 12.5%. We dug into it a little bit deeper at the high schools because we went semester 1 and semester 2 at the high schools. Um, just be mindful with our high schools that the same student can be represented in both sets because they might fail. for example, English one first semester, they might also fail English two second semester. So they're they could be listed both places,

048but we're looking at about 11% um first semester and 12.8% second semester of students who have FS and who have more than 10% or more than 10 absences per semester. And so how do we respond to students who we know are struggling academically, but we know are also struggling with their absences? And that's something that we're focusing in on with the help of our executive director. So there are pieces that we have in place that help with this. But in the end, the biggest thing we need to do is get their students to us and we need to work with those families to get them to us because we know that if we have them in front of us, we can work with them to master their content. So things that we did this summer

049and you'll be seeing a more extensive report on summer school data from the executive directors coming up because some of it is still coming in but our elementary jumpstart program which was funded by the state of Montana which supported literacy and numeracy. We had 130 students um who who took part in this is our second summer of this. So 79% of those registered talking with my hands and shutting my microphone off here. Um attended this four-week event. We're starting to to monitor for a correlation between the students who do that and are we going to see then a decrease in students um who are having excess attendance problems and having excess um struggles academically. So, we're hoping to see that elementary number go down. We know that um intervention in grades four through eight is

050our area of weakness. And there's a variety of issues. Um one is the funding. So, the state funding for Jumpstart stops at rising third grade. It doesn't go to rising fourth grade or beyond. um transportation becomes a big deal especially for our middle schools because our middle schools are on the edges of town and running busing for those students um is difficult and also conflicting schedules as our students get older. This is when they start to get more and more involved in things like summer camps, summer activities um and our attendance in summer programs in the past when we've run them has greatly decreased as we get older until you get to high school. and then high school with the credit attached to it, we have a little bit more success. So, high school um

051summer school is funded both by title one and the general fund. So, we're going to be monitoring the impact of federal funds and the reduction of federal funds on being able to offer summer school. Um we had 163 students. They earned 271 half credits through our credit recovery efforts. Um we had some amazing teachers both at elementary jumpstart and at our high school level. Um, I know Miss April Sanger was one of them that helped get a lot of students across the line this summer. So, we continue to have a lot of work to do. Um, we may have to get creative with funding as we move forward. And then we really need to focus in on those grades four through eight. And so, that'll be some of the problem solving we do this this

052school year moving forward. And with that, that is my superintendence report and I am um available for any questions you may have. >> Any questions for Mrs. Hoyer? Thank you for your report. I've had no requests to speak for this board of trustees this evening. So that concludes the communication portion of our board meeting. We now go into action items of which there are nine. And then we go further into reports, discussion, and policies. So my friends in the foundation, you're certainly free to leave at this point in time. And again, >> thank you very much for your reports. [Applause] We so appreciate what you do. Thank you. Action item A, transfer of budgeted funds, elementary G general fund 101 to elementary compensated absences fund budget 121 and high school general fund budget 2011 to

053high school compensated absences fund 221. Mr. Patrick, >> that didn't flow off my tongue. >> Thanks, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Uh this is an annual transfer the district does and it covers non-eing and administrative staff their sick leave buyout when they leave our district and we can hold up to 30% of the amount of money in this fund. So um it's figured each year by each year by saying what is 30% of the annual payout that we would have to have. We take the existing reserves that we have in that account and subtract it and come up with the amount that we can transfer. So, um, this year the amount that we can transfer in the elementary is $172,824 and realizing that we can go right up to the 30%, I've cut that

054down just a little bit so that we don't go over and the auditors get mad at us for having too much money in that fund. So, um, my recommendation, uh, for this year is to, um, move $172,250 from the elementary general fund budget into the compensated absence fund budget and $121,000 from the high school general fund budget into the high school compensated absence budget. >> Mr. Chairman, >> Trusty Bronson, >> I move that we approve a transfer of $172,250 from our elementary general fund number 101 to the elementary compensated absences fund budget number 121 and further a $121,000 transfer from the high school general fund budget number 2011 to the high school compensated absences fund number 220. >> Second. been moved and seconded to make the transfer transfer of funds as itemized by trustee Bronson.

055Any questions or commentary from this board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from our gallery here with us this evening? 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. Patrick. Action item B 2526, student handbook. Mr. Boyd, welcome. >> Good evening. July. This process. Obvious Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. >> Trusty Skonagoski. >> I move that we approve the 2025 202 26 student handbook as presented. Second. >> Then moved and seconded to approve the 2526 student handbook as presented. Any questions or commentary from this board of trustees? >> Just a thank you to you and your staff for taking on this task. It's a year-long process. So, thank you. >> It's stunningly comprehensive. Good. Good

056work. Any questions or com commentary from our gallery here? And seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of approving the 2025 2026 student handbook as presented, please signify by saying I oppose the same sign. >> Thank you, Mr. Boyd. And while we've got your attention, we're moving on to action item C, and that's professional development plan for 2526. Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, Trustees, community. Um, I want to visit with you really quickly about our professional learning plan or the PIR, professional, sorry, pupil instruction related. Um, some things I just want to point out to you that during this last year, the 2425 school year, our PI steering committee met quite a bit and made some adjustments to the proposal that we typically have teachers fill out to do that um, PI

057those workshops and those trainings. those changes um in the PI process were to change those courses to include elements of adult learning theory, more collaboration both in the workshop while they're learning and then when they leave and they're back in the classroom and their opportunity to reflect on the training that they've had and reflect on how they're going to use this new learning in their classroom and in their profession. All of this also connected to changes to make it more transparent and more emphasis on our strategic plan in the district as well as our profile of the learner. We had roughly 77 instructors fill out opportunities to teach 90 PI workshops, book studies, group discussions, and study groups. This allows teachers to choose from all of those 90 to choose their 18 hours. Our cost

058per teacher for all 18 hours averages out to about $35. A year ago that was 45. So we have a little bit of savings. A lot of that comes from our administrators who have provided more opportunities to teach these workshops and so it reduces our cost when our administrators are doing some of that. Pudget is supported through student services, indigenous education, but the majority of it comes from curriculum. So here's your breakdown of what we're spending on the budget. Student services will contribute $2,862. Indigenous education is $2,268. And the curriculum committee and that or the curriculum budget that's both elementary and secondary is $20,7. The other thing I want to highlight is just um two new courses and I'm picking two from our immersive professional learning connection. Um both of these courses the first one

059is how to cyanotype with your students and the second is charting the course to tomorrow future focus future focus STEM learning and explorations from NASA space camp. Both of these workshops are made possible by the fact that these two instructors went on their immersive professional learning opportunity, had great insight in these areas that they were passionate about and then were able to come back and share that with um other members in our district. So, those are just two examples of um some new ideas that came out of that. Rachel has some other ones. I do. These are on the elementary side. So, the first one is uh for years we have offered new teachers professional learning when they get hired. Six hours of classroom management, six hours of curriculum. Traditionally, we've done it all together

060in the same week when they've also had HR training, technology training, and one more can't think of the other, but they have five days of training. by the end of the week there. It's such a fire hose of information that we decided to restructure how we were offering that. So, our first two hours um occurred in June for the teachers that were hired. It was called I'm hired now what? Uh so, it focused on things that they need to know right out of the gate. So, we spent two hours with them in June. We'll offer that again in August for any teachers that were hired after that. Then we've taken the remaining 10 hours and spread them over uh August, September, October, and November so that they get a little bit at a time. So

061it's just in time for what they need to try to reduce that overload because it is a lot of information. New teachers need to know a lot. The second focus in elementary math is the name of the game for us. So, we have contracted with Amplify to come and provide a launch of six hours of training for elementary math, but we've also worked with the instructional coaches and some classroom teachers to offer grade level specific math trainings related to the new materials over the course of the year kind of in that similar format. So, they'll come together three times during the year and work together in collaboration. That's the gist of what's happening at elementary. So with all that information, um we recommend that you uh approve the budget for PIR so that we can

062maintain all of that learning for our teachers this year. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. >> Trusty Terraski, >> I move that we accept the recommended professional development plan for the 2025 2026 school year as presented. >> Second. been moved and seconded to uh accept the professional development plan for 2526 school year. Any questions from our board of trustees regarding this plan? Any questions from our gallery 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 for your report. >> Thank you. Action item D, Calumet protested taxes. And uh we have been asked as a board of trustees to postpone this report to a future meeting. Uh and I would like to hear a motion to

063do so. >> Mr. Chairman, >> Trusty Bronson, >> I move that we postpone consideration of item 7D until a later meeting. >> Second. It's been recommend uh first uh moved and seconded to postpone the calment protested taxes question to a further meeting. Any questions from this board of trustees? Any questions from our gallery? All those of in favor of the motion please signify by saying I. >> I oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Action item E, a collective bargaining agreement between board of trustees of school district number one and A and Great Falls Education Association, Mr. Deakons. >> Good evening, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, and our audience this evening. You will get your dose of me tonight because I have lots of items on the agenda, so bear with me if I

064get a little tongue tied or anything. Um, but just to let you know, Mr. Boyd was telling me he was going to go through that handbook page by page until I told him I was going through every one of these agreements page by page and he changed his mind very quickly. Uh >> oh. >> So we will get started today with the collective bargaining agreement that we've been working on since this spring with GFA. I do want to uh let you know we worked with a great group of individuals. We have uh President Tom Cvage, Lance Olsson, April Sanger, and Sher Stodall in the audience this evening um representing GFA and the law as well as Jolyn Keutt and Amy Holland backward that were unable to be here this evening. Um our administrative team that

065worked with negotiations were Jamie McGrath, Steve Yates, Lindseay Staltz, and Heather Hoyer, our superintendent. And but the big shout out I want to give is to D in my office because she sat there with her computer the entire time as we chatted back and forth quite amiiably I guess you'd say it um and kept up to keep the notes and the minutes as we went through. So big shout out to her. It's a big job um full day of sitting there typing and trying to figure out who you're typing. and being a new person, she got to learn everybody's name to start out and by the end she knew everyone just fine. Um, what I'm going to do this evening is give you the highlights of these CBAs as we go through them. Like I

066said, um, I'm not going to read them page for page, but we did include them as attachments um, and adapt. >> We've had them we've had them in our reading. Thank you. >> Awesome. Um, so we did start this earlier this spring process. at their CBA expired on June 30th of this year. Um been working through came to some agreements along the way. Um that's what I'll be go going over with you. I do want to point out there are a couple things that we're still working towards some use um working towards that calendar um into quarter day and then also working with um um overloaded classmates and so forth. So we'll continue to work on those just to keep that in mind. One of the big challenges this year was the legislature was in

067session and not only was it in session, it was making some pretty big changes with the stars act um that was held in there. So, we really had to develop a good understanding of what was happening with that and where that funding would come from. And no doubt down the road we're going to have to ask more questions because there's a lot contained in that STARS Act. It just doesn't have to do with uh teacher pay. There's a lot of other pieces that are going to be coming up in the near future as well. So, when we look at this, I'm going to skip over the fiscal implications for just a minute and I'll come back to it. Um, but one of the main things that we worked on were salary placement. Um, many of

068the smaller districts around here give them one to one um years of service all the way up through 20 um which makes it very difficult for us to compete um when we're recruiting. So, we worked hard to get the 10 years um recognized one to one. you used to be able to get the 10 years, but to get to the 10 years, I think you had to get to 15 in order to make it there. So, that'll help us a little bit. Um, definitely as teachers come in with experience, they also bring a wealth of knowledge, and you just can't replace that experience that they have in the classroom already as well. Um, another area, um, across the board for both groups was special education and our teachers um, in those roles. We're continuing to

069see a decline in the number of those students that are coming out of universities, which means it's more and more difficult for us to fill those positions. Um, what we looked at was uh in the prior year was giving some time that they could work on their paperwork and so forth. So, we made we worked through an agreement to do two extra days where they could be reimbursed for that. This year we worked on looking at the class sizes or I should say case management size of the process and looking to try and stay within those numbers. I'd like to tell you these numbers are perfect. I think both sides agree. This is the first year we're doing it. We're going to see and we're going to do the very best we can to stay

070within these numbers. But unfortunately sometimes with people moving in and out these numbers are going to change throughout the year. So we're going to do the best but it'll allow us to give them some compensation to go along with it there. um our elementary specialist class coverage talking about counselors, librarians, general music, instrumental art, and so forth. Um every once in a while they are required to cover some subbing in the building when we're not able to cover it. And if they are having to cover those those classrooms, we're looking at compensating them a little bit extra because they're giving up their full prep to be in that classroom. So $35 per half day. So if they had to cover for a whole day, it could end up being $70 the cost of the district,

071which we aren't paying the sub. So there's some balance there that goes along with it. Looking at a mentorship program, continuing to work through those details. We'll be working um but looking at making sure we get those uh new teachers a mentor for that first year, giving them time across the school year, just like uh Rachel just mentioned. I know they stepped out, but they do drink from a fire hose when you move into this district, whether you have experience or not. Um, and making sure that they have an opportunity to take in that information, spreading it out when it is the time to spread it out rather than telling them in August, something that they're going to have to do in May. Um, so working through that, we'll work with GFA on that as

072well. Um, for the last several years, we have had an early retirement notification. um if individuals would turned in their retirement prior to the first day back in January, they would get $250 um toward their final compensation um towards TRS. So, we worked on that. We did put that into the language. And because it's noted right here, you'll see it says 5 p.m. on the first day of school after January, there are a lot of language changes when you look through there that change dates to say the first available business day. Um the 5:00 PM at the HR office. just trying to clarify those pieces as well for individuals out there to help with the questions that both Tom and I get to answer on a daily basis a lot of times at certain times

073during the year. Um we also had extracurricular and co-curricular stipen changes. A lot of this didn't impact anything that has to do with our um costs or compensation because many of these were already in place for this prior year through anou. However, the one we did add to it was an assistant golf coach um which will give somebody like Mr. Olsson there somebody to rely on when they're rotating kids through um in short notice as well. All of these estimates that I'm going to talk about in terms of cost here in just a moment are based on the current FTE. Um but we're not taking into account any of the taxes and so forth because those are things that have to be taken into account either way. But for the 202526 school year, um we

074agreed to a 4% increase in the base um starting salary. When we look at the stars, we know we got to be competitive the best we can and we have to get as close to that 70% number as early on as possible because we're not getting new money down the road with stars. If you don't get there the first time, you're going to have a hard time to make it. Uh 46,500 is where we're looking at starting those teachers and that gets us very close to that 70. So the pri the the next year we'll hopefully be able to be right on top of it as we make those adjustments. With that the top salary um for a master's plus 30 and 18 plus years we'll be looking at 85,890 for teachers. Um in addition

075to that one thing we did add was a longevity stipen after year 18. So 19 plus they'll be receiving uh $500 stipen to go along with it. And when you hit that 18 you get the amount increase that we agree to. we do not have those steps to go down. So, trying to balance out some of those pieces as well. In 2627, we agreed to a 3% increase with the base. Um, same thing. Um, there isn't a number there yet for the 70% of stars because we have to do our average based on our teachers because that's what STARS is based on. Another piece that's complicated within the STARS act is districts that have more than one district um within. So, we have one and a so we got a high school and an elementary.

076Our high school average runs generally higher than what our elementary does. We can't separate those two within the CBA. We have to stick with one or the other. So, we're going to go with the higher so that the once we get through count day, we get through that first fall personnel report, that'll give us an idea of where we're going to be shooting to make sure that we're at that 70%. That's kind of what we agreed on. It's a hard number to shoot from the hip with because you don't know until we have everybody employed in in the district. Um, again, that will put the top salary at 88,466 with that um additional $500 longevity siphon after year 18 as well. What this means for our budget is um in 2526 we'll have about a

07748,831 48,831,160 dedicated straight to the budget. Um that'll be an increase of about $2,191,722 plus the $74,000 for the longevity stipen in 2627. We get a little bit of a balancing effect right there because we don't have to bring that base up quite as high. Um however, that increase is going to be the 1,586,293 plus the $74,000 in the longevity stipen. With all this being noted, I will let you know that in August when we come back prior to the final budget presentation, we'll include all costs um in there as well. So, with that, um I would ask the board to approve the 2-year 2025 to 27 CBA with the Great Falls Education Association as presented. >> Thank you, Mr. Deakons. >> Mr. Chair >> Kelsey Terraski. >> I move that we approve the 2-year

0782025 2027 CBA with the Great Falls Education Association as presented. >> Second. >> Been moved and seconded to approve the 2-year 202527 CBA with the Great Falls Education Association as presented. Any questions or commentary from our board of trustees? >> Mr. Chairman, >> Trusty Bronson, >> Mr. because uh like to just go back and revisit uh your presentation as it relates to the implementation of the stars act. As you'll recall during the legislative session when we were testifying on this, there were lots of questions and concerns expressed about how districts uh would implement this given the type of salary systems that most of us were used to working with. Can you just explain again how we're working STARS into this into the ultimate outcome with our salaries here? >> Yeah, so with STARS, it's really

079important that we keep the average teacher salary at a maintainable number is the best way to put it. So one of the big reasons behind that stipen is that allows us to keep that teacher salary a little bit lower um for helping us maintain it. Um, but in the in the way that the stars was laid out, you could go 62% 64% 66% 68% and 70%. However, if you do uh work it mathematically and you put all your money into that 62%, you have nothing to move forwards with. So, it was really important um that we do move this close to that 70% upfront um so we can maintain it over the time. Obviously, there's a lot still happening out there with the study that's going on. Um, another legislative session that's just around the

080corner, even though the one just ended. Um, so we'll find out a lot more about it um as we move forwards. >> Thank you. >> Any additional questions from our board of trustees for Mr. Deakons? Trust Konogski. >> Uh, this might be a question for Brian. Do we have an estimate of what we're expecting for revenue, additional revenue with the STARS Act? >> Yeah, the revenue from STARS was just over $3 million and for the district as a whole with all the components and 3% was about 4.2 or $4.4 million. And and I guess just a quick comment of thanks um obviously to both you and our union leadership. Obviously um the stars act will benefit our district, but I know it certainly complicated all of those discussions and how how to um you know

081obviously we want to pay our starting teachers better um but we need to recognize the value that um our experienced teachers bring to the district. So, I I know that it was particularly sticky this year and we just appreciate all of your patience and um understanding that we're all working towards the same goal of a better district for our students. >> Thank you. >> Any additional questions from our trustees? Any questions or commentary from our gallery here this evening? Hearing and seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of approving the 2-year 2025 2027 CBA for the Great Falls Education Association as presented, please signify by saying I. >> I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Thank you very much to our HR department and to the Great Falls Education Association

082and all parties associated with putting this together. Thank you very much, Mr. Deakons. All right. So, we will, just to let you know, um, also before I move on to the technology agreement, um, starting this week, we will start reprinting contracts for everybody, um, with updated information in there. Because of some of the language changes, we will have to print the entire contract, um, and then those will be mailed out to addresses um, so we can get those out as soon as possible and get turned back in. >> Thank you. Action item F, collective bargaining agreement between the Great Falls Technology Association, MFP, and the Great Falls Public Schools. And again, Mr. Deakons, you're up to bat. >> All right. >> Good night and thank you. >> So, with this one, uh, we are working

083with our technology group in the district. Um, we worked with Mr. Patrick Douglas, Lane Suddenly, Jonathan Woods, and then Brian Patrick helped me um with the negotiations as well um with this there uh reopened their agreement in April. Met with them three or four times down the road um as we work through it. Um with technology, you can't find hardly a more vital piece um in our organization. You have to keep up and running. When that technology goes down, it takes everything down. Um so we need to make sure that that's manageable and we do recognize that there uh CBA did expire in June 30th as well. Um when we work through there um if you go to the attachment there um a lot of that is purely language changes that were in there updating

084a few pieces um to go along with it. Just making sure that only they wanted to go back and make sure only the positions that we have in the in the organization were listed in there. So, we did a little bit of a cleanup on that. Um, we did work with the bereavement leave as well. There was a time back uh several years ago prior to myself being in HR. Um, we were negotiating differences in uh bereavement leave. Um, and one group ended up with five and others did not. We're trying to go back and balance those up because we feel that's an important piece across all all of our groups that we have similarities there. Um, those are not fun things to deal with. if we wanted to have an opportunity to be with

085family in those situations. Overall, um main thing is the cost here. Um we negotiated a $1.3 an hour um increase for them in the 2526 year. That works to right out a 4% increase about 4.03 something like that if I remember correctly. Um which would be an additional $23,566 for that group that's been allotted for salaries. in the 2627 is estimated to cost approximately the $22,800 and that would be a dollar increase which works really close to a 4% increase as well. Um, with that, I don't think there was anything else out of the ordinary that I felt like needed to be mentioned. Um, if you have questions about anything that you saw, uh, feel free to shoot them my way. With that, I will ask you as I skip past that um to approve

086the 2-year 2526 2627 collective bargaining agreement between the Great Falls Techn Techn technology association MP and Great Falls Public Schools as presented. >> Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. >> Mr. Chair, >> Teresi >> move that we ratify the 2-year 2025 2026 and 2026 2027 collective bargaining agreement. the Great Falls Technology Association, MFP, and Great Falls Public Schools as presented. >> Second. Then moved and seconded to ratify the 2-year 2526 and 2627 collective bargaining agreement between Great Falls Technology Association and Great Falls Public Schools as presented. Any questions or commentary from this board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from our gallery? 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. >> Thank

087you. >> We're going to move on to action item G, collective bargain bargaining agreement between local union 400 of the International Union of Operating Engineers. >> All right. With this again, their bargaining agreement did end on June 30th. Worked with a great group of individuals. We had Tim Wagaman from CMR, Chris Kudier C or sorry, Tim Wagman from Great Falls. High Chris Kudier from CMR, Bill Debolt from East, and Chad Early from Riverview, uh Brent Cutler, Jack Norris, and Brian Patrick did assist with the negotiations as well. Um, as we go through here, you're going to see there's minimal changes as well. Um, we did have anou for weed whacking that expired that did not get renewed. Um we looked at rewarding some pension language just formalities there that we needed to change um with

088information we' received from the group. Added in a boiler's license renewal for first engineers um so that once they renew their boiler's license the district will um renew their 35 up to $35 of cost involved there and the bereavement leave as well moving it from 3 to 5 days. We did negotiate a 4% increase in 2526 um which will take that salary to about 4,125,980 an increase of about $158,000 um in that year and then 3% in the 2627 school year. That approximate salary budget for this group will be about four 4 million2 4.2 million and an increase of 123,780. Um longevity you're going to see um I believe it's on the back with the salary schedule. There was a 5- cent uh addition to the longevity schedule as it goes down as well. So

089with that, I will ask the board to approve the two-year collective bargaining agreement with local union 400 or the international union of operating engineers AFL CIO and the Great Falls Public Schools for the 25 26 and 2026 27 school years. >> Thank you. Mr. Chair, >> Jesse Skonagowski, >> I move to approve the two-year collective bargaining agreement with local union 400 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, AFL CIO, and the Great Falls Public Schools for the 202526 and 2026 27 school years as presented. been moved and seconded to approve the agreement between local union 400 and the Great Falls Public Schools. Any questions or commentary from this board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from my gallery? Hearing and seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of the motion, please

090signify by saying I. I >> oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Deacons. That's going to move us forward us on to action item H, which is the 202526 GFPS TRSP pers administrators and supervisors compensation. >> So, the good news is this is the last one I have for you this week. >> You've been doing great. We do have several more that'll be coming down the road in future meetings. But with the administrators um and public retirement administrators compensation, we do this annually um for the 2526 generally um follows what happens within the um teachers negotiation as Heather had a chance to sit down with these different groups and have those conversations. Um basically uh the three sides of district level uh administrators, principals and supervisors. There will be a 4% increase in the

091base salaries which will result in approximate salary budget for this group of 5,379,310 for the 2526 school year. Um that's approximate increase of about $27,311 a net increase. These numbers when you're working with this group always fluctuate up and down because when you have somebody like Mr. Patrick that's retiring a lot of times you don't have somebody coming in with those same years of service and so forth. So you can see some pretty different numbers coming out of it. Um, with that, um, the other piece that goes with it, um, is a flat payment fee in addition to the 1% for their 403 contribution, um, which will cost the district an additional $23,500, but that will go straight to their 403b. That will now be something that comes out on their pay. Um, finally, um,

092additional discretionary days. This was a big point um that we had to look at um that were paid for through the esser dollars. We just do not have that funding anymore. So, we did have to take those away um which is quite a hit to those administrators. I have included each of the salary tables um for each of those groups. I'm happy to answer questions if you have them, but I would ask you to approve the Great Falls Public Schools administrator and supervisor salaries for the 2526 school year as presented. Thank you, Mr. Deakons. >> Mr. Chair, >> Terraski, >> I move that we approve the Great Falls Public Schools administrators and supervisor salaries for 2025 20226 as presented. >> Second. >> Then moved and seconded to approve the Great Falls Public Schools administrators and

093supervisor salaries for 2526 as presented. Any questions or commentary from our board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from our gallery? Hearing and seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. >> Opposed. Same sign. Motion carries. Well done, Mr. Deakons. That was one, two, three, four in a row. >> And we probably have six more to go, >> but we'll get there. >> But not tonight. >> That's right. Thanks. >> All right. Thank you. Action item I, electronic vote on the Montana School Board Association business. I was asked on uh well, I submitted on behalf of our school district responses to the uh Montana School Board Association and uh this is on page 250. Uh these questions regarded u bylaws, meeting through electronic

094means, etc. Uh I voted in favor of each of the questions of which I think there were about five. And uh so with that being done, I would uh recommend do we need to approve this or request to discuss each of the items in the attachment and take action. Let's take action on not on each item but on the whole list. Yeah, let's do that. Well, Mr. Chairman, then without objection, I move that we indicate our approval to all of the items included to the attachment on this particular agenda item. those being particular let's call it up here that we indicate our approval of the MTSBA principles and guidelines as presented that we support the foundational elements of the MTSBA organizational DA that we support the fiscal year 27 D's revenue estimate emphasizing that's not

095approval of dues it's just the estimate that we support the nomination of Rick Cummings region five director as the MTSBA president elect and that we support the nomination of Jennifer Hoffman Billings public schools as the MTSBA vice president. That's my motion. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded to approve the questions um submitted to us by the Montana School Board Association. All those in favor, please signify by saying, "Oh, any questions or commentary?" None from our board of trustees. Any from our gallery? Hearing and seeing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Action other. Nothing was pulled from the consent agenda. So, we're going to go on to Roman nine reports, discussion, and policies. First reading of revised board policies 2158, 3122, and

0963600. Mrs. Hoyer. >> Thank you, Chairman Johnson. I was going to go ahead and call Mr. Decon back up to the left turn and have him just continue since he spent so much time up there, but that's okay. I will go over these instead. So, um, we have three policies in front of you that are, um, just showing language changes as recommended by MTSBA and the policy committee. when we met um very brief in this first reading. So when you look at um you will notice it's on page 269 of your agenda but um very last page on that line I believe it's line 13 it says early literacy has been struck targeted interventions in accordance with title 20 um that has been removed to be more inclusive of numeracy and behavior. So that is

097the update to that one. It'll just read early targeted interventions in accordance with title 20 MCA. Um moving on then you will see as we move through the references in that same policy that we are striking um some of the title 20 chapter 3 this is on page 270 for you by the way line 37 and 38. Um and then also title 20 chapter 5 part three. Um, page 271, the last one of that chapter 693. This is line two, increase parental involvement in education. This brings everything up to date with um changes in the legislation that we saw coming forward. So that's for that first policy. The second policy is policy 3122. This is our attendance policy. it. We are recommending that on line 10 we take out the words tend to and just

098it'll read absences and tardiness disrupts the continuity of the instructional program. Um it it adds more emphasis to the fact that those two items um do in negatively interrupt the learning in the instructional program as we saw earlier in the superintendent report and it cleans up that policy. And then looking at policy 3600 that that is student records. And if you look on line 22, um you will see the pupil has just been um changed to student. That's just an update of more modern wording on that one. Um you'll also see the same thing on line 23 and on line 26. That makes it more consistent throughout the whole policy. And with that, that is the my report on those three policies for the first reading. We'll be back for a second reading. um next

099month. >> Thank you, Mrs. Hoyer, and thanks to those uh trustees who serve on that committee as well. Much appreciated. Uh item B, discussion, committee reports and comments. We're going to do free form. Who wants to go first? >> You're brave. Thank you. >> It's like with the school presentations, you get out of the way last and stressing. >> There you go. Uh, I just want to thank everybody who put in the work and our negotiations for our CBAs. I'm really glad that those were able >> to get approved and we got that taken care of. Um, and thank you to the foundation and board and all you guys do for our district and our students and our staff. It's a really awesome partnership with the community and you guys facilitate that really well and

100I appreciate that. Um, and then congratulations to the course on such a wonderful review. I'm excited to see um where that goes in the next year. >> Thank you. >> I'll go. Um so I'll just echo um Trusty Terovsky's comments. Um but then also add um right now obviously school's out but there's lots of volunteer opportunities if people want to get involved in um both stuff the bus and the back to school blast. Um there's I think we need around 300 plus volunteers um to make those two events happen. Um so you can find those volunteer opportunities on volunteerg greatfalls.org or um and you can sign up for an hour or for half a day. Um but between the two um we hope to to provide more than 1500 stuffed backpacks um to students in

101Cascade County. So um sign up to help out and if you can't be there for the whole thing, just come and and check it out and see um kind of our community in action. >> Thank you. Great project. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thanks, Luke and Tom and the bargaining committee. I know that was for sitting I mean all of you. It's that was an impressive contract to come out with that really is and thank you Stephanie for always painting a good picture of everything that the foundation does. Um, it's really hard for everybody to understand and even me being there, I still have a hard time understanding. There's just so many pieces and you do you do a great job >> and thank you for serving representing us on that foundation committee. Mr. Bronson.

102>> Last but not least, >> I was going to add that, but >> well, I'm also going to echo the comments that have been made previously. First to Stephanie and the foundation, obviously, you know, we very much appreciate what you and your board and all of the volunteers do. It's just a reminder that without that additional support from the private sector, we couldn't do a lot of the things that we do. And this has made such a huge difference with us. I know it makes a huge difference with the city, with the private foundations that support a lot of their activities. So, you know, again, please convey our sincere appreciation for all the work that's done there. And likewise to everyone involved in the collective bargaining negotiations. Uh having lived through times when it was

103not so easy to get to an agreement, I appreciate the fact that everybody really has put a great effort into coming up with agreements sooner than later that hopefully everyone uh can live with for the next two years. Uh the only other thing I was going to add I I read with interest today a section we as trustees receive a a list sir with excerpts from different news articles around the state related to education and I couldn't help but notice the first one today and I don't know if the administration has apparently the board of public education has been taking quite a bit of comment regarding the new uh mast assessments And from what I interpret from the article today, uh they happy about it and I'm hoping that in the near future as we

104start looking uh preparation for the next school year that we weigh on this as well. If mast is not proving to be a good assessment tool and I would expect to hear something regarding that hopefully what we're going to do going forward to find a better measure of assessment of our young people because again we're all feeling that pressure to show uh some level of improvement with our young people and if this tool is not working as the board seems to suggest then perhaps we have to look at something else but we have to do it sooner than later. So hopefully we'll be hearing something about that in the very future. Thank you. >> Thank you. Like many people in the room, I attended a performance of Fiddler on the Roof Friday night and uh

105it was magnificent. It was just incredible. Uh it came to mind as I'm watching the actors and the orchestra and the people who built the sets. Something like that could not have been possible without each one of these individuals having an interaction with the Great Falls Public School at some point. Whether it was when they were young kids, middle school, they all came from our system. Maybe 90% came from our system. All these Great Falls people. But I think so much of what we saw was a result of interaction, encouragement, training, learning that took place in our school. So we should be very proud of that. Also, I draw your attention to the board and take a look at our upcoming events and I'm sure you have those on your calendar. And with that, if

106there are no further business to come before this board, I would propose that we adjourn. We're adjourned. Thank you.