001All right, it's 5:30. I'll close meeting to order. Start with the pledge allegiance. There's a flag in the back. I pledge algiance 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. All right, we have all members of the board present along with administration and members of the public. And just another reminder, please make sure you sign in at the back. First, we'll start with public comment. Public comment is reserved for items that are not on the agenda. It is for members of the public to give input on public matters, not personal issues. To avoid violations of privacy, a member of the public wishing to address the board will not be allowed to make comments about any
002student, staff member, or member of the public during his or her time to speak. To maintain order and allow everyone the opportunity to speak, the chair shall limit an individual's time to 3 minutes. And a reminder, this is for comment only. It is not questions and not for discussion. So, who would like to speak tonight? Sam, do I need to hold this up? >> My name is Lauren Robbins. Um, and if we're ready, we'll start. I want to be very clear about something at the outset. Um, I was never opposed to a 4-day school week, and even now, I don't really have a strong preference one way or the other. My concern has always been and continues to be our students. When the push for a 4-day school week first began, I asked administration a
003very important question. Given that the available data shows that 4-day school weeks are not often beneficial for student outcomes, what safeguards would be put into place to ensure that Philipsburg students would not fall into that pattern. One of the administrators said, "We're going to wing it and then go from there." I said then, and I still believe now, that that approach is not acceptable when children's education is at stake. That moment instantly painted me as an enemy to this cause. However, the response to my question was disappointing. Um, but how I was treated is not the issue here. The issue is our students. At some point, we have to stop turning a blind eye to data. Data doesn't carry emotion or any personal agendas. It simply reflects reality. And right now, that reality should concern
004all of us. Using the comparison that Mr. Gates raised last meeting between Philipsburg and Drummond, instructional time is nearly identical. Yet Drummond is performing near the top of the state while Philipsburg is performing in the bottom 5%. This can be found on OPI. That suggests that schedule itself is likely not the determining factor. It points instead to issues of leadership, administration, and how our schools are being run and supported. I want to be clear that this is not about denying grace or ignoring the complexity of education. But grace without accountability comes at a cost and that cost is being carried by our students. In many prof uh professions, prolonged poor outcomes result in change. If a surgeon had negative patient outcomes year after year, they would not continue business as usual. If in one of
005my previous careers I repeatedly fell trees on customers homes, I would not expect to keep my job without serious evaluation and improvement. Education should not be held to a lower standard. Our students deserve the best we have to offer. So my question to the board is this. How will you ensure that parents are fully informed, welcomed when they seek involvement, and given transparent access to information? and what concrete steps are being taken now to turn around student outcomes. Because at the end of the day, this conversation is not about adults. It's not about politics or preferences. It is about whether our system is truly serving the children it exists for. Thank you. >> Who would like to go next? To the members of the school board and those who have joined us today, I want
006to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak and do my part of saying why the 4 day should stay. Over the past couple of over the past couple of years, our schools operated on a Florida day school week. While returning to a tra traditional 5-day school schedule may seem like an ideal choice, the 4-day week has proven to be more beneficial for students, teachers, and the school community as a whole. For these reasons, our schools should continue with the 4-day schedule. One major benefit of a school 4-day school week is improved student well-being. Having an extra day off allows students more time to rest, catch up on speed, and manage stress. Many students use the extra day off to complete homework, study for exams, or participate in extracurricular activities. As a result, students
007often come to school more focused, motivated, and ready to learn during during the four instructural days. The 4-day school week also helps teachers and staff. Teachers can use extra day for lesson planning, grading, and professional development while taking time away from instruction. This leads to better prepared lessons and less burnout among staff. At our school, we have a large population of teachers that aren't from Philipsburg and have to drive long distances. The less driving the teachers have to do, the less stress they stressed they are. When teachers are less stressed and better prepared, classroom learning improves for students. Another important advantage is cost savings for the school. Operating one fewer day each week reduces expenses related to transportation, utilities, and cafeteria services. These savings can be redirected towards e educational resources, technology, and student programs.
008Keeping the 4 day week allows a school to use its budget more efficiently. Finally, the attend finally attendance improve often improves with a 4-day schedule. Appointments and family comments uh can be scheduled on on the off day, meaning fewer students miss class. Better attendance leads to stronger academic performance and more consistent learning environment. In conclusion, the 4-day school week supports student health, teacher effectiveness, financial responsibility, and attendance. Returning to a 5-day schedule remove these benefits and place unnecessary stress on students and staff. For these reasons, our school should stay should remain on a 4-day school week. Just remember the students are the one waking up every morning. Do your share in helping our school stay at the best it can be. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak? Yeah, go ahead.
009Sorry. You go next. Okay. Just a few minutes going extemporaneous. Scare everybody. Um, some of you know me. I'm Bert Jones. I've been in the community. I've lived here for about 11 years. And um I don't have kids in the school, but all three of my kids went through the public schools up in Callisbel, Montana. When I first got to town here, our school was really a model. I mean, it was really something that the town was very proud of and everybody was proud of because the performance was so high. kids were coming from out of town and out of our district to come to this school because it was the best best opportunity in the area and uh and the academics were amazing. Um we had great support for special ed programs like 504
010programs, the IEPs. We had really great qualified instructors who were helping. We had in-person dual credit classes. They were helping kids earn college credit. Uh, and a lot of them took advantage of it. And it was really, it was an amazing program. It was I, if I'm not mistaken, it was the first in the state to offer dual credit. We're we're on this trajectory now that is concerning to me and is concerning to me because it's so widely out there in the community. And that trajectory is is the opposite where kids are now homeschooling or going to outside schools to get the best education possible. I think this trajectory that we're seeing has somehow been reframed as a referendum on a 4-day school week. And the people I talk to don't care about the 4-day
011school week, except in as much as it may impinge on preparing our kids to go to the next level academically or as training for a vocation, whatever it is. Um the the crux of the issue is how are we how are we training our kids? there is talk in the community stuff you can pick up on OPI about our performance compared to Drummond about uh you know us being a targeted school which I'm not even sure exactly what that means but it can't be good and the the the point is if the board and the administration will commit to transparency having open forums not hear what I heard when I was on the board about you can't say this you can't say this you can't do this you can't do that. When I was a
012board member, it frustrated me as a community member even more so. Uh you I think it's it behooves all of you to solicit input and fix the problems, acknowledge the problems, fix the problems, and get back to where we were 11 years ago when I got here. Thanks for your time. >> All right, Ellen. Good evening members of the school board and thank you for the opportunity to speak today about why the 4-day school week should remain in our district. The 4-day schedule has a positive impact on students mental health, motivation, and overall performance. Having one extra day to rest, complete work, study, and participate in sports, jobs, or family responsibilities help students feel less overwhelmed and more balanced. When we return to school after the long weekend, many of us feel more focused and
013ready to learn. A healthy balance between school and personal life helps prevent burnout and supports better behavior and academic effort in the classroom. After talking with many classmates and peers, there's also a strong concern about what would happen if we returned to a 5-day school week. Several students said they have consider considered transferring to Drummond because they prefer the flexibility and balance that the 4-day schedule provides. Losing students would not only affect school spirit and enrollment, but would also impact funding and class sizes. Keeping the 4-day week helps our school remain competitive and appealing to families in our area. In addition, many students believe that absences would increase if we went back to 5day. With more school days, students would likely miss class for appointments, work obligations, or mental health breaks. The extra day off
014currently allows families to schedule appointments without pulling students out of class, helping improve attendance and consistency in learning. Another important point is that our students are still receiving the same quality of education as we would in a 5-day week. Our longer 56-minute class period with a 29minute advisory session in the morning gives teachers enough time to fully explain lessons, answer questions, and make sure students understand the material. It also gives students time to start or complete assignments in class, which reduces stress and improves learning. 100% of students and 72% of parents, according to the 4-day school week parent survey, prefer the 4-day schedule because a longer class period allows us to stay focused, be more productive, and actually understand what we are learning instead of feeling rushed. Overall, the 4-day school week supports students success,
015improves attendance, keep students engaged, and helps our school remain strong and competitive. I respectfully encourage you to continue this schedule for the benefits of students, staff, and to our community. Thank you for your time, consideration, and listening to students voices. Hi, my name is Brandy Brown and I've served this school district as a substitute teacher, a parah, a secretary, and a parent for over 20 years. First, I want to address the faculty and administration. I have the utmost respect and ad admiration for each of you and the work that you guys do every day. I have per personally witnessed the improvements and positive changes that have been made over the past few years. You have transformed the overall dynamics, morale, and happiness of our school for both students and staff. These changes have increased excitement
016for learning, for teaching, classroom experiences, extracurricular activities, and athletics. The level of respect, communication, and positive interaction throughout our school is a huge accomplishment, and I sincerely thank you and commend you for it. I now want to talk about the support that I have for the 4-day school week. Since this change, I've witnessed a noticeable improvement in student attitudes, energy levels, and the desire to learn and be involved in school life. Our teachers have always shown dedication and commitment to providing a safe and a positive and engaging learning environment. However, with the 4-day week, students are coming back more focused, refreshed, and ready to learn. The 3-day break allows students time for sports, homework, personal responsibilities, and it helps them to return to school with renewed energy and motivation. As a result, students are learning
017more effectively and retaining more information. I have also seen stronger relationships within our school community. Respect, communication, friendships, and the cooperation among students and between students and and staff have improved. Students are helping one another with schoolwork, with projects and athletics, and showing greater respect for their peers and their teachers. These positive changes speak for themselves and demonstrate the value of continuing the 4-day school week. I believe it has played a significant role in the progress we're seeing today and our community should be proud and grateful for our school system and everyone who is contributing to their success. Is there anyone else? Thank you. Um I'm Sue Sweeney. Um, as we continue to assess the pardon mic oh sorry as we continue to assess the benefits and challenges of the 4-day week I believe we've
018lost the focus of what schools are all about the students instead of approaching this with the lens of should we keep the 4day the discussion should revolve around the question how will this help to improve student outcomes a small shift in mindset can make a huge difference last month survey results were shared When parents were asked if the 4day has affected your child academically, it would be hard for parents to think other than positive when well over 80% of our students are on the honor role. Although this is the perception the school is giving less than 20% are able to score at grade level in math and less than 50% in reading. This gap needs to be addressed. Why are students struggling? Is it that the curriculum is not matching the assessments? Do we need
019to take a good look at our grade level and content area expectations? Do students have enough time for independent practice? The beautiful thing about surveys is that it can help you generate more questions to help answer how will this improve student outcomes. Another survey question for parents and staff was whether there was enough time to finish the curriculum. There is a big difference between finishing a curriculum and students actually mastering it. If that question was worded, do at least 50% or my child in the parent case master grade level or content area curriculum by the end of the year, those results may have been dramatically different. If 70% of the staff still say yes, that mastering is occurring, then that same question needs to be addressed. Why is there a significant gap between mastery, perception
020of mastery, and test scores? And how can we improve these student outcomes? It was also shared that six of the seven schools in our district are on the 4-day week. Of those six, only two are currently in good standing academically with OPI, Lincoln and Drummond. Drummond's calendar was compared to ours, but it was not mentioned that Drummond recognized a decline in scores right away and changed to a hybrid model where the first Friday of each month was added as an instructional day. These Fridays tend to stay instructional compared to the Fridays that Philips for added that revolved around homecoming, Halloween, Christmas, and outdoor days. I challenge you to all use this data and tonight's data that we're going to receive to generate more questions. These questions will help you make laser focused goals to help
021improve student learning. School improvement is hard work and you have some amazing teachers who know how to do that work. But there's not time in the calendar for teacher collaboration or PD although that is a strategic planning goal. Please put on the lens of improving student outcomes first and foremost in your decision making. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else who'd like to speak? I'm going to take part of my three minutes. I know we have some county police officers back here and I know that we should be supporting everybody in our community and I think they need a LITTLE >> All right. So, I actually I'm just going to speak loud and use my coach's voice. I I just think we all realize we're all on the same team and this is all
022about the kids. Um, you know, I was an administrator, you know, 11 years ago, 13 years ago, and all those programs that were talked about, special ed, 504 that we have, we still have the college classes, those types of things, those are still here. Um, and I actually agree with a lot of the things that Sue said. Um, but I think that, uh, I think that it's great that people are here. Uh, they're getting informed. It's also about how you talk, how you communicate. Okay, that that's what I'm going to talk about. I'm not out to get anybody, but I'm going to speak the way I feel. Uh there's no words. This is a letter to the administrators. Okay, there's no words that you can speak to someone who is committed to misunderstanding. Some people
023don't listen to understand. They listen to the story they've already decided. You can try to explain yourself clearly, calmly, honestly, emotionally, but they still twist your intentions into something that fits their narrative. I'm not saying that about everybody. So, trying to win over someone who is invested in misreading you is like emotional quicksand. I'm sure you're tired of banging your head against the wall. Just know that the harder that you try, the deeper you're going to sink. And in the end, you're going to lose your trust, your self-respect, and your whole sense of reality. All all in an effort to satisfy someone who never really wanted to understand you in the first place. So, um, the number one thing that I teach my own children is how to treat other people. All right? I literally
024told my son this week that I don't care about his grades as much as I care about him being kind and respectful. I heard a quote that read, "Never look down on anyone unless you're helping him up." Okay. At this school, we help each other up. And we have not helped each other up any better than we have since our current administration has been here. Cuz I've been here for 13 years. Our school culture is amazing because your kindness towards our kids. Our test scores, as I'm sure you're going to be happy to share eventually, are solid. Our teachers are amazing. Our students are incredible. Thank you for being great people. Billsburg Schools is a great place to work because of the teachers, because of who's in this building, because of the people. We're in
025a good in a good place. And sometimes someone needs to stand up and say thank you. All right. I appreciate the administration. I appreciate everybody that gets on the school board, our community. Thank you to everyone who came to support the school tonight. Means a lot. Sorry. Is there anyone else? All right. First name Josh, last name Burch. So, I want to speak on this 4day school week vote coming up. I'm going to start off by unfortunately stating what no one is willing to say. This really isn't about 4-day school weeks or the students are not learning because we are not a 5day school week. What this really about is a handful of people that I'm sure are in this room tonight that dislike our current superintendent. This is nothing but good old-fashioned small town
026bullying. This is just another way for these individuals to try and tear down the superintendent and try to make him look bad. >> We can't talk about individual. They have already succeeded in bullying the elementary superintendent out of here. >> Okay, I'm sorry. I'm going to have to stop you if you're going to talk about individuals. That's not what this public comment is for. >> I'm going to continue. I just find it laughable that these same people that used to work here are the ones trying to get them out of here. >> Okay. I'm sorry. >> They are the ones that left the school. If >> you can't stop, I will have to ask. >> So, I want I'll finish up. All right. So, just to be clear, public comments is not for comments about
027any individual staff member, member of the public or students. So, if anybody else has a general comment they'd like to make, they can come up at this time. Okay. Well, I had to do because I had a lot longer. But um >> the one thing I want I want to say is >> pick up the mic, please. >> The one thing I want to say is that um I know that everyone here, every one of you, all of you included the administration and the board and all these people, all all we want is the best for the kids and the students, right? and we and we want them to learn and we want them to have fun and we want them to be refreshed after their long weekend. And that that's that's all I have
028to say. I just um have a couple things of input to say and that's it. But um I'd like to it'll be interesting to see if there's changes in any plans. I I I enjoyed working 10our days when I worked here in the summertime all the time. I I don't I'm not against it, but I am for the students and our I'm mostly worried about our test scores and what the students are learning and the disconnect between the um the disconnect that comes along when the kids are on the honor roll. But then we're our school is in the bottom 5% of you know with the state outcomes. So I have to say that comparing us to Drummond works for the schedule but that's where it stops. Drum Drummond made changes to theirs and did
029their highra and their their test their test scores show that we don't compare there. Only our schedules are comparing now. Um, I don't believe according to OPI that our test scores have really improved much. They have with math in a few classes here and there, but that's not how test scores work at OPI. Um, I it's if you look at OPI, the test scores have not gone up. So, saying they have is misleading, but I know what Mr. Kelner's saying with his math classes. I understand that, too. And and that's all all a good thing. Um the survey for the public wasn't that easy to get to. I know my 92 year old aunt was kind of sad she couldn't go on out but she couldn't make it to the school. Um I believe that
030in this uh previous survey probably um I'm thinking that um before that staff retention I think that um that was taken by for all the staff that were here before the four-week began were in that um little number of 60%. But how many were tain were how many teachers were retained when they were hired after the 4-day week? I I'm thinking two and I can count seven or more that lasted one year or less. So retention really doesn't have anything to do with it. I think teachers would teach here whether they were four or five days because we have a we have a great community and a great school and there are great people here to work with. So anyway, I had a little more, but I'll stop cuz I I'll talk to you again
031another day. Is there anyone else? I didn't remember. I'm currently employed by the district as the kitchen director, head cook. Over the past eight years, I have also worked as a substitute and a paraprofessional at the elementary school. During the time my children have attended school here, there have been at least five different administrations. Under the 5-day school week, attendance was very difficult for our family due to my son's disabilities. He required weekly occupational and physical therapy appointments which caused him to miss at least one day of school every week. In addition to those appointments, there were also times when doctor visits required him to miss additional days. This resulted in attendance issues that were completely beyond his control and ultimately caused him to miss close to 30 days of school, an entire month. When
032the current administration proposed moving to a 4-day school week, I strongly supported it. For our family, this change made an enormous difference. My son was able to attend school consistently with his peers without sacrificing essential medical care. The 4-day week simply worked for us, and I believe there are other parents of exceptional children who feel the same way. My son excelled and was eventually inducted into the National Honor Society. I recognize that the transition brought staff changes, including people leaving or being let go. Change is not easy and not everyone adapts quickly. Over the years, I have also learned that growth requires evolution and adjustment even when it is uncomfortable. I also have serious concerns about the financial feasibility of switching back to a 5-day week. I do not believe the district can do so
033easily or responsibly. In my opinion, returning to a 5-day schedule would be more detrimental to students, especially those who have already adjusted to the 4-day week. Stability matters and many students are now accustomed to this structure. Additionally, I do not believe it is fair to rely solely on test scores pulled from the internet to evaluate student success. Test results do not reflect what a child may be dealing with outside of school, which can significant significantly affect performance. Some students do not fully engage in testing at all and simply rush through it, making the data unreliable. Finally, I would like to ask where is parental parental accountability in this conversation. The responsibility for low test scores or poor grades cannot rest solely on the school. While teachers should absolutely be held accountable, students must also take
034responsibility for their learning and parents must be held accountable s for supporting their child's education. Thank you. Is there anyone else? Stephanie, I I will use my teacher voice, although it's a little shaky right now. Bear with me. I DID NOT WRITE A SPEECH. I'm here as a parent and um I really want to come and rip on our superintendent, but I can't do that. But really, I am here as a parent to speak to parents. And my question to all of other parents out there, what are we doing? Because I want Tommy to quit, right? This is hard on my family, okay? But we are losing good people because of the way we are acting towards them. So, it needs to stop. And I know data, I love data. I'm a teacher and I've
035made data driven decisions every day as well. I want to see the data and you but tell me what's working. Start coming up here and telling these people what is working and let's start building off of that. Thank you. Okay. Is there anyone else? Yes. Um Sorry, I'm really nervous. I can get up in front of the kids all day long, but intimidating. Um, I had a daughter that graduated from here, and let me tell you, this community is fabulous. My oldest son graduated from a graduation class of,500. That's half the population of Granite County. My son was a test score. He was a faceless name in a crowd. That school district had 18,000 students. Can you imagine your child going to school every day being taught by a stranger? Never once did I meet
036principles. I did not see them interacting in classes. I did not see them taking over library to help. Never once did I meet a superintendent because he was godlike and so far above everybody else that he didn't want to mix with the minions. What we have here is extraordinary. I have only been working here since 2024, but I have seen this school in action by my daughter being here. And I can definitely tell you her want to be at school and her want to do things in this community changed dramatically and positively when our administration came in because I have seen more support for us as teachers and staff and kids than I ever saw out of the previous ones that were here. I didn't know them exactly personally, but I saw how my daughter
037reacted. And to me, that means more than anything else. And I would much rather my daughter move back here, get married, and my grandkids come to this school because I have seen the extraordinary measures that these teachers go through every day. And I think that's amazing. And I couldn't even imagine going back to a school where my children were just a test. There's so much more going on inside our classrooms than just test scores. I watch kids takes tests. They come down to this bedroom and they're a nervous wreck. Do you really think kids are going to remember everything that they're learning when they're worried about, "Oh my gosh, I got to do good on this test." No. They're nervous and worried and panicking and they're like, "Oh my gosh, my mom and dad are
038gonna be so mad at me." There's so much more going on in our classrooms. And our teachers come every day and they bring the full force of everything they have. I've seen it with all of them. And I stand in 100% support of them and our administration because I see it every day at work. Thank you. ANYONE ELSE? >> Hopefully you can hear me. You all know who I am. I'm Bob Maguire. I'm the head of maintenance here at Philipsburg School. Just not having the kids, faculty, whoever here on Fridays is a huge savings in energy. To turn all the lights on in both these buildings has to be astronomical. I don't know what the big problem is with the 4-day week. Personally, I love it. I was retired before I came here and now
039they're wanting to go back to a 5-day week. I'm not going to do that. I like to have Fridays when the kids and faculty isn't here to repair things. Trust me, as someone that fixes things all the time, you have to have a day where no one is there, where you can call someone that is at work to order things, to buy things, to make our school keep running. The thing that scares me the most about our current situation in the county is we're having an influx of people that don't have kids. Anything we can do to draw faculty and kids to this school is beneficial. The 4-day week is part of that. Um, I don't really know what else to say other than I think we all need to be kinder to one another.
040Thank you. >> Okay, last call. And one more person. Is there anyone else? Okay, thank you all for your input. Moving on, our next item is approve the minutes. >> Please stay because we do have a video to show. We'll put some more. Please stay. Don't leave. >> I move to approve the minutes from January 13, 2026 regular board meeting. I second. Does the board have any comments or questions? All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? All right. Motion passes. Moving on to correspondence, recognition of individuals and the administrative reports. So, in our board packets, we have correspondence from students and faculty. And then that's for everyone's review. And we'll start with the elementary principal report. >> Start with the video. >> Oh yeah, sorry. I forgot the video. Start with the video. >>
041So with you three board members, sorry. Um if we can pull chairs out. Uh thank you everybody for coming tonight. Um heavy topics, but I think everybody it does have to be open. And you know, just to show a light of our schools, we've been working really hard on this. This is not the final product. We do want to add pieces, but just to shine some light of the positivity that is going on in the school. This is a 13-minute recruitment video that um you know showcases the school, the students, and the town. And why I say it's not finished is I do have some local businesses in there that missed out and I want to make sure that they're seen as well because if it's a recruitment video, you know, looking out here, I
042see I want people to know, hey, I can get a haircut in Peter, Montana. I I can go to the grocery store in Peber, Montana. I can go to the dentist in Peber, Montana. I can go to the hospital. We're missing some things. I can There's a hardware store. So, without further ado, um for enjoyment for the kids, for the parents, this is something we're working on that's not finished. >> Enjoy this. We got next week. >> Hey guys, this is Eric, producer, director of the Philsburg School District promo. You just watched. You watched Jake and Addy give us a tour of the community. We're wrapping up the production of this video you just watched. I tried to get Jake and Addie come up here and do a tour. However, school work is a priority
043and they have finals while I'm down here. So, I figured I'd just come up here and kind of run you through the one of the other big draws of living and working in Hillsburg, uh, Discovery Ski Area, Disco Inferno. We're going to get off the chair lift here and give you give you a little tour. Yep. So, like I said, that is not finished. There's still work to be done. If anybody has any ideas or comments, you want to like email, go ahead and talk to me, put it on PDF. We can go over, we can keep making that better. Like I said, you don't stop at Chicago when you're going to New York. I feel like we're halfway there. I want to make it better. I want to make it short hyperlinks, too, so
044it's not such a long video. Like, it could be the students, the school, the town, and that way people are watching like a minute and a half and not the whole thing, and it's hyperl. So the the idea, the dreams there, the foundations there like with everything I I think we can do great things and it just want to showcase it. Showcasing the town cuz we are a community. It takes a community to raise children. >> Thank you for that. Great. Okay. Uh next we have the elementary principal report. Does the board have any questions for me? Well, maybe anything you want to pass on? No, I just want to thank the board for all their support over the years where I've been here and um you know, I appreciate all the students and the
045families that were supportive of me and um yeah, it was a really great opportunity and I learned and I grew a lot and um very appreciative for my time here. So, THANK YOU for you. Thank you. such a great staff and such great people to work with every day. Thank you so much. Well, thank you and thank you for your professionalism, your care of the students, all your time and dedication and everything that you've done here. We're going to miss you, but we wish you all the best in your next endeavor that you go on. Um, and I do want to talk to our community as a whole. You know, without the dedication of our administrators and staff, we really don't have a school here. And if all of the negative comments and the harassment
046become the norm, we are not going to find supportive people that want to come here. We are going to gain a reputation of being a place that educators do not want to come to. And it makes me very concerned for the future of our school. Last year, the board and staff and administration spent many hours working on a five-year strategic plan to put in place of how we're going to build this school and make it the best it could possibly be. We opened it up for the community to be involved that anybody could come help us build this plan. We had a few people that showed up, but not very many. And then even last week we had a quarterly review of our plan that was open for everybody to come hear what we are
047doing, what we are planning, how we want to move forward and we had five people attend to listen to where we are at. This is your chance as a community to get involved to help us make this a better place to help solve any of these issues that we've been talking about and how we can all work together to make it better. So I encourage you all to come out. I am grateful for all of you who are sharing your positive feedback. We do need to continue to hear that constructive feedback and accountability matter, but there's a difference between working together to improve and tearing people down. And we're just trying to serve our students here. Everyone here deserves respect and support. And if we want strong leaders to stay or new leaders to come
048in, we need to be a positive community that shows up positively for our staff, our administration, and our students. And that is what we are all here for. And our students deserve nothing less. Thank you. >> So, next is the superintendent report. I wanted to just comment that I appreciate Mrs. Talent's time. She was my swim buddy as special operations people say. And what I tell students, we have each other's back. We support each other. One of the prospector models is don't leave anybody behind. We work together as a team. Always have somebody there. Work as a team. Don't do it alone. And you're never alone. Once a prospector, always a prospector. And so May, I wish you luck in your future endeavors. You're going to do great. I think that curriculum team that got
049you is one lucky devil that stole them stole you from us. Like I'm saddened that you're leaving. I'm happy for you. I think you're going to sell really good and you're going to be a great worker. It was our loss there. I appreciate everything you've done for the students of our community between library and the curriculums and the odd jobs. You you've done an outstanding job and you're going to be very very hard to replace. And on that note, I don't want to replace Mrs. Talon with the first name that comes up just to fill the spot. I want to make sure that the students of Philipsburg are served with the same adability like as many town. She did amazing. And I hope we can find somebody that can replace that light. And it's going
050to be very hard to replace you. Very hard. I think we're going to be fine, but we're going to be calling you off for help, too. So, we appreciate you. I appreciate you. >> I appreciate all of you. >> When I call, don't hit ignore, please. >> Send a voicemail. >> I will. >> Thank you. >> All right. Does the board have any questions for Tom on the superintendent report? >> Anything else you want to point out? just, you know, I put the picture right there, guys, of the ladder. It's important to take smaller steps. I know I know we want to see leaps and bounds. I know we want to see these great strides. Like, I do too. But if I can visualize this right here, you can only jump so high before you
051fail. Like, I used a reference a few years back ago in PD, it's like pulling a bow back. you know, you know, you're pulling that bow back and you're putting in all that effort and that work and that time and a community might not understand that we are in that pulling a bow back. New administration, you know, the co thing got over, you know, we're on this 4 day. I think once this arrow takes off, there's no stopping it. We're building a flywheel and it's really hard to get this flywheel pushed, but only with support and respect can we get this off the ground and moving. And once it gets going, there's no stopping us. There's no stopping me. I have a I come from a stock of Golden Glove boxers. My dad was the
052Golden Glove boxers of Montana, North Dakota. And I'm a fighter. I'm not going to not fight for our students. I'm not going to not fight for our community. I'm not going to not fight for our school. Last week, I was at the superintendent meeting with all the superintendents in western Montana, and we all had the same common voice. What is wrong with our boncast test when it shows that the state of Montana's 2% proficient or 20% proficient? Why isn't OPI talking about their test? All the superintendents agreed. When we asked OPI about it, they said the same is happening across the board. Superintendents are questioning the test. Is OPI going to have ownership and put out a statement? We don't know. What districts are doing is finding their own district assessments, whether it's maps, dibbles,
053and sticking with what we know. We're using dibbles. We're using Ed Ready cuz it's free. We had it that cost money. We're trying to find ways that are financially correct for us and still have interventions for students. We're setting systems in place. We're retaining what we can. We're recruiting as much as possible and we're trying to build this place up so that it is great forever. I have a student that's first grader. I want to make it great forever. Um I don't want to go on a tangent either, but uh here's our our student numbers so everybody knows. I just want to point out we have 38 students in the high school. One's at the job core. So we have 37th through 12th graders. 37. We have 29 7th and 8th graders. But combined in
054the high school, we have 67 that show up every day. Okay. And out of those 67, if you take the numbers for volleyball, basketball, football, and if they're away, how many are here for instruction? Right. Like when we had CO and we if we had less than 50% of the class, school was canceled and we had to make it up cuz we we couldn't teach the kids. they weren't here. Sports do marry in with school and they're not going anywhere either. We're going to have the sports. They're going to continue. We only need to figure out how to put them on Friday, Saturday, Sundays. There's still going to be sports. Frostmore football's on Monday. You know, the middle school sports that's in there as well, but we need to work together and figure out how
055are we going to make it work. You know, I'm I'm interested to see what our numbers will do. I got a a report. I did put our f our spring count. Spring count numbers are 151. We have 151 students K through 12. In years past, we were about 183 173. We can pull up the reports. You can get those from OPI. If we're down 30 students, let's just do simple math. $5,000 per student. We were down $150,000 compared to a couple years ago. We can't afford to have two English teachers, two math teachers, two history teachers. We have to be innovative. We have to streamline and we have online sources. The kids have the same opportunities today as they had 15 years ago. It just looks different. We have to adapt. That's what we can
056afford. Um infrastructure. Like here's a picture of what Bob's working on. He put a new back door in, took the sinks out of the bathroom. That's just another day in Bob's world. Making this place better. I know it doesn't seem like a lot to a lot of people, but that's huge to our school. That's really important. Like this back door, you can see where the door handle was, but the door was snapped in half so people could go in and out of our back door. I didn't want to put it out to the whole world because there was no way way to keep kids from coming in and out. Now that's fixed and we have safety and security. Um, there was a raet ball that went into our heater. It got fixed and it was
057paid for by the ball group. So even, you know, going here's our honor rolls, here's our prospector of the week, our winner best dance, you know, us doing Mrs. Talent teaching library or teaching reading. >> Sixth grade, >> principal report. Nothing I got to point out unless we questions otherwise we have more we can hit. Mhm. >> Your attendance is that just >> attendance. What I do with these is I go from the last four bean to this board bean. And so our attendance right now just in the month 9th grade's at about 88% 10th grade 92 11 94 12 83 7th 91 8 91. Do you guys have any questions for Tom? >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, next item is the PTO update. >> We did have a 50/50 raffle last. Don't worry that
058money supply. >> Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Um, is there a booster club update? Well, I'll be leaving that little too. So, um, we'll have to we'll have to definitely find somebody to >> I think on the rings the last person if anybody's interested in booster and recruiting. Um I feel uh being a part of a small school you have to wear a lot of hats and do a lot of things and you get the same people kind of pitching in and doing stuff over and over and over like me on the schoolboard and on the booster and part of the volleyball team and stuff like that. So, if you guys have frustrations or um you know, you want to see things improve, grab a shovel, pitch in, sign up, chair up, help out. >> Yep,
059>> for sure. >> Yeah. Booster Booster is recruiting >> and have been for a couple years. >> So, throw your hat in the ring. All right. Thanks, you guys. Thanks. >> Okay, moving on to our 4-day review of the additional data for this month. >> I did put in just to point out we have our spring and numbers right there. chose North 59 151 K12 83 in the elementary 89 83 30 to 29 159 151 and that's where your money is based off of is your students. So if we can get some more babies going out there helpful through the fifth grade from OPI the lensure it was approved so it's in there for packet the price for the elementary heater they had to be fixed around $38. Um, okay. 40. All right. I think
060I'll start with the middle. I called all of the schools uh that I put out on the picture. I asked for letters about boarding. I had three uh return letters in time to put on the board packet. One's from Albertton schools, it's Miss Amanda. One's from Drummond schools, Mr. Dean Phillips. And one's from Lincoln schools, Mr. Tom Barnett. Um, I threw those in there for this the board members to read all in support of the 4A and they all kind of have the same same dialogue of hey it works um for recruitment and intention. I think some of them can be read as is it the best thing in the world? Maybe not. But is it what's working now? Is it what we've adapted to is we have a teacher shortage? Yes. And we're still
061adapting. We're still trying to figure out what works, make tweaks. This is our third year of it. And we can look to others and pull. But like with Mr. Phillips here, I I just want to read out his last the 4day school week also has a profound impact on adolescent health. Data from the Oregon Healthy Teens survey suggests that reduced school exposure via the 4-day school week can lead to improved sleep and behavioral health. As long as the remaining four days do not start too early for rural students who may already be rising at 6:00 a.m. to catch a bus, the extra day off rest is a vital recharge that improves focus from Monday through Thursday. working together to share resources and to support each other. I believe that for the future of both schools,
062this will be necessary that continues to increase importance. Moving one school away from the 4-day school week will, in my opinion, result in less success in these efforts. I urge you to continue with the 4-day school week, not only for what seems to be the right decision for your community, but also for the collaboration and success of both schools in Granite County. So again, they're in there. There's the three. Um, I wish I could have got more. I did call and have great conversations with all the superintendents. And I think there's just everybody's different, right? Like Peter has its own set of parameters. If I'm recruiting and pulling from Anaconda, Drummond, Missoula, we're not an interstate um school, interstate school. I give the hard time all the time like you lucky dog. you you know
063you can pull them down the interstate a lot easier than I can. We're coming all the way from one side or the other. Housing is another crisis, right? When I look in the real estate booklet and I see Lake and Smith's house go for $325,000 and looking around saying, "How can we get teachers making $42,000 in here? How are we going to get them in here?" So, um, going off on a tangent, we had multiple letters of support from staff that we put in for the board to read. And this is from staff currently working those four schools. Um, just with their honest on boarding and where they're sitting. Um, attendance. Well, I'm going to start with the ACT data for myself. ACT data. I know what size is. So, I think I need to
064open and rotate for us or maybe download. Oh. Oh, it's not going to work. All right. So, sorry. 4 day data. We don't have this year's data, but last year man, I wish this would have been this ACT data, our scores were 19.09. Year before 18.17. Year before that, 18.17. The year before that, 18.67. 18.17. So, we did go up. Last year, our ACT scores went up. And we're shooting to beat last year's scores. ACT is used for juniors. It's used for placement in the colleges, but that's the score in the big data one that we want to use for high school. That's what colleges ask for and have always asked for to get students to enroll and be accepted into college. That's the score we want to post downtown alongside our state championship banners
065and say this is our average score and you know this is the one where we want to say if we can get up to 22 23 24 of what we can do in our community and represent positivity athletics and academics. So that's how we test at the high school level. Um, I also pulled GPA from 2026 this year, which were only halfway through the year, all the way back to 2015. What I found, I looked for the highest GPA and the lowest GPA per year. I cut out the students names. They're mixed by grades, but when I looked through it and I highlighted, no student is on or is below a two point during the four year. Now, if you go back a few years, there's intermix here was nice and Johnson. The year they
066were here, our lowest was 1.25. And then you go back to St. John's years. St. John, his highest was four five, his lowest was 2.25. His first year, he had a 15 and a 17. So, there was two one points. If we go back to color years last year, a four point and a two point four point and two point and we hit a year with one 4.7 but 1 2 3 4 five students with onepoint averages. The year before our highest 4.57 but another one two three four students with onepoint averages. I think if we look at just the data, we can see we haven't had any one points on the on the 48. So, I think that's the data that can show it's working. And that's just the high school data. I didn't
067pull seventh and eighth grade data. um which I can add more but if we're preparing them for college or um careers TTS whatever we're doing we're doing is working because we're keeping the grade point up. Um I think we made a graph out of it and I don't know where I hit it. It's right here with the help of AI. Um, so the green year show growth in those GPA, the red years show a decline. And this year it's showing decline, but we're not finished. We're halfway through the year, right? So I think this year will show another green. But look, if we go back the last two years, they were green. So there was growth in GPA, but this year it's showing red. >> Yeah. But I would think by the end of the
068school year, this will be green. Um highest overall performance was year 24 20 25 and this is just grades 9 through 12. Lowest overall performance 2016 2017. Biggest increase was in year 2001 to 2022. 10ear average we said about a 35 for GPA and then attendance. Okay. So again, it's this one now is all grades. And I think it's fair to say if students are here, they're going to get the instruction, they get the instruction, they're going to have the test scores, they're going to have everything that we want. And not only are they going to have the test scores, but they're going to be around the teachers and the role modeling and the culture and be well-rounded students. So here's our attendance for this year, and here's the number you need to look at
069right there. It's as of right now, our K through 12 is sitting at a 96.96% attendance rate. I'm rounding that up to 97%. Right now, where it sits, we have 97 percentile for attendance. That is outstanding. I do think it will go down towards the end of the year because we get tired towards the end of the year and people miss more school towards the end of the year. But what we've been on students about is trying to keep this number up to rockstar attendance because this is the best year we've ever had. And then if we go to last year, we ended up with 9217. If we go to the year before, 91.08. And that was the first year of the 4 day. So each year it has been getting better and I think
070as we put more work into it, it will only keep getting better with 4 days. Students will realize it's only 4 days. You have to be here. administrators will get better at the scheduling with the community and the board and the sports and we'll keep getting our students here and if they're here we should be able to then work on turn on instruction and test scores I think that's a fair argument and then if we go further back the year before was a 5-day this was my first year here and it was a 5-day our attendance was 90.52% even lower coming out of then the year before nice was here and Johnson finished the year year before St. John's second year 9140 St. John's first year 9183 back to color this was color's last year
07195.06 06 that was a great year. The year before that 9240 year before that 9209 year before that I didn't go any further than that. But right now where we're sitting and with our uh data from last year for attendance, we're doing great. And if we can keep kids coming to school, we can instruct them when they're in school and we can raise test scores is our hope and that's the goal. um community survey. Um so it was asked of us to put out a community survey. Um and we we wanted to give it to staff, we want to give it to students, we wanted to give it to parents of students and then we did want to open one up but at a different time and we were hiding like we put one out.
072It was out for 7 days. When you vote for president of the United States, you get one day to vote for that president. When you vote for board elections, which is coming up, you get one day until 8:00 p.m. We gave 7 days to come in and take this from 8 to 4. I feel like that was more than fair. You know, I I am getting a little heat, but it wasn't fair with time, but I think 7 days compared to like a board election or an electoral election, it shows we gave a fair amount of time. This is what we had. We had 35 people take the survey. 29 people 82% are saying they're very satisfied with the 48 week. One was neutral, four were dis satisfied, and one was very dissatisfied. If dissatisfied,
073why? Test scores and instructional times. The good teachers left when this was put in place. Significant drop in student outcomes, low test scores. A 5day to go to school is a good thing. It is good for students. Um, do you have a relative attending folks for schools? 20 said yes, 15 said no. They have the relationships there. Um, how many schools have you attended? There was additional comments. Um, they're in there. I'm not going to go over unless you guys want printed in the back if anybody wants a copy. Um, that's where all the stuff I kind of wanted to hit. I mean, to close like >> Well, let's do the financials next. >> Do the financial. I just wanted >> question. >> This is really isn't public comment time. >> I I understand. I
074just I It's just a basic question. It's not just happening when I are we reviewing the 4 day and only like I came here to see the um the academic part of it and are we only looking at the GPA? >> No. >> Are we going to see other scores as well? >> I Yeah, I do have this one too. So, >> okay. Thank you. >> I'll start 17 down. 15 seconds. I did read about this. So, thank you. Okay, so here is the moncast and for everybody's educational piece. Last year was the first year of moncast. This year is the second year of mcast. So, 3 years ago was sback sback way it worked at the end of the year on one day students took tests. Mcast starting last year there masks mask there
075was four tests. This year they dropped it down to three tests like the fall, winter, spring. We're in window two that ends March 6th. So, we're still getting this year's data. Last year's data we didn't get till October. And it is kind of hard because if you get all this data from last year in October, how as administrators do you staff for that? How do you hire over the summer and get those people in place and make changes? Like it almost pushes us to wait till the next year. And so, like again, it makes it very hard when there's constraints on administration when you get data in October and not in June. previous comments I made. Right. So, here is from last year and this is seventh grade math over there. Seventh grade is now
076our eighth grade. The Montana average, this is where you want to look, was 309. Our students score 313. We were higher than the state average. Here's 8th grade. So, now they're a freshman. State average 309. We were 309. We met state average. So that's math. Last year, first year. And again, trying to figure it out. Last year we learned from it. We got better. We were like, hey, that was our first time go around. Now we know what we need to teach, what tests we need to put at what times of the year so that hopefully our scores are actually better. What's saddening is we are teaching to the test when we put that test in and we say okay now let's get ready and let's teach for that test and then how can we
077add on the others that make us a whole round of child we will get that in but the way it's set up is we have to plan for the whole year and you have to have all your tests put in by administrators by September I have to sit with Mr. held and say you're going to take these 12 tests at this time and then it's locked in and he has to put those students in that um organization throughout the year. We can't change them. They're set up for the year. So here's our ELA. So this was last year and so these are seventh graders. Now eighth graders was 312. We got 311 under. Is it acceptable? No. We want to be above, so we work on it. Here was our eighth graders. Montana was 311.
078We hit 311. We met. Do we want that? No, we want above. We want to keep working on it and get better. But when you get this data in October, how do administrators hire people and put them in place to change recruitment? You don't. You have what you have. You work with them and you redirect and you use the data you get where we're lacking and you go to the teachers and you work with the teachers. Hey, we tested low here. This is what we need to work on. Hey, did we put that test at the right point of the year? No, we didn't. We need to put that at the end of the year. And all this stuff was working and is working, but it's going to be tougher without two of us. Um,
079so here's our data for ELA, seventh and eighth grade math ELA kids. Um, do you want to do elementary gibbles? Okay, third grade is now fourth grade. Third grade Montana average 307. Philips school's got 311. We beat it, guys. Sorry. Fourth grade 308 to 288. Things have happened. We We have made interventions. Mr. Kelner, whose math scores I I showed you, is teaching fourth grade math. That gives Mrs. Candage a period to work on athletics and prep for the athletics. The interventions happened. The changes were made for the benefit of the students. fifth grade. Montana's 306 296. Now, let's do some re remembering. Mrs. Smith was fifth grade. She left. We have a new teacher. We have a new teacher. We're still working and again helping students sixth grade math 307300. We're right under. But
080I'm here to tell you right now, cuz I looked at Mrs. Wley's last week. All the students are proficient this year. All of them. And we celebrated, didn't we, Miss Wley? No. No. Margarely ask these the same students. These are the students that are now in seventh grade with Mr. Keller. We can take his and they are all proficient and working. Okay. Okay. Third grade. >> 308. We were at 30. Montana's 308. We were at 307. That was third grade. Miss here in Galley. She's gone. We started over with Mrs. Parent this year. Montana for fourth grade. 312. We got 301. Fifth grade, Montana's 315, we hit 315. Fifth grade, sixth grade, 6th grade, Montana was 309, we were at 303. So, and that was the first year of this testing and we got the
081data in October and now we can go through the data. We can meet, we can have PDS, we can make the changes and make it work. That's why we do it so that we can see it. We can look and we can work with teachers and make those in the little menu changes to help students. Um, Dibbles, you want to >> pull it up. So the top line of each class, the grades are on the side and then it has the beginning of the year and then middle of the year. And so you can see the growth we've made um for each grade. And then at the very top is the entire elementary school. And this is just a different benchmark assessment which is um given by teachers and it's um so we test all
082K through sixth grade. So, we've had a lot of growth in most classes. We've also had some students come in and students leave. So, that kind of skews the data a little bit, but um yeah, we have a lot of growth between beginning and middle of year. We had 16 students exit intervention after the middle of year benchmark because um they made enough gains to be at grade level. >> And what I think we want to see here is less red. >> Yeah, sorry. Red is Yep. will be intensive. Yellow is strategic means they're um needing a little extra support. Green is on target and or blue is um above. And then we also this year added the math um Dibbles math for just K12 because uh we didn't want to over test the um
083kids that have to take the math assessment. So we um and it was their first year so we just wanted to try it out. So beginning of year to middle of year we have a a lot of growth in math if you look at our scores like a whole lot of blue. So good job TEACHERS all the good teachers left. So that was all the data that we have. >> Does board have any questions on any of these reports? There's a lot of data to go through. Um, I don't question three. Have a way to I mean, I'm sure there is, but to compare last year's data of the same class, you know, last year, fifth grade, rather than fourth grade to compare the same class going up to where they are right now. >>
084Yeah. >> Looking for the trend. >> Mhm. >> Losses, gains over the years. Yeah, we have we don't have the math. >> We don't have the first year. >> Yeah. >> And we don't have dibbles math either, but we do have dibbles. >> I I guess we have to I think it's just good to look at the trend of a class. And you can't and now it's been but you know the individual even in every class. >> Yeah. to see if the individual >> all the individual students are making these even if they're you know not at grade level there's growth in every student. >> Yeah. Just me measured by the >> Yeah. So you can see the growth like let's say if you had this a student that was intensive they might have went
085from 300 to 318. They're still making gains. They're just not where they're where they're supposed to be. And a lot of those students who are >> like we went down $150,000, right? It's nice to buy programs that cost a lot of money like maths, things like that. But it's also nice to find free ones. What I didn't use this year, 7th through 12th grade, 7th, 8th, and 9th took pre-alpha prep ready. They're in it right now. Some of them haven't finished yet. Um, we do have some that have finished and got 100%. And that's practice. Um it uh then what did I 10th and 11th graders are in ACT prep the practice for the ACT test as a junior. Seniors were taking pathway to college just getting ready with some math skills getting ready before
086they go to college. If I could do it again which we will well next year when we do it I would like to put seventh and eighth graders and possibly fourth or third through 8th grade >> in math prep through ed ready. do that first because that's the test, right? The math. We want to practice and get ready for the math test. So, if we put those kids in that and it's free and it's practice, they'll be practiced up for math and ELA and math and it's aligned to the mast and it's ed ready through state standards and the mast and it's free. Why wouldn't we use it? So make students do that first and then if they finish that we can do the algebra afterwards or we can you know there's being a good
087kid there's 5k goals there's culinary arts stuff that they want to do they can take those as well my favorite new one is uh nicotine prevention so I'm just kind of waiting for our next bait and the student that gets 3 days ISS will be taking nicotine prevention and ed ready while they're in ISS. So, um, the Ed Ready is a plan right now cuz it's free and it's working and I students you like to practice. >> Yep. And >> yeah, I think it's working. I think the interventions we put in place are working. And I do think, like I stated before, it's a flywheel. There's a lot of pieces that go into this. And once the flywheel gets going, it's going to be very hard to stop. And you know, if kids are coming,
088which our attendance show it is, then we can teach them. And if kids are happy to be here, which it sounds like they are, we can teach them. Everything's working and winning. I hope that's the narrative that's getting out. It is working. And I, you know, I think, you know, I see a lot of people that left already. It's hard to educate people when they come and then they leave. When we actually go into the meat and potatoes of the meeting, there's a lot of people that come for public comment and then leave and then they miss the educational piece. >> Is there somewhere they can get that data? >> I mean, it's all here. >> It's all up here. It's posted on the on our website or >> people can come in request copy
089print and get it ready. I mean, >> I think we're doing great. >> Any other questions from the board? >> We can keep working on this. Like if you if we want to see more data, especially going with our strategic planning and those numbers that we talked about last week of are we hitting those numbers, we can keep working on this to make sure they're >> what each uh Well, for instance, if a certain student is struggling with, you know, fractions in third grade. So, what what happened in fourth grade? Are they still struggling? Have they done something, you know, to meet that particular student or I bet they're going fractions this far, but you understand what I'm saying? So maybe the teacher needs to realize and they probably do. I'm just probably whatever. Okay,
090this is an area for not just this student but four or five of these students. >> Mhm. >> So some more type of an in, you know, intervention would be necessary to boost them up in their fractional understanding. It could be, you know, a computer thing. It could be a tutor game. It could be all kinds of different things. But I think pinpointing as best we can what a student is struggling with because if they're struggling in third, they're probably going to struggle all the way down unless there's that intervention somehow. So, I don't know if we can solve the problem. I just think it's an interesting thing to look at >> uh for the kids. So, great. >> All right. Um Katherine, do you want to show us your report for the comparison um
091finances? Okay. Um I took a look at I took a look at financial numbers from 2017 up until now. I didn't include 2026 numbers in some of my estimations because we're not finished with the year. So, um, looking at certified staff, if you increase their contractual days, you lower their daily rate. And so, I did an estimate estimation on what that would mean. And so, looking at that and then um, also looking at classified staff, you increase number of days, you increase hours, so their their pay just goes up. You also look at um administration um increase contractual days, you lower the daily rate, excuse me. So then I had to do some estimations to kind of look at what we're going to do because there's there is negotiations with cert certified staff this spring
092and I'm pretty sure that some of those topics are going to be coming up in negotiations as well as their paid time off decreased from 20 days to 15 days. and I'm pretty sure they're going to ask for those additional 5 days back. Um, so I had to also look at what does that add up to. Um, and so all of that together and that includes, you know, wages, uh, uh, TRS, which is teachers retirement system, public employment retirement system, unemployment, workman's comp, FICA, which is our social security Medicare, everything that employer has to pay. I estimated around $211,58.38 that we would need in our budget to accommodate those increases in salaries and wages. Uh which is pretty substantial. That's the main the main substance there. I also looked at transportation uh and classified staff
093for transportation bus drivers. We did have a decrease going to a 5day, but I had already estimated their salary increase in what I already talked about. Uh I looked at heat, electricity. We pay for our heat and electricity out of our general fund and our transportation fund. um they they weren't like hugely significant except our heat and on that I have to give kudos to Bob McGuire for really making our boilers efficient and really working on things because it was really substantial the the savings that were in there but some of it is also that the 5day um the Friday is not being utilized but there's still activities going on so it's not as big as you think it would be because there's still games there's still people coming in using the the gym there's
094still activities going on, maybe not the same as a regular school in session. I also looked at substitutes. Um down at the very bottom, I think at the top I have a um I did a comparison of where substitutes were and I did an estimation of what they could potentially be cuz the truth was when I was talking with the high school secretary about um staff taking time off Fridays, it increases there um because they need a day off. uh sometimes uh students are gone for athletics and teachers might also take time off on Fridays as well. So I estimated about a $19,000 increase on that. Um and so we're looking at potentially I mean these are all estimations but about 239,4181. Um food right now we're on the C program which is the community
095eligibility program I believe it's called. And so we have and it's not a budgeted fund. It's more of like you spend and then you you take in revenue from anyone who's paying for lunches and you also get claims uh that come from the feds to help pay for everything. So it's it's kind of like you spend and then you get some money and you spend and you kind of get some money. And I didn't they were pretty similar, you know, like we're really not that much different and so I didn't really estimate an increase in there. Um, part of the 212 fund is a salaries and I already estimated for those. So, the main thing is just paying staff. That's it. Does the board have any questions for Catherine? Thank you for putting all that
096together. All right. and thank you for all the time that you guys put in to get all this information for us. As a reminder, we're not voting on a policy between a 4 day or a five day week. We do not have a policy in writing saying what our school calendar is. Uh we also have no policy saying that we review our school calendars or all of this data and information. Three years ago, when we voted on a 4-day calendar, we said in good faith, we will review it in 3 years to see how it's been working. And so that's what we've been taking this time to do. We've received a substantial amount of correspondence reflecting input from the community and our staff and our students. We've also gathered feedback from all these surveys that
097everybody has put in. We've reviewed this information here tonight. So, what the next steps are is that we have the school uh calendar committee that puts together a calendar that we will vote on next month. And that consists of staff and administration and they present the best calendar for our school district. and the board considers all of the information and we've considered here and then we vote on the calendar which will be back um on the agenda next week. So, with all of the input that we've gotten and all the time that we've spent doing this, we've decided not to hold a public forum between this meeting and the next one. If anybody has more input they'd like to give, there are more opportunities to do that. You can write a letter to the board
098that will be in correspondence with the board packet next time. You can comment during public comment. We will have a session um the calendar will be an item for action on the agenda. And so after we have motion, we always will ask for public comment on that item for action and then people will have the opportunity to make public comments again at that point. If you have any questions about any of the information or the data, please let us know and we are happy to talk about it. But we appreciate everybody taking part in this process and engagement and we're looking forward to the final step in this whole process next month. >> I did have one more thing to add. I want to print report um or just give it out. You guys public
099needs to know we do have people and parents that want to come here. We do. I took a phone call at probably 7:30 today and it's on my phone. I could show you. A parent wants to come here next year for the 4A from Anaconda. Wants to be on the basketball team. They're coming. I, you know, I can go to Miss um I'm out of mind who was our student. We graduated as a junior. >> Oh, >> Simon. Simon Kersh. Miss Kers talked to me when I went to get my blood pressure medicine cuz I needed to double up in the last month and I've been taking a few. And so she goes, "I'm going to come. Do you want me to come?" We came from Bosezeman. We had a Kevin Blake. We came for
100the 4day. We wanted to be not a number but a name. He graduated as a junior and is at Bosezeman. We are finding ways to have individual students accounted for and pushing them up and helping just pick him up and push him up and get them ready. Kids still want to come here. I think that narrative we still have a lot of people that want to come here and they want the 4day. They want the small school atmosphere. They want the culture. So I I I think I don't want the narrative going out that people don't want to come here. People do want to come here. people like being here. So, I think that need to be added. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Uh moving on to our next item on the agenda
101are the financials. There's a motion for the financials. Do you guys want to look at Catherine's report first? >> Did you guys have any questions for Catherine on her report? Okay. The board of Philipsburg the board of trustees of Philipsburg school district number one moves to approve payroll war and 64074 through 6496 for direct deposits 83857 through83894 claims 17917 through17951 and visa 11,288.76 husbands 60686 6 cents foot 486 and 16 cents DEX imaging 107 and 97 cents and Kevla law 1759 and26 any comments or questions from the board? All those in favor I. Any opposed? All right. Motion passes. Moving on to our items for action. Item A. I wrote a little thing about this. >> Let me pull it up. Don't think I can pull it up too. Okay. Approve budget amendment resolution. My
102recommendation is that the board approves the budget amendment resolution as requested. >> We received a letter from OPI that we get to without making a proclamation or notice, we get to submit to OPI a budget amendment to receive $6,653.60 more cuz they estimated that we had um an A and B um increase in their three-year average that they do. So I was like, hooray. So >> So I think I can throw my comment in now. Okay. >> With the last how Khaliva Law and we pay that money. I think if we could be kind to each other, we wouldn't pay that Khiva Law, our $6,000 we just got could go to students and not to lawyers. >> See where I'm going with that? >> Yeah. So just out of the blue they did they get
103all the reimburse No they just send a letter around this time if you're going to have any um A and B increase like money that you can receive and you don't have to go through the regular like if we had over spent in our budget we'd have to do this big huge thing and we'd have to get approved and all of this stuff but because it's just part of them doing their calculation and they're saying you guys get 6,000 and change more then we get to sign this and submit it and get them extra additional monies and it has to be done before March 1st. All right. So move. Did he read the recommendation? >> Shoot. >> I think he did. Yeah, I think he did. I have a second. I second. Any other comments
104or questions? All right. All those in favor? I. Any oppose? All right. Motion passes. Item B, >> offer a contract a high school head track coach. My recommendation is the board of trustees offers a head track coaching contract to Justin Bloom for the 2026 high school track season. >> Some move. Any comments or questions? Right. All those in favor? I. >> Any opposed? All right, motion passes. Item C, >> offer contract to assistant track coach. My recommendation is the board of trustees offer assistant high school track coaching contract Randy Morales for the 2026 high school track season. >> So moved. I second have any comments or questions? All right. All those in favor. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. Item D, >> offer contract to junior high head track coach. My recommendation is that the board
105offers a head junior high track coaching contract Kin Wley for the 2026 junior high track season. So move second for that one. Okay. >> Any comments or questions from the board? Right. All those in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Item passes. Item E, >> offer contract to high school head tennis coach. My recommendation is for the board of trustees to offer head tennis coach and contract to Heather Rich for the 2026 high school tennis season. So moved by second board have any comments or questions? >> All right. All those in favor. Any opposed? All right. Motion passes. Item F, >> offer contract to high school assistant tennis coach. My recommendation to the board of trustees offers an assistant tennis coaching contract to Lean Tesh for 2026 high school tennis season. Can I just make a
106comment with tennis season they put boys and girls tennis matches in separate towns. So usually we have to send Heather Rich one way and Lean Tesh separate ways because they haven't combined towns yet which would make it nice but you got to have to cuz they're the same day. So move. >> Any comments or questions? Okay. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? >> Thank you to everybody who's coaching our kids. We appreciate you. >> All right. Item G, >> approve roots and resilience contract services for lunchtime counseling session. Uh my recommendation is the board approves roots and resilience contracting services to host no less than one and no more than five counseling sessions for one or more ghs 7 through 12th grade students be served in a lunchtime group counseling session with parent approval.
107We did this last year with sixth grade students and this was just a rerun for this year. Any students that want to sign up offer again Okay, make a motion. The board of trustees of Ellisburg School District number one moves to approve the roots and resilience contracting service to host no less than one or more than five counseling sessions for one or more GHS 7th through 12th grade students to be served at lunchtime. a group counseling session with parental recruitment. Okay. And how will we get the information out to families so that people can sign up for it? >> Contractor do it >> make their fly and put it out. >> Yep. >> Any other comments or questions? Should we add elementary? I think I just put 7 through 12, but could add. >> I
108think we're doing pretty good. Okay. >> Necessity this year. Okay. >> All right. All those in favor. >> Any opposed? Item passes. Item H. >> My recommendation is report to approve to create a food service clearing account for online lunch bills. Now that we can >> So this is creating a food service clearing account and a student activity fund. It's a way because what since we our our general fund and food fund and all of that stuff, that money is deposited with our county treasurer. So she doesn't like a lot of a that's coming in. So we can use our student activity account that's up uh the bank. And if we have a little clearing account in there, then people can pay any lunch balances online and it gets deposited in. I get an itemized
109report with which student it goes to and then I'm able to clear it out at the end of the month. So, there's no balance in it. It's just a wash. It's just moving it through and it goes to our elementary secretary that applies it with all her food stuff and it gets receded in there and I get the deposit back and I take it to the county. It's just a way to move it through without doing ACs with the county and it gives convenience and ease for parents or staff. Okay. The board of trustees of school district number one moves to approve to create a food service clearing account for online lunch bill. I have a second. Oh, my second board have any other comments or questions. Is this something that uh I'm sorry? Actually,
110I do uh say um somebody in the community that is not related to the student that owes the bills can also put money in for No, you can go through the parent portal. You'd have to log in under the parent portal and have access to the bill to then make the payment. >> Okay. like adopt a >> Yeah. If someone wanted to make a like say they wanted to donate some money to pay for a student's bill, they could just contact the school and then write a check and submit something that way. >> Oh, okay. All right. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. Okay. Our next scheduled board meeting is March 10th. Um, Joy has a conflict on that night. So, unless we Could you zoom in so we have
111you on video and see you? Um, would that be a possibility? >> Yeah. Okay. Otherwise, I think it'd be important to have all of us here. So, we'd have to look at a different date. But do you guys would you feel comfortable having Joy on video here for us all to see and >> Okay. So, we'll work on getting that set up for you and we'll get your computer and camera and everything so we can make that happen. So, we'll leave our regular meeting on Tuesday, March 10th at 5:30 here in this room and we'll adjourn tonight's meeting. Thank you. Thanks for coming students.