001Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this May 12th, 2025 Great Falls Public Schools Board of Trustees meeting. And I would like to uh remind everyone in the room that these meetings are being recorded and will be put up on our website at some point in the future. And with that, uh, Mr. Patrick, would you please administer the roll call? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Gordon Johnson, here. Kim Scornoski here. Bill Bronson here. Mark Finham, excused. Marley Sunsh. Amy Thompson here. Paige Terroski here. You have a corn present, Mr. Thank you, Mr. Patrick. Ladies and gentlemen, please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the standy and justice for all. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Trust Konagoski. I move we approve the consent the agenda as presented. Second.
002been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda. Are there any questions or comments from this board of trustees? Any questions or comments from those with us this evening? Hearing and seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of adopting the agenda as presented, please signify by saying I. I. Oppose. Same sign. We have an agenda from which to work. Thank you, 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 this board of trustees? Any questions, commentary from our gallery with us 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. Oppose. Same sign. Going down to Roman
003six, communication. A report of the student representatives. Mrs. Minewearing. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, superintendent Hoyer, members of the community. It's my pleasure to announce or to uh introduce our student representatives for their last meeting this school year. Uh we'll start with Paris and then we'll go with CMR and then Great Falls High. [Applause] Thank you very much. CMR. [Applause] Thank [Applause] you. And thank you again, student representatives, for being with us this year. Um, several of you are going to be going on and we would ask that you continue to be emissaries and representatives of what it's done here with the Great Falls Public Schools. Your voices are more compelling than any of ours could possibly be. Your stories that you tell us, you should share with everybody you can in
004the community. They're wonderful stories are inspiring stories and you're remarkable human beings. And as I said earlier during our little uh gathering before, we're looking forward to you to you taking our places at some place in the future. So best to you as you go on and we're going to miss you, but we wish you all the best in your future endeavors. So thank you. Thank you very much. One more time. That brings us to Roman 6, Communication B, Career and Technological Student Operations. Mr. Boyd, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, and members of the public, it's my honor to invite Mr. Joerger up to the lect turn as he takes a little bit of time uh to honor all of our CTSO students uh around the district and the great work that
005they're doing. But before we let him escape at the very end, we also get to say thank you to Mr. Joerger because here in a very short time, three and a half weeks, he'll be exiting as he retires into a career of golfing moving forward. So, Mr. Joerger, floor is yours. Welcome, Mr. Jagger. Chairman Gordon, members of the board, Mrs. Hoyer, and members of the community. This night is a fun night. This is the night that I enjoy every year. This is where our students that we worked with all year long on career and technical education tell us about their student organizations and where they've been and what they've done. And it's really um a lot of fun for me just to sit back and watch and see how much they've grown. Go ahead and
006hit the next. Career technical organizations, student organizations are um a part of CT that um is found in the high schools, colleges, career and technology centers. It exposes the students to careers um career awareness, career exploration and career preparedness. Students learn not only industry specific skills but also professional skills such as communication, teamwork, problem solving which are valued by nearly all employers. I'm going to continue. You'll see some of the uh areas the CTSOs up on the right. We have a few of them that haven't weren't able to make it. a lot of things going on in the district tonight. Um, so we'll go through and I just put them in alphabetical order to make it easiest. Um, the first group that I'm going to have come in here is the BPA, Business Professionals of
007America. They're the leading CSS, CTSO for students pursuing careers in business management, office administration, information technology, and other related career fields. Thank you, Miss Jagger. Hello. For all those who don't know me, I'm Mr. Reed Pimog, the business professionals of America and DECA president at great at Great Falls High School. For all those who do know me, don't worry. This is my last year doing this. We had five student myself. So my role must caring about level Next speaker. [Applause] [Music] Thank you. Bless. Amen. Also, has helped me realize what uh goes on in the real world in business. So, thank you. Next up is my vice president uh Eli Chris. Hello me board members. My name's Eli Christ. Um I'm a junior at CMR. I'm the vice president. Um my my job was to
008mention nationals and how we did down there. Um down in Orlando, we had a blast. We were able to go to all the parks and to the beach and it was amazing. But more uh more more importantly, what we were able to accomplish at the competition. Um of the 25 members we had, we were able to bring 15 down to Orlando, which is a crazy amount. Um I remember going um my freshman year and my sophomore year, and the group has never been this big. So, it's really um amazing to see the membership continue to grow inside CMRVPA. Um we also had one uh of our members, his name was John, um get the ambassador award. For this, you had to demonstrate professionalism, personal development, and career development. Um it is a free ticket I'd
009say to nationals which is a kind of just shows how big of a deal it is to get your ambassador. You have to do these torch wars um which go through those three categories that I mentioned and the fact that he was able to get that was really um impressive and important for him. We also had one of our members take eighth in entrepreneurship. This was the first time in our history that we've gotten somebody in this event. um most of the time uh some really really smart kids from around the nation take that and we haven't had the opportunity to do that but Luke Stevenson was able to make it on stage and we were we were very very proud of him for that. Um the other thing is that we got the marketing
010and communications award for the second year in a row. Um this is for our social media presence which you can see if you follow us on Instagram. We have a blast. We post all our pictures. It's just really really fun time. Um and then the last thing is I really wanted to say a thank you to the community membership. um as pre uh preparing for state and for nationals, a lot of the kids go out and reach out to community members to say, "Hey, can we present for you? Can we show you our papers? Um can you give us some advice on how we can try and make it to nationals?" Um so the ones that we were able to work with this year were um the GFDA, Great Falls Development Authority, and then the
011Great Falls College along with JCCS and then Big Horn Outdoor Specialists. They were able to really help us um get to that national trip and have such an amazing trip. So, we thank you guys again for all the support and help you give us and we can't wait to return next year. One thing I forgot to mention, the advisors for BPA are with the students back here, Jessica Goen and Stacy Dolder. All right. [Applause] [Music] Good job. Thank you. Appreciate it. No problem. We'll blow through this. Thank you. The next CCSO is uh the DECA club. The DECA or DECA organization. Um most of the students that you just saw actually compete in both BPA and DECA. So um their adviserss are busy at a couple different events at the schools tonight, so they couldn't
012make it. Connor Schulty's over at CMR and K Stickies over at Great Falls High. They were both brand new uh advisors this year. Our numbers were down a little bit. kids were kind of not sure what was happening with DECA. You'll see a spike in the numbers going next year for sure. Uh Connor took six kids to nationals this year and they did really well. So that'll that'll also come along good. Um another group that didn't isn't here tonight um is our FCCLA CTSO, which is our um family consumer science uh CTSO. They're active in the state, but not so much in the national, but they're they're really active communitywise in and in and all the uh catering that they do and and through the uh the kitchens that they do. In fact, uh Danny
013Stark, who's over at CMR, is hosting this senior celebration there. Um she's catering that tonight, too. So, um and then Lori couldn't make it tonight, but and they have, you know, a few members in their active state. We're trying to bump them a little bit more this year. try and see what we can do with them. The next group is the HOSA group. HOSA is an international student organization recognized by the US Department of Education and Health Science Education Division of ACTE. HOSA's twofold mission is to promote career opportunities in the healthcare industry and to enhance and deliver quality health care to all people. I'll let you start. Hello everyone. My name is Talia Mario and I'm a senior at Great Falls High. I've been a member of HOSA, future healthcare professional, since my freshman
014year and I present the last two. Being part of HOSA has exposed me to all areas of the medical field. HOSA is involved within the community and school, which provides me and many others with amazing opportunities. This year, HOS has held a blood drive, hosted a spooky movie night during Halloween, delivered thank you baskets to our secretaries at Great Falls High, listened to a guest healthcare workers speak about their profession, and more. This club allows students to develop effective leadership qualities and skills. It also helps students build self-confidence while meeting new friends who share a common interest of going into the healthcare field. Not only do we get to learn, but we get to create memories through weekly meetings, state competition, and nationals. This year we had 26 members, six of whom met the requirements
015to letter. After competing at state, we brought home two bronze medals, three silver, and two gold. Our grateful side chapter is so thankful for the positive impact HOSA is making in all of our lives and for your guys' support as well. Thank you. Hello, I'm Ansley Kubis. I am the state vice president of external relations for HOSA and I will be incoming leadership for Great Falls High's HOSA chapter next year. We just wanted to say that as a chapter we are very excited to continue to provide opportunities to Great Falls High students to help them get a leg up in the healthcare industry and for their college applications. And we are thrilled to help interact with our community and provide as much help as we can to various healthcare organizations within Great Falls. Thank you.
016Good evening members of the board, superintendent Hoyer and guests. My name is Tennyson Brewer and I am a sophomore at CMR High School and this is my first year in HOSA. At CMR, our HOSA chapter focuses on three main components: career exploration, community service, and competition. This year, 35 students officially affiliated as members for the 2024 to 2025 school year, showing a continued dedication to the healthcare field. Career exploration has been a major focus. We've had opportunity to welcome several guest speakers who shared real world insight into a variety of healthcare careers. Amber Kelly, a cardiac ultrasound technician from Seattle Children's Hospital, spoke about her career and demonstrated cardiac imaging to us. Todd Carmichael, a funeral director at Okconor's funeral home, helped students understand the importance of compassion and prof well professionalism in mortuary science.
017Kathleen Schnitzer, a nurse from Peace Hospice, shared her experience in end of life care and the emotional side of nursing. Sam Sweeney, a labor and delivery nurse, discussed the world of maternal care. and Deb Hustas from Showdown Ski Patrol educated students on how they can get involved in the local ski patrol team. These visits not only helped our students explore diverse healthc care pathways, but also allowed us to ask questions, make connections, and start thinking about our future careers. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Bridget Kelly. I'm a sophomore at CMR and this is my second year in CMR HOSA. Like Tenis and Sid, one of our chapters focus is on C community service. CMR HOSA students have contributed their time and energy in a wide range of projects within the goal
018of supporting others in our school and local community. Our students helped us set up water stations, cheering at the best K5K, volunteered at Sydney count county health department for the flu shot clinics. We also supported Special Olympics Montana by assembling newsletters, sorting t-shirts at the state games, and cheering athletes on at the regional games at Memorial Stadium. We also created thank you signs and wrote positive messages on sidewalk chalk outside of benefits. One of our favorite projects is the act as patients for the showdown ski patrols annual refresher. And we organized a Red Cross blood drive in November. During the holiday season, several students wrapped gifts to raise money for the student for the children's receiving home. This year, we focused on the geriatric community by creating and delivering Christmas decorations to residents at Grand
019View and made Mayday baskets for those seniors at the lodge. One especially meaningful moment was hosting a thank you ceremony for the Slutton Cancer Institute in honor of our healthcare providers and their ongoing work and compassion for the cancer patients. These experiences have helped us grow as leaders and to teach the importance of being kind [Applause] humans. Members of the school board, my name is Riley Vertz and I'm a sophomore at CMR High School and this is my second year in HOSA. Another exciting part of HOSA is competing. This year, 26 CMR students attended the state leadership conference in Billings on April 1st and 2nd. We are proud of our results with 18 students earning medals including 16 gold, 11 silver, and six bronze. Seamar Hosa will take first place finishers to the national competition
020and we are excited to have eight students competing at the international hosta conference in Nashville this June where we will join top future health professionals from across the world. In addition to competition, our students have put their hearts into a special service project over the last two years, the loss enzyme project. This project raises awareness and funds for research into beta manicidosis, a rare genetic disorder that affects one of our future wrestlers. Because this cause hit so close to home, our students are deeply committed. Last year, we raised nearly $12,000. And this year, we've already raised over $5,000 with one more big event to go. We'd love your support and help spreading the word about our upcoming fundraiser, a drive-in movie night. This Thursday at 700 p.m. in the CMR main parking lot. will be
021showing a family favorite, The Sand Lot, with a free will donation for entry. Popcorn and sacks will be available for purchase and all proceeds go to the Lost Enzyme project. We hope to see you there as we enjoy a great movie while supporting a great cause. Thank you for allowing us to share a little about our chapter this evening. Thank you for having us. as you met with the group their adviserss are Christy Berts and Amber Lloyd so they came through too. Uh the next next CTSO again um busy tonight um with leap up night over at uh Great Falls High. Uh the the J JOTC the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps um program prepares high school students for leadership roles while making them aware of their rights, responsibilities, and privileges as American citizens. I
022was at the JOTC uh awards banquet this last Saturday and with their 92 members. Um that was probably one of the longest awards ceremonies I've been to. They um promoted a lot of the kids and and actually a couple of the kids swore into the army um that day also with them. So it was a really a nice uh award ceremony. Okay, the next one then our next one, our last uh CTSO is the Skills USA. Skills USA is a partnership of students, teachers, and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. We help each student excel. A nonprofit national education association. Skills USA serves middle school, high school, and college post-secary students preparing the careers in technical and skilled service including the health occupations. Good evening members of the board. My name
023is Anna Dhy and I'm here with Lachland Kenyan Mabel Harley and my adviser Mr. Vainly Shout. I'm honored to stand before you as a representative of Skills USA which is a studentrun organization which empowers its members to develop personal workplace and technical skills. I'm excited to announce that this year at the state competition, 13 of our members placed third in and received medals. Me and Miss Miss Bro in our events, photography and interview skills. With this accomplishment, we have the opportunity to go down to Atlanta, Georgia this June to compete on the national stage. We are honored for this opportunity to represent our school, Great Falls High, on this prestigious stage. We know that this trip wouldn't be possible without the district's generous support. On behalf of Harley, myself, and my entire Skills USA chapter,
024I want to express our heartfelt gratitude for your investment in our education and success. Your funding of our trips to nationals is more than just a financial contribution. It's a vote of confidence in our abilities and the future of our careers. We are truly grateful for your support and the opportunities that it creates for students like us to help nurture others in our community. Thank you again for believing in us and for continuing to support student driven initiatives that provide real world skills and experiences. We are excited to bring back what we learned from this trip to hopefully foster a new identity in this chapter. Board members, thank you for your time and all that you do in making our education meaningful. Thank you. I'd like to introduce our state officer, Kenyan. Good evening everybody.
025My name is Lachlan Kenyan. I am a Skills USA state officer. I compete in opening closing ceremony, welding and welding fabrication. This year, Great Falls High for welding fabrication placed second overall in the state. Um, skills is amazing for the kids that love to be in shop classes. It gives us an opportunity to compete in what we are passionate. I love to weld. Skills has really opened my eyes to what I want to do for a career in the field of welding. and it's something that needs to be embraced and I really appreciate the fact that Great Falls does support the trades especially at our high school with Great Falls High with our adviser um Mr. Van Shout. I really appreciate it. It's great. Skills is I'd put it the best organization that you've never
026heard of because if you ask most people they've never heard of Skills and it's amazing what they do for schools. you can do almost anything in skills whether it's welding or search and rescue even. So, thank you for your support and everyone have a good [Applause] night. Most of you know me. I'm the old guy that runs this crew. So, I'm very proud of my kids. Like I said, we had 13 out of 14 students all got medals at state this year. Appreciate it. We will hopefully see you with more after nationals. Thank you. The advisors for skills like you've met Ken there. Um Pete Pace also does advising for CMR. Um, and this year was the first year and they'll be doing it for the next five years in Great Falls. So, skills will
027be around. You'll see a little bit more of it as in the coming years. Most of all, I want to thank you guys for all your support. Um, being a part of CTE and and the CTSOs, it's it's amazing when you see these kids come through. Talio, I remember her as a freshman going to HOSA National and getting her set and just watching her grow and everything as well as all the others. Um, I want to thank the executive directors, Lance and Jackie, um, Superintendent Hoyer, of course, and the rest of the cabinet. You guys, um, your support over these years for for CTE, it's amazing. Uh when I came here 30 years ago to Great Falls, CTE programs were being cut nationwide. You guys support us. You support CTE. You see it. Um as
028far as our the the district's vision and the mission. Um key words that come out to me is uh learning today for life tomorrow and navigating their futures. CTSOs are just exactly that. they are navigating and they are getting the kids ready today for tomorrow. Um and understanding the ideas of career and technical is uh crucial to accomplishing those goals. Uh you guys have the mindset to make that move forward and pursue our pursuit continually. I'm humbled and grateful to be a part of this endeavor and it's been my pleasure for the last seven years I think it is. So thank you. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Best wishes. sort of bittersweet, sort of a sort of a farewell in a sense. He's got a few more weeks left, but yes. Yeah, we'll see him
029around. It's okay. We know where he tees off. We'll find him on somewhere. Oh man. Um I uh Chairman Johnson, I'm going to just take a deep breath real quick. I know we have students who need to go to leap night, honors night, all sorts of things. So, if you haven't left yet and you need to go, I am by far not offended. Please be sure you hop up and go because you're kind of setting the stage for the next round of high school students in our city. So, please take off if you need to take off. I'm It's not going to bother me. And thank you again for your presentations. We really enjoyed them and I wish you all the best. And that brings us to communications item C, superintendent's report. Mrs. Hoyer. Well,
030thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, members of our community. Um, it is my pleasure this evening to share with you some hard work that we want to recognize. And so, we have in our audience the 2025 Montana Special Education Teacher of the Year. She was recognized by the Montana Council of Administrators of Special Education. So, MC case. And I wanted to just have Randy be recognized, have her shake the hands of the board. If she wants to say anything, she can. If not, she can just shake hands. But we appreciate all she does for all of her students over at North Middle School and the leadership that she provides in our district. Randy, thank you very, very much for what you do. [Applause] Good evening. I don't have anything planned to say, but
031I just I'm super grateful for this opportunity. I work with some amazing people. I've had phenomenal mentors um in the room. I've had mentors retire and I feel very blessed to be working for Great Falls Public Schools. We have an amazing board. We have amazing teachers here. So, thank you very much. We're grateful to have you. Thank you. We have another person who we need to congratulate. And ironically, she's not here because she doesn't like this type of thing. Um but Miss Becky Nelson has been asked to serve um on the Montana Commission of Community Service Board members are appointed by the governor. So when she received her pre-app appointment um conver and she needs to go have a conversation down in Helena. She wanted to come to me to be sure that she could
032do this. Her terms and commitments, it's a three-year term, two to four hours a month um with more engagement opportunities arising as needed. Um, she has quarterly meetings. She serves on the serve Montana Symposium program engagement activities. She does the Martin Luther King National Day of Service. And she may have outofstate um opportunities arise. And she answers directly to the OCS director, commissioner, chair, governor, and lieutenant governor. But I think we all are very comfortable saying that when it comes to community service and being an ambassador for community service, not just for Great Falls, but the state of Montana, the governor could not have picked a better person. She's amazing. So when you see Becky tell her congratulations, um she's very excited about it. It's cool. The next slide has a lot of words on
033it, which I like to usually avoid. Um but this is just so much information for this. So I'm going to start on the left hand side with a huge huge thank you to our executive directors and the principles who came forward thinking differently about how students learn. So when I visited with the executive directors in the last year we have lost 206 students across our district to homeschooling. In the last two years we've lost 416 to homeschooling. As students transfer out, in many cases, we're able to have conversations with their families. And parent conversations revealed to us that parents are looking for a fiscally responsible way to keep their children home for homeschool opportunities, but they still want to keep them on pace with their age-like peers and state of Montana requirements. So I you
034could almost hear the wheels turning in the heads of the executive directors and the principles because they realized that Great Falls Public Schools can help with this. And we've seen this modeled across the state. Um some of the best um data that we have coming out is actually coming out of the Bitterroot area right now where we have schools that are retaining a large number of homeschool students within their roles by providing these opportunities to um their families. So the goals of our program and the platform that we're looking at using to help support core instruction is egeneuity, but our goal is to accommodate up to a 100 students. These are students in grades um 7 through 12. Um we already have a process kind of similar to this in some of our high schools.
035We also have done credit recovery and distance learning. So we figured the easiest place to roll it out and start this with 712. We are going to use egeneuity to deliver support to core content as it aligns with our content standards. So um Montana standards, great fall standards, English, math, science, social studies, and health. We have five teachers um who have been identified at each of our 712 schools. The teachers will be available to help students and parents with office hours every day. This is part of their teaching assignment that they will have a period a day to work on this. When and if applicable, students can hybridize their schedules to attend electives not offered on Ingenuity on our campuses. And we already see this with our homeschool students who come to us for things
036like art and music and jottzy and welding. Um classes that you just you literally need to get your hands on the content areas to learn them. We're going to start with our secondary schools 202526 look eventually to expand it into the elementary when we know we have a very good model running smoothly and when it's appropriate. Um if you have questions please reach out to executive director Lance Boyd or Jackie Manewearing and I'm looking forward at welcoming home some of these homeschool students back into our district um by providing those families with uh free resources to help them move through their education at home. It's a month of celebrations and we usually think of the celebrations just as um graduations but starting on May 1st it was principal appreciation day. So you can see up
037there our our principles all have their heads together with executive director Lance Boyd. Um they were doing some work at a leadership meeting that we had. Um we have elementary middle school um principles up there on May 2nd. Then we turned around and we had school lunch hero day. That picture was provided for us by Karen Thornton. It's the West Lunchroom staff. Um what first caught Karen's eye was how beautiful the display was because she knew that elementary students would really like that display of of food. But what I can tell you is this happens every day in all of our our schools across the district. And our school lunch heroes are amazing. Um providing students with so much more than just a meal. So, thank you to our school on Cherros. We then moved
038on to teacher appreciation week and you will see down there I have the secondary art teachers. They were at Paris Gibson Museum of Arts and with all that artwork they had done to help um install that show. If you haven't been down there to see it yet, please do. It's amazing. Um so, we celebrated them May 5th through 9th and because I don't have a picture of our nurses, I had Erica Harp. So, there's Erica Harp. We celebrated our school nurses on May 7th and so it was a very very busy first week of May but these are individuals who we just can't do the job of taking care of kids and families without. So thank you to the teachers, the nurses, um the principles and the food service folks for helping us do what
039we do. One of my favorite things we do every year we have our high school house ribbon cutting coming up. It's the 47th high school house. It is right next to the house from last year. Um, if you didn't make it to the ground um when we broke ground on it, please be sure that you um try to come over and take a look at the finished product. We will be celebrating the ri with the ribbon cutting and we'll also showcase the winning interior design um for this year. So, they were painting. The last time that I was in there, I was um impressed with how sturdy some of the door frames were. And I say that tongue and cheek because I think we had about 200 nails in one of our door frames. I'm
040not sure. I think the young man knew his friend had to fill and paint and so he was making sure that door wasn't ever going to go anywhere. It was awesome. Um, but for firsttime homeowners, it that's an important step and it's an important opportunity. It's so much fun to watch the kids know that they created more than just a building. They created a home. I'm going to wrap up today with our data for the day on student achievement and student achievement as you can see when we look at our one pager um we are everything green and yellow which means we've achieved it or we're in the process of moving toward it and we'll have it done by the end of the year. Our goal really was focusing on a minimum of 80% of
041our students making at least one year's growth because we realized that for students, they're not going to get proficiency if they're not growing every single year. And so we focused in on growth for everybody across the spectrum of learning abilities um in the areas of math and literacy as measured by assessments and data collection. Last meeting we took a look at the ACT scores and those were the ACT scores that um Miss Frisbee shared with you that are they're um creeping up and we're excited about that. We have a lot of students who take them and most people think it's not a big deal if you have a.3 increase in a composite score. That's huge statistically for the number of kids who we have tests. That's really a big big bump. I retook um feedback
042then from our principles and our school leadership teams and in elementary what they shared was is that um their math task force created and presented math cafes to each grade level during PLC time. They took a very deep dive into upcoming math units, suggested best instructional practices and included the use of manipulatives. Other things our elementary are doing is professional development on the use of assessment. You'll hear a lot about deep data dives at each grade level. So, not just what is the score, but why why are why are kids scoring where they're scoring? And that's helping them drill down into the next steps, which is now how can we adjust our instruction to best meet their needs. Um they did a math book study. They structured um common intervention times. They focused on math
043mindset during PLC's and they used our Great Falls Public Schools instructional coaches to help them. They also did stuff with ELA. So, they did the ELA task force. Um, and then their staff continually implemented common content standards by looking at the power standards. So, identifying those standards that really pop out that everybody needs to know um before they move on and what will support the streamline of instruction to provide time and the teachers always use just sit in the content. Sometimes you have to just sit in the content, be a little bit uncomfortable with it before growth can happen. And that's the same for teachers as it is for students. Elementary is also screening enrollment process um with parents permission for jump start. And we're looking forward to year two of that. In our middle
044school, they both highlighted very strongly the use of MTSS, which is multi-tered systems of support and that process to understand assessment data and how it impacts instruction. And then the they did full school as well as content area ELA task force meetings. Our high school started this year with stats and snacks. So their departmental data dives on the movement from observe export and explain to solutions. So we're going to just quit observing and and kind of saying, "Hey, that's a cool problem we have." And never getting to a solution. They're moving to the solution stages and working on their instruction. Um, and then stats and snacks was another cool thing and a huge thank you to our our curriculum directors for getting that off the ground and helping our departments learn to use their data.
045And then fine arts for Mr. Molino meetings are focused on reviewing curriculum areas. They do create, perform, and then present, respond um in their cohorts. They have great discussions on what is working and what the struggles are and so they can work together and mentor each other. The last part of the data of the day that I wanted to share with you is one that we never usually hear about right up front. And so huge shout out to Becky Frisbee for advanced placement and the counselors at the high school. So 14 proctors giving 25 different exams on different days. It takes four weeks for 320 students at six different locations. and there are very strict guidelines that they have to follow, but providing these opportunities to students to show off what they learned and possibly
046get some things waved if their credit if their college accepts it um in the future. This was an example of one young lady who was getting ready to take her test, so her computer was up. Um she was a little nervous and so her proctor was reassuring her, talking her through what it was going to look like, sound like, just relaxing her. Um but in this case, that was a one-on-one test. So we have sometimes we have tests we had calculus today had how many Mrs. Frisbee? So it's if one child needs it, we provide it. And um it's a three-hour test. It builds test stamina. And um I know the teachers are also looking forward to some time now that they can just kind of um kick back and dig into some other fun
047things in their content that wasn't necessarily reflected on the test. And so you heard earlier uh Lily and Scare talk about the the Skittles that they did as they prepped. That was one of the many things that the teachers did and getting kids ready. So best of luck to our test takers. We look forward to the AP results coming later this summer. And with that, I am all done for the day. Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent Hoyer. And again, uh, student reps, if you need to, uh, leave, we understand. Next, we move on to communication item D, audience communication. And this evening I have three requests to speak in front of this board of trustees. And um we'll start with Nicole. And if you would come up. Yes. Lindsay. Middle name. Excuse me. Lindsay. Thank
048you. Yeah. Yeah, if you'd please state your name. We're being recorded. Hello, my name is Lindsay Fenton. Um, I am here as a parent of two young children at Giant Springs Elementary. Thank you for having me, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, committee members and members of the community. Something like that. I was trying to follow along. Um, so public speaking is not my greatest skill, but I'm going to try. Um, so my over the last couple of weeks, I've spent time talking with several family members and families that go to Giant Springs Elementary, as well as several faculty members. And after gathering, um, several different facts based on things I've discussed with both parties, um, I did meet with the school principal and had a conversation with her. I also spoke briefly with Mr. Boyd last
049week. Um, however, unfortunately, my concerns are not really lightened. Unfortunately, um I just feel like right now what's currently going on at that school, they need more help. Something needs to be done to increase the safety at that school. Um and to help support the teachers at that school. Um from the factual information I've received, multiple teachers are wanting to leave this year, as well as the multiple teachers that left last year. I've also spoken with several family members that are now wanting to change schools and and remove their children from that school, which I think is very sad because some of those families are very great families and they're great to have a part of that community. Um, I just felt like today I needed to voice that and I needed to bring that
050to everyone's attention as this school year concludes with the new school year coming in. Um but yeah, that would be my ask is to come together and find a way as parents and board members to increase the safety of that school. I appreciate your time. Thank you. My name is Deb Shroski and this is my first time at schoolboard meeting. So I apologize if I'm out of order or not doing things in proper procedure. Um, I would like to raise a concern tonight regarding the how and why certain teacher contracts are determined to be renewable or not. Everyone here knows that this district has had a real struggle, especially in recent years, to fill open teacher positions. And near the end of 2023, I sent this board a very lengthy letter about some concerns that
051I was made aware of um regarding some of the reasons why we're probably having um struggles with getting and keeping qualified staff. My conclusion in that letter and is very similar today is that our school district is not doing enough to protect teachers and pair professionals in the classroom from violence from students in the in those classrooms. Any school with near daily incidents of staff being hit, punched, kicked, bit, or worse is not acceptable. Not even one time. The culture appears to be that special needs students are not able to be taught proper behavior in the classroom. We disagree. Every student is able to be that there is a right and a wrong way to behave. This could be done through teaching students um to how what the proper behavior is and using appropriate consequences
052when that doesn't happen. These students are being set up for failure when they reach high school and middle school if we don't get them in the lower grades. Once they develop a pattern of of thinking that they can't um usually it's an emotional reaction to something in the classroom and they don't know what else to do so they get punched by whatever. Um if we don't break those habits when they're little when they get big they will actually seriously injure people. Um my concern today is related. There has been at least one open position for resource teachers in this district since May of 2024. There were at least seven resource one positions and I don't know how many other resource type positions that were opened during the district's district hiring processes. A current resource teacher,
053fully certified as a resource teacher, applied for all seven of those positions and was denied all of them and has now been told that the current contract will not be renewed. The teacher in question has always had good performance reviews. Yet, the superintendent at the behest, I presume, of the HR director is recommending not to remove this contract. This scenario shows that the claimed priority I've seen in the media of hiring and retaining good and qualified teachers is lip service only. I'd like this board to review the list of teachers being recommended for non-renewal and ask hard questions of the person or persons who are making those recommendations. Our children deserve qualified and caring teachers, especially in our resource classrooms. Well, thank you for sharing your concerns with us. Thank you for allowing me to
054certainly thank you for the courage it takes to come and speak before us too. Thank you. Third and final request to speak comes from Judy Mortonson. And I saw her. Oh, she's still here. Hi. Come on up, Mrs. [Music] Mortonson. I know you don't like to come up to to the lectern, but we're being recorded and we want to hear your message. I appreciate the opportunity to visit with all of you. Um, I chose today because I try to not visit with anybody involved with the school district during May. It is a busy season and hard to keep things straight. But I just had some um thoughts that came up during the um the uh meetings that I attended with the um the school board um the the people who are running for the school
055board. So, I don't have any specific complaints or um any problems that I'm presently working on as my final student will be leaving the Great Falls School District after um almost 70some years. I um I appreciate that. I'm just leaving you with some thoughts um a few of the thoughts that I had while the um the candidates were speaking. The first one is um as I put on this sheet of paper because I can't keep in mind all the thoughts that roll through my head and so I figure you all need it written down as well. Um but one of the things that came up during the um the meetings that we had with the candidates was what the thoughts were on our school. So here's a new motto for you. Education provides the wings
056that give flight to dreams. I really like that and I'd like to see it um promoted not only within the district but with particularly with our students. I think we do not value education as well as as much as we should and primarily because it's become pretty easy for people to survive um without realizing what a major influence education has on them. Another thing that came up was uh starting our kids in school or having a preschool program to make them more ready for school. And I think kids should stay home with their parents as long as they can. I watched several countries over the last 80some years um as the government has been able to brainwash kids starting as young as two years old. I have a friend who was part of the Hitler
057Ruth Youth group in the Second World War and she had some very interesting ideas about how easily it is to brainwash young children and the things that she had learned that she had to unlearn when she came to the United States. So, I'm not so sure I want the government working on those kids that young. Um, another thing that came up was something that I was involved with in the last uh week, which was a uh an event whereby students from all over the state and even some from Canada participated in a somewhat like competition academic um event that was put on by the um the um conservation district, they had multiple experts who came in to talk to the kids about resources in Montana. forestry, um, water, energy, Northwestern Energy had a remarkable, um,
058uh, presentation about how every piece of land in Montana is affected by Northwestern Energy, one way or another, either the lines that go through, the lines that they wish were going through, the upgrade we need to the lines, extremely in Mrs. Mortonson, if you'd be if you'd be kind enough to I'll hurry up. Thank you. Um anyway, one of the things that came out of it was the lack of of understanding that the students had on uh contemporary software used in businesses. I'd like to see the technology either re evaluated or the um the software that they need to know to get into business. And um and then the the um third one was just the drug problem that um particularly Paige addressed at one of the meetings. I think that it's important that the
059school district be aware of the lack of um the law enforcement for the laws that are already on the books that would be of help to our students. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Mortonson. Thank you so much for getting these all organized for us on paper. We'll have a chance to review these in more detail uh on our own time. And that concludes um our public commentary for this evening. That uh brings us to action items. Roman 7A, warehouse cooler renovation, lowest qualified bidder, Mr. Patrick. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. What I bring before you tonight is the lowest qualified bidder for the warehouse cooler renovation. Um, the cooler freezer that's there now was original to the building, needs to be replaced. On May 1st, we opened three bids, the lowest of
060which was from detailed construction for $570,85. And this will be funded through the food service budget. And my recommendation is to have the board approve the bid from detailed construction and excited to get three bids on the project. It's always good to see the range and and come up with the low end which is right in the range that the architect Nelson Architects had for the project. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Trusty Bronson. I move that we approve the bid submitted by detailed construction for the amount of $570,85 as the law's qualified bidder on our warehouse freezer replacement project. Second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the detailed construction bid. Any questions or commentary from our board of trustees? Any questions, commentary from our uh citizens here in the room? If not, then I'll call
061for the questions. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I opposed. Same sign. Motion carries. Action item B, the non-renewal of non-tenured teachers. Mr. Deacons. Thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer. I'm here this evening to present to you the non-renewal of non-tenure teachers. This definitely is one of the most difficult pieces that we go through over the course of the school year. There's lots of consideration that goes into it um as it has great effect on our students um in our classrooms and our intent behind anybody that's being non-renewed is to make sure who we do have in the classroom is the very best for our students. So tonight I am asking you to use the addendum that was on your sheet to approve or the nonrenewal
062non-tenured list that was presented to you. Thank you, Mr. Deakons. Mr. Chair, trust I move to nonrenew the non the non-tenured teachers listed in the addendum. Second. Second. It's been moved and seconded to non-renew non-teered teachers listed in the addendum that we have before us. Any commentary or questions from the board of trustees? Commentary or questions from our gallery? All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Difficult decision, Mr. Deakons. It is. Thank you. Thank you. Action item C, second reading of new high school and middle school theater and high school health science district standards. Mrs. Mainwearing. Good evening again, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the community. Uh, it's my pleasure to introduce Becky uh, curriculum coordinator for the secondary Becky
063Frisbee to go over the second reading. Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the trustees, as well as our community. Uh tonight I bring to you the health science and theater middle school and high school um for their second read. The middle school and high school um standards came about because of the pilot that was successful at the middle school. And if we were going to go ahead and write those middle school standards, it was a great time to revise our high school ones at the same time. The second set of KODs is from the health science curriculum. This is among those CTE standards that we like to re-evaluate more often at our local level versus the state. Um, with CTE courses being impacted by changes in technology, industry updates, and changes in workplace need, we
064find that it's really important to update those KDs on a um a shorter time span than we typically do. With all of that information in mind, um I've also received no comments about those um standards that were posted. So my recommendation is to approve those candies as written. Thank you, Mrs. Frisbee. Uh Mr. Chair, Trusty Skonagowski, I move to approve the new high school and middle school theater and high school health science kuds as presented. Um, I have a question once we Okay. Second and seconded. Okay. Uh, any questions, Miss Frisbee? Oh, there he is. All right. I have a question from an East Middle School student. Okay. When will this theater class come to East Middle School? Well, the standards are written, so it's available. Um, right now it's having someone with the skill
065set at East. Um, we have that opportunity sharing Joel between the high school and the middle. Um, so between CMR and North were they able to do that? So, East would need to make some kind of an agreement with Grand Falls High. Can't happen soon enough. Okay, I'll let them know. Trustees, are there any other questions for Mrs. Frisbee? Any questions from our gallery of citizens? That was moved and seconded. Right. Yes. Thank you. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Thank you, Mrs. Frisbee. And that brings us to action item D as in David. Second reading of new elementary mathematics curriculum resource Amplify Desmos math second reading and mathematics KUD and oops Amplify Desmos math period. That's right. We'll just do one at a time.
066I was going into a run-on sentence there. It's my pleasure this time to introduce our elementary curriculum coordinator, Rachel Cutler, to talk with us about the adoption of new math materials at the elementary. Thank you. Welcome, Mrs. Cutler. Thank you. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, and members of the audience. I uh last week or actually your last meeting two weeks ago presented amplified Desmos math, an overview of the core program that was selected by our math committee. Since that time, the materials have been on display, and I've had no additional feedback. The only adjustment that I will make is a reduction in the total negotiated actual cost to 910,650. So that's the only adjustment. So I'm requesting approval of the purchase of Amplified Desmos Math. Mr. Chair, Trusty Trasi, I
067move that we approve the purchase of Amplified Desmos Math for kindergarten through sixth grade. Second. Been moved and seconded to approve the purchase of the Amplify Desmos math for kindergarten through sixth grade. Any questions from our board of trustees? I had a question, just a comment. Thank you for all of your guys' work into this. It was a big district-wide effort that's been going on for many, many years now. and I've I've had a good time um seeing the whole process and it's been very informative and uh informational and as a mom of two kiddos I'm excited to see it put into place and see how my voice start learning from it. Thank you for your work. Thank you and thanks for your participation. It was great to have you. Good commentary. Thank you. Anybody
068else from our board of trustees? Any comments from our gallery? Mrs. Mortonson. Well, I could speak to my um experiences on the K12 math committee. Uh much of the beliefs that were developed K12, including those secondary math teachers, are found in Amplified Desmos math. Um, we do actually have some middle school teachers that are currently um using a free version of that as a supplementary tool. Um, and I don't know if Becky if you have other things to add. Um, high school got to pilot or test and try out a little bit of that um higher level. The only deficit with Amplify is it doesn't go all the way up. it stops at algebra. Um, so unfortunately it isn't something we could look at at the high school, but they did like what they saw
069as it comes in. And um, they kind of wish there had been more additional higher levels. Um, it will have algebra, geometry, and algebra 2, but we'd be looking at four to five years down the road before they're able to give us that. and that's a long time to wait when we're ready for materials. So, they did like it. It just wasn't an option for them. Any additional commentary from our citizens here with us this evening? If not, I'll call for the question to approve the purchase of the amplified Desmos math for kindergarten through sixth grade. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I oppose. Same sign. Thank you very much for your work on this e and this is second reading of new mathematics kuds and technology computer science
070kuds and Mrs. Maywary this time both of the curriculum coordinators are going to come up and we're going to talk about adopting the new math KUDs and the computer science KUDS. Thank you. We haven't had any comments on the KUDS were posted both for math and for technology. Um a little bit on the both sides and a little bit of high school. Um these do represent the standards that were adopted um by the board of public ed. Um middle school and high school teachers did a lot of work to unpack these as well as the elementary teachers. We want to make workable documents for our teachers that will help our students to learn. And that's the whole idea behind a KUD. Um, these KUDs will be used to focus the middle school and high school
071teachers as they continue to look for a resource. They were used by the elementary to help choose their resource. So, it is a really important part of the process and how we go through. Um, high school won't be ready to come back and talk to you about resources though until March of 2026. We're going to do some piloting before we step in. And on the technology side, um we see this used K12. Um very specific courses in middle and high school where these um KUDs come straight into play. um would be seventh grade computer applications, the high school intro to computer applications as well as um the advanced courses in um programming that they also do as well as our tech essentials that takes place in business. You might have remembered that was one of
072my gazillion visits to you. Um, Tech Essentials is a brand new course for business to help them focus in on some of that software use and um, internet use that has started to not be as good for the business side and we're trying to beef that up and those technology are part of that process. Our recommendation is that you approve the math and the technology KDs as written. Thank you. Any questions for this curriculum team before us on this particular motion from our board of trustees? None from our uh guest this evening. So um Mr. Chair, yes. Trusty Scrugoski. I move that we approve the new KUDS for K12 for mathematics and K12 for technology and computer science as presented. Second. Moved and seconded. And I believe I open it up for discussion. And u
073now call for the question. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. Oppos. Same aside. Thank you for your good work on this. Thank you. Action item F, second reading of 2526 technology strategic plan, Mr. Williams. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, and members of the community. Sorry about the frog in my throat. I come before you to ask you to consider and and approve the technology plan presented to you two weeks ago at this board meeting or the other board meeting. As stated in that meeting, the technology plan stands as a strategic plan for achieving goals for the district. How those what those goals exactly will be or what the cost will be will have to be assessed later on obviously because even to this day
074the exact funding from state and federal sources is not known. So I refuse to put us into a pigeon hole until I find out exactly what we have available. At that point we will come to the cabinet. The cabinet will tell me what how they would like to proceed. We will bring it to the budget committee and then come to the board for how you would like to take and proceed with the priorities we have set. So, in the last two weeks, I have not heard any questions regarding the technology plan. So, I stand before you ready to accept any questions you may have tonight. Mr. Chair, Mr. Bronson, I move that we adopt the 2025 2028 information technology plan is a guide to implementing enhancing technology within Great Falls Public School Districts as presented
075by Mr. Williams. Second. It's been moved and seconded to adopt the 25 through 28 information technology plan and we have read it. It's comprehensive and it's visionary. It's all very long and detailed to you. I'm going to need you to write that down and send it to me in an email please. Thank you for your good work. Any questions for Mr. Williams? Mr. Chairman, Mr. Bronson? Uh, not so much a question but a comment. Uh if you haven't noted it, please members of the board note objective 9.1 on a technology levy increase wherein it states that the recommendation is that the budget committee consider endorsing a revised technology levy. Obviously will whoever is on the budget committee this coming year will be looking forward to whatever recommendation is made in that regard. However, I think
076it should be instructive for the board and for administration now to note that when similar levies were placed before voters in other districts this year, they were generally rejected. Uh it was interesting to me because sometimes these specific levy requests, one would think because they're tied to specific needs would be approved whereas the more general uh fund requests are not. But that seems to be flip-fpping. Districts around the state are approving the requested increases uh for mill levies, but they seem to be skeptical about these specific requests. So, it's something in mind as we go forward here looking for technology. And I want to thank Mr. Williams and his folks for really thinking through all of this so that we have something. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Browns. Any commentary from our public
077hearing? None. It's been moved and seconded to adopt the 25 through 28 information technology plan. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. Oppos. Same sign. Motion carries. And again, Mr. Williams, thank you for your good work. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Action items G. Second reading of revised board policy 2333 participation and commencement exercises 2413 credit transfer assessment for placement from nonacredited and or non-public schools 2420 grading and progress reports and 2520 animals pets in school. Mrs. Hyer. Thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, and members of our community. Um, I come before you for a recommendation to approve those policies that you mentioned as written. Um, just as a reminder, the uh policy about graduation, uh, which was 2333 that updated language to be consistent with different
078departments, um, changing American Indian to indigenous heritage. Um when we took a look at 2413 that also um updates and modernizes the language you'd see on um the first page line 44 a change of like consist of to include um we added some wording in there as well to make it correctly written. Um moving forward we had some other ones where we had superintendent or designate listed. Um, and then we also changed shall to will on some of them and then some other minor changes throughout. But as of this afternoon before the meeting, I've had no public feedback from Thank you, Mr. Chair. Trusty Terraski. Uh I move that we approve revised board policies 2333 P uh participation in commencement exercises 2413 credit transfer assessment for placement from nonacredited and or non-public schools 2420 grading
079and progress reports and 2520 animals and pets and schools as presented. Second been moved and seconded to approve the revised board policies as enumerated by trustee. Any commentary from our board of trustees on these policies? Any from our gallery? And I'll call for the question. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. Post same sign and many thanks to our policy committee for undertaking these tasks. Move this on to Roman eight which is action other. Nothing was uh pulled from the consent agenda that enables us to go to Roman nine reports discussion and policies a children's internet protection act. Mr. Williams pardon me with a frog in my throat if I grab the water. It's for a reason. Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board. I stand before you
080tonight to fulfill two requirements for the - program and I have a script so I'm going to go by the script and try not to go too far. Thank you for your time tonight. My report concerned compliance requirements for -ate funding. You may remember from one of my past reports that GFPS uses the -ate programs to subsidize network infrastructure components such as our firewall, the dark fiber local area network and our internet service provider or ISP. This funding is substantial. At this time, GFPS qualifies for -ate to financially cover 80% of the mentioned components cost, allowing GFPS to only provide the remaining 20% from our technology funding. -ate has compliance requirements to qualify for this funding. Two of these my report tonight satisfies are the public notice of the Children's Information Protection Act and the
081GFPS policies for computer acceptance acceptable use and internet safety agreements. The Children's Information Protection Act or SIPA was enacted in 2000. In basic terms, it requires our district to protect our students against obscene or harmful content over the internet. This is accomplished using our web content filter from Lightseed. This device groups known websites into categories that can be either allowed to be viewed by district use users or restricted from you. Categories also have different levels of protection or security groups. These groups can be designated by broad categories such as student versus teacher as well as more granularly allowing access key to the staff members job requirements such as those allowing the staff members who purchase shop for items on the school's access to Amazon. The device is also automatically updated from light speeded with new
082sites as they are categorized. An additional level of security allows the technology department to react to uncatategorized sites reported to us by staff. We can either restrict or open sites depending on the request in evaluation by the requesttor. As an example of how important this filtering service is, it is estimated and I don't know the date it was estimated. There are currently two thou 252,000 new websites created daily. Think about that for just a second. 252,000 new websites. So our department's ability to categorize unknown sites is critical as they are there is always a certain amount of time lag for services to categorize these. GFPS are our computer acceptance use and internet safety agreements. Next topic. In addition to the filtering protection while in school, the content filter also provides the same filtering when the
083students take district devices home, ensuring that the students are protected even while on external wireless networks. Along with with complying with the SEIPA and other requirements that my report highlights tonight are the GFPS established policies 3612 3612P is in Papa 3612F is in Foxtrot that pertain to students and policies 5450 5450 Foxtrot that pertain to staff. These are our computer acceptable use and internet safety agreements. These policies detail acceptable uses of GPS equipment, electronic information services and network as well as what is prohibited. Areas of responsibility are detailed for a student, teacher, principal, and the district. In ending, this report is the public notice that GFS is SEPA compliant and meets all of the requirements to be -ate eligible. Are there any questions? Any questions for Mr. Williams? Any questions from our citizens in the
084room? Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Roman 9B, first reading of the 2526 board of trustees meeting calendar. Mr. Patrick. Thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer. Um, what you have before you is a report on the board meeting calendar for the 2526 school year. It follows policy 1400 that outlines the schedule. In the schedule, there's one meeting in July, one in December, and three in August because that's when you adopt the budget. And it takes into account school holidays and everything else. And I appreciate uh Sherry's work on this. She put a lot of effort and time into doing it. Uh so what you have before you is the report on the meeting calendar. It will be approved on second reading at our next meeting. Okay. Any questions for Mr. Patrick
085regarding the calendar? No. Thank you very much. Uh move on to Roman uh 9C discussion committee reports and comments. And uh what I'm going to do is provide an open forum. I'm not going to go through each individual. So, if you have something that you'd like to share before I are going on, please uh have me acknowledge you and off we go. Justice Scorowski. Um I just wanted to take a minute to thank um so many people that are in our audience today. Uh you're I know you're taking time away from your families and from the sunshine to be here um and to be engaged in our education system and especially for those who stepped up um to speak during public comments. This seems like really formal, intimidating. Um so I know that that can
086be um something that's uncomfortable. Um but just know that you know we take notes as to what your comments are um and follow up to um kind of learn more about what what you brought to the to our attention. Um I also wanted to um make a couple comments about um items on the agenda. Um one is um to note the 92 members of the JOTC. Um, I was on the board when this was a fairly I started on the board when this was a fairly new program. Um, and I do remember community members coming up and um, commenting um, their concerns about us starting a new program um, knowing what our our budget is like, continues to be like. Um, but I think just to see that program really grow and flourish and offer
087so many opportunities um for those students to be involved in that program um and also um potentially be future members of our our military. I think it's just been a really um wise investment. I wanted to um tip my hat to Mark Jerger. uh our CTE programs lead the state and just to see um really how he's grown that program in seven years. I I mean I think it also goes to show the value of having a person um who's really working in the community to make those connections between business and schools. Um so I you know there's there's value in investing in that as a district. Um, one other comment about um, Becky Nelson and her um, Commission on Community Service. This is no surprise to any of us, I can tell you. Um,
088Becky was uh, volunteering with United Way from 9 till 11 today. Then I saw her at another meeting where she was volunteering for kids education. Yes. At noon at 1:30 she was volunteering to help with the back to school blast. Um, and this is just um, just Becky. just Becky. Um, and we all wonder how the heck she has the energy to do it. Um, congrats um to my fellow trustees on being reelected. Congrats to Craig um for joining our board. We're excited to have you as part of the team. And as being part of the team, you'll get to see some really great innovation um that is just part of our DNA like the ED the Edgenuity program. I am just so thrilled to see uh where that goes. So, thank you all so
089much. Anyone else on our board of trustees? It's all right. We're going to go on to uh Roman nine D, superintendent evaluation. And Mrs. Hoyer, you have the option to have this uh session either in public or in closed session. What would be your preference? Well, since this is my very first process, yes. Um, I would prefer to have it closed session for the year and it shall be so. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to adjourn this uh part of the meeting. Uh, we're going to go into the birch room, us trustees are, and then we'll report back to you after we've gone through the process of sharing. Excuse me, Chairman Gordon. I think it's recess. Recess. Thank you. Recess. and then we'll adjourn after we've shared with you the findings.
090All right, recess. We are in recess. Thank you.