001come that be that be a whole Community can we do it okay I call the meeting to order thanks everybody for coming let's say to iedge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay approval of the minutes you were not so is have motion make motion to approve second all in favor approval of the expenditures I'll make a motion to excuse me for expenditures make a motion to approve payroll and3 claims and 23533 34 and activity balance for okay any questions on that one i' have questions right now can I have a question or do I have to I would do the second do the second second I second yeah okay any questions
002on that I had I had one on the um the picnic tables yeah holy cow what are they made of it's more it's more than picnic tables okay tell me and they've arrived so that's actually I'm going to cover that in my report but that's all grant money that was received so that's coming the general fun um so it's picnic tables new volleyball equipment um and then a fire so that's um a grant that uh I wrote for um from the C company okay okay all right yeah but they are metal picking tables would and they're actually outside we look at them after the meeting I know there the ones that were falling apart when I drove in cool not that one I knew it wasn't I was like going with like okay do you
003want to make a oh you made a motion okay all in favor of say I all right so move okay public presentations Danica said she's going to run for the school that's not Public public inputs we'll do that oh okay no public no public presentations all right okay Communications rep okay lot's going on uh we are doing a second round of mass testing this week um it's not just one time a year now it's five times a year so it happens in small segments throughout the year now that's Gres three through eight uh and as I talked about we did receive that Grant from the Missoula Electric Cooperative and uh the uh company that's doing the installation called me up and said well I've already got the picnic cables and put those together do you
004want them I said sure bring them up the volleyball um won't be able to be installed till spring um because the ground but they've received those two and that's actually the construction company the contractors keeping it at their place to store it um so that'll be happening and we're also going to BU um buy and we're actually going to utilize that corner of the property um after we had Southerns weed whack all that down we realized we've got some more usable space in that corner so that's where the volleyball Net's going to go and then we're going to put fire pit area well good I'm glad it's not just just that for $5,400 for two tables glad you got all that other good stuff too y great opportunity very happy to get that uh the
005county bookmobile is still uh visiting Woodman twice a month uh the second and fourth Tuesdays and they're actually going to be here tomorrow uh we have no school February 17th it's a holiday so that's the coming Monday um I've been working with the Lions Club uh again out this year to do vision screening for students that's a free service that the Lions Club does and they come out they actually have a special Mach screen provide that fore I've been talking to the liance club to that uh I've also been talking with the Daughters of the American Revolution uh to come out and read to students on president day um I've been talking them primarily to come and read to the youngest students Mrs Wilson's class some stories presidents we've been studying that social studies is
006that the only thing they do those Daughters of in my class for they do and this is just the education side of it um they have different departments within organization and they actually do a whole bunch of other things that I couldn't tell and it's free they just come do it totally free and they dress up like George Washington and Mel Washington quite lovely um February 21st we're taking kids up to Lobo pass for our snow field trip and then the next day after in case they didn't get cold enough there's a few students that are going to take the Polar Plunge at the fairgrounds uh to benefit Special Olympics we' had those students that they've been raising money to donate to Special Olympics so that'll be fantastic if you want to come out that
007Saturday to the fairgrounds it's pretty amazing um I am starting this week quiz Bowl practice and hoping to have enough students I've got three signed up hoping to get a few more if not I've got some other schools that want to share some kids um to make a so how does that work again um it's kind of like a if you ever seen like a spell geography it's a group of kids so it's all trivia just like Jeopardy there's all kinds of different categories from history to math to science uh Current Events sports and we have a county competition uh that I help coordinate with other schools and the kids go and compete and they do different rounds there's a whole bracket for it what grad um so it's Middle School want to run your
008middle school and then there's a high school competition that happens as well uh there's actually a state competition as well so middle school and high school kids can actually go to the state competition we'll one team that and then like High School those kids get huge scholarships that's cool a great event and fun to bring kids to meet other schools and compete so yeah the other thing I want to talk about is the last board meeting we talked about collaboration with loo school and I've actually met with the administration the superintendent as well as the principles there and we actually kind of did our first collaboration we did a school dance school and we had three middle school students attend that um and that's was quite a fun evening I got to help you concessions
009as well as supervis so that was a lot of fun um and I've started the conversation about co-oping for sports um and that's a bigger conversation I'll have to meet with their board as well um and if they don't go for that I do have a backup plan if we ever have any students to do um Co Le School athletics I might talk to target range I've got a really good relationship with the superintendent princip there um it'd be a little bit further for parents to drive but they're in the same leag um Target R is a great school as well and what sports do they um so the copper league has soccer they're no longer doing um flight football they've got cross country they've got basketball so does this mean if we had a
010student interested that we would pick her up from school because I think last time you said that it could actually be during the school hours it will some of it would be during school hours we would have to talk um as a district about Transportation most um when I did this in high school usually the parents provided transportation we kind talk well sports related stuff you can't use the transportation F so it have to be found but it also depends on interest too and whatnot um track is something that's pretty easy to co for I know one of the concerns talking with L would be would it take away from their students like basketball and whatnot but contining to keep up the conversations and I told Dale that I'm will to come talk to as
011well just like the dance um had to talk to the local board about that too and explained it it is in a huge amount of kids you're not going to get flooded at your dance with 50 to 100 kids we're talking about six at the most so once they realize that that they you know it's not this huge flood of kids coming in they were pretty good with it kids did great so keeping that conversations open moving on to operations um primarily the main thing has been snow removal and snow removal um this past month we've done more snow removal I think than in the past year and a half combined and the bill reflect that um there was one day I had to have the company out twice um but trying to keep the
012cost down as much as uh I can I've been doing a lot of the morning sidewalk stuff myself I've saved about $2,000 for the district just in in doing that noow removal from a contractor is really expensive contest because you've got the same company it add who who is what is who is the company Montana yeah so we went with them last year the contractor we had the contractor we had before um actually no longer provided services to loo um these guys are in Lolo and they're really good if I call them they get out here and yeah it's important we got to make sure that we've got the drive and the parking lots free of snow went through quite a bit of deer been getting we don't have ice and it's been a struggle
013but uh yeah we're keeping at it uh for the flag pole um I bought um some really nice it's actually C Ro I think that'll withstand the weather better uh than the fabric so I've got that purchased um so still just kind of working on that it's not good weather we doing anything with that but we've got new Roes so when Jonah goes to take off the stuff he said he'd come on up and do that so I got that purchase um I did want to let you know that we had an inspection from the Zula County on the new heaters I know it's been since summer the county has been backlogged um and I worked with the county on that Unfortunately they found some things that they want Chang so our contractor is actually
014going to come out and do work on the heaters to make sure that they can meet inspection from the county that's the new ones the new ones yeah didn't meet inspection didn't meet inspection um they had the breakers in a spot but the county didn't want them so they're actually going to have to come out and change the internal Breakers um they moved up accomodate the space and whatnot but that failed the inspection from the county that was the only problem um otherwise they're uh for the parents uh report we had a meeting uh last month and one of the we discussed is a spring fundraiser we did well on our fundraiser last year and we were actually able to greatly reduce the cost for steem for families as well as help fund other field
015trips uh so the parent group that met discuss wanting to do another spring fundraiser um so I'm working with the company to get that planch I questions I just have one quick question it may me think when you mentioned the vision screening have you ever heard of anyone coming and doing hearing hearing screenings I know I did that when I was in elementary school once so we actually have some hearing screenings done by our speech therapist for the younger but she actually has the equipment through the um Co-op that she works for so if parents had concern um she could do that with older students on as needed basis got it okay thanks okay J the public input we have two people that are going to run for the school board Danica and Eden Eden
016do you want to introduce yourself and kind of talk about what you're think h and um I'm originally from North Dakota and I moved to the area in high school so I've been around here for about n years now and then just recently moved to the O right across the road as most of you probably know and my husband works over there and I stay at home with two kids a 2-year-old and and yeah very interested what I've never been probably all know you but yeah no I mean obviously I come to all the meetings and I don't know Woodman for me has just been such an incredible opportunity for my daughter to have gone here and I just I mean it's part of the reason I come to all the meetings is cuz I'm
017really truly invested in this school and making sure it continues you know well into the future and part of the reason that I am looking in things you know like the farm school program and whatnot and and having teachers such as Mrs Wilson and M grua I don't even know where Kennedy would be without these two amazing teachers and and that again is one of the primary reasons I want to be on the board is to do whatever I can to ensure they don't leave because this school really needs amazing Educators like these guys so that's itre so okay thank you any questions for either one of these no we can't do back and forth publicly all right okay thanks uh additions and acceptance of agenda addendum don't I just wanted to make sure we
018didn't miss more puzzle comments sorry public comment would that be right here did you want to say something I got go yeah I'm going to put in my res today as of today have I should be right now yeah we'll we'll consider that in addition to the agenda okay there we go yeah okay so would that be right here then I'm going to miss you thank you do we have to accept you can acknowledge it I don't think you have a choice AC it or you want me to yeah I a motion to accept em app all your I didn't pull a bill but I nobody pulls a bill that's okay order of business old business that was the Strategic plan so we had a committee meeting prior to this meeting uh to develop a
019graduate or a learner profile for Woodman school and this is a document that the committee came up with um so I'd like to move to finalize that um this is without Graphics theing that the community develop the this is based upon the survey work as well that so would that first statement still be there or is that from last that would still that would still be there right do we want to make motion yes I make a motion to accept the learner second it okay so work on the graphics and getting that published we'll put it on the website as well get it out to everyone and make some posters sounds good okay new business discussion and possible action Grant priorities okay for the part just discussion only um we have some opportunities for Grants
020and also wanted to just talk in general about priorities for the grants um we started a lot of conversations at the last uh board meeting um we also have some other grants out there and before we start applying for things um just wanted to talk as a district what are our priorities before I go out there and asking for money and whatnot really want to make sure that things are the priorities of the district um so I'd like to overview a few different grant opportunities and then there's one in particular that actually I need to do a motion on for the next item um so the first one I'd like to talk about is the U Montana uh reading Grant literacy Grant so there is a new cycle for this grant froming Federal funding for
021literacy uh and this is a huge Grant um as a high school superintendent I have this grant before in another District uh it's a lot of money there are a few strings attached um particularly with professional development and how you use the money but um I'm going to read some of the things that the money can be used for first is highquality evidence-based instructional so with this we could buy all new English language arts materials as well as intervention materials and supplemental materials and currently we're using Reading Street which is quite a bit out of dat out ofation what no longer very difficult to get the materials for as well as a good out of um also professional development uh for teachers and staff uh stiens for professional development and planning uh cost associated with
022travel um part of this is the districts that receive the grant will get professional development and be part of a literacy leadership Network and we'll meet together to work on the goals so all that travel as well as substitute coverage if needed and whatnot would all be covered by the grant uh as well as mentorship or coaching activities part of this is hiring a litery coach to be able to come in as well uh as well as technology a certain percentage can be used for technology um so there's a lot that it covers um so this could help fund a lot of the district this is a lot of money um a lot of districts usually ends up being hundreds of thousands of dollars first year minimum is 200,000 the minimum is 200,000 for the
023first year yeah quite a bit of money I think it's worth pursuing as a district to see it is competitive um depending upon how many districts in the state apply I do know from past experience a lot of times if some of your like and not all districts are eligible there's only about 80 that are actually eligible throughout the state so you're not competing with all 400 whatever districts throughout the state there's only there were a few on there I'm trying to remember I want to say I think Helena for some reason is sticking out my head I can't there there are a few very good ones yeah so one of the things we've been talking about for some time is buying engl language materials would us M to be able to do as a
024district as well as [Music] of um so that's the biggest Grant the most money um some of the other grants out there um the governor he has a foundation the G Forte Foundation those are usually $25,000 grants and Jan and I have talked a little bit about that and applying again if I did apply I want it to us to have a clear purpose for that Grant uh and then Danica presented a grant at the last board meeting um that could really help find a really cool outdoor and agriculture experience if you want to talk a little bit about that yeah the farm to school Grant um which we just missed the deadline on but it's another big one that's highly competitive and so it would require a lot of preparation but it's something where
025you could theoretically apply and get funds to build a greenhouse and then also kind of the educational materials that would go along with that so that students would learn agricultural skills and be able to grow their own food here um chickens and sell some eggs you can extend it into also business skills as well so I know that some of the recipients of these grants not only have they taught the students all the gardening and growing skills but then they transition that into like a little market and so sometimes then they sell the goods that they've grown so I think it's kind of all well-rounded educational experience that kids could have so um would it be Poss okay so if we were to apply for that g& Forte Foundation Grant um there are some people
026that think that we shouldn't have a problem with getting that and we included it with another one that was from the um Washington Court I think I could probably get another 25 we might be able to get $75,000 in Grants why couldn't we use that to get something like that started if we were to be able to you know on a smaller scale but heading towards that goal one thing that I would suggest and John probably knows better than I do is whether or not you could use some of that because you would need to come up with matching funds for this um Farm to school Grant and so that might sometimes you can use other grants as the match I would recommend that um possibly looking into that um I would I really would
027like to um what are some things I would like to pursue these because you've got the GM Forte one you've got a strong possibility for the Washington and I think we could get the another Foundation that I love and another one is the JS hean Foundation donated all the money for the playground uh as well as they also funded the Missoula Children's Theater that's another Foundation that we could reach back out to that um gives a lot of money to education so there certainly are foundations out there we just want to be clear on so are we so since we have this outdoor and Hands-On learning as part of our goals for our life long learning kids here would we want to pursue grants is whatever we can here for an agriculture thing when is
028the next one that you can apply for the School when's the next assuming it doesn't get nexted um it would be I believe it ended at beginning of January is that correct be till next year yeah about a year from now yeah I don't think we ought to wait till next year we've got an opportunity for GN Forte and and the um and these other grants what about getting a um like a school Foundation like what if we did a Woodman School Foundation to we could get other nonprofits because one of the nonprofits that I was talking to was very interested in in that thinking if we had a Woodman School Foundation giving to the foundation to where you have more um Freedom with less restrictions to something like that what would it take to
029get a foundation for Whitman School well one of the J to talk more about is that there's actually a bill there's a there's a laot place where people can do donations to schools and Foundations but it's small it's small and it runs out but it's a great opportunity because it's a complete right across it's a match for yeah which is one we should still do but I don't think we' want to do it in place of these no and schools can have you know foundations or people that will donate for a specific cause kind of thing I'd have to do a little more research I can't imagine there's a whole lot behind the scenes that would need to be done it would go into the miscellaneous fund it would be ear earmarked that so you
030know it has a foundation you are you talking about not doing a foundation just giving money for a specific purpose or because there there's there's you can do two different ways you could do an actual Foundation which is going to require more or you can have a donation to the school for even if it's not for a specific purpose if if somebody was like I want to give $20,000 to the school use it for whatever you want we would put it into the miscellaneous fund we would give it its own projector code you know we could do whatever every year we have one lady that donates $100 at the end of the end of the year for library books so I put it in the miscellaneous fund we get some library books with that money
031that's she specifically says that's what it's spent on that's what it's spent on so it all depends on how they want to set it up what's the benefit of having um a foundation to be honest with you I've never dealt with having act foundation with a foundation they have to become their own f it would be kind of like the PTA kind of a thing where you got to go through the hoop and there's cost for that to drop all the paperwork and file with the state can you find out what that would entail actually know because it be similar to the PTO own group so our lawyer it would cost about $1,000 drop the pap that's I don't think that's a problem you'd also have to have could probably get a grab for that
032yeah Foundation would have to have you have to have its own board officers yeah that's I think where the kicker coming you would have to have that would be a whole another infrastructure yeah okay okay so that would be so what do you think on on you see I mean the bo you and me are board you guys are the teachers and you guys are the community so here we are well you can apply for all the all the mention you can apply for is that right as far as we know it's just a matter of and having specifics and having specifics you guys one thing well the books are terrible I mean they're very outdated so is our math curriculum well the curriculum is so expensive having something like this come in is the
033best way to just be able to cuz it's tens of thousands of dollarars but I would also recomend like math and language arts in one year that is a lot um one other thing I wanted to say about Dan's idea is has there been any thought that we have had a garden in the past but it was maintained by a parent who worked on the Oz all summer and could maintain it so like if we had a greenhouse or a garden or something like that wires season and more than you know I mean the teachers aren going to stick around to do that all summer is what I'm saying so you have to think about sustainability of what it would be and how much the kids are actually involved is what I would recommend so
034I mean I'm not opposed to like something with that but we might want to think about if we could do it more in the fall unless in summer to where it's done by when school's out it's done which you could do you could do starting plants or something like that you sell them all right and we've done chickens where pass and all that stuff um that's probably really just a smaller scale um you know so I think we could get creative with that um so what would you need for writing time a lot of and that is what OPI grants when they're Federal should we get somebody who could write the grants then we're spending money without knowing to get it so if we're okay spending money I don't know that we'll have I I
035don't know how much it cost I don't know how much a grant writer typically cost yeah um so we have to be willing to foot the bill not knowing we're going to get it or not guess the language arts one would probably be the wisest don't you guys think and it's a five year right five years this is the first so it be like yeah four four and a half right which we the one that gets the $200,000 we definitely so are you saying John that one's all you can write right now let me write one first this one's a big one yeah okay and then I could work on other ones possibly get help as needed but this one is a lot of this is hundreds of thousands of dollars for reading materials Prof
036salaries well then it sounds like we should focus on that I think we should do we need to uh make any motions on that well you asked because the next item is so part of this grant is an insurance so if I'm going to write this grant they want to know more than the principal um is saying they want this um they actually want all board members as a requirement as well as having some of the staff um so I've actually made a page here and if you can do a motion and approve that the board backs this and supports this grant then I would need each of your signatures for that that's actually a requirement that the board backs not just that would be the next item on the agenda okay think Montana reads
037literacy I make a motion to approve all in favor of so okay PA Emily you're still signing this one you're not going want that right now or we can do it at the end either way I don't looks like we already got some signatures here yeah so if Emily's not in she doesn't no she does she's still technically a board member you need to say I then I did oh you did all [Music] righty all righty on to policy 23 20 field trips and excursions very last page so 2320 is about field trips excursions outdoor education and uh in the second paragraph it says travel outside of the state must be approved by the administrator and the Board of Trustees at least six months in advance the administrator May approve all other field trips um
038and on hindsight with especially a field trip coming up that we like to do six months seems like a long time and when you're going to a state nearby and then the next item I'm going to ask for your permission to go to Idaho um so I'd like to ask the board if you're willing to change that to two months instead of six months um with being right near the border and being close to other states sometimes know six months in advance I think when the lawyer wrote this policy they were thinking about going to like Washington DC in Florida and things like that um so it's my request to um change only that word six to two you want to make a motion I can make a motion we're gonna make a motion to
039uh approve the change of the word six to two months [Music] no so the next item is to approve a field trip to Idaho and now it will would be within the time of the policy since you've made that change uh I've been working with Miss gruba on a field trip opportunity that we have um is to Idaho that be we want to do an incentive trip for the middle schoolers uh something for them to work for and the qualifications will be to have all their work in as well as having um no more than two minor behavior referrals uh within this time frame which is very achievable by all the students um and what we'd like to do is bring them to Silverwood Theme Park for a science and physics day um and I've
040brought high school students to this before what they do is they actually do science experiments and they have a curriculum that goes along with that but actually it's the science of a theme park so the physics of roller coasters um there's a whole pleer of different experiments that they can do and actually then go to the theme park and do those experiments that day as far as activities and get to ride some roller coasters and uh some fun rides it'd be a long trip but cost wise um there's only six middle schoolers we can fit in a district uh vehicle not have to take a bus um and that'll keep the cost quite low we're going to do it in a day um it'll be a long day but we'll do it in a day
041Andel so cost will be very minimal I'm asking for the board approval for this trip done loved it it was amazing it was a long day we stayed over really yeah no that was I didn't get to go on that that's right that was Okay who wants to make a motion on that road trip I all I make motion to approve okay legislative updates oh my gosh I could spend days on this then you could tell us what's going on so I have the opportunity to go to um and not only did I go to a conference and learn and get to connect but I also spent some time at the capital and was able to have some one-on-one meetings with some of our Senators and representatives um I met with our local Senator Dei
042um who we are now they did a redistrict um so we are now with st reges and Superior um instead of with going like towards Miss um and had some great conversations and really reminded people about with and try to get them to commit to come out here see our school um and visit us and make sure that small schools aren't being forgotten um there's a huge amount of bills and I really encourage people if you have any time to really follow all the bills that affect education right now um because there campus bills they are looking at completely changing the funding for education in our state right now um that could really benefit us or if it goes the other way could really hurt all schools in so one of the things I was
043asked to do uh we have the Coalition of Advocates which is taking several groups in Montana that's working together to advocate for public schools uh masbo that Jessica is a part of M which is a Montana Education Association and tsba that you're all a part of the school boards Association Montana quality education Coalition that we're a part of and then School administrators Montana part of uh so all those organizations are working together to advocate for schools so I was asked uh by them to be a part of a day where we actually went and advocated for certain bills as well as sat in on some bills and testified and Senators we actually have bigun you know all the different senors um one of the bills that I really want to talk about that I was
044talking with Senators about is called the Stars act um so the Stars Act is going to increase um funding in many ways in Montana and one of the ways is that District that is able to meet a minimum base salary for teachers is going to get extra money from the state and that's going to bump the base salary to 42 650 4165 this year for 26 yeah it's 11 times the quality educator payment um so that will really help districts we're in a position where ours is not that there's some districts that their pay scale is so that there's no way they could possi but I would be wrong um yeah so very doable for us be it'll benefit us if build houses so right right we can meet those requirements that they put in
045part of the general fund funding formula includes the quality educator payment which is 38 something I think this year 3,800 um so for every quality educator that a district employs they get this chunk of money and as it currently stands if you have a new teacher within the first three years you get double that so what the Stars Act is actually doing is saying for every quality educator you have we're going to give double for all of them and it's going to include the clerk now it's going to if we end up having any um emergency authorized teachers need to be we can't find a certified staff so we need to you know do an emergency authorization it includes them um so it what it's essentially doing is right now our funding is so dependent
046on kiddos that when we lose kiddos it really hits hard which is why we were 40 some, you know down last year um what this is saying is we understand when you lose kiddos you can't always lose staff and so they're kind of trying to equal out the formula a little bit um because I'm sorry if we lose 10 more kids we're still going to have to keep our three teachers I mean bare minimum we're going to need that so um that's kind of the thought behind the whole thing and they've been tweaking it in the last even before the legislator started meeting um the clerks was a new addition the emergency authorization was a new addition um and so yeah and and so it will um the nice thing is the governor's already included
047it in his budget so there's a very solid chance they're really not seeing a a the case of it not passing and so um it's just by try to working out the Kinks making sure they have all the votes and so far it's been sailing right off through so um it will definitely revamp the general fund formula a little bit which is good for us especially with kiddos dropping um it'll help stabilize us a little bit is that Comm across the St yes yeah um Missoula County um just looking at the October counts um majority of the schools saw some sort of decrease not all but the majority everybody talk very few districts and that's just part of Montana part of this bill also um is more than just um teacher pay there's extra money
048for CP for districts and there's also a provision in there that uh districts that are impacted by high housing costs will actually be able to increase their budget Authority so we would be able um because we're certainly impacted by high housing most of us on the west side of the state are we would be able to ask for more money if be so it has that possibility in there um so there's a lot in this bill that is really that's a state that state funding it was written by representative Lou Jones and then the Coalition of Advocates so all of us looking for schools he's a Republican his name's been attached to most Educational Funding bills for forever he's huge in education uh and working closely with schools to do that so that's the Stars
049act it's House Bill 252 um so that's something I'm following really closely um and when I was there it was being heard by the house um committee for education and it passed that um so we're hoping to get it through the house and um there's a lot of other bills House Bill 15 uh that was written by representative Bey out of Hamilton um so that's actually going to apply a 3% uh inflation uh benefit and that's looking like it will pass um both the Senate and the house um so that's able to give us 3% inflation increase even though inflation's way more than 3% that's actually the cap at the state level that we're able to ask for there's another inflation reconciliation bill that will be helpful too um so we're hoping that passes as
050well to help with inflation um I'm hoping that you all get the mtsba emails um they actually do daily and weekly updates on all these bills um Lance Melton is the executive director for Montana Association uh and talk about somebody that knows everything going on in the capital um he follows things so well um and those updates are really beneficial so what was his name Lance M but you should be getting those in your email if you're not let one of us know and we'll make sure that you're getting those emails um there'll be a lot of them but they're really beneficial and that they'll ask you to talk to your senators or email them to be able there's different things right now one of the things that they want to do is actually take
051away budget Authority from local school boards and be able to say that you're not going to be able to ask for am that has been they also want to get rid of the sunset clause on certain bonds andies fact technology uh fund right now we are grandfathered in for to be able to stay there's a bill that would take them away from school boards um so I really urge everybody right now to follow education uh there is lots of good things happening and things that would be very negative for schools have anyone wants toed about stars right now this week uh House Bill 265 and House Bill 266 are being heard right now in the House Education committee uh and those are beneficial we definitely would uh be able to uh increase funding based upon
052these bills um there's Senate Bill 204 that is the one that would get rid of the sunset or grandfather clause for a lot of the levies it also would take away ask' so who would would ask for it then how would that how would you ever get another so you wouldn't be able toar ask for as much and it actually um talks about how long they could last last as long yeah one of the things that we're encountering in Montana is that there's a contradiction and you hear this a lot I spent a lot of time on the S floor where there's people that want more local control but there's also people that want more State control and less local also there's this kind of battle between it and Montana traditionally has been very much
053local cons and a lot of the laws and bills supported that one of the bills um that's going forward is for the science of reading uh and saying that all schools have to teach the science of reading and in theory the science of reading is something that's very beneficial it's evidence based um but it really shouldn't be the state senate saying that needs to happen it needs to be local school boards local school boards should be in charge of curriculum they should be in charge of those aspects not the state senate and it's actually part of our Constitution that really says that that needs to be a local Coalition but this is probably going to pass one of the things that we've really worked uh with the Senators on is taking away some of the
054language actually said teachers cannot teach these certain reading strategies and have a whole list of those um which really goes against um you know teaching in general if there's a strategy that's working for a certain student we should not have Senator saying you can't teach a strategy that could work for but that was part of the bill and they've assured us they're going to take that out um on that Sunset B no that was on the science of I don't have that number in front of me um but there's a lot of things where they're taking away local control um and this is happening in our nation in general um but in Montana we're seeing a lot of that where there's a lot of talk about making sure we have local control then there's a
055lot of deals that don't support that so I'll kind of end there I could go on and on but I just um urge people to follow this um it's easy to email your um all their emails are on there you can actually go on the state site and look up the bill you can email everybody thank you everyone okay information on Pass upom events okay the next meeting will be March 10th at 5:00 meeting aded