001and welcome to this June 23rd, 2025 meeting of the Great Falls Public Schools Board of Trustees. And I remind you that this meeting is being recorded for future posting on the Great Falls Public Schools website. Mr. Prick, would you please administer the roll call? >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Gordon Johnson, >> here. >> Cam Scorosski, >> here. >> Bill Bronson, >> here. Craig Duff >> here, >> Marley Sunshaw, >> Amy Thompson >> here, >> Paige Terroski >> here. >> You have a full board present, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you, Mr. Patrick and Trustee Bronson. Would you please the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the stands? >> Thank you. Mr. Chair, >> Trustee Terraski, >> I move that we adopt the agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Been
002moved and seconded to adopt the agenda as presented. Any questions or comments? Fellow trustees. Any comments or questions from our audience? Hearing seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of adopting the agenda, please signify by saying I. I >> oppose. same sign. Item five, approving the consent agenda. >> Mr. Chair, >> Trusty Skonagowski, >> I move we approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda. Any questions or commentary from our board of trustees at the table this afternoon from our audience? 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. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carried. >> Roman six, communication. Superintendent's report. Mrs. Hoyer. >> Well,
003thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board. Um, happy end of June. It's a beautiful day out there after a weekend of rain. So, um, wanted to share some things with you. The first thing I'm going to do before we begin advancing through the presentation is give you an update as to the staffing. So, as of today, our high schools were waiting to hear from an English applicant and a science applicant. They were hoping it was today. I'm not sure that if they have heard back yet. Um, that would bring us down to 21. East Middle School is interviewing for their English position and also uh the joined or the conjoined position between Graville and CMR for business. So if we filled all of those positions, we would be at 19. The majority of them,
004of course, are our special education where we would have the remaining three openings in resource one, nine openings in resource 2, three. We're still looking for two elementary classroom teachers, one elementary counselor, one HPE teacher, and then those other positions I mentioned, also a world language teacher, and um an art elementary teacher. So, we have positions we are working to fill, but we're we are clipping away at them, trying to get them all filled. Um, just an update as to the director of business operations. Brian has agreed to stay with us until August 30th. Um, as we've had some interest lately in this position, but they're kind of slow developing getting their applications in, getting the information. Some people want to come and visit before they put an application in. So, he has agreed to
005stay on until um August 30th and then it would be a monthto-month as needed after that. Um our goal of course is to have him stay one month and then advise as needed for the new hire. So, we're hopeful that we'll get that position filled, but a huge thank you to Brian to um agreeing to help us with that. So, moving on to some of the things that you will see happening across the district. So the first one is um a new image likeness um logo. This is our new peer mentoring name and logo. It's Lyft. So if you see students wearing the t-shirts um talking about Lyft, this is their um listen, inspire, foster, and trust. Of course, these students are led by Marla Hower and Andrea Savage. So, we look forward to the
006work that Lyft does next year in their classes and across our school district as they work to lift their peers up. So, congratulations. We're celebrating that new new marketing. This was huge. So, I actually saw this on Dr. Anderson's Facebook page. Becky Nelson has is on a muchneeded vacation, so I didn't see it come through hers, but we want to celebrate Camry Bro. She is a junior at CMR. She is the first CMR HOSA member who meddled on the global stage when they did their international um career development conference just a week ago. Um and she took first in sports medicine. So congratulations to Christy Vertz, congratulations to Camry. And when the school year starts, we'll have them come in and and receelebrate them. But it is an amazing accomplishment. So, shout outs to to
007her and to her adviser and the whole CMR HOSA team. Speaking of social media, um if you haven't had a chance, these are just three examples, but one of the things Becky is doing from afar is she is giving shoutouts to our new staff members. Some of them are returning staff members who have been gone for a year or two and are coming back to us. And these are just three that I grabbed. Um, as a reminder, these are our most popular posts. When we start talking about students and teachers is when we get the big spikes in our data for social media. So, we have um Samantha Donaghhue. She is a high school English teacher, Great Falls High. We have Jack Cassart, who is a high school math teacher. And then we have Cara
008Robinson who's a resource 2 teacher. And since I made this, there have been three or four new ones that Becky has been doing. So, um, if you're on social media, it's a great place to go. you can see all of the greetings from our staff districtwide, but also from community members welcoming them to our community. So, it's a great way to to welcome them in. Summer learning is rolling and versus giving you lots of numbers, I decided to give you lots of pictures. So, for our jump start, we have 163 rising kinder through third graders who are invited and enrolled in summer jump start. Um, an additional 20 were invited but declined the invitation. And so it's really really busy. You can see a picture in the lower left hand corner. I was able to
009make it out to visit all of these classrooms last week and lots of fun things that were going on. I think that's Mrs. Boyd actually in the lower lefthand corner with her kiddos. Um in extended school year, this is determined by a student's individual education plan. There are 98 of them. Dugan has 14 students at culture camp. We do have uh June driver's ed. We have about 20 kids in our driver's ed for this month that um that are learning to to get behind the wheel safely in Great Falls. So, thank you very much to Mr. Sanger for doing that. And then the high school as of last week had um 124. They have already earned 178 half credits. So, the kids are cranking through their credits um over at Paris. And so, a wide
010variety of learning that's happening in Great Falls. And we're really excited for the things that the students are doing. Our book giveaway was a hit. Um, residents of all ages. And I liked this picture that Jackie Minewearing took because you can see everything from um, senior citizens to a little tiny tiny squirt right there by the X um, who was holding a book for his mom. Um, but people of all ages came to Paris on June 18th and 19th from 10 until 6. Dennis put I don't know how many steps on his pedometer over those two days as he worked this whole um book giveaway, but it was a huge hit and we sure thank the members of our community who came out and took home some really cool books to have. So summer work
011is happening. This is Lewis and Clark Elementary School. They are working on an inclusive regional playground. Um but it summer really is the starting point for major maintenance and improvement projects. I'm going to be highlighting those for you throughout the summer. Um, but I wanted to start with this one because of the inclusivity of this playground. Um, we'll also be taking a look at some of the work that's being done in our schools as a result of feedback from armed intruder training. But things to know about this playground is it was a community block grant the principal Ben Jake and his team wrote um to receive or secure the funding in addition to some work that their PTA did. So, and it's being facilitated through the city of Great Falls. It's considered a regional playground
012and an inclusive playground because of the work they're doing with MSDB. So, the things you will see in this playground will be specific to students who have vision and hearing impairments. Um, and it will just um it'll be an important addition to this whole neighborhood. It approximately $228,000 when done and we're really really excited um that they broke ground and they're rolling on that. So data for the day, you have in front of you that graph um because I wanted to go back to the year prior um to or two years prior to COVID when we're taking a look what what was happening. I apologize for how small it is. Um but if we go on to the next slide, Sherry, we can actually see some of the numbers and so this is a little
013bit easier to to um digest. A reminder of our goal at the top. So, Great Falls Public Schools will implement evidence-based strategies and opportunities to increase appropriate behavior among our students. It'll be measured by a 5% decrease in major incidents by increasing opportunities to demonstrate skills, traits, and characteristics. Those are the ones we identified in profile of a learner. And we're also um using programs such as RCD, responsibility center, discipline, and character strong as well as putting some systems in place. So when you look at this year, our goal for this time next year is a 5% reduction. We knew that this really was a baseline year. We had a lot of calibration to do um K12, but we saw an overall reduction of 13.36%. So hopefully we'll continue that trend as far as um
014our reductions go. But there's a very special shout out that I want to give to Longfellow Elementary. um down at the bottom they reduced they did um some systemic changes across the building um but they really embraced RCD and character strong they reduced their overall total behavioral incidents by 72% across the whole school um so I was texting principal um Shannon Gilfoil last week and just complimenting her on it and of course as Shannon always does oh it's not me it's my building oh it's not me it's my teachers and it's combination of everything they just did amazing work. The students bought in, the teachers bought in, the administration bought in, and I'm I'm really looking forward to the work they continue to do. But, um, we're excited in every area we decreased. Um, attendance
015was the one that we saw the biggest decrease in. So, we're looking forward to hopefully continuing these positive trends across all of our major areas um of behavior across the district. And with that, that is my data for the day and my superintendence report for this last meeting of June. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Hoyer. Any questions for Mrs. Hoyer? >> Again, thank you very much for your report. Communication, audience, communication. I've had no requests to speak before this board of trustees this evening. That brings us to seven action items. Action item A, financial report and check register for May 2025. Mr. Patrick. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members of the board, what you have before you is the May financial report, and this is the time of year when it gets real in
016matching up expenses and expenditures. May is the date is the month the taxes are paid. So, we get a couple reports from the county and and making sure all the money comes in that should come in. Um, balancing out with the expenses. So, uh, Pam and I are having a lot of fun right now as we work through that. And, um, next month you'll get a report for June and that'll close out the year. So, hard to believe we've got gone through another year already. So, um, with that, Mr. Chair, my recommendation is to approve the May balances as presented. Um, they're where they should be. >> Thank you, Mr. Patrick. >> Mr. Chair, >> Trusty Terranski, >> I move that we approve and accept the monthly financial report and approve the register of payments
017for May 2025 as presented. Second. >> Been moved and seconded to accept the monthly financial report and approve the register for payments for May 2025. Any questions or comments from our board of trustees? Any questions or comments from our gallery hearing? Seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I >> opposed. Same sign. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Action item B, acceptance of donorf funded building enhancements projects to the Great Falls Public Schools Foundation. Mr. Patrick. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's my pleasure at this time to introduce Jamie Marshall, who will speak about these great donations um from the Great Falls Public Schools Foundation. >> Welcome, Jamie. fantastic, inspiring report. Thank you so much, >> Mr. Chair. >> Mr. Teraski, >> I
018move that we accept the funding of these improvements to district properties with thanks to donors as presented. been moved and seconded to accept the funding of these improvements to district properties with thanks to the donors. Any questions or commentary from our board of trustees? Any from our audience? >> Hearing 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 with enormous enormous thanks >> action other I've had uh we've had nothing pulled from the consent agenda that enables us to move on to reports discussion and policies and we're going to do a back and forth here left and right. Uh Trusty Trasky, why don't you kick us off? >> Okay. Uh first just happy summer to everybody. I know you
019guys are finishing up a lot of work at the district level, but you're almost there to your relaxing time. Um, and I just want to say that I'm a I'm a big fan of the peer mentor group, especially working in student behavioral and mental health. Um, I think it's great and I can see the uh the benefit of that and how a lot of a lot of our kids could benefit from that. So maybe that something that could be expanded on in different schools and and started up. Um, and it's it's just nice to see such a short list of upcoming events after all the graduations and ceremonies. >> It's nice that it's just some meetings. Um, and then thank you for the staffing update. I appreciate hearing that. >> Thank you, Trusty Sunshild. >>
020Two of my favorite elementary schools talked about. So, shout out to Long Fellow. That is fantastic. I'm sure those teachers really grateful and worked really hard to get to that point of making that better there. So, I care that and Louis and Clark and their playground and that's where my kids went to school. So, Louis and Clark is one of my favorites and it's in my neighborhood and I know those teachers quite well there and they're very happy to have that started. That's great. >> Fantastic. Thank you, Trusty Demp. >> All right. Apologies for missing the last meeting. still getting my legs under me here and um looking forward to the summer and getting on board and learning the ropes and I appreciate everybody's support forward to >> and thank you for the souvenir. >>
021You bet. >> Much appreciate it, >> Mr. Bronson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think I'll just note for the record, Mr. Patrick, thank you so much for serving during your >> long awaited retirement and spending a little bit more time with us. It is truly appreciated. >> Thank you, Thompson. >> Bill, you stole what I was going to say, but thank you very much, Brian. Appreciate you staying on and and hopefully you won't have to stay much past August 30th. Um, and I love the new logo for Lyft. That is amazing. It's really, very cool. >> Kim said she designed that. >> It's lovely. >> And to you, Miss Grant. >> Yeah. Just uh thank you to Brian for the gift of time. >> Yes. Um, thank you to Heather for um, continuing to
022report um, this wonderful data. Um, this is definitely something we'll take back to my team um, at United Way. These are things that we track as well. And a huge thank you to Jamie and the foundation um for continuing to gift our schools um with those with that private support that that really makes um improvements to our education students across our district that will benefit thanks to to your work and um to those kind donors. And I'll close by saying I'd like to express thanks and appreciation to my fellow trustees for the work that you do. So valuable. And thanks to our community and administration for the work you do. Again, so valuable. We're so proud of what we've been able to accomplish. And with that, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. >> So
023moved. >> We are adjourned, ladies and gentlemen.