001to call this meeting officially to order and a friendly reminder that this meeting is recorded um so students when you give your presentation make sure you're talking into the microphone and that you can kind of hear yourself talk it'll get in your head a little bit but but make sure you do that so that it's picked up on the recording so everybody that watches at home can hear this as well um and just a note for everybody in the community that um that you'll be able to see this at a later date um when we get it posted up on the website all right Mr Patrick R call thank you um chairman sorosi Gordon Johnson here Kim sorosi here Bill Bronson here Mark finam here Marley sild here Amy Thompson here Paige taski here you
002have a full board president Madam chair wonderful thank you all right let's all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Gage you want to lead us yeah pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible andice for all thank you well done Madam chair yes trustee ordan I would we adopt the agenda as presented second it's been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda as presented is there any comments or questions from my fellow trustees or Community all right all those in favor of adopting the agenda as presented please say I I I all those Applause same sign motion passes unanimously Madam chair yes trusty V I'm not used I would move that we adopt the consent agenda as presented second
003all right it's been moved and seconded to adopt um the consent agenda as presented is there any comments or questions from my fellow trustees or from our community all right all those in favor please signify by saying I I I all those oppose same sign all right we have a consent agenda all right and the first item on our agenda is a character strong presentation from Riverview Elementary uh Miss Maring wearing thank you for introducing our students good evening Vice chair sagasi members of the board superintendent Hoyer members of the community it is a full house tonight and I'm so pleased to be here to introduce principal Nicole heinselman and her students from Riverview Elementary to uh share with us about character strong this month good evening thank you for this opportunity for our students
004these are our leadership students at Riverview Elementary who have taken the time to put together a presentation for you about the character strong trait of cooperation I just want to say thank you to Mr Fulk uh Mr juel and Miss Gibson our school counselor who have been leading up um or have been heading up leadership so with that I am going to turn it over to these amazing students to share with you cooperation by Riverview leadership team cooperation is working together to reach shared goals what is cooperation cooperation is the process of working together to the same end result cooperation is working together and including everyone's ideas if everyone shows cooperation we can make our school and Community a better and safer Place how can we show cooperation one way that we can show cooperation
005is by making offers not commands another way is listening to others we can also show cooperation during school by including others in the game you are playing this easier we use cooperation to make our school Community a better place if no one uses cooperation we will not be able to function as a society when we use cooperation we make sure no one is left out and we are all connected we use cooperation for everyone to feel the same riverview's leadership in character strong this month fifth and sixth grade learned leadership skills one way we are learning to be better leaders is serving others and not busting others around this year and last year we did a candy cane fundraisers and donated the money to good causes this year we raised $794 which came out to
006be 680 after expenses which came out wait we split the donated money between Toby's house and the Cameron Center which houses homeless families we also do a fundraiser for the Great Falls lion Special Olympics team how do we use character strong every day on the morning announcements we talk about character strong on Tuesdays we share a quote from a celebrity or known person about that month's character straight um another way we show cooperation is our teachers around the school have a choice to teach a lesson about the monthly trait ways R review shows cooperation people in leadership position have things called Eagle buddies in Eagle buddies we talk to the teachers and make plans to do fun things with the kids in their class we do Eagle buddies every other week for 15 minutes ways
007people in the school that are not in leadership show cooperation is by helping people around the school another way Riverview shows cooperation is when many people are working together on a group project conflict resolution this month second and fourth grade are focusing on conflict resolution picture on the right is a bulletin board with the tree of choices from character strong leadership helps by filling out the leaves on the top with healthy choices that you can use when you're in a conflict these are all part of three categories talk it out walk it out or breathe it out if you have a fight with someone the right option would be to talk it out and forgive them thank you for your time well done well done you guys put a lot of work into that well
008done great job good job hope ier I'm well done good job great job a lot of work into that well done good job job wonderful thank you so much students well done that was a presentation in front of a lot of people and they did such a great job thank you so much um parents for bringing them here as well all right uh Lisa SAP with the mstom communication don't leave that okay well good evening uh chairman Johnson superintendent Hoyer members of the board and Community guests uh following the students is always tough because they always do such a fantastic job um so I just wanted to touch based on a couple of uh a couple of events that well one happened last week and then the other one's coming in in a couple of
009weeks so on uh last Thursday CMR and Malmstrom Airman hosted their third annual operation warmart basketball game uh it was a great turnout this year um big kudos to Miss Becky Nelson from the district for helping us push that out into the community so operation warmart is run by the first sergeants and they help to raise donations to help support military families in need um Airman E4 and Below during tough times and during the holiday specifically so two two games were hosted during the basketball showcase uh this year uh the girls match CMR won wrestlers 34 to malstrom 22 and then the boys match was really riveting we went into double overtime uh and then the wrestlers um lost 88 to Malmstrom 92 so what I will tell you is is uh we had leadership
010attending that game that was pretty awesome to watch I had no idea what happens when basketball goes into double overtime uh now I learned some things but uh we are going to work on um a traveling trophy for both the boys and the girls so when we continue to do this down the line we will have something to go back and forth so we appreciate gryf Falls Public Schools and CMR specifically for helping us um raise awareness for operation warmart they were able to raise almost $800 um for their 50-50 split the pot raffle and their concessions so uh great turnout um despite all of the fun things going on in the community that week um so purple update for Great Falls Public Schools is sent for uh April 10th and then to uh compound
011off of the character strong for Riverview Elementary this year they are the district's purple star school recipients so um they will have their Awards ceremony on uh April 10th and I think it's at 9 uh we are expecting hopefully maybe the state superintendent to join us that day um but we will be honoring Riverview um for their hard work in supporting and embedding supports for military students at their school um Miss Tara Millo from Chief Joe she's the librarian over there um and Montana Johnson a core school counselor who was at ly for several years and then Mark Jagger CTE path Pathways advisor for the school district so um again Miss Becky Nelson coordinated all of this for us and we appreciate her efforts um and then for the month of April there will be
012several events going on throughout the district at several of our schools to celebrate purple up um not a comprehensive list there's too many um I would be up here for quite a while uh but Chief Joe is hitting it hard with a Spirit Week PT test some K9 demos and static displays um L is doing a purple up breakfast a purple day camo day and an obstacle course later on this month um I know metalark and more sunny side I think are we're working with the Montana Air National Guard to support those schools and then there's just a whole bunch of stuff and then on base um on April 11th uh they're doing a base Pro Proclamation for month of the military child and then our uh purple Up carnival is in that evening so
013if you want any more information on those events please reach out but pending your questions that's all I have for the board all right thank you guys good to see [Applause] you all right super report Miss Hoyer thank you very much Vice chair sagasi members of the board members of our community tonight is a fun night because this month we get to celebrate Bigfoot I'm a huge Bigfoot fan but what we're talking about tonight is the three Pete state champion archery group um which is a combination of students from CMR Great Falls High and Paris Gibson and they are here with Dugan Coburn because they have something I want to talk about and show off and I found the graphic Bigfoot just for you guys it's only weird if you don't believe in him so
014do I are believers all right thank you everybody settled no um the board thank you so much for giving us your time uh being here tonight to be recognized by you uh for these kids achievement this is our Bigfoot archery club uh this is our third year in a row of uh winning the state um Bullseye Championship so we're three Peters um which is pretty cool for our group we're going to be going to Nationals next month um we set a pretty high goal we set a new record for our team at the state meet and we we shot a 3,134 out of a possible 3,600 our goal for uh Nationals is to get 3,200 and hopefully place in the top 10 in the nation at archery this year in Salt Lake I'd like to
015recognize Andrew Dodge who um plays first place in Bullseye for our team um I'd also like Dez um where's Dez are you here Dez uh ronowski um he came in third for our High School uh dazzlin Campbell on my other shoulder right here came in first in Bullseye for high school girls in the state so we had three out of the four first spots in the state we had 10 out of the top 20 archers on our team for the state this year um these kids work hard uh they come in they sacrifice um get they get better their fingers hurt um it's a really a fun thing to do uh these kids were yeah they make it worth doing all these things that we do so if you guys are all smiling I'd like
016you just to go around and go over and acknowledge the board please and shake their hands and say thanks oh everybody my wife wants me to take a picture everybody turn kids look at me at me my wife just text me said take a picture one two three nice thank you good nice job good job Lu I joked a little bit earlier that Dugan's gonna need a bigger office for all of the banners that he's hanging in his office for state championships so um congratulations coach and congratulations to our archers um good luck at Nationals we look forward to Great results coming back to Great Falls Public School us all right well I debated back and forth about putting this slide up there and and decided that um that we should really talk about updates
017coming from Washington DC because there has been so much in the news some of it accurate some of it not accurate social media really about what we're hearing from um Washington DC C and the response from The Office of Public Instruction instruction and superintendent Susie hedin who will be here for purple update if if plans go right that she's planning on it right now um we have received several emails from her and where she gave us the following information so I took the excerpts directly from her emails um that our elementary um our our schools under that fall under the elementary and secondary education act we know that the title formula is still intact for our lowincome students um that the discretionary Grant programs and the Staffing were not impacted the special ed services and
018vul Rehab programs have remained fully intact um updates are timely from the Department of Ed in fact she said they're very timely in the last couple of weeks um and that the impact has been minimal to the op and there are not any current plans for staff reductions so they're ready to take the additional respon responsibilities they're making sure that they are staffed appropriately so when money starts coming directly to the states they'll be able to get them to us in a very timely manner this is being closely monitored of course by us here myself Mr Boyd Mr Patrick are playing close attention to this um mtsba is monitoring it get sending us regular updates School administrators of Montana are also monitoring it as is masbo and so we are cautiously hopeful because we know
019things can change on a dime but as a of right now this is the best information we have that we should not see any huge impacts right now to the main populations we were worried about our low-income students and our students served by idea talking about updates legislatively here are some updates from Helena that are sticking pretty close to home um the Stars Act of was transmitted to the Senate um people a lot of people ask what stars means and I knew generically but I looked it up specifically so it's student and teacher advancement for results and success it's amount full um it right now is in the Senate education and cultural resources um I believe that there was another hearing on it today and so the Stars continues to move forward um House Bill
020268 this revises literacy targeted intervention it adds numeracy to literacy this is by U Melissa nicolus out of the Centerville area um she also represents us here in gra Falls um changes the screening to no sooner than five months prior to enrolling or upon enrollment of a child who will be four years old so I know that executive director main wearing who worked really close to the screening that we had a tight window when we had to screen before this might help a little bit with that um it also changes the jump start admission to a maximum of Five On Target children for every five or one sorry On Target child for every five eligible children who are struggling with literacy or numeracy so it adjusts those up from up from um a 3:1 ratio
021we are tracking some late submissions they can still uh new laws can still be submitted until April 4th it's kind of a soft transmittal time is in my understanding um House Bill 551 is when we're watching um it eliminates reduced price co-payments for school lunch and breakfast so in the state of Montana if you're free or reduced uh reduced children still pay a small uh fee for their breakfast and lunch if this goes through they would not pay anything so once you qualify for free or reduced if this goes through you're free um it is in the house education committee it needs to get through Appropriations then back to the floor and be heard before the 4th um and pass before it can be transmitted to the Senate so it's still as of today anyway
022was still alive as my understanding um House Bill 564 is the same it's one of those ones we're trying to push through before a April 4th um it increases access to early literacy um targeted intervention programs so it was originally introduced on the 21st of February um spent a little time in the House Education committee but this supports school districts by expanding that early literacy classroom like the one we have um but it removes the the tax or the burden for us and that it gives us ,000 for every A and B to allow us to get their programming off the ground so we'll see if that one gets through the next slide is a little bit of redundancy but if you don't have it on your calendar please do um Lisa spoke to it
023very very well but it's April 10th and that's purple upate um where we will be celebrating our military children and in doing so celebrating the schools and the individuals who go out of their way to really support kids and families so we have Tara Mario who is the Chief Joseph elementary Li librarian Montana Johnson he's at Core Elementary this year as the counselor he used to be at ly and then of course Mark Jager who is our career Pathways adviser um two things strike me about purple up day and many of you know this but for those of you who don't they pick the color purple because they combine all of the colors of our military branches but the dandelion is also their flower of recognition uh because dandelion take root and they flourish practically
024everywhere that the wind blows them so we look forward to celebrating our military families and children on that day and speaking of representing Great Falls Public Schools my favorite night of the year and I think it's the same for the rest of cabinet we had our 53d annual bosses night and this was where Great Falls Public Schools came together to recognize our 78 Community Partners who offer 110 job skills opportunities to secondary life um skills students and competitive employment students through um idea boss's night is led by the amazing teachers in the voke resource um realm that's Kathy wner and Mary Beth Tolen as well as secondary life skills teachers Julie Murray per professional Kelly Burton and job coach Lacy Dawson and up there are the name of the award winners for this year so
025the first award the Patty Cooper award Patty Cooper was a special education resource room teacher at CMR during the 1980s she was a strong supporter of vocational education and her teaching sty focused on individual student Improvement she encouraged students that participated in the vo vocational program to work hard to improve their employability skills and their academic skills upon her passing a memorial was established in Patty's name to honor individual students that have demonstrated Market Improvement in their employability skills this year we celebrated Landon Meek and Zack Benton from CMR Sabrina tartaglia and Cody doel from Great Falls High and braen cocki from Paris for the Patty Cooper the next award was Sid nasby and Sid nasby worked up here at the district office building as our chief engineer in the early 1970s until he retired
026Sid enthusiastically took our vocational students under his supervision to teach them the meaning of being a good employee and the job skills that were needed to be a custodian upon his death the memorial was established to honor individual students that demonstrated the exemplary employee skills that Sid worked so hard to impress upon those students that he supervised and through his supervision that he taught this year Sid nby Memorial Award winners were Quinn reik and JC Brooks from CMR and Crystal Reed and Calin WHL from Great Falls High and then Michael Norman from CMR oh I think that was supposed to be Paris I'm sorry Michael Norman from Paris um Patty McKenry Patty McKenry award or is established for Patty McKenry who worked as a PA professional for Great Falls Public Schools for about 17 years
027she worked in our self-contained classrooms at Great Falls High CMR and Paris Gibson education center the last 10 years that she worked for us she worked in the secondary life skills classroom she was a huge supporter of the vocational program and understood the importance of a strong work ethic she demonstrated this by being an example to her students in all the years that she was employed she was a Dependable employee attending work on a regular basis and was half an hour early every day she loved her students and she encouraged success at all levels and abilities so the Patty McKenry um Memorial award were for the most Dependable employee and there's only one and that went to Brian oorn from secondary life skills we also wanted to celebrate our employers this year's employer of the
028year was the Great Falls Public School Prince Center who seems like they turn on a dime every time there's a student that needs extra service or someone who comes in and needs job skills they come on in and they're right there for them but then our most valuable Community partner this year was the Great Falls transit and they were very very excited um to receive their award they do outstanding work so a thank you to them and a thank you to the 78 community members who support our students as they're taking their next steps speaking of Community Partners it has been busy out in our community so we have um three special thank yous that we want to give shout outs to the first one is to slon slon has been taking our students on
029tours of the new Montana States um School of Nursing that's the mark and Robin Jones College of Nursing that is being built um so they took the high school house students and then I think this week they're taking the build Montana students so they're doing lots of tours on that job site so our students can see that new facility in process um the Montana Army National Guard U made a connection with Mark Jer after um I did the the weekend out there with them looking at their facilities and all their assets and they are going to be taking the build Montana students on a tour as well so they can see the new facility that's out there which is really exciting and then da Davidson just last Friday did business in the day where our
030business students you can see them right there in that bottom picture um those business students met up with individual professionals from da Davidson they did tours and then they were able to job shadow them and for many of our students it ends up in more of a longterm um job shadow or even a full-time position with da Davidson so three partners that we just very thankful for these last couple weeks if you haven't heard the next time we get together and Lydia is here be sure that you thank or congratulate her not thank her but congratulate her um Miss Lydia is the newest student representative to the Montana Board of public education when I was talking to her adviser Ryan Anderson who is up there um Ryan said he thought it had been 15 or
03116 years since Great Falls had had a student rep and so um lots of smiles you can see from Ryan all the way around but we're very proud of her she was selected by the Montana Association of student council's executive board and she will serve a two-year term so congratulations to miss Lydia and we're hiring if any of you would like to if you think you're retired we could use you um as of Friday the 18th we are in the third round of the hiring season we had 12 Elementary positions open 25 secondary positions open when I talked to HR Director deons what he said is we're setting really good because this is exactly where we were in August as far as numbers go so feeling pretty good heading in into the spring um and
032looking forward to some bright new faces joining our ranks next fall and the final thing is the data for the day so um throughout the fall and the winter I have given you updates as to the number of students who are participating in our Sports and cabinet said this last Tuesday wow wouldn't it be great to take a look at all the sports in a um graph pretty sure it was this guy here and um let's take a look at it you know as as that type of visual so I had um Mr hurg pull all the information for me over the course of the year we've had 1,431 student athlete opportunities it's a lot now there's there is some natural attrition that'll happen this spring so that number may go down a little as
033students um either elect not to complete their Sports season or get injured in camped but this spring what it's looking like is we have 48 softball players we have 89 tennis players and we have 300 track and field players so just so you know um we have 58 um High School coaches that we use our collective bargaining to hire at each high school so that's 116 total that work with these 1,431 student athlete opportunities um there are some multiple sport athletes so you might see that someone who was represented in volleyball is also represented in track and field so we're counting them um in both cases but as a point of um oh sorry that's my next information but um our total number is almost if we took a look at what does that 1431
034represent it's almost 100 individuals greater than the whole enrollment at Great Falls High School so if you start putting it in in that scope um it's a lot of opportunities for students to be involved and it's nice to see the track and field I just don't know if we have enough buses to carry all 300 of our tracking field students but you know what we're going to make it work so it's pretty exciting before I close just as a a point of notification um we are working very closely with our Board of Public Health and our School nurses to be sure that we are prepared in the event that we do have a measles case in our community I know that's also been something that's been on a lot of people's minds and a spring
035break with our colleges is coming up um and people are starting to travel more because the weather is warmer outside of Montana we don't have any cases in Montana um we just want to be sure we're prepared the goal behind that is if we prepare and put all the work in up front then we'll never have to utilize it but we also want to be sure we can support students and classrooms and families and schools in the event it does happen so um I'll continue to update you as we move through that process um and with that I am done with my presentation if you have any questions for me Vice chair sorosi wonderful is there any questions for my fellow trustees trusty fenam are we gonna have an opportunity to congratulate Lydia comto at
036the next meeting yes we will we absolutely and I guess just to clarify the 1,431 student athletes I'm assuming that's just high school that that is just the high school those are just the opportunities taken by high school students yes so potentially double it potentially double it yeah all right thank you so much um I have no written requests for audience communication and assume that there's no one that like to take advantage of that opportunity um we'll move on to action items the financial report and check register for February 2025 Mr Patrick thanks Madam chair what you have before you the standard monthly information on the budgeted funds including the Food Service fund for February of 2025 and for the audience this includes the budget the month to date that's spent the year to date
037that's spent balance and percent remaining on both revenues and expenditures and we are where we need to be in February so my recommendation is to approve it as presented wonderful is there a motion Mr or Madam chair yes um I move that we accept the monthly Financial report and approve the register of payments for February 2025 as presented second wonderful it's been moved and seconded to accept the monthly financial report as presented is there any questions or comments from my fellow trustees from our community all right seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying I I all those oppose same sign wonderful all right up next um we have the board budget committee recommendation regarding uh Elementary Andor High School levy including um the uh ballot uh resolution uh truste finom Mr Patrick
038thank you good do you want me to just go through the whole thing sure perfect so the budget committee we have held Town Hall meetings March 6th and March 18th myself trusty Bronson truste troski there's members of our budget committee we've met several times throughout the year to Crunch over the financial data and develop the community budget process and our agendas with the help of Mr Patrick and his team the trustees may pass a resolution stating exact Levy amounts not less than 30 days before the election for the clerk to certify the ballot the solution the resolution must include the duration limit if any on the levy if the levy election is approved via a majority vote of the board it would be scheduled to be held on May 6th 2025 in conjunction with the
039annual trustee election the cost of the election is $65,000 if only item on the ballot is the school election the annual trustee election for 2526 school year will be via a ma a mail ballot conducted by the Cascade County elections Department our budget committee has deliberated after hearing the administrative options and the public comment on the 18th of March 2025 the budget committee recommendation to the full board is to forego asking for an additional support of District programs via a levy for the 2526 school year so the committee recommends to the board that we do not run election a levy for this election cycle questions say I'll open the floor for a motion and then we can have comments or questions Madam chair yes um I would propose that remove that uh the board is
040not to request a levy for the 2025 26 fiscal year second all right it's been moved and seconded to not request a levy for the 2025 2026 fiscal year um now I'd like to open the floor for any comments or questions first from my fellow trustees trusty pinnin thank you I know with Helena in full session right now there is a lot of moving pieces as superintendent Hoyer has said barring anything catastrophic coming out of Helena we feel pretty strong about how our next fiscal year will go particularly through the financial prowess that our district cabinet gives us so we certainly are appreciative of them Madam chair yes trusty Bronson uh question for Mr Patrick I know that after the uh budget committee meeting where we made our recommendation there was some conversation about perhaps
041tweaking the recommendation and my question to you sir is based on the way the motion is phrase does that prevent us from going for a levy at a different point in time uh should the legislature is I think we've all said go south on us which there's no indication they will but based on the way the motion is worded uh does that prevent us from readdressing this particular question yeah my recommendation would be that we'd foro running a levy with the in conjunction with the May 6th election date um as Mr Bronson alluded to it um there's four major components that that have to be considered when um the board decides to run a levy or not um those include uh big part of the legislature the Stars Bill the 3% inflation have not been
042decided yet um and then negotiations is in process and however that finishes up um if if those don't combine themselves very well let's say things went completely South in the legislature and we didn't get 3% or the Stars Bill didn't pass I think it'd be hoov the board to meet again um and discuss whether or not run a levy we have until August 1st to decide a levy amount and and put that on the ballot and that comes from Montana law 20-20-15 subsection 5 that basically says that during a legislative year the board does not have to set a levy amount for the May election they can decide at a later date and the reason is specifically the legislature hasn't made up its mind they're still in the process and and uh this year more
043than any I think it's it's uh could be a very crazy leg legislative session due to the politics especially in the Senate so my recommendation back to Mr Bron's question would be that we amend the motion to say that we will not run a levy election on the May 6th B well Madam chair I then move to amend the motion to state that it is the recommendation of the budget committee to forego running a levy with the annual trustee election on May 6 second all right we have a Amendment on the floor um is there any comments on the amendment all right we'll initially vote on the amendment then um all those in favor of amending the initial um recommendation to include um language that this um would apply simply for the upcoming May um
044election all those in favor say I I I all those oppose same sign all right and now back to um kind of the original motion then um is there any additional comments from my fellow trustees I think it's well worth noting that we that there's schools across our state um that are requesting levies this year um and we certainly have um more expenses than Revenue um don't know exactly how much as you said with all of those different factors um but we are in this position where where we can um not ask um this of our taxpayers because of the fiscal responsible um approach that in particular Mr Patrick leads our district in um I'd open it up to our community if you have any comments please come to the microphone Mr cubage chairman Johnson
045members of the board superintendent Hoyer and members of the community my name is Tom cubbage I'm currently serving as the president of the Great Falls Education Association um I've taught in uh Great Falls at CMR high school for 30 years and I'm the parent of two graduates of Great Falls Public Schools the education my children received was excellent but even in the nine years between um the graduation of my daughter and my son our family has experienced uh considerable program cuts and a departure of many teaching staff since my youngest graduated this trend of loss of programs and teaching staff has continued this spring we were told that the Great Falls Public Schools is looking at a potential deficit of $2.5 million and I participated in meetings with stakeholders including administrators parents community members and
046fellow teachers to identify areas of efficiencies and potential cuts it was a long three days of meetings and important work but very difficult discussions about what could be cut or modified if this if the financial potential was in fact for reductions great H Great Falls has fallen to the bottom of the daa schools in beginning teacher salaries and below the middle in mid to late career teacher salaries the turnover in teachers each year includes the expected retirements but also many in their first five years and more and more in the range of 10 to 20 years as well as uh for those leaving for other careers or other opportunities Great Falls needs to remain in the mid needs to retain mid and late career teachers as well as those that are new to the district
047this community supports education in schools they show up in large numbers in school events and local businesses support programs in our community and recent survey data indicates that it's not just in their showing up but their willingness to help pay for the quality school system Great Falls Public Schools continues to strive to be and has been a model for other school districts the message has been clear that the need is now for additional funding in the form of a levy please consider letting our community make the decision to support Great Falls Public Schools and vote um and bring a levy to the voters so they can make the decision if funding is adequate or for continued excellence in Greatful public uh schools for future Generations thank you Mr cage is there any additional comments from
048our community all right seeing none um we I ask um everyone to um go have a vote um whether to not request a levie for the May election um all those in favor please signify by saying I I I all those opposed same sign all right so motion passes passes unanimously um we do have the ability to um see how things play out and see what um a later election might look like um all right next on the agenda um we have the sup superintendent evaluation process uh trusty Thompson trusty Amy trusty Thompson can you please uh lead us in this discussion yes thank you uh so what we have in front of us is the superintendent evaluation tool and and the timeline that we'll be using this spring um if everyone agrees um this
049is the same evaluation tool that we used in 2022 23 school year for superintendent Moore and then if you'll recall last year um since it was his is last year we didn't do an evaluation and then if you'll also recall this um fall we decided that um we would delay it till the spring because there wasn't enough months for us to really um properly uh uh evaluate superintendent Hoyer so um today um we're bringing this forward to um approve the process and the instrument and then I really will encourage the public to um to input on on superintendent hoyer's um how she's been doing within the um the district and that is going to be up on the survey will be up on our website by March 28th and I wanted to also point out
050that in the tool that everyone has there's a section that only the board will get so the relationship with the board piece will only go to the board um that won't be a part of the public um evaluation and then um so the 23d the written comments will be due to me and and make sure that um for memb of the public that you um include your name or and your address or else they won't be able to be part of the summary that we put together and then on 28th I will um RE reply or give everyone on the board and anyone that comes to the meeting a summary of the submitted uh written comments from the the public and then on May first um assessments are due to me for um the board
051um for superintendent toyer uh then um on the on May 12th we will come together to evaluate superintendent Hoyer and then we will take formal action on the superintendent's performance in a public meeting um following that um and then on May 16th we'll compile a summary of the um evaluation to be made public to the or to made to be made um available to the public and I wanted to thank Sherry for helping us to dust off this evaluation tool and and Brian as well uh and also uh Charlene Hoyer who has been working uh with us to put the surveys together um does anyone have any questions all right this does uh require a motion on the floor Madame chair yes trusty trasi I move that we adopt the superintendent evaluation process and instrument
052as presented second all right it's been moved and seconded to adopt the superintendent evaluation process and instrument as presented is there any comments or questions from my fellow trustees from our community all right seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying I I all those oppose same sign motion passes unanimously thank you all right up next um there is no changes made to the agenda so we'll move on to reports discussions and policies and start with the presentation about the restart program Mr Boyd good evening Vice chair sorosi superintendent Hoyer uh this is a great opportunity for me to invite Mr Reeves uh up to the lecturn uh so he can give you an update as to where our two-year pilot programs at for restart uh a huge Cod Kudos goes to Corey
053uh for the work that he's undertaken this year as we've launched this pilot when we really think about this program this is an Innovative way uh for us to meet in need of a select group of students in our community that really does give them a second chance at education and a second chance at reintegration into a variety of our schools across the district so Mr Reeves you're up good evening uh Madame Vice chair Board of Trustees superintendent Hoyer members of the community I'm super excited to tell you guys about this program it is my passion just a little backstory if you didn't know I was a police officer for 25 years here in Great Falls 10 of those 25 years I uh spent as a school resource officer at Great Falls High working with
054Sherry and Mrs Hoyer and uh it was just the best 10 years of my life I absolutely loved it um it's a totally different mentality of pleasing when you're in the schools but uh it's where I truly grew my passion and love for working with young people so when I saw this available this position available I thought man I gotta how else can I contribute to the community and I knew that was my passion and it was a great opportunity so I applied uh fortunately I was selected and then Lance said build this program let's make it happen and I went oh boy what did I get into just now so uh so I spent the next several months I think was it's almost been a year that I've worked for you guys I want
055to say april-ish I was hired brought on spent the next several months creating the restart program um doing uh what is what is it going to look like so a little backstory uh I don't know who's control the slides Oh Sherry that's cool thank you so uh as as Mr Boyd said this is uh certainly created for Student Success my students are very unique um most of them all all of them for whatever reason are not engaged in the Traditional School setting they're just not going to school I have a couple that have gone through the thre Pro threat assessment process so for them to transition back to their traditional schools uh setting they have to work with me anywhere from three months to an entire semester so really every every kiddo is set up
056for a different path to success um as you can see all the kids are referred to me from gryf Falls Public School administrators I've had as young as a sixth grader in the program um as that my oldest was a 17-year-old who had never been in high school um and I think some of you guys met him uh Ashton is his name and he's now at the CCRC and he's completed three of the five components on his high set so he's almost got that wrapped up so I'm really proud of him also before I forget I put a packet in front of you guys um there's just because I know I don't have a lot of time I can stand up here for two hours and tell you about the program but there's a lot
057of information in here kind of give you some data and stuff what what the program programs are and stuff so again our primary ages are 14 to 15 year olds usually I we try and focus on that 8th 9th 10th grader because as you guys know after that it can be tough to capture them back into the schools so that's really who we try and capture as I said the the program link depends on the uh the students needs uh three months to an entire semester um I think Ashton was with me for an entire semester till he transferred to the CCRC and what's cool about this um it was very confusing for me at first but we didn't want the KD falling further behind when they're with me because I have a degree but
058I'm not an educator or you know the education degree um so what's cool is they can earn one and one half credits in the restart program is it transitional CR transitional see I'm still learning Al the lingo uh one one transitional credit and then if they have a job which most of my students have jobs then they earn another half a credit so next slide these are some of my kiddos these are things we work on every day in in uh restart life skills and again in the informational packet it kind of articulates what we talk about uh life skills Savvy living managing emotions Mad Skills mindfulness that's a big component um the three uh the three what am I saying the academics that they focus on is math reading and language and then we
059occasionally play a game of Uno too uh we count that as math time so um some of my Community Partners as you guys all know we are housed at the basement of the alliance for youth it's an awesome place to house these kiddos I was really nervous where was this going to take place what I really like about it is a lot of my kids only get their meals with me at Alliance For Youth so they get a breakfast there we have lunch for them we have laundry facilities because they need to wash their clothes and stuff atance for you so it's just an outstanding location uh to house this youth court services uh they partnered with me they teach a lot of the life skills Savvy living uh we work on resumes we go
060to the library we apply for jobs we uh ride the Great Falls transit so most of my kids uh don't have transportation um they just don't so they learn they get free bus passes and they get to ride to Transit excuse me uh alovan Health uh that's with a therapist by the name of Ken uh Ken runs managing emotions and that's a group therapy I'm not involved in that that is every Tuesday from 9:30 to 10:30 but the kids get to go in there and do a group session with Ken Great Falls CH Transit as I said the public library uh McDonald's Domino's Pizza schulties they've all participated with giving me coupons so when the kids have a great week or do something good or remarkable I can reward them with a McDonald's card or
061uh Mr schy lets us come there on a Friday and eat frozen yogurt for free it's pretty pretty remarkable and then obviously the CCRC and future build um I was kind of disappointed we had two of my restart kids were signed up for the future build but we had to have a minimum of four kiddo signed up and we couldn't get the other two so they weren't able to participate but uh next slide so yeah in your packets uh we started obviously we follow your the school calendar so we when you guys are off my kiddles are off we started in August of 2024 18 students have uh entered the program of those 18 seven students are still currently enrolled seven have completed the restart and by that and and it's more articulated on your
062packet some have transitioned back to CMR Great Falls High Paris or to the CCRC uh three three have dropped from the program after two months attending we can't save them all right we do the best we can but what's here's what's really Co and you'll see her on your packet one of the gals that uh dropped uh Serenity she re-engaged with us back in uh March and said Okay I want to go to the CCRC so I hooked her up and now she's there at the CCRC getting her a high set like I said attendance was a big issue for my kiddos but that is pretty impressive in my opinion I know we're not at the 95% Benchmark but 88.1 two% class rate um these guys are just they're rocking it they show up every
063day um they usually arrive we we kick off at 9:00 in the morning they usually arrive anywhere between 8:00 and 8:45 depending on when the transit drops them off and then they head out some of the students are there till noon some leave at 11:34 because that's when the transit picks them back up so next slide if there is another slide yeah so um Ash uh was sick today so she couldn't make it but Bridger is one of my students and so I would like him to come up and just tell you guys what he has thought about uh restart so far and if you guys have any questions hi I'm rer um I joined the restart program on January 8th I was pretty I was pretty uh nervous about it at first because I
064didn't know how it was going to go but I've uh I'm still in and it's gone Amazing I've uh progressed from what I was like when I first joined um I feel the resources that we have there are very useful we do a lot of social like like um jobs knowing how to like do things in life uh we learn a lot of things we go out like VI a social life and just uh we work in groups a lot too and uh we uh we uh the group therapy is very helpful and usually everybody there is is quite kind to each other because we're all there for a reason we all have struggles and we understand each other um and I will the field trips they get us out say if like some other
065kid just can't get out of their house sometimes field trips help us go into the world and again we'll go to the library every Wednesday and we'll do work there instead to kind of you know get used to the life we'll learn about jobs um we also learn about like uh s like life skills and yeah that's a lot of what we do now again the food like it's we get food very much lots of ramen uh but like it is helpful like say if you haven't eaten anything that morning you don't feel good get some food feel better and it's just when I get there every day I'm I feel really nice because I get to see Corey my friends and it's just it's a very nice program and I'm really glad I had
066the opportunity to go and join it thank you so what I tell my kids all the time is my job is to get them comfortable doing uncomfortable things my kiddos don't like to meditate well a lot of people don't like to meditate they don't like to journal we do all those things uh as Brer mentioned every Friday is a field trip day so we go somewhere in the community because I want them to have community buyin so you name it we've been to it in in Great Falls um and one of the cool things that we just partnered with Alliance For Youth last week is uh um Horizon Credit Union uh has helped sponsor a professional chef so on every other Friday a professional chef will come in teach them cooking skills and so the
067first one up this Friday is or not next Friday uh is uh pizza so they're going to look learn how to cook pizzas and eggs and omelets and just things like that so it it really is uh I'll tell you what it's this program isn't about me it's about the kids and the Community Partners I wouldn't be successful if I didn't have well support from the leadership team for sure but uh the Community Partners are what really make this cuz I think they can get tired of dealing with me four hours a day every single day so when I bring in like some of the Youth Court probation officers and they're not wearing that probation hat if you will they're just Josh and Margot Margot used to be a teacher here in the district um
068they just love hanging out with them so what else can I tell you about restart that's a real fast overview I will tell you that when I mentioned to the kids that I was going to do this uh presentation about restart I said does anyone want to volunteer to talk in front of the board and every one of them raise their hands we all did yeah all right so I told Mr Boyd and he said uhuh you find me two people so so but yeah any questions about the restart like I said hopefully the information you guys have uh there will really dive into it a little more but trusty V come Cory I have a question for you but Bridger thank you very much you did really awesome that was cool good no you
069did well did great that's cool and and so then Corey do you have another daytime job that you do or another nighttime job that you do well yeah so it is it's I have a full plate without a doubt so I obviously work for Great Falls Public School during the daytime usually get out of there around 3:00 and then I do my mayor stuff in the afternoons and in the evenings so I see my family does that go clear to midnight yeah it does well thank you very much for what you do for restart and for our community thank yeah absolutely people ask all the time you know what what do you like the most and I'm like hands down restart uh being mayor's okay but I'll tell you what seeing seeing these guys come
070out of their shells and really progress because some of them start in the program some of them can be arry or just fed up with the world and to watch them uh just Blossom and and just come out of their shell a prime example Bridger is just it's so rewarding so I appreciate you guys supporting this program I don't understand all the funding mechanisms I know it's a two-year grant program so we'll see what happens in the future but um I truly do believe every School District in our state should have a program like this because it's successful thank you wonderful thank you so much oh one more question here not really a question but I agree with you Corey when you say that it's about the kids and Community Partners but I just like
071to add that it does take a special person to make to succeed and you're definitely the right one I know um when you were at Great Falls High the connections that you made with the students all of them whether or not they were in trouble or not um was really special and I love that our district has been able to utilize you in this way thank you I appreciate it wonderful thank you so much thank you Richard Cory I have a quick question I'm sorry I want to respect your guys' time this is something because I think Mr Boyd needs credit for it um not only do we do reading math and language but we also work out of this book and it's a u Mr Boyd can tell you more about it because he
072created this and it's one of those things that's my understanding that was created a couple years ago it went on the Shelf was collecting dust so when I was brainstorming with him what do we have he's like oh I created this with I think christe STP at Alliance For Youth few years ago but it's it's just a quick overview it's taking charge of your life expressing your real self create a foundation of growth uh learning life skills uh developing personal goals and action plans but it's an awesome awesome program and what's cool is it's not just me up there excuse me uh reading to the kids they actually we take turn reading different paragraphs and then there's there's um exercises we have to do and they they just they all participate which is awesome so
073that's all sorry about that all right so Bridger is that you with the fish that's a huge shout I bet it was was that your first time ice fishing yeah you gonna go back yeah oh that's awesome nice thank you so much thank well done Bri well done all right all right next up on our agenda we have the first reading of new family and consumer science and business um NOP oh yep sorry I crossed that off already my apologies next up on the agenda is the Great Falls Public Schools Foundation grants and heisy scholarships update my apologies Miss Becker thank you Vice chair scorn agosi School Board trustees superintendent Hoyer and community members um before I start my presentation you've seen this flyer before but I'm going to pass this out because I reference
074it we'll do thank you so all of you are familiar with the annual presentation that the foundation does do um in July um and usually we have board members here to present on all of the different facets of work that the foundation does um but superintendent Hoyer offered the opportunity which is something that I probably should have snagged on earlier um is as the good news gal from the foundation take opportunities throughout the year to share some good news um and so that's why I'm here this evening so we recently completed the review of large educator grants um and this is the result of a lot of effort that's gone on for the last two or three years um so I want to speak to the specifics of that um but before I move into
075that I think it's important to kind of paint the scene so the foundation has been offering grants for teachers in the school district since 2011 so it's been really long time back in 2022 the program committee who oversees our grant program thought it would be about time to do a review after 10 plus years of our grant program do a deep dive review historically what's been happening and possibly do some restructuring so it all started in Spring of 2022 a subcommittee was formed um to do to take on that lift in the summer of 2022 they went through and reviewed over 260 Grant applications that had come through since 2011 that is a Monumental task it's not just looking at the names of the grants but actually reviewing those applications so we had a historical
076basis for this review but we knew it was likely necessary to make some changes um and if we wanted to make those changes the best way to accomplish that would be to look at the past but also to give feedback from teachers in the present um and learn what was needed at the schools based on education today so a survey was conducted to collect that feedback from teachers and we saw a remarkable response we actually had over 640 survey responses from teachers in the school district that type of feedback is just unheard of um and it was a huge part of this full evaluation looking at all the aspects of the grant program to make sure it aligned with what the teachers needed that survey was then called through um and then a follow-up survey
077was sent to those who were willing to engage a little further with us to gather more feedback as a result of all of that data the subcomittee worked to develop a restructured grant program based on historical and feedback from current teachers and that restructures what you see in front of you what we learned was a lot of the um large grants that we were offering for many teachers that was inaccessible um doing a grant for 3,000 or $10,000 can be very int intimidating um for teachers but it doesn't mean that they don't have need right so one of the key elements that was incorporated um in this restructure was adding a mini Grant component that was at a lower threshold so easier for teachers to dip their toe into the grant program um and also
078the categories that were determined were a result of the feedback that we got from the teachers um and also historically some of the areas that we saw that we made really strong impact in so many grants were offered with that structure and done on a rolling basis so instead of requiring teachers to only apply during a two-month period and have those funds implemented the following school year we wanted to offer something that was easy for them to access and more frequent so it could make impact in their classrooms more quickly um so many grants were broken into three different categories um professional enhancement we heard that loud and clear that they wanted to continue to grow their skill set so they could impact their students in a powerful way um classroom enrichment was another area
079as well as field trip and expert Le learning so those the many grants were the first component of it and it was the first opportunity first area that we were able to roll out um and affect some change large grants we also got feedback in that area um and that was broken into two different categories learning enhancement and Community collaboration um and it looks somewhat similar to the Past large Grant structure except it gives more guidance and different components or areas to help guide their thinking um because we knew based on their feedback and historical data that there were areas that really were able to demonstrate Innovation which is what we want to see at the foundation we want to be able to enhance education we don't want to supplant The public's responsibility for Education
080we want to step above and beyond that so we knew when we rolled out the program um in August of 2023 that it was going to take some time for teachers to understand this um and we anticipated that um and we figured it would be a couple years before people understood that shift and were able to engage in it with the foundation um we actually saw many grants take off straight away so starting in August of 2023 so this was the last school year the previous school year um from August 2023 to July of 2024 we were able to fund 55 mini crants from all over the district um totaling over 32,000 so that was very exciting for us to see that type of response for something that was not available to them prior to
081this restructure this year we're seeing the same type of trajectory um but I would say we're seeing seeing it even more so through January of 2025 so August 2024 through January of 2025 we have funded 66 minig grants so again that's only partially through the year um and that has total 44,000 so that's amazing news I want you guys to uh Relish in the fact that you have teachers really care about making a difference for their students and they're ACC accessing resources that allow them to do that so I think that's some of the takeaway that we've seen and we saw that really quickly the larger grants that took a little bit longer so last year that was implemented with the T the different categories we saw in the spring review last year that three
082Community collaboration grants for up to $10,000 were awarded and 13 learning enhancement grants up to 5,000 were awarded which is which is good um that's at around 61,000 what I'm super excited to say is that we did not have to wait several years to see that traction and momentum achieved um we just completed the review of large grants a couple weeks ago and our board approved the recommendation of the program committee for this coming year and we have six Community collaboration grants those largest ones 20 learning enhancement grants totaling 120,000 so that's amazing news the teachers are understanding what can be accomplished with these grants it also demonstrates to us that we heard what they were saying right and the structure the restructure of this was based on data that they had provided um and
083for us to see this type of movement this quick this quickly is remarkable um so that's the first piece of good news I wanted to share a couple fun examples of Grants and this is hot off the press so notifications just went out this afternoon so some of the teachers may not have checked their email yet but we have one Community collaboration Grant that's funded at Giant Springs called Bears read and Roar it's a program which seeks to strengthen family and Community engagement while promoting literacy in K through third grade they will be hosting quarterly parent engagement mornings with literacy training and interactive classroom activities to promote and Foster literacy skills and encourage family involvement in that process so we're really excited to see that unveiled in the coming school year a learning enhancement grant
084that we're really excited about um is actually going to be supporting art at the sixth grade level in five different schools so it'll be sakaia Sunnyside Whittier ly and Riverview where students will learn slab building techniques don't ask me to elaborate because I'm still learning but they will experiment with surface design and apply historical patterns to create unique works of art and they will also explore the role of Greek pottery in storytelling trade and culture while developing their own artistic voice so so these are just two examples of the 26 Grants that have been funding funded um that can make a real impact so we're excited to see those realized I think I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge um the review committee's involvement in this Marley sunchild can speak to this because she's
085on this committee it's a huge lift each of these committee members probably spend about 12 to 15 hours complet in the individual reviews for these grants and then a collective meeting for 3 three and a half hours trying to debate which one should be funded and to build that case so we're so thankful that we have committee members who are committed to seeing this impact realized um and are willing to put in the time for that in total um 120 to 150 hours could be accounted for based on all of these committee members in just a 6 week period of time also I have to give a big shout out to Michelle Nora um so she's our administrative assistant and she oversees our grant program and this is the first round that she's gone through
086and that's a huge lift but she did a fantastic job so really thankful for her she is a former principal and at an alternative high school and she is over the moon to be able to do her part in contributing so that's grants I wanted to share with you also hey scholarships but before I do are there any questions around grants so one of the programs another program that the foundation is really proud to be a partner on is the hey teacher scholarships so the hey Foundation as you likely know funds $221,000 scholarships every year for our teachers to extend their academic learning to impact their students so I wanted to share with you the recipients of the heisy scholarships this year and the schools um and the areas of teaching that they contribute to
087this is a collection of endorsements pursuit of master's degrees other things in that academic arena that are relevant to their area of expertise so we have Alysa burette CMR science Hannah Blanchard CMR math Molly Christians CMR English Rebecca Cooper giant Springs first grade Ashley Davidson ly Elementary 6th grade Kendra Fulbright Longfellow Elementary librarian Megan Grady North Middle School counselor Talon gray North Middle School science teacher Suzanne H Hy Lincoln Elementary second grade Bridget Hopkins East Middle School student services Stevie mnam metalark Elementary fourth grade Tesla mcgorman Longfellow Elementary resource 2 teacher Jennifer Moore Valley viiew Elementary kindergarten teacher Don o Great Falls High English teacher Nicole oi Loy Elementary first grade Mary proud giant Springs Elementary counselor Melissa ruler Lewis and Clark Elementary fourth grade Megan stubs fals High business Ed Britney uker Valley View
088Elementary librarian and Kayla underword Underwood metal Arch Elementary third grade so this represents 11 different schools um four middle school and high schools um and the rest of them are elementary schools so the cross-section of the impact that this makes is significant so I want to acknowledge um the hey foundation for their commitment to this it's probably one of the longest standing Partnerships that we've had at the district um and it is making a huge impact on the teaching staff here but also on the students so that's my good news for the day wonderful any additional questions not a question so much as a comment um please do pass on our thanks to those people serving on your foundation board committee uh the board people um they're all volunteers and they do spend a lot
089of time Marley I was on that committee and read uh applications and it does take a lot of time uh but it's time well spent because each of those applications offer uh a point of inspiration that these people are so dedicated to what they're doing that they would take the time to apply with the hopes that they can fulfill um their vision and dream yeah through a grant and I have spoken to not a few but many teachers who have been recipients of many grants and how appreciative they are of the experience that they were able to have um being funded by these grants and then bring back to our school district and their their students so what's going on here is so incredible and I think somewhat unique to um public schools in Montana
090so thank you to you for your work and please to pass on our thanks to the members of your board I will thank you appreciate the feedback wonderful thank you so much good news Miss Becker all right and now um Miss MW if you could introduce the uh first reading of family and Science and business kuds good evening Vice chair scor nagoski superintendent Hoyer members of the board members of the community we have Becky frisbee here with us she's a uh secondary curriculum coordinator with a report about some updates to our curriculum standards Vice chair gorowski trustees superintendent Hoyer today I have for you the family consumer science as well as business standards we refer to them as kuds or the no understand du and you received the digital copy in your packet Sher says
091she'll make you a copy if you want there's a hard set in my office it's quite a stack the ones we're looking at today in our first read are multimedia entrepreneurship intro to business marketing money management Middle School financial literacy as well as Tech Essentials a brand new class and finance and career prep you approved it last summer or early fall one of the two and we um when we met the business decided to revisit it it included some of the old Tech skills that were in fin Financial Tech skills and they've moved that to Tech Essentials and so finance and career prep focuses on finance and career not the soft skills or the software skills Tech Essentials will focus on everything from how to send an email to how to save a file how
092to open a file it's amazing how some of those skills have gotten lost in the last oh 5 to 10 years so that was a course they brought back and so it's a precourse for students that feel they need those skills brushed up on in family and consumer science we have Middle School 7eventh grade Financial C or FCS in um high school we have culinary one two and then three which is also Hospitality Child Development 1 two and 34 as well as fashion design and construction and that covers three levels in that one the updates in these kuds uh represent a couple things changes in technology since the last time they were written these are both heavy Tech um areas so they need to be updated as well as the industry expectations in these two
093areas we'll I'll be back on April 14th for our second read and until that time this lovely stock will be in my office for anyone in whether it's you or anybody in our community that needs to see a hard copy but they are also on our website on the main page of the curriculum page you'll find a link to all the different um groups this is also my first of three visits because we did do quite a few updates in career Tech education fields and I thought you probably didn't want all 39 tonight so we're spacing it out a little so 12 tonight or and we'll just gradually work our way up any questions for me tonight any questions I do have a question now clarification now that uh stack that you just uh gave
094to Ally you said that's available I've got them you've got so that's available for us to read in your office but did you also imply the stus on the website as well yes it's on the yep it's on the website there's this similar stack in Sherry's office there's one in my office and then you all received um it's in your oh not yet Okay I lied I'm sorry but it'll be coming our direction right the you'll get links tomorrow fantastic I'll let you I'll put a link in there that links to the pages that perfect thank you that way you can read it digitally you don't have to print Cy let me know I mean there there is a lot but sometimes it's easier to read than trying to read through a computer so if
095you want a hard copy we'll be happy to make those all right trusty Thompson I've I've got a question you were talking about industry expectations with technology is um like Microsoft 360 is that a part of this for that Tech Essentials they're still focusing on the Microsoft there will be some like Google skills but that seems to be what students have they use most of the time and um but the Microsoft skills are what what they're struggling with and so that was why they created finan or Tech Essentials sorry too many old names mixed with the new ones that's why they created Tech Essentials because students are so used to Google where you don't have to hit save your work is just automatically saved you can share it but if you go into Microsoft if
096you don't hit save you're going to be really sad the next time you open it and realize that none of your work's there and if you need to share it with somebody you have to act send a file or print it whatever it needs to be done so these were the skills they saw both in the Middle School group as well as the high school that needed some brushing up so they created this course to provide that opportunity for students to get those skills yeah thank you I just I just a week ago was telling superintendent Hoyer that last month I spoke with a um a entrepreneur in town who had hired a several recent grads and he was surprised that they didn't even know how to attach an email and didn't know some simple
097Microsoft Word um components and here you are one week later telling us you're you're fixing it so thank you we sure trying if there's no other comments or questions um we look forward to voting on this the 14th thanks so much mby thank you all right it's time for discussion committee reports and comments I'll start with presty Thompson so I think the only thing that I want to say is um to Tom cubbage um thank you for um your message tonight and I just want you to know that I don't think anybody up here didn't listen and and hear you for sure um and we'll be working on that you know in the future that's that's all I have wonderful trusty vnum Amy well said Tom I had it even wrote myself a note to
098say thank you very much for contributing and what a great meeting so many good things going on it's just crazy fun and it was great to have a packed house two completely different sets of parents in today that was great Stephanie thank you for your report uh budget committee thank you for all that you do for a whole year the budget cycle so thank you very much back to you Kim all right trusty sunchild thank you Tom of course as always you have their best interest at heart those teachers so I we appreciate that um Stephanie um when she was talking I just want to make sure everybody knows that there are teachers on that committee I mean she talked about it but I just want to reiterate there are teachers on that committee who
099teach all day and then read these minig grants and I cannot stress how hard it is to read those and I can't imagine teaching all day and having all of that in your head and then having to come home and read that same kind of thing so I mean that's um it's a lot and they're great and we have a lot of meetings and um it's really a lot of work for them the restart program is fantastic and Lance pass it along to Corey even if it's just one kid or seven kids um it's it's something for some reason I seem to be like an attendance policy magnet to several people in the district so I keep getting all of these questions about our attendance policy and I'm not going to I'm not going to
100give my personal opinion on it at this point but I am going to say that we do so much more for attendance than just setting a policy that you have to try to follow because just because you have a policy doesn't mean it's going to be followed and the restart program is a prime example of reaching kids who are not going to school because they're in trouble or whatever so now we're finding the reasons why they're not there and trying to get them back and that's what we need to do so that's my two sets on all right uh chairman Johnson thank you character strong cooperation fantastic I just love those presentations and it's all about us here us seven isn't it cooperation we work together for the greater good of this district and what
101a great team we have but it's based on cooperation and um it's an ongoing lesson that we learned from again from these kids it been fantastic thank you for the report on Athletics that was really valuable um thanks for putting that together P pass on our thanks to Mr hanberg too for for those statistics um and Mr Patrick I I think about 2% of our budget is spent on athletic programs 2% and yet here they're so responsible for these kids' self-esteem Health keeping kids in school it's just fantastic these programs we author offer in athletics so I'm so proud of that and to be reminded thank you again for that report legislator's back in session we need to be vigilant once again so we get a reports from the Montana School Board Association and calls
102to action and uh Think Tank Thursday all this I remind us um all of us to be vigilant in um backing the cause of public school education so fantastic and I too Mark Paige um Mr Bronson Mr Patrick thank you so much for your work on the budget committee it's it's a big big responsibility you all do it so well thank you for that thank you wonderful trusty troski uh not too much I um I'm pretty excited about the restart program I think it's going to be really good um for our students in our community and I appreciate all the Community Partners who are helping to contribute to that um and I really like that financial literacy is becoming such a focus of our district for our kids I think that's very very important it's
103a really great life skill for them to have going forward uh when they when they leave us and are out in the real world so I appreciate that on the district's part wonderful and trusty Bronson thank you madam chair three quick things and then I want to go back briefly and speak to our action tonight with respect to the budget committee recommendation uh first the three quick things number one uh I think we all appreciate uh the three legislators who did participate in our transmitt meeting and I hope uh thank yous have gone out to Representatives Weber and Miner and Senator trebas I think we all appreciated very much their uh willingness to come and listen to the Q&A that evening uh second uh thanks again to uh our administrative team for their wonderful presentation
104at the work session last week on student achievement as some of them know I have now inundated them with a whole bunch of questions in a two-page memorandum and I'll be happy to share but I'm sure they will share all of their responses but it was just a good exercise for me as well to think about all of the aspects of student achievement and just learn a little bit more so that we can all do our jobs as trustees better uh Third Kind of on an interesting note during the Russell auction events this weekend I ran into one of the trustees from the Billings School District who was up here uh we recognized each other because we were both participants in those original conversations almost a year and a half ago about the health insurance
105trust but we had some time to talk he wanted to know what was happening in Great Falls I wanted to know what was happening in Billings and uh superintendent Hoyer you can tell our um facilitator for our community consensus building she may have another job after I told Zach about that he said Billings needs to do that too and he remembers her from the uh participation and the what she did for our health insurance trust meeting so I think she's going to get a call from the billing School District about coming aboard and helping them out last to the budget recommendations I Echo what my fellow trustees have said Mr cubbage I mean we greatly appreciate uh your insights tonight but also your participation in all of the different processes that have gone on I
106won't say I speak for all of the trustees but the message that I do want to give here at least from my perspective and and a lot of it is informed from a long history of dealing with this conundrum about school financing uh some of you are aware when the first lawsuit was filed in the 1980s dealing with those issues the law firm I was working at at the time in Billings was involved in that case and I was one of three attorneys that was involved in dealing with those particular issues even though our particular set of clients probably had the easiest part of that case to deal with uh the entire lawsuit was very instructive in reminding all of us of the significant obligation the state of Montana through our legislature has to funding
107our education system and right now we are on the cusp of getting the legislature along with the support of the governor to make what I think are some major advancements in the funding formula and moving forward and I really want to see that process completed before we start going back to our local taxpayers and asking them to pick up more of the share of Education because even though under the formula they are certainly uh in a position to be asked to do that I think the state of Montana has to pick up more of the burden here that has been the ongoing debate quite frankly since the 1970s when our new con institution was passed and the language was put in upon which we rely to demand that the state be involved in a significant
108role in funding the other aspect of it which is also up in the air but again I think that the legislature along with the governor will address it to some degree is the whole issue of how our property tax system is structured in this state uh we saw what happened a year and a half ago went under the current system and the legislature's decision not to deal with certain necessary adjustments to you know taxable valuation what impact that had on people's minds and on their pocketbooks and I for one am a little reluctant to go to that same group of taxpayers right now without knowing what changes are legislature is prepared to make in order that the property tax system in mon Montana is fairer to all concerned and is going to operate in a
109manner that is more consistent uh with everybody's you know reasonable expectations of what they're paying for and what they get out so when all those factors are combined and I look at where this district is positioned in terms of its financial status uh if we had to make Cuts we know that we can do some of them in probably do it in a less painful manner than some of our fellow daa districts have done but if we can come out of this legislative session with guarantees of more State participation in funding a somewhat reformed property tax system and the prospect that another decennial study will give us more ammunition in 2027 to make even further improvements I'm reluctant right now to ask the voters for any kind of a mill Levy but again we have
110collectively here by unanimous vote tonight left open the door to doing that later in the year if for some reason all of these hopes and expectations that we have fall through uh I continue to be impressed by our Administration and how they have shephered our resources we as a board I have paid close attention to that that and because of that we have managed to put this District probably on the best foundation that we could put any AA District in it's not saying it's perfect it could be a lot better but with the resources that we have with our perspectives that we have and the degree of cooperation that we've been willing to exercise we're in a much better position and that explains more of my perspective and again I don't pretend to speak for
111all of these individuals up here but I know that they have looked at this in very similar ways I know that our Community Partners recognize that we do have their back we're just trying to find the best way to do it considering all these bigger issues out there that the legislature has yet to resolve so with that said um hopefully uh within the next two months we will have better news and we will be moving forward into the next budget cycle with a decent budget uh to do great things for our young people thank you madam chair can I have one more crack at it I apologize so talking about the budget committee but also the guy who climbs down into the weeds is so good at what he does I just have to give
112Brian a thank you for Brian and his team for all that they do as as trusty Bronson said great Great Falls Public Schools is in a wonderful position right now because of that guy let's give him a round of applause here all right um all right so coming up on March 27th is the deadline for trustee candidates thank you to the electric for helping remind our community about that deadline um I wanted to um thank Stephanie um it's it's wonderful to see that you're working to continue improving um the grant system and to just have it be really responsive to the need in our community um so that's really wonderful to see um a quick comment on the legislative transmittal um meeting um one of my most hopeful takeaways from that meeting was that our
113local legislators um are leaning on our local experts um when it comes to to their questions and their um you know kind of thoughts about how they're going to vote that hasn't always been the case um so it's there's been a lot of work done by our Administration and and by our local education Advocates to really build those relationships um so that that is the case um this session and um it's really great to be at this point and be hopeful about positive things coming out of of the legislature this year um uh quick comment on restart I've been involved with discipline hearings now um for eight years and so each time you have one of those hearings it's you know fair you kind of walk out with a sense of hopelessness and heartbreak um
114so to see that we have an opportunity for those students who um you just cannot exist within the Traditional School walls at least in that moment for them to have opportunity to continue their education and become you know parts of our community that we're proud of uh you know it's really just a wonderful program and a really smart investment both for our schools but also for our community as a whole um the last thing I wanted to mention is um that uh trusty troski and I have had the opportunity to hear from um book companies that are bringing in a new math um book and um curriculum for our students um so keep your knees bent we'll be seeing that at this level somewhere down the road um as you can see from our upcoming
115meetings board policy will be meeting Tuesday April 1st at 2m and our next regular meeting is April 14th um Happy Spring everybody I uh close this meeting Happy Spring