Whitefish School Board Business Meeting April 8, 2025

001No additional. Hello everybody. Thank you for joining us. Welcome to our Tuesday, April 8th monthly business meeting. Um to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. Are there any revisions between right along? Uh public comment. This is an appropriate This item is an appropriate place to make comments about an item not on the agenda but within the board's jurisdiction. Each action item on the agenda has its own public comment period. In order to protect individual rights of privacy, avoid comments that identify students or staff members. Additionally, public comment cannot be used to make comments regarding contested cases, grievances, or legal proceedings. Please follow uniform complaints pro protocol policy 1700 if that is your concern. Uh

002due to open meeting laws, the board cannot respond to any weighted comments made during um public comment period. The opportunity for public comment is an inperson. public comment today. I have a public comment. Would you mind standing right there at that podium? I guess because the microphone will pick your voice up beautifully. I represent I represent the local government review commission and we have been instructed by the voters of the city of Whitefish to review the charter of the city of Whitefish. And every every voter needs to participate in our survey. And I I have some of these where you can click on or you can get on the engagefish dot um engage whitefish website and we have a big splash page and you can do this survey because we're trying to see what works

003in local government and what doesn't. And since the school board and our children are such an integral part of this community, we also want to hear from you guys because we want to see how your interface with local government is working and is there is there any charter change that might be helpful to make this interface better? What works and what doesn't work? We want to hear from you. So, if there's any way we could set up a meeting or or somebody could email me some comments, but we really really really think it's important for us to hear from you and we're looking for your input. We're contacting most stakeholders in the area, but everything everything that we can possibly imagine that could help us gain information to help us do our job properly. So,

004thank you for your time. I'm going to give give this to you guys and if it's okay, we want to hear from you guys in the public, too. So, I can leave a couple of these on the desk for people to pick up. Okay. I'll leave them right here and you can participate in a survey. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. We appreciate this. Thank Thank you so much for coming. Good to know that um any public responses which it doesn't look like we had any but minutes of alum do we have to um accept each one individual We can accept them as a group. You would generally accept them as a group because they were presented as group. Yeah. Then they can break them up. If they wanted to vote,

005then we'd have to split it and then based on based on the fact that it's I move we accept the minutes as presented. Moved by Jerry, second by Elizabeth. All in favor? That is everybody. are twoinone. Yeah, man. I feel like it's been so long. Jake, it has been. And it's Oh, man. And it's almost over. We have one left, maybe two. Our student recipe reports looking for a replacement, by the way. Okay. So, yeah, we're not your door. All right. So, started at the high school. Hold on. How do you think he got into these prestigious schools he got into? I'm sure it was because of this position, right? Nothing else. Long summary about this actually. Um, anyways, uh, starting at the high school big day tomorrow, freshmen are doing the I Ready test

006to evaluate their math, reading, and writing skills. sophomores are doing the preac to help them prepare for the actual ACT, which in Montana is required for all juniors to take. So, tomorrow we will also have our juniors taking that ACT. And, uh, it's just a kind of a college admissions test. It literally stands for American College Test. Um, and it just kind of measures your readiness level for college. And a lot of schools use it pretty much uh same as the SAT essentially. So take one of the other low and then uh seniors are doing the community give back project. So some examples of that we're going to have some groups at local daycarees helping clean and play with the kids. Uh we have some students such as myself going to the nursing homes to

007play bingo with the seniors. So seniors with the seniors and we'll do some group cleaning at City Beach. We'll do some cleaning up at the neighborhood around the school. And then we'll also have some people helping at the food bank warehouse. And then after that, all seniors will be going to Pinnacs to uh do some bowling for the rest of the afternoon. And it's kind of just our way to help our community that's helped us so much get through high school. So we're kind of giving back to them through this giveback project. Um coming up this weekend, we have the district music festival Thursday, Friday, and Saturday down at Glacier High School. Uh yesterday was the prefestestival showcase. So that was our band, choir, and orchestra kind of showcasing what they've been working on through

008this whole year and what they'll also be presenting there. And then if they score well enough at district, they're able to go on to a further level, I believe. Um, so yeah, that is open to the public as well. Those at Glacier, there not many people actually go to those, but if you would like to, that is open on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Um, spring sports, we have all those up and running. There's tracking today. Uh, tennis is going. Softball, baseball, that's all of them. Um, then we have our home track meets. No, no, we have another track meet this week, but it's not home. But yeah, a lot of stuff going on for spring sports. Um, first time since pre-COVID, we are hosting the talent show once again that is put on by our

009student council. That will be the night of April 17th in the black box. Uh so yeah, feel free to come to that. Open to anyone. Ticket prices to be determined. Uh FreeFlow, our water science and conservation club, is going on a trip next week, I believe, to the Oregon coast to do some surfing. So that'll be a fun time doing some camping, surfing, just whole lot of things. Uh drama is going on a trip later this week to Spokane. choir just got back from their trip to Anaheim at Disneyland where they competed and won seconds out of a lot of schools. Uh I'm lacking on a lot of specifics tonight, so I apologize, but uh yeah, they did very well, so I can say that. Uh some of our DECA team will be going to

010nationals later in April uh in Orlando. We have the state music festival in Great Falls at the end of April. The NHS induction ceremony on April 28th in the blackbox also open to the public. Uh HOSA, our medical club, was in Billings last week for their state leadership conference. We had a few students win state there. [Music] And yeah, that's it for the high school. So, it's uh it's just club season. A lot of stuff going on. Sports are all over the place. clubs are also all over the place and then we will be keeping it busy with our give back projects and testing tomorrow. Uh moving on to here at the middle school uh in early March we had a lot of math going on. The seventh and eighth grade math counts team competed

011at the state competition at but overall the team took fifth out of 12 teams and there were over 90 participants. The three of the four team members from the middle school placed in the top 20. So that'd be 10, 13th, and 16th overall. Uh, some more math. They also had the math team competed at the FBCC math competition with 53 seventh, and eighth grade students competing. And then we had two of our own math leads here, placed in the top five overall for the middle school division. So, a lot of math talent here. Uh, the eighth grade history classes were able to go down to the high school and receive a walking tour of the Forever Glacier art exhibit that all of you saw at a meeting earlier last year. And then alongside this, I

012also received a presentation from a University of Montana professor in relation to history trip and that was on Montana history and geology. Uh moving on down to middle school music, their eighth grade jazz bands participated in the annual Bunny Def Franco Jazz Festival at the University of Montana. There were about 20 students who participated. Their orchestras participated in the orchestra festival at FBCC had about 90 students in that. The honor choir traveled to Frenchtown to participate in a choir festival with many other western a schools and there were about 25 students in that. So students all over the state. Um the student council here at the middle school put on the annual W talent show. There were about 20 acts of fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. Just another great show keeping that going for

013a long running streak. And then seventh and eighth grade track uh started just after spring break. There are about 150 students participating, the first meet will be this Friday at Columbia Fall. So, just like the high school following suit with all their sports in full swing and a lot of other things also going on. And then last but certainly not least, moving on down to Bulldown. Uh so March and April are pretty busy months for Mulldown, just as the rest of the district. Uh they have their state testing as well, so that's going to be the mass testing. uh their round two ended in March and then the third and fourth graders are also getting ready for rounds three and four following later this month and next month. They have the end of their second

014trimester with those report cards sent out on April 4th and then they have a large thing coming up called arts in April. Essentially what that is is it starts on April 11th for the second to fourth graders and that's volunteers coming from around the community to mold out one time uh per week for the next three weeks. And essentially what they're doing is they're sharing their skills and their hobbies with the students to kind of you know just kind of let them know what's going on in the community and expose them to a lot more things. things such as tie dying, dancing, baking ice cream, decorating cookies, painting, learning about other cultures and countries, writing, arts and crafts, singing, and a lot more. So, just a pretty cool opportunity for our elementary students to get

015that experience from the kids in the community or excuse me, the adults in the community. And then for that, big thanks to Lauren Bradley and the Whitefish Education Foundation for making this happen. Uh moving on, they also have the early literacy screenings. They were screened yesterday and then also will continue through June if needed. And then we also have the kindergarten roundup where essentially uh they top off April with all of the with the kindergarten roundup on April 25th and incoming kindergarteners and their families come visit Mulldown for kind of a open house thing to kind of just get a shakeddown on what life is like at Mullown for the kindergarteners. So district as a whole very busy clubs, kids, sports all across the state competing in lots of different things. Kind of showing off

016our bulldog pride if you will and uh yeah looking forward to the end of the year and a lot of nice weather. Yeah. Thank you. You guys are so busy. No, spring is running hot. So I understand. Um, w update. I see somebody in the back. Thank you so much, J. So, the White Fish Classified Employees Association um is getting ready to finish up bargaining next week. Hopefully Wednesday the 16th is our next and hopefully last meeting where we're going to discuss compensation. Um we've already discussed and agreed upon um changes to the pay date in October, language clarification for the third personal day, um additions to bereavement leave, uh changes to the computer network specialist position, um the vacation buyback date change, um and wording clarification on the labor collaboration week. So that's almost

017we're almost done. Um and as I mentioned when I was here two months ago um I was privileged to be one of the fully funded members um to attend the National Education Association Educational Support Professional Conference in Kentucky. Um it was at the very beginning of spring break. Um, and it was once again I always walk away from these national things how lucky we are to live in Montana and how lucky we are to live in this. I am so lucky to work in this school district and with this group. So, um I attended an entire day talking um about peer mentoring and walked away, took a ton of notes and I'm hoping um in our next labor collaboration meeting um to discuss some of those and and see if we can't do like just

018kind of up our peer mentoring. Um it was designed for really large districts and like they want you to go get funding and grants and things to support this. Well, we're that's not really where we are, but I still walked away with a lot of really good ideas about peer mentoring to share. Um, one of the other really interesting um sections I attended was anal, a social emotional learning for employees. So, they compared it to the we do with kids and then but what is the for you as an adult and at your job site? So, that was really good. And tomorrow at 3 o'clock, we have a classified staff meeting here in the pack to discuss our time cards. And that's the latest and greatest from from the classified world. That's awesome. Thank you.

019Thanks for I think it's awesome that you went and you're bringing it back and you're scaling it down to fit our district and that's what it's all about. That's why I think it's so important to Oh, yeah. do that. some things for and it's just like like I said free training and ideas from around the state say around the nation. Yeah. Thanks for doing that. Thank you. Thank you. Uh weaver. Um on to our discussion and action items. First item is an update on our new briefing curriculum. Greetings from the curriculum department. As you know, last spring we adopted a new reading curriculum, phase six, and this year we've begun the arduous task of implementing it. And I have to tell you that um that those staff members involved, those K6 staff members have really

020jumped in with both beef and it has not been easy by any means. I think um I will tell you that the program that we purchased provided a lot of professional development. So they had six hours of implementation training before the school year started. They had an additional three hours when the school year after the school year started and they're just finishing up today and um Thursday another 2hour coaching session. C. Kelly trainer. Uh, in addition to that, we provided any grade level that needed an additional three hours to get together with their teammates, we provided that opportunity for them. So, overall, I feel really good about the professional development that we were able to offer them. And of all the programs, and Jerry, you've been here a long time, you would know of all

021the programs that we have rolled out, new curriculum programs that we've rolled out in 30 plus years that I've been here. I would say this one is the most comprehensive we've ever done, the most training that we've ever done. And we'll continue to do some training next year. uh we we provided an a companion called the writing studio to the um core curriculum adoption and I basically told staff don't worry about that right now let's just focus on the reading curriculum and once you have that in your belt we'll look at the writing studio because I knew that writing was a concern of theirs um so that looking ahead to next year that's what we're going to uh focus our professional development I did reach out to staff members and I asked them those because

022I knew you would be anxious to hear what kind of feedback do they have about this new program and I asked them both for strengths, I asked them for weaknesses and then I and anything that stands out from a student perspective. Uh so kindergarten shared with me uh on the skills side. So in this new program, grades kindergarten and first grade and second grade, their program is separated into two pieces, a skills piece and a knowledge piece. And each of those pieces are 90 minutes. And they cannot deviate from the 90 minutes. They they have to do 90 minutes in each of those. I was concerned about the time that was going to be devoted to CKLA. They knew it going in. This was the program that they wanted. So, uh they were fully committed

023to that time. Kindergarten shared with me that as far as strengths and skills, students handwriting is better than it has ever been. I knew that we did. Uh they are able to blend with diraphs and blend up to five sounds. They read longer and more complex text. They can they are better able to navigate workbooks and worksheets. Um as far as their knowledge portion, they said the kids are engaged in gaining background knowledge. first grade shared that the teachers manuals are very easy to follow that they felt there was much less prep than the previous program. As far as skills, uh the knowledge of phonics rules is extensive. They are reading a multitude of decodable texts and answering questions about them. And I really like to went into so along with this program part of

024our We had a host of collective commitments that we agreed to and one of them was weekly fidelity checks. So the principles and I go in weekly and we just kind of spend much time but just check to make sure that they are in fact continuing to use the program with fidelity. And I was so impressed at the first grade level. um they read this short little story and then they answer the question and they have to put the page number that they found the answer on and they can do it. So I just thought that was great. I know we we struggle with that at the higher at the older grades actually citing that text evidence. So to start that at that early age I think is so valuable. Um they said that the

025spirals and review skills it spirals and review skills and grammar frequently at first grade. As far as the knowledge portion in the first grade they felt that the um vocabulary was great related to the stories that there was both fiction and non-fiction and it was easy to extend into writing. And I should also share with you as we go up, you'll see a little bit of a little little bit of a change in the tone of what you're hearing. The older we go up in the grades, the more difficult it is to implement because they haven't had the background that they had in those early formative years. Um, second grade shared that students are loving the knowledge units. They are excited and engaged while learning about fairly advanced topics. I'm sure you have any students

026or grandchildren or neighbors or friends that are at mold, you've heard about this. Um, second grade also loves the decodable readers. They often want to read ahead to find out what happens. The skills units are very intense. Our students are gaining a lot of knowledge in phonics rules and grammar skills. uh third grade shared that the amount of knowledge gained on a wide variety of topics is incredible. For example, third grade uh topics range from Roman civilization to solar system to Native Americans of North America to light and sound and animal classification. Uh they feel that the comprehension skills are explicitly taught instead of just practiced. There's excellent morphology, introduction, and practice. Students are engaged in topics and eager to learn every day. Uh they see their I Ready scores in third grade um increased

027significantly in reading comprehension from prior programs. And I should share with you that we in we went into this fully intending that we would see a little bit of a dip in our reading scores because it's a new curriculum and we did not see that this year at all. Uh third grade also shared they thought there were lots of opportunities for writing. They too shared that they felt the program was teacher friendly and simple for guest teachers to follow. Fourth grade shared that there were interesting topics that keeps the students engaged. They felt that the rigor is great and the they like that the tests aren't just multiple choice. Um and they mentioned that they too write the page numbers where and have to site text evidence and felt that that will help them long

028term with comprehension and finding answers in text like test text prep test prep. Fifth grade also found the material to be uh interesting. It followed their social studies curriculum. It was rigorous. It has excellent writing instruction in some units and the vocabulary app has been super helpful. And sixth grade said that uh they are exposed to a rigorous variety of reading content and the lessons are rich in strategies for text evidence and their grammar units are a wonderful addition to their curriculum. So, all kinds of good things. As far as challenges, uh, kindergarten felt the tricky words are taught a little differently than are being tested in I Ready and Dipples. It was interesting today I had a a debrief session with a trainer and she actually went over this very topic and she said,

029"Don't be concerned about tricky words in the middle of the year if the kids don't get them on I Ready. Wait until the end of the year and you'll see that growth." So that was a good reminder for the baby. Um they also kindergarten also shared that in this first year they found found it difficult to differentiate which we totally understand. It's a brand new program. We're trying to learn uh and it's challenging to try to complete all of the components because it's a it's a hefty limit as far as program. Uh first grade also uh shared that it definitely takes a lot of time and that there is not a lot of time for extra projects. Uh second grade too said it's very challenging to fit everything in. um they struggle a little bit

030with some of the spelling that's challenging and again I debriefed with the trainer today and she mentioned this as well that second grade had talked about that spelling issue and she gave them some strategies to work with their second graders on um they also felt that there wasn't enough writing practice embedded in those lessons um but because we have writing studio purchased um that is something that we can look towards next year. So, I think that will alleviate that issue. Uh, third grade also said, "It's a lot to fit in. We feel like we teach it 70% of our day and there really isn't time for extra things, which is true." Um, they felt that the program encourages deep conversations and questions. Sometimes there isn't enough time to go into a lot of depth with

031those conversations. They wish they had more time for that. Um, but they've been able to create a lot of rubrics for the writing and assessments with the help of Magic School, which is our AI program. And so they've learned how to use that to help with some of the housekeeping skills that they need to work within this program. um fourth grade felt that there wasn't enough grammar or practice for them. Um but as the program builds, we have to understand they're just jumping into something. So they're not getting the buildup from K1, 2, and three. And we knew that this was going to be an issue. We fully expected this to be um some that that there were going to be some holes there. And we know that they and they knew too that they

032were going to have to do some back filling on their own. Um they also felt that the writing um is a can be a concern um because they felt it was placed randomly through their units and it needed to be broken down more. What they don't know is what happens in K123. I have mentioned to PLC's I think it would be really good on a collaboration day. Why don't you go and visit another grade level so that you can see what's happening in those prior grades and how it builds up to where you are. And they were really excited about that. Um fifth grade too felt that there's no differentiation and they do need a grammar supplement. again as I shar have shared before that it is in those younger grades and I think even

033next year as we move through the program I think they'll see a big difference. Uh and sixth grade says that they felt that the writing doesn't isn't teaching how to write an essay or essay genre specific instructions. But again, we go back to that that piece about not have the kids don't have that buildup to the point where they are. Um, overall, uh, K through sixth grade felt that they were it was highly engaging for their students and the students were loving the skills and the knowledge units. Um so overall I would say that the strengths in this new program uh we have improved student skills including handwriting and blended and phonics. We have um engagement with knowledge unit. It's ease of use for teachers and we have we see increased ready scores. the challenges

034continue to be the time constraints and the CKLA trainer again um shared with me that she's she again visited with the teachers about once you have it under your belt you you're doing it just like it's supposed to be done with fidelity and once you've been through the program and you're the next year will be a little bit easier and the time will be a little less you won't feel like you're bumping against those time constraints. Um, a little bit more difficulty with differentiating. I think we do have a whole another piece to this program that we haven't really dove into. It's a whole remediation guide. There was just so much with this new program. We knew they couldn't do it all. So, that is there for them when they are ready to jump in

035and use that as well. um talked about the spelling issues and the grammar issues. Um and she was able to also direct them to supplementary materials on the website that they weren't aware of. So that was exciting and again students um even though it may be a challenge for the teachers to teach students are absolutely questions at all. I was just curious if the fourth grade wax museum is still going to happen. It is. We're still talking about piece. I didn't know if that would Yeah, they are still committed to that. Yeah. Um I was just thinking as we were talking about differentiation was here talking about our FTSS program that came up a lot right is differentiation and how we can figure that out. So it's interesting that that pieces you have to join

036us and we talked about that when we um moved to this program. We knew that this was a highlevel program. It it doesn't have the traditional style of differentiation that you would see in other that you would see in a typical basil kind of program. And that's why we knew we had to start at the kindergarten level and we would actually see those strengths as the whole class move forward. Not to say that we don't are doing those things. Do you hear the the differentiation in this type of curriculum coming in the supplemental? Yes. So it's it's after the core instruction and then supplemental and that really that's um being adjusted to them. Um and this was just something I was thinking as you were talking in the beginning um with all the professional development

037we've provided that's been provided so far. Um, do you think this might be a new model going forward for any potential curriculum that we start that we bring in? Like even the new math program might be like I mean just like we've really frontloaded our teachers which is great and continue throughout this first year which I'm hoping has taken alleviated some of the pressure I know curriculum and super stressful and really hard. So wonder to emulate going forward. I think it would be great. This particular program, it was built that way. So, you know, we were very fortunate. I will say the vendor, the textbook vendor of the program that we chose, we're also looking at the map. It'll be interesting to see. Um, it's one of four programs that we're looking at right now

038and we meet again next week on that. But yes, Darcy, I would agree. Um, that one and done professional development really does work. That continuous repeated professional development uh not double dosing but triple dosing or more is really more advantageous to our teachers. I love that access to coaching and that you've utilized that and that the suggestions seem so specifically tailored to the issues that they're encountering. Were you saying that 90 minutes for the reading portion and 90 minutes for the writing portion when they implement that as well? So a total of three hours a day. It is 90 minutes for skills and 90 minutes for knowledge. Yes. And that's at the K2 level. And that's before you introduce the writing. Would you in some cases the writing is built into it? Okay. I wondered

039if they have in the resources and the coaching if they have I don't know suggestions of what other schools do to put this into their schedules and they do and we I remember talking about this at length because we we we said look this is 90 minutes re and this is 90 minutes of reading 90 minute or 90 minutes of skills 90 minutes of knowledge at the K2 level let's every single Okay. Yeah, let's look at your schedule. That really leaves no room. And then we put in wind time when reading and wind math, right? There is not a lot of wiggle. April and a lot of a lot of things. Yeah, that's tricky. Yeah, I I will say the teachers have done a fantastic job. Phenomenal job. And does the DKLA coach person have

040suggestions? They do. Yeah. and they've talked with him about how to tweak it and you know there's a lot of um cheerleing you're doing great just hang in there right it's going to get better it's going to get easier and they have been able to share some tips and tricks with them easier first time of going through it figure out how to be more efficient and like which ones to hit harder and which one if that'll come with time I think once they get a a little more comfortable with it. Yeah. Yeah. But and and we really said to them, we want you to teach the whole thing as it is written so that we know what it's like. And we have scheduled at the end of this month a um followup committee meeting to

041say, "Okay, we've had one year with CKLA. Now tell us about right what do you think? How's it going? Quick, I love this temperature check that you did. The pros, the cons. That's great. Um, Lisa, what what are the teachers saying? This appears to me to be whole group instruction. So, what are the teachers saying about those? And it it's very very high level. I am read to every week by my third grade and I know a lot about all these different topics. And what is really great is they're all social studies and science topics which takes the place of the social studies and science. Um but what are they saying about those children who are not their reading level is below grade level and how are they working with it and will this remediation

042program be in in place of some of it and help them get up to grade level or what? And that's the purpose of of link time, right? So that they really then goes go during that reading lane time, they go into skills grouping and they can get those skills that they're deficient in to bring them up to the level. So they are not seeing those lower those lower end students struggling with it. I would I don't know that I would say that they're not struggling. I think they've been able to do some differentiating within the classroom to make those students successful. So they too can participate in in the the discussion in the classroom and the projects in the classroom and what's happening in the classroom but the reading level may not be that of

043their peers. I do get the feeling that a lot of they're doing a lot of reading aloud particularly this first year and I don't know if that's built into the program but in discussion with my grandchildren it seems like they read a lot of it together that I and when I've been in visiting classrooms there's there's reading with partners sometimes there's class reading there's lots of different kinds of reading that I've heard from different grade levels Congratulations. Good. I hope they continue like we're gonna have it for the four more years. Well, and I think I think the um inservice is great because I think that's the most inservice. Yes. More than anything I ever received before any program. And um for myself, I have to go through something at least three times. The third

044time is I get a little bit the first time, I get a little more the second time. By the third time, the light bulb's going on and oh, now I know what I'm supposed to. Yeah. And I maybe other people are catch on much quicker than I do. But yeah. No, I'm very proud of those K6 that they like I said, they really dove in there. It It's a lot. It is a lot, you know, for those K2 teachers. It's an hour and a well, it's more than an hour. It's three hours, right? That they've been able to separate into chunks. Uh, with those three, four, five, six, um, it's more like 90 minutes, 60 to 90 minutes. And then they've had to fill in some areas because kids haven't had some of the skills

045that are necessary to be successful. So, they've done a great job. except for the long view. So every five years curriculum to review yes. So would this type of program have a next step with the same format or it is possible as we go our cycles go in a fiveyear cycle. It is possible when five years are up, we review this and we say we want to renew this program or we say no, we want to look at something else. That is really the I I find that and I often get that feedback from teachers. Why are we changing? So how often would you say it doesn't change or just builds on what's already there? M this one we had for years and years and years and two it you know there's a cost to

046these as well expensive reading typically the most expensive curriculum purchase of all of them I also feel like while there's a factor with catching the students up who are in fifth grade and so they didn't get grades K through for um I think it's really important that all the teachers master that skill because we'll still have new kids moving into this and we'll have those skills and so to be welcoming and you know inclusive of all I think that that's a really important component that all the teachers are kind of required to master this year and is there a bill in front of the legislature about there is a bill in front of the legislature it has to do with um reading instruction materials that are used for reading must have the science of reading

047embedded in it. The program that we have is that so we're a little bit ahead of the game. Um, and is that building pro? Uh, I don't know where else because science and I thought maybe some people would be science because you don't usually think Yeah, there's a great ring if you'd like to know a little bit more about the science of reading. I'll share with you a podcast. Oh, great. You can listen to it. Good. It's called Sold the Story Podcast. also this nice and leis I don't want to start rumors my collection is that bill got tabled oh did it I think so because I remember writing in support of it and I remember being bad wrote support of it too so I think it did but I'm not positive but maybe thank

048you so much that was amazing so great to hear about that was a big for the big push at the beginning so thank you Um, we're gonna do a real now. The winter activities report with Yes, it is. Thank you for having me. Um, I'll try not to be redundant with Jake's presentation. Spring sports, you go winter. Maybe highlight some of some of the things that he he mentioned, but uh, appreciate the opportunity to be here. Um, I'll start off uh with activities and our music department with band. So band um had three musicians make all Northwest bands. So they go over to Spokane and there's six states that make up the all Northwest. We have um Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. And we had three kids make all Northwest. It's a big

049deal to even have one, but to have three um that's the most we've ever had and pretty pretty big honor. So Matt uh King was really excited about that. Uh we had Bjornne Bugner on trombone. Uh Von Irwin on clarinet and Paige Sebie on trumpet. So pretty pretty big news there for the band department. Uh Bejorn Bunner on uh trombone and von Irwin on the sachs made all state jazz ensembles. Um that was believe back in January that that we sent them there um for for that festival in Missoula. And then they had an awesome uh showcase last night in preparation for the district music festival. Um thinks they're they're polished and ready to go for their competitions on on Thursday and Friday. So and then they'll get the results of those on from Thursday

050and Friday probably over the weekend. Usually they get those results Saturday or Sunday if they move on to all state music which will be held next month. So they'll be anxiously awaiting those. Um band also had Dr. Stark, director of bands at Montana State University. Go Bobcats. Great. Visit uh visit them to work on uh their festival preparations. So just getting another set of eyes and ears on on the preparations for the district music festival. Obviously all of our three music departments take that very seriously. And then uh Jaws ensembles had they had a great march and they're getting ready to visit the University of Idaho next week uh for a a jazz festival there. So um and that's that's for the band. They have a total of 65 students in the MHS band. So

051pretty good turnout. Uh choir has 37 kids um out and sure you probably all know they just got back at about 11 o'clock Sunday night from a trip to LA. Um had a great time. Um Mr. King wanted to point out that it was a perfect trip in every way possible. Kids were phenomenal. represented Whitefish High School in the community very well. Was very proud of that. Um, so was I. Um, and uh, three days included musical growth, including a masterclass University of California, Irvine uh, powerhouse profess professor. Uh, so they'd go perform for her, they she'd provide uh, feedback, they'd go practice on it, and then they'd perform again, and then she would provide a rating. So they had a superior rating, which is a gold rating. And as as Jake alluded to, they

052won second place out of eight schools in their district. So, um, a great great performance overall. Of course, with that, going to California and the close proximity to Disneyland and all the amenities. Uh, they did they did take advantage of that. Spent about 24 hours at Disneyland, California Adventure, uh, tour of Hollywood. They dipped their toes in the ocean at the Santa Monica Pier. uh visited the Griffith Observatory and then also prepared u during those times for the upcoming event later that night which was a showcase concert on Monday night and sounded very polished and professional. Um again last night just getting ready for the district music festival. They feel really good about the upcoming district music festival held at Glacier High School Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Um, last but not least, they were invited

053to uh sing the national anthem for the Whitefish Marathon coming up on May 17th. So, they'll they'll uh have a special performance with the MAC band on May 18th and their final concert will be May 20th. Um, for orchestra, we have a total of 71 students in our high school orchestra, which is a big big number. Um, and this is the first year we've had two orchestras. So, we have a basically kind of a varsity orchestra and a freshman orchestra. Um, so it's it's exciting news. Um, so to have have two groups. They performed at the state orchestra festival in Bosezeman in early February. Um, and then had a um Jackson Schindler was a concert master at this or state orchestra festival. So, we're kind of grouped in with Bosezeman and Missoula and some of

054the bigger schools. Um, which we're the only a school there. And so, Jackson was uh the concert master, which is he was the first ever Whitefish kid to to have that honor. So, very very good honor. Um, and he's also part of the Glacier Symphony, which is a prof professional orchestra organization. Uh, orchestra is also busy planning their New York trip in April, next April. Um, so we're we're in the beginning stages of of planning that out and I hope it goes as well as uh Mr. Thorson's trip. And here's the big news is we potentially have a hundred kids out for orchestra next school year. So we only have six graduating and 45 incoming freshmen. So on a stage want to just put that out there now. That that's that's a good pawn to

055have. But uh yeah, that's that's some planning that is going to, you know, have to take take place on record. So, as I mentioned, all three groups are getting ready for the district music festival here at the end of this week. Uh speech and debate, just want to touch on that. I know we've talked a lot about speech and debate, but I don't want to overlook them, but obviously very proud of the state championship that that we have this year. And um you know, all the big credit goes to to Sarah and Jason Brown for their work there with our program. and they do a phenomenal job. We have phenomenal kids in speech and debate and um it was just a a highlight of of the athletic department activities part this year was was winning

056that and I know the time and effort that goes into preparation of you know pieces and working with kids and individually. I I I always think of speech and debate kind of like track. You got all these different events, right? And trying to put all the pieces together from a head coach perspective and I know a lot goes into that. So, um, congratulations to Sarah and the speech kids. And, uh, we also hosted the national speech and debate qualifier. It was about the middle of February, I believe. So, from qualifiers from all over the state came to White Fish for for that event. Uh, I thought it went really well and we had five students qualify for the national speech and debate meet that'll be held in De Mo, Iowa, I believe in June. I

057got there. Yeah. So they get to enjoy De Mo Iowa. Wow. That seems really unfair and I de mo. So but uh no that's all good. Um the drama department they had a successful performance of the Adams family in March. I don't know if anybody here got to see that but uh highly successful. They also had Clue in November. So there was kind of a quick turnaround going from one play to the next. Um but record ticket sales they were it was actually really really surprised um that we had that many people attending and just awesome reviews of both both shows. So drama department did a great job uh with those performances and then they are off to see Hamilton in Spokane next Friday the day we have school off so they're not missing any

058school um but they're they're going to see that down back real quick. So pretty good stuff. Uh let's see DECA we had total of 68 students attend the DECA state conference um here at about at the end of uh when was that end of January. Um so 68 attended we have a record 28 um qualify for the international competition in Orlando which will be held at the end of this month April 25th. So, they're working hard to prepare for that. Um, you know, with uh event submissions, placement tests, all that all that stuff that goes into um DECA. So, um we got five chaperons attending with that many students. So, we're well covered there. And again, it should be a great trip for our DEA group heading out to Florida. Not De Mo. Yeah. Uh

059let's see. HOSA uh in March they partnered with the Red Cross to sponsor a blood drive which is held at our high school. Uh their goal was to get 23 units of blood donated. We ended up getting 28. So highly successful event there um by our our lead on uh on that with Mr. Cody Olsen. Uh HOSA also had 11 students qualify for the state leadership conference which they just got back from last Wednesday. They took off Monday morning, went to Billings, attended this leadership conference, and I can tell Jake's very humble individual because he received a gold medal in clinical lab science and a bronze in microbiology. So, um, he forgot to mention that Georgia Morell had a gold in respiratory therapy. June had a um, honorable mention in veterinary science. So, uh, overall

060a great event. It sounds like there was a lot of really really uh beneficial things that went on there. The kids kids had a good time. Um and then hostess also partnered with work-based learning students to attend a healthcare event at Logan Health. That is all I had for activities. On the athletic side, we had 127 students out for winter activities. It's a slightly up um from from what we normally have. Um, out of the 127 student athletes, we had 75 earn a 3.5 GPA or higher. So, um, shows that we're we're uh doing great things in the classroom as well. 39 of those 75 had a 4.0. So, we're very proud of those statistics and things those are, um, statistics that we we continue to uh, put out there and and again are very

061proud of. Uh, both basketball seasons had competitive seasons. There's a lot of growth from the start to the finish considering we are very young on both the boys and the girls side. I was very proud of the progress that we made throughout the the duration of the season and you know looking forward to the future. I know we have great group of incoming eighth graders going to be ninth graders coming in. So I think our future in basketball looks looks really really well. Um along with the basketball side I know Mr. drown maybe it was the last board meeting talked about uh the divisional basketball tournament and the highlight there and I know I saw maybe Katie trying to hurry out the door one day of the tournament must have been working concessions or something

062there was like a mob coming in yeah um so if if you were there and you witnessed it I know uh Mr. means was there. Yeah, there and yeah, there a lot of other people there as well. Uh it was a full house all three nights. Um it was a great event. Obviously, you know, can't say enough about the amount of help that we had, whether it was parent volunteers and concession stand, administration, uh they're having a role, um ticket takers, um everybody. We had so many people that that did just a phenomenal job. And I I'd be remissed if I didn't point out um Eden and her role behind the scenes and and everything that she did to manage ticket taking and you know concessions money and just taking care of all the little

063odds and ends things. So I just want to say thank you to everybody and and it really was a great event. Um it was the highest grossing western divisional basketball tournament ever. Yeah. Do you know how much the concessions pulled in? I do. It was about $22,000. No, I'm sorry. It was $32,000. And that gets split among the clubs. It gets split. Yeah. So, it goes into the pot and then we we divide it out. And so, it's for like the the year, all the groups that Yeah. So, they got to It was We made it worth their while to help um and then have a little nest egg in there to get us started for next year, too. Cool skill for kids to have. Yeah, it is. You know, it is. Yeah. you know,

064and we we had zero issues um with the Western A. Um the only complaint we had is we didn't have enough bathrooms, which why we have Luke and Shane here. So, um it was it was really a great bet. Um and teams were were awesome and and just we received so many compliments on on how everything went. So, again, just thank you to everybody that was involved. Um for uh wrestling uh we had five qualify for the state tournament and one earning a fourth place medal. Landry Ron, he's a senior looking to wrestle at the next level. Um and then swimming, we had 21 compete this season. They had a really strong showing at Great Falls. Once again, our girls ended up state runnerup. Um just a great season and looking forward to getting back

065there again next year. And just going to highlight just a few things on on the spring season. You know, we we currently have 176 student athletes out for spring sports. Uh again, one of the largest number we've had um since I've been here, since my my 12th spring here. Um you know, biggest hurdle we have right now is just dealing with weather and and getting events in. Uh we'll have our first home baseball softball games Monday, Tuesday next week. We finally are hopefully get on the tennis courts at home on Thursday and um but a lot of cancellations moving around trying to maneuver the schedule to fit these these events in. But that's springtime in Montana is just what we deal with. We just we don't um a lot of times we joke around as

066ads and at least in Western a that we shouldn't even make a spring schedule all Monday and say are you going to play this week? So we we completed uh the next year's athletic schedules the week the week before we left for spring break. So those are in the works and finance. So those should be all public here very soon. Um and last but not least, just want to update you that the bulldog booster auction is on April 25th at Cross Lodge at 6 pm. So how would you get tickets for that if you wanted to attend? Call E. any one of our any one of our head coaches um has those or you can go contact Katie McC. Any questions I can answer. Um I was wondering when you said about the 176 athletes,

067which I know more than normal, but um I was just wondering since we have baseball now, maybe that's added to that number, but this is our third year of baseball. Yeah, I do believe that we have kids that are playing baseball that if we didn't have it, they would be doing this. That's what I was wondering. They just moved over from lunch portion of the night. So, it is the higher number. It's not that we we really took away the talent pool from from um track when we added baseball. I think that we had baseball players that did track because there wasn't anything else. Right. No, I wasn't. Yeah, I wasn't sure if we like more kids were playing or if there was just like a movement of So, yes, we we have 82 out

068for track right now. We have six and two out for tennis. Um, baseball's 28. So, so yeah, we just need more tennis courts on my social. Yeah. Awesome. So, yeah. I want to pass on a compliment to you and Dave and the city, whoever worked on renegotiating the tennis contract so that it the courts were open when the season started and the nets were up. So, if the weather is good, they can go out and put on the courts. It is totally worked out been a huge boo to the program. So, thank you for that. Working out really nicely. Also, he had enough students for the girls softball team. Yes. So, yeah, we do. Um, we hired a new coach here. Oh. early February probably and uh he's phenomenal. He's done a great job. I

069think once big kids are starting to see who he is and his personality I think people are joking. So, we are we are adding more almost daily it feels like. Um, yeah, we have a roster. Yeah, we're going to play a varieg great coach, great group of girls. I was able to catch segments of practice here and there and love what I'm seeing. Um, you know, teaching fundamentals and and uh again, that's that's a a program that's it's growing and I think the future looks a lot better than what it what it's been. Well, it was just starting. Yeah. You know, we we've kind of we didn't have the participation numbers there before, but I think there's been a lot of uh effort in the youth program, the computer program. It's getting stronger. Yeah. And

070I think that's really um part of it. And so we'll probably have five or six freshmen that'll come in next year that compete for playing. Also just sounds like the vibe is good. Like kids are asking friends to join that lead to friends to join. So it's building. Yeah, that's momentum. Yeah, for sure. You've got strong coaches working with the youngest girls. We do. Yeah. Yeah. Carrie Frank is really Yeah. working hard. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Any other questions for I was just gonna also extend gratitude to you. This is a lot year round juggling, a lot of tournaments, a lot of travel, a lot of all the things. So kudos to you as well. Thank you. Yeah. Do we still think even though you're saying all these numbers are up that about 85% of our

071students are involved in an extracurricular or do you shame that that percentage is also rising? Um I think it's right around there. It to put an actual hard percentage on it is because you have kids that are in band that might be a tennis player and vice versa. So there's a lot of overlap stuff but um you know from from our perspective and looking at that I think that 85% is pretty strong. So yeah. Thank you so much. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Moving on to more bathrooms. And it's an update from our owner. Hi everybody. I am Luke Hammond with Tele Construction Advisors. Um, and I'm excited to talk about baths. give an update on the project. Um, uh, things are going really well with the project. Uh, the team is doing a

072great job. Um, will speak after this presentation um, on kind of the design efforts and where we're at with that. Um, but I wanted to go over a template for uh, the monthly board update. And I don't know if you guys all have that in front of you, but I think it's attached to the minutes and up on the screen here. Um, so this is somewhat of a template this month as we're still getting numbers refined and contracts in place, but does have some key information updates. Um, and so I'm going to breeze through this. Feel free to stop me at any at any point to ask questions. Um, but you'll notice here it starts off with the owner budget summary status. And that will go over uh the approved bonds bond amounts and where

073we're at with spent to date um owner contingency items and uh any approved use of contingencies as well as remaining owner contingencies. Um and it will follow that with a section on the GCCM contract status. um going over all the numbers there with their contracts by phase uh and their overall contract amounts um and touching on contingency there as well for their contractor contingency. Um and then second page here it jumps into some key milestone dates. Um this section will change over time. Some things will be tracked throughout the life cycle of the project. Some things will uh drop off and be added um on a monthly basis. But this section here um provides some insight on some of the things that have been done so far. And it's been a really fast process. Things

074have been moving very quickly um with an effort to try to start construction here this summer. Um and so some of the key items um for this milestone tracker, which are really goals at this point, um this will change and evolve over time as we refine things, but uh we've got an overall site survey completed. Um, we've executed the design contract in full. Um, we went through the RFP RF or RFQ RFP process with the GCCM and got that approved with the board. Um, the geotechnical report is in pro in process of being contracted and completed within the next month or two. Um, and then we also execute or we're in the process of executing the GCCM contract to get that finalized with Martell. Um and then some of the key milestones for the athletic

075phase and the academic phase. You can see that it's broken out by um phase 1 A and phase 1B for the athletic portion. This is a uh this is what I mentioned was a very fastm moving process to try to start things in June. Um we're calling it the fasttrack process. Um as things have evolved over the past week or so um with design and pricing that Martell has jumped in and provided some early estimates. uh we're still evaluating whether that's a possibility to start in June. Um and we just want to make sure we have a confident decision that that's a good path forward. So at this point it's looking like that might not occur. Um but we'll see how things progress as we get closer. Um it has uncovered a lot of good

076information as we've moved forward really fast. So that is a good insight that I think Shane will touch on when he talks about the design as we move forward. But there just a lot of uh moving parts and pieces to get to a finalized part to mitigate risk and make an informed decision there. Um and so if we don't start this summer, it might end up being more like March of 26 when we start that first phase of the athletic scope. Um so that will adjust uh from what you're noting here, but um we'll see how that progresses. uh the academic phase. You'll note here uh one typo I just realized uh I need to correct is that last portion that says phase two new construction. That's listed twice. That second one should actually say

077phase 2 remodel construction. So that's tracking dates for our goals for having um you'll notice there it starts with design. Then we bid and permit it with Martell and jump into start and finish dates for uh new construction um of the academic and then remodel portion of the construction academic. Um and then key monthly updates will be provided every every month update. Um you'll notice here some of the things we already talked about just for uh progress sake uh is that we've executed the GCCM or we've gone through the GCCM RFQ RFP process um and they're already moving forward with early estimating um uh information to help us evaluate decisions. Um A&E has been working on uh design coordination meetings with the building committees for athletic and academic portions. Uh it's noted as five I

078think today was actually maybe six uh meetings so far. So that's going really well with the design team. Um and it's exciting to see that progress which Shane will talk about more here in a minute. Um and then Martell, as I mentioned, has already begun the pre-construction process. Um they hit the ground running really fast and they provided some really good information uh to move forward there. So things are progressing really well with the project. Um and then the last section of this update will be um progress photos. Right now, obviously, we haven't started construction. So, uh the only thing I've included this month are some very early preliminary, uh schematic design, uh snapshots of the athletic portion, uh just for reference. That will evolve and change over time as well, but just a reference

079point for kind of where things are at right now. And then um just as a note, we've implemented a software called OpenSpace uh that we've walked the entire existing high school facility um all the little nooks and crannies to get um an existing capture of it's a 360 capture um of the existing space um to note existing conditions and like a Google Street view of the existing high school. uh that will be implemented during construction to track progress and um utilize a historical time frame for documentation purposes. So that's begun on an early phase of the existing portion. Uh that will usually have update or uh construction progress photo updates but um that's all we have at this point. So uh that is the April update. Do you guys have any questions? Um yes. Why

080would we need to um possibly not start until March of 2026 when we're talking about starting in June of 2025? Why a full year later, almost a full year later? We were really pushing hard to try to start things as fast as we could to get as much out of the way as possible and started as soon as possible. Um it was an ambitious effort from a design perspective and a costing perspective with the GC being on board and getting all the components in place to have that start. Um and uh things just are progressing at a pace that um there's information that's coming uh coming forth that's made us a little more um apprehensive about starting early. Uh so it's not a bad thing necessarily. it was kind of ambitious and a bonus if

081we could make that happen. Um but due to time frames of sporting events and um just working around the the facilities and the existing school and students um starting some of those efforts for scopes um before March is uh just not feasible from a construction standpoint. So before March of 2026 correct and that is also a goal moving target with what scopes would start in March. Um, so that will also evolve over time as we get more refined and get closer to that. Um, but that is the hope at this point. Um, so still trying to get those parts and pieces finalized and make a decision on when that would actually occur. And is that the typical that it would take that long to get started? Um it really depends, but in this case um

082just working around the sports um activities to get things started and the weather to work on um like fields and some of the scopes in that athletic phase. Uh it's just when the next time frame would hit to be able to to start that those activities. I would I mean and it might play a role in it a little bit. Are you seeing are we seeing a major change in pricing materials um at the state? Yeah, there are potential Yeah, we're seeing a lot of tariff impacts that may or may not impact pricing. Um at this point, uh there are some pros and cons to starting early in June or waiting till March. Um, a lot of what we've evaluated is pricing efforts on looking at where we're at with scopes and how thorough the

083design is and trying to rush that as opposed to going through that process a little bit further, a little more detailed, being able to um, not only look at pricing options and what could be ordered early, but go through the process of value engineering and looking at options to try to decrease costs overall to meet the budget of the bond and also accommodate everything that we want to accommodate. So there's a lot working there in the background to try to get to that that and a lot of unknowns with the tariffs and the price increases with now versus then. Uh but ultimately it's getting to that point of a a confident design that we pull the trigger to start that's causing that uncertainty at this point. Well, always when we've looked at the athletic piece,

084the use of the fields, it's always been a timing issue no matter what. It's always been a a time the use in the field. So even like if you were building it brand new, you could maybe do it at a different time, but based on the event that be used, it's a the timing issue. I would say working around sports schedules and timing of when you have to place a track uh the surfacing with weather and a lot of different components. There's just constraints that have to be worked around. It was really interesting. And I don't know if you would maybe want to touch on that or Shane, but I think it might be interesting for the whole board because we talked about that when we were doing our interviews, but that track placement is

085actually a very highly skilled like it's a not just something you go. It's not just like something that rolls down, it's an So I don't know if you've done some research on that, but maybe you could touch on that a little bit because I think that is it's a huge component of this whole process and the timing of it. And so could you maybe Yeah, there's a lot of weather dependent factors. It has to be placed within certain ranges of temperatures but also a lot of design aspects uh that has to be followed to the tea to make sure that it's done properly so that its use is installed and it doesn't have issues down the road. Um and a lot of fencing for deer activity once it is placed for a certain amount of

086time frame. Um there's a lot of and I think certified installers as well for this for the type of track that we do ultimately select. Um so there's a lot of uh a lot of details that have to be followed with installing that track that also provide or uh have constraints associated with them. Yeah, that was like really interesting to learn about. I had no idea. I just thought it was like literally They just rolled down there. I was like, "Oh, it's not like it's actually like someone's job. I think it's like a whole specialty. It's like track laying." It's so precise, right? And you can't have people get hurt. It has to be exactly like it's like a all the measurements have to be perfect. It's all there's guidelines and yeah different thing. I

087just I just had a quick clarification. I think I'm reading this right but you know what we're discussing and then if you bump it back what as I look at this it looks like phase two with academic truly doesn't really get underway like there's not too much overlap I guess is what I'm wondering. Is it like this is done and then this for phase 1 A and 1B you mean or the academic portion? Yeah, both. Yeah, more the academic because if I look at academic starting December 2025, there's really only that phase 1B construction of athletic that would overlap a little bit. Is that sort of accurate? Like I guess that's just a question is like how much overlap especially if we bump this back will it potentially be or are we still going like

088or is the attention to go sequential? I guess just that's no it's just more so the academic takes a lot more attention as well from a design perspective and a permitting perspective. Yeah. So starting that is what's really pushing. You'll notice the the design that's the design date the December 2025 and then there's a bidding permitting process and construction on the new portion which isn't impacted to you know you don't have to get into the remodel portions with students. Um that's what we're targeting a March start date. Okay. Um and so it's not necessarily because we're starting um at the athletic and completing the athletic so then we can start the academic. It's just more time frame on when we're getting there with design. uh permitting and okay bidding and pricing and then being able

089to start that work. So especially if we end up delaying till March 2026 and then in theory this other academic they could both potentially be sort of starting the construction phase similarly timed in March of 26. Um parking general correct no that's correct. Yeah and and that we'll I can revise this and send it back out. just a lot of I was just curious like going to feel like the invasion to the neighborhoods and all that kind of stuff if it all happens. So the March date would be some portions of the athletic and most of it wouldn't start until school is out in the summer. Um we would just try to get as much potentially as we can as early as possible to get ahead of it given the constraints. Um so we're still

090working through that and Martell is just getting on board so they're really the driver of what the schedule will look like and some of these pricing options. So they've been doing a great job so far. Um, it's just getting them up to speed and getting some of those schedule components dialed in. And I totally understand. It's all nebulous. For sure. I just wasn't sure that vision was overlap or I wasn't quite not necessarily. No, we we have the ability to to do both at the same time. It's just kind of how things hit with progression. Um, and again, these are very early. So, these are all targets and goals that will evolve over time. So, I want I want to make sure everyone knows that these aren't set in stone. They're they're work in progress.

091It's very early. Thanks. Yep. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Good evening. Shane Jacobs. I'm an architect and project manager with Amy Design. just wanted to give a a brief update and really it's supplemental to Luke because we're working so closely together. Um and then uh and then of course Martell coming on board recently. So we've been working through we've had a series of I think this was the the fifth academic and athletic meeting that was actually today. So this is a busy week. Yesterday we had a student workshop which was fantastic. We got a lot of great feedback from student council and a few others. Um, so they gave us a lot of uh it's just always good to look at it through the lens of the student ultimate users of the building that

092the that not that the staff and the educators are not but it's always interesting to kind of walk in the shoes of the people that are ultimately learning in this environment because that's what it's all about at the end of the day. So it's great to get that feedback. There was a lot of parallels with staff which was fantastic. We ran through a number of exercises of a couple of which we had run uh run through with staff previously in our previous design meetings. And so to see those parallels even to what we like and don't like aesthetically about the building is it was fun and and then got to get some constructive criticism just schools run and and the spaces we have and just hear what we're maybe lacking, what we need more of,

093what we appreciate. So we build on the positives and keep kind of building up the the things that uh that we can identify that need some need some work potentially. Um it's also fun to identify the parallels between the community and the school and just talk about where we are in this environment that we live in, how fortunate we are to be here and how the built environment can reflect that natural environment and how do we engage with that. So, um, and then today we had, uh, our fifth academic and, um, athletic committee meetings. And then tomorrow, I don't don't see anybody at the school district. And then on Thursday, Friday, a little field trip. Yeah, that's right. That's right. It's been it's awesome because we are just rolling up our sleeves and diving right

094in and getting getting into all of it. Um, which is great. And that's uh I really got to compliment Luke and getting Martell on board that we now have really a complete owner architect contractor team. I think of it in those buckets of decision makers that we got to find the balance between those three entities. And I also think uh in in three different realms of scope, schedule, and budget. We've been talking a lot about scope and that's the drawings. That's the things that eventually get built and you experience. but how does it also fit within within the schedule and within the budget within the bond and so that's those other dimensions of the things that we always spend in balance of so those are the things that we're continuing to evaluate we talk about

095that fasttrack schedule and that desire we want to make sure we really got a a well-laid plan I would say um the school the academic expansion is what I would call a really traditional schedule that's very typical and aligned to the beginning almost always starts with any school of as soon as you can break ground, which is right around St. Patrick's Day, and almost always ends with the end of summer to just maximize the building season. You run like heck through the first summer, try to get them close that's most efficient for contractors. And then um they can hopefully be building in a warm environment where they're more efficient and not shoveling snow through the winter and just doing kind of the basics of fighting fighting the weather and then be wrapping up in time

096to occupy the school. And then somewhere in there there's a remodel the interior of the high school. That's a very traditional model for a project like this or schedule for a project like this. And then we're typically working backwards sometimes working faster to be able to accommodate set the contractor up for that. There's a lot of other advant advantages as well uh when it comes to finding and bidding the most value for your dollar. And then um there's probably there was lots of different ways when we entertained the fasttrack model of um of uh evaluating pros and cons between the two and one was like well is it better to stretch it out or is it better to compact it and just kind of be everywhere on the site and you can really argue it

097both ways and there's similar things with let's just uh let's get out there now and it's never going to be as cheap as it is today but also let's evaluate where our risks are for tariffs and those kinds of things and just make sure we have a really bulletproof plan and so we want to be good stewards of that especially working with public money. um there's a lot of inherent pressure in there and being a taxpayer myself I feel that an extra mile but I feel that on every public project I work on so I just wanted to touch these are highlights there are dozens and dozens of pages of what have come out of the work that we've done with the committees and really these are these are our core goals so design a

098future proof and flexible learning environment embrace and protect school culture and really I would put kind of community culture in brackets on that expand academic opportunity unities and really that's kind of this yin and yang of do you have the space or do you have the curriculum this chicken and the egg kind of scenario of being able to really um extend the offerings of of what our um of all that of all that the high school offers for our young minds but to be able to have the space in order to support that type of education of the delivery of that education for these students and then um enhance that experiential learning from community partnerships. So, that's finding those opportunities to bring people in the community within the school and also send the students um

099out out into the community. I love the the seniors with seniors tag from the the update at the beginning of this meeting. And then uh and then create a cohesive campus and that's been really a big one. That's a good lead into this pathway slide. Um really the last couple when we talk about what those future opportunities are in in terms of course offerings and curriculum, it's really taking a look at what you have and then what are the opportunities to expand upon that. And we've identified a handful of them in these colors. There were actually several several diagrams and I had to pair down really this presentation, this update, but we looked at open space, we looked at circulation, we looked at where the neighbors are, we looked at the views, we looked at

100access, we looked at interior circulation, exterior circulation, where's the heart of the school, what are the different modes that it's in, whether it's activities or um or kind of its typical traditional of a education environment. And then where are those things happening now in terms of these these pathways um that are really going to lead to different career paths for for students and not forgetting about core curriculum and the independent high school as well. But how do those things begin to want to lay out in the school? And how do you begin to respond to some of those other existing environmental things to really find a a cohesion through the building plan that really starts to um support that idea of maintaining the culture? And um and then while not forgetting this next slide is

101about the most boring slide ever. Very heavy. Very heavy. Yeah, you just ran right to the end of it. the uh it is not forgetting that we got to really count we got to really count all the all the beans. Uh we got to make sure that we're talking about enrollment projections and expansion to be able to uh to be able to prove out when we talk about the number of added uh um education spaces uh teaching stations and then by OPI the number of those teaching stations um that support um support our our students the ratio of that uh that OPI sets and then what does that begin to um establish in terms of where we are today in terms of environment and where we plan to be in 15 to 20 years to

102make sure that we're planning that far down the road. And so that is not just um all the fun things that the changes in the world are going to bring our way to education and the future of careers for uh for young people as they find their way into the workplace. But it's also just the sheer numbers game of how do you fit them all in in the building, meet that standard and be able to have enough spaces for them. of the things you're doing in there. And then, you know, it's kind of a quantity and quality kind of game as we're as we're thinking through all the other design pieces of how to how does this building work? How does it stand up? How do we get water over there? And how do we

103also make it beautiful and and create memories and things for for our students and our community members. All right, enough of that boring little bit. But really, the game is getting getting the people that are the students and teachers that are in the annex, get them over into the main building and then also and then also provide for future growth as well. And so these are some very high level bubble diagrammatic slides and this continues to be refined. Um, but these were a couple just early options to take a look at to really study how this be could begin to lay out. And it's from a code standpoint, it's from a function standpoint, from a curriculum standpoint. Find those find those synergies between um hospitality and culinary arts and put them together purposefully with some

104real intent. And then how do how do those things begin to support the athletics component of it as this addition begins to embrace the existing gym. So thinking about culinary arts, maybe um maybe running a concession stand on the interior of the building that can support the activities. Have a business classroom that runs a student store that that can sell swag things at at games at games at events. And then um as I mentioned, this continues to be refined. Don't you can't forget about the other buckets of how does this begin to fit cost? How does it begin to fit schedule that we it's one of the most curious things we do. We really just start with an idea and then continue to hone that idea, compare it to these other things until we really

105get down to the nuts and bolts and the final selection, the renderings, and then actually see this thing come up out of the ground and then eventually get to just occupy it and and and appreciate it and enjoy it. What's my last slide? Oh, yeah. Not to be not to forget about the other the other component of the project is the athletics. Um we spent a lot of time looking at this scale which is uh it's you know budget-wise it's about a quarter of the academic expansion. Um and so there is a real desire to say we could we could run through a lot of this design and we need to really be efficient on it but we also need to be thoughtful because it's 20 acres of property. So um so you start you

106know selecting something really silly like the wrong seed mix and then you're doing it times 20 acres. Um, so we need to, so there's a lot of good thought that's gone into this and working with the committee that it's been primarily uh coaches uh for this uh this half of the project. And it's making sure that we get all of the um the proper lanes and orientation and all the jumps and looking at the kind of the right arrangement of how are we going to actually run a meet, how we going to actually run track and field practice. what does that look like um before the master plan is is really completed and we see that future phase come along. So, how do we play uh soccer and football on field one within the oval

107and also how to be a bit of a bit of a track focused facility and then think about where the throws are going to go which is on field three which would be a practice football and soccer field phase two field two that would be that would be the future football and soccer stadium that would be we see this entire master plan built out realized um we are being right into detail. We just went from like 20 acres to just a couple thousand square feet of really just talking about some real detail today. In fact, we've been doing spending the last week doing a little bit of inventory um for all of the things that need to be stored for athletics and activities and just making sure that whatever our existing space is, whatever those

108current needs and requirements are that we have enough space in the new facility in order to store them. which things are really moisture and temperature sensitive and making sure that we're taking care of the investments that have already been made by the school district. And then thinking about just fun stuff like fanf fair. It's always fun to go Friday night lights or go enjoy a track meet and um and then just be able to kind of show school pride and uh just be a real staple of the community. And that's for those that uh that that don't have kids or their high school years are behind them. This is a or or maybe um maybe they're young young people that are before their high school years. This is a an ability to just come out

109and experience the high school in another way without necessarily set your foot aside. So you touch a lot more people just through athletics and activities. That's that is the really down and dirty update. Questions you have? So this goes back maybe should have been asked L more. So I was in in the meeting when we when we looked at the real rough you know this is sort of what we think and you know and I think we were all just in shock over over what we saw there. What I don't understand is um and I had to jump off that meeting so maybe you guys heard this but sure what I don't understand is how waiting almost a year solves that. Yeah, this is the back and forth. There's the escalation component of it and

110that's what you're referring to seeing those dollars increase. So your condom is 3% this year. Who knows with some escalation other things that we're concerned about. There's also um the current bidding environment. We're a little late this year civil contractors and it really is a January February game. So you actually see um you actually see this graduated escalation over the over the year as all of those contractors fill up there. And I'm trying not to look at Darcy as all of those cont as all of those contractors fill up their schedules over the year. They're not as hungry as they are when service flying. They haven't filled up their counters. They haven't filled up their schedules yet. So there's actually There's actually um probably have her confirm it. I won't put her on the screen,

111but there's probably something like a 10% premium by bidding something in the summer versus bidding it and it just is a supply demand thing. We had heard some of those um initial lines from our civil contractor who does a lot of municipal work in fish. and he said, "Well, while some of the generals and some of the other trades have seen a dip in the last calendar year, civil contractors for whatever reason are busier and it's just the type of work that's been out there, whether that's been more and so they're replacing water lines and doing asphalt projects and the things that you know, while the private maybe slowed down a little bit, you still have holes and repave things, build bridges, so that still continues on regardless. This is the first time I've seen

112this fan as opposed to the one that had the weight that went way out behind the sustainability center. It's really cool to see that you were able to um preserve the green space and I know that the students also really appreciated that. But I wonder when I look at this when we're talking about a lot more students high school, you don't need to make the hallways wider and things. Will there be congestion? How do you anticipate that? Yeah, astute of you to pick up on it. It's uh it really was a product of preserving open space and and trying to um this is kind of a bigger question too for the city and for this valley and the state and just where do you densify and then where in order to preserve the other things,

113right? And not just sprawl out all all over all of it, right? And so, how do you build more compact and more thoughtful? Um, and then just use your dollars more wisely in that way and then set yourself up for what the next move is because eventually you're going to be adding on to the building. Again, um there are some things in schools that are um if you were going to design a school for half this population, certain pieces of the school would be the exact same size. You got to right size your kitchen. Um the commons is a really difficult thing to expand. It can be done. The gym is just the gym. And so uh there are certain elements of it that if you were going to if you were going to design

114school for half of your current population, a certain piece of the building, certain pieces of the building would just be the same size and the classrooms that would be added on to different. The code dictates a lot of things from boy we spent probably too much time at the committee on bathrooms today. the number of occupants in a room, which that little number of 46 over there by the door for a space like this. Um, when you add all of those spaces up in the building, they really start to um they start to dictate a few things like the number of exterior doors, the width of um stairs, the width of hallways. Yeah. And uh and the number of bathrooms. And so it really I think about it as um it's kind of like neighborhood

115streets versus collector streets. They all kind of flow into they flow out to second they flow out to 93 all the neighborhoods all the everybody that lives on all the all the parcels adjacent to those. So those are all the classrooms all those people that drive to the the collector street and then out to the thoroughfare and then eventually out of the building. So while architects are concerned with um the beauty in our buildings it's also the function and it's actually first and foremost the health safety and welfare of the occupants. Yeah, because I I I like hearing it as a traffic pattern because that's really what it is. And it reminds me when we worked on Moldown, the more students that started going to the old mold, we had a problem called junction junction

116or something congested junction because the the traffic didn't work. So four together at the same time. And so when you make this more condensed, do you invite that kind of issue? And how do you mitigate that? There's definitely from a code standpoint. There's also different functions. Yeah. So, and then what are the opportunities for the positive interactions as well that if I So, we spent some time we spent some time uh with students yesterday talking about is it better to be each one be aligned by grade or be aligned by subject and by purposefully mixing it up and being aligned. you know to have to have a you know you could co-e English teachers right next to each other you actually get kind of a more interesting melting pot and more interactions by mixing it

117up a little bit more so but there are some that we highlighted one of just uh there's an area right in front of um right in front of the front desk of the admin that is it's one of those probably knocking at the door kind of your malfunction junction and we need to think about how do we kind of relieve that area. Got it. So, okay. Really cool. Does common stand for common area? That's I was like, what is common? Yeah, commons lunchroom and that means lunchroom like the current lunchroom and where the tables are. Commons anymore have become uh Yeah. So much more than a lunchroom. That is not just this thing that's on the end of the building. It's at the end of the hall and it's just used for the middle of

118the day, but it's actually got all the other hopefully it's the heart of the school really becomes an additional assembly space. It's a study hall. It's it's a hangout space after school to kind of get that buffer between you know school and parents will pick up and that is something you know talking about more students and right now my understanding is there anyway. Yes. So so this would incorporate more trying to find a way to kind of tie in. It feels like there's two hearts right now. And some of those diagrams that I just couldn't go through the 30 slides in this, but when you look at kind of the the center of campus and then the hearts of the building, there's one in the commons and there's really one at the activities kind of

119entrance outside of the gym. They're not too far apart from each other, but they're kind of around the corner. And if we can come up with a way to kind of tie them together and make it a single heart to the to the building, I think that's a pretty exciting design move. And that's really that's really been the evolution from that initial pre-bond imagery that in the show that we that's called out to the north and bring it back brings that center aspect back to I have a couple questions for you. Um, you mentioned bathrooms and um, he mentioned our athletic director and in your planning I've often wondered why um, architects do not plan more bathrooms for women than for men. They would always see the huge line out the women's and never up

120the men's. You're right. And I'm I'm often said a woman should be the architect for the bathroom. and we get a lot more. So that's a I just ask you if that's a question you look at. Yes. Short answer is yes. Okay. The uh the little bit longer answer and I'll save you the full version, but it uh when when the original gym was built, I'm not sure what the code was at. You might not have it might not have dictated plumbing fixture counts. Uh now a new code comes out about every three years and it's adopted soon after that by the state and the state actually amends that part of the building code and has their own and it's got a ratio for men and ratio for women as you would suspect it generates

121more plumbing fixtures are required for women and it starts to break down well maybe it's supporting the stereotype. The second question I have is regarding the field. I have have the neighbors been involved and been asked about this because where the placement of the um bleachers are sends all the noise right out into the neighborhood right there. And have they been talked to and has that been discussed? because if they were on the other side, the noise would go through open speckings where they're not so much to disturb. That's something we should probably talk with the core committee about. We have I did not include our uh we have a very colorful board plan that kind of has all these mapped out and it has the student workshop yesterday and the community meetings today and

122all mapped out has this meeting tonight. Everything's kind of color coded and mapped out. We have a couple floating community meetings on that and that might be one where we we Well, I I've heard a little feedback that possibly placing the bleachers on the other side for the community that surrounds of which there's probably 30 houses right in there would be they would like it better if it was on the other side because the noise would be going out into an open space and towards mold and I and I don't know that That's even possible. Yeah. But I just ask if the community has been consulted. Sometimes a good information session would be Wasn't there something? Weren't you guys on that? Wasn't it on that side because the neighbors didn't want to look at the

123back of it? Yes. They'd rather have the noise than the back of it. Yeah. It was that they wanted a view from the stand and also they didn't want the the view from their front door to be the whole wall. So they'd rather have noise than No, just conversation. Yeah, I don't know if there was ever formal study formal. I think that was just who showed up. Yeah, that's usually the case. They get noise now based on where the bleachers are located currently. So, they do I do remember there was thought behind where they were placed. Well, that was funny like discuss. Yeah, but I wouldn't say it was like a formal like let's talk to the I don't know if neighbors were there when we had I don't I don't know if it was

124really Well, I don't know. I just asked that question. There were some. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe it's already been researched. Sar anything to add to that? Oh, I'm sorry. Um, no. That was going to be my point. Okay. Exactly. Thank you. Yeah. And I guess we were just clarifying um on the athletic piece that phase two, field two, and field three just to remind myself of the bond is that we are paying for field one, right? And this is just like half of them. Don't say things like that. Good joke. It's a it's really going back to that bond language. Yeah. And then and then it's also trying to functionally functionally understand and lay out where everything's going to go. And then it's also an understanding of timing. So for instance, so like that field

125two, yeah, phase two, we want to call that field two because we was going to get confused if it was like field three, phase two. Yes. It get butchered three times. We had the third phase all of a sudden. Um it was the idea there one of the one of the ideas is and this kind of comes back to the timing is that on the fast track and really it's will play out in the next calendar year as well. This field three needs to be established first and that's for football practice to be able to happen in mid August. And so whether that's this calendar year or next calendar year, if that's the way it's going to work, then it has to happen first and then field one can't get can't get touched until back

126season is over, which is essentially by that point a couple months of the construction season gone by season. So there's a game here of trying to optimize construction season and also being cognizant of how long it takes to um disrupt well in order to not disrupt an athletic season to be able to take the ground um and and do whatever renovation to it and then and then get it back in place before that season comes along again. And I think just to clarify like that because looking at it just with the bond language or what people think they they saw in the bond language is like field three was going to be gr like grass plant seated or practices is kind of the idea and then field two I wonder if like we shouldn't say

127like future or potential future phase just so everyone's on it just is a little confusing because it looks like it's all part of like is phase two going to happen with the bond money that you know. Yeah, that's a good just a little Yeah. Yeah, I Yeah, I agree. the the the bond language referred to field one primarily everything south of that the phase two here the field three was considered practice fields irrigated in glass right so at this point as she shared earlier all of this is just conceptual sure totally and I make sure that language is clear but you're right on that probably but let's call it donation field Yeah, that's what I was taking donations like to the link code that thing right. Thanks for Yes. Thank you. Yeah. And yeah, you

128try to put these you try to put the words and the bone language into imagery like that and then you need to chase it down and schedule. Totally makes sense. Yeah. All right. Thank you. So many cards. Thank you, Shane. And thank you for the evolution of it. I know. It's really fun. You want to come job shadow? All right. Yeah, the clouds. Clouds. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. What's been happening? I know. Also, I know the students love that. Also, great job. They're very excited. Um, all right. Wellness and mental health grant update. That's me. Yeah, you wor. I don't have to. So, uh, no, I'm excited to share this information with you. Um I'm happy to share this information regarding the wellness mental health grant um in partnership with Nate Shoot. Um really

129Nate Shoot will be taking on the coordination um and facilitation of this grant u which is great because it just mirrors their mission vision for partnership with us. I'm excited about those opportunities. So um I'm going to read that one part in here because I think it was such it was well written. This was a the mission of this initiative is really the grant would focus on improving the individual and community well-being through evidencebased strategies for positive psychology and happiness research. Um while addressing the unique mental health challenges faced in mountains. This project will equip Whitefish schools and the community with practices and resources to manage stress, build resilience, and foster a connected and supportive community. Essentially, uh in order to do that, what the the ideas are really to do training with staff like

130community awareness sessions. Um there's coursework that will be offered through the University of Montana that they're actually doing already doing happiness for educators and research in this area already coursework that's provided that would be offered through it. Um increase awareness in mental health kind of a campaign through an information campaign through this effort. Um and then a lot of work to build long-term fundraising for the future because one of the primary goals is also to improve access to mental health supports. You can really think of it as an initiative for awareness for related to mental health and then supporting the structure of future animal supports within the community and in so that grant is approximately $37,000 and will be um that those funds will be coordinated and then facilitated through nation but we'll partner with

131them in some of the activities. any questions? I just have a clarifying question just having been on the PD committee. So, does that look like to you and maybe this is a lis question as well. Does that look like you know like you said there's opportunities for credits or whatnot that they would be like during a PD day they would do or this its own thing like how does that actually look like to play out for educating staff? That would be course work outside of school. Okay. But it would be funded through this. So that's one option. Okay. Training during school and after school options update as well related to this topic. So it's all optional stuff though for them. It's not like Kate time necessarily for them. No. Okay. But some of the training

132would be, you know, during school hours. Oh. Um the course would Sure. Yeah. Right. So Nate shoot do they write the grant and also organize all the programming or in partnership with us. So um I've worked with them on building this structure to it the foundation of the application that provided some structure to what what the grant would look like and then yes they would facilitate coordinators. It's really cool. Provide the trainers. I guess what I'm asking is I see incredible value in this. I'm wondering if this takes a lot of district resources, but it doesn't sound It really doesn't because it really fits their mission really well. Something I think I was excited to work with them on because they are focused on this very thing already and it's right within that and then

133they can work it with it and help support us in this effort. I think I stress with them really and they believe this as well is that this isn't just about equipping our staff and it's about equipping our whole entire community with information about mental health resources for mental health the needs that they're out there how do we support the best and most effective research ways and so I think they're perfectly suited to do that. Um, and we can learn new things and strategies within the schools to support students. But equally as important, if not more important is what are the resources for people in the how can we get students to those resources too if needed? But also, how do we support our community in these this exciting value in it? you said it

134really supports Nate Shoot's mission, but it also really supports ours in terms of developing partnerships and also assisted schools. So, it really feels like it's both of our mission. Yeah. Yeah. I think there's a big effort here to recognize that um our work too is is challenging. Teachers are working very hard every day and st all staff are in our schools and how to um how do we support them too? There's some strategies that we know that might work and help Thank you. Thanks for doing that. Came back with a mission and you got it done. Um, next up is the Whiteish Independent High School Whiteish High School online learning platform. Uh this particular request is a formal request. It is an action item and we um are recommending approval of a replacement program for

135the current program that we are using at Whitefish Independent High School for their online learning platform. We also use it for credit recovery at Whitefish High School. And then what we would like to do is move from um currently we have a program called egenuity to imagine learning and we would like to move towards a new program called admentum. The reason for this change is that the independent high school is really taking small baby steps towards personalized competency based education and they're looking for a platform that's a little more flexible for them. and they found that this platform will actually work better and meet their needs better for this particular reason. So I know that um Al Hamill and Hie who is the administrator at the independent high school and I all have been on

136Zoom calls with Nintend what it offers. We've had discussions afterward about how different this would be and how it would more effective for their purposes and so we'd like to direction this is our first action hour of the night slow over here as an added bonus I will tell you that it there is a savings that was that was my question I was like is our contract with the other aren't already up and so it's time to like find the new one. Our contract is at the end of July. Gotcha. Sorry you said that. Um my question is like how do you like when you buy curriculum and like like seek ALA like right we get the books through them like how what is the process when we're looking at an online curriculum? Do they

137kind of give you access to it to like go through it and see what it's like? So, it's like getting the books. They can really dive in and get a whole and they walk um they walk through the important pieces of uh how do you see the progress of students in the online learning? Okay. And and what makes this more flexible? Getting retail questions. Well, is the other one lock step? Yes, you can move around in all different areas. So you don't have to go, for example, you don't have to take math one, math 2, math three, math four. Um, in the in the course itself, it is more flexible with students. So math one is more flexible than in the other program. Yes. Okay. Yep. So kids so once kids learn so in the

138previous program it's very sequential. Okay. In this program if kids learn something and they can test that they know it they can. So this is more individualized. Yes. Okay. That's my question. Kind of more Montasuri style. Well no it's just more individualized. So if the student already knows a concept, they don't have to go over the whole thing in the other program. It sounds like you had to go through it regarding Yeah. Another clarifying question. It is used. Matter of fact, Michael Tomkins who was a counselor at the high school was familiar with this program. So, and he was the one that had actually recommended it to the UN and the but the licenses for both schools. Yes. Yes. Like so many. Yeah. Um, back to the board. Oh, no. Public comment. Back to the

139board for further discussion. or emotion. I just think it's funny they all have weird names. Like what's the deal? Whatever. So clever. I move we approve this as I favor. That is everybody. Thank you so much. Thank you. That's an action item. Do my job here. Um up next Dave recommendations for hire. So um you can see before you have some recommendations for hire for coaches library media specialist special education teacher coaches and some guest teachers question. I just had a question. Did because we had talked about the softball numbers. Did we have an assistant softball coach or did we because the numbers have we always had? Okay. So, we're replacing the softball. Okay. Um any comments after the board approved by Katie seconded by Quincy. All in favor? That is everybody. Thank you very

140much. That's exciting. Um out of district students. Okay. Or you have identifier numbers of students who are recommended for approval for out of district enrollment for the 24 25 school year this year. Any questions about these numbers? I have a Do they have to reapply then for next year? Okay. They have a new number. No, the number one. Well, probably have a new number. I was wondering any grade levels that were No. Yeah, those are always considerations we each each application we review and we look at rate levels to determine whether or not they're full or not or not. Um any public comment back to the board for I'm going to be accept um our district students move by Jared by Elizabeth everybody. Thank you very much. Um on to trustee reports. Um it is

141that time of year where we um in May we write and approve a letter. I know to send out to the staff as a just end of year appreciation letter. Um, I was wondering if anybody wanted to raise their hand u appreciation note nomination letter am I writing just a quick nomination yeah we do it yeah we do we try to do it thanks we have one from last year we do change a few words find and then because you have to attach it to next month's board to improve feeding to approve it and so then everybody I predict there will be no explanation great and proper and at least and at least in possible use of our com you know thanks for have a good summer thanks for the year have a good or

142something like that if you want. Maybe I'll put it. Will you have a good summer? Thanks, Shannon. I appreciate it. So, um Dave just needs that by like the week before the next board meeting. Don't worry, he'll bug you. The next business meeting. Uh the next business meeting, which must be on the 6th. No, the 13th. 13. That's all right. Um, okay. Sorry. Um, so yeah, I can get it today. Six. Great. Yeah. Anybody else? Speaking of arts in April, did you know that Jerry helped start that? No, it didn't help. I started it. But it was all I just wanted to give you props. Oh, well, it was all done. The PTA didn't have anything to do with all teachers. It was all done. You brought in volunteers by the It was all done

143by the enrichment teachers. Could you guess what year that was that you started in? I'm just curious how many years it been going. Uh 20. At least 20. Amazing. Let's see. Yeah, at least 20 years. Write a letter to Jerry while you're at it. Sure thing. Exclamation points and really nice handwriting. I'm so happy that it survived because there was some time when it was in doubt when it might. And I think it's a very valuable thing for kids. They get to test other things in a safe environment and have fun. Yeah, it's super fun. and I think it's great. Um, but I did have another announcement. I just, you know, I've been attending WE meetings and WE is really, really busy. And one of the things, and I think maybe they might come to

144us at some time and talk about it, but one of the things that they've started, which I think is really wonderful, is the scholarship committee that helps students this time of the year write applications and scholarships and um works with kids to to help them get as far as they can get in school. And I think that is wonderful. and they continue to support teachers in the classroom and um and right now they're trying to do a campaign for um to raise money for instruments for the high school because many of the instruments are at least 50 60 years old and falling apart and we really don't have money in the district budget to replace I don't know thousand 2,000 $3,000 dollar tula. So there is a capital campaign and it isn't exactly it's being

145sponsored and helped by the web group and they're very very active. I think they're doing great things in our tool. Great update. Thank you so much. I have one. Yeah. So we've completed uh ID for the Yeah. We moved we moved right along through that and uh and arrived we we canceled our final two meetings. So good job. Yeah. It was really a very that was a it was really not a contentious or it was pretty and can I clarify can I ask a question about that because I did read is are you going to two years? Yes. Yes. Okay. So we've gone to a two year. Congratulations. That was actually mutually Yes, let's do that. It's so much easier. You don't if you don't have to. So, we're caught up after the co like

146that's great though because that would work to like get so caught up on all covered. Yeah, there's some asterisks and what ifs and a flowchart involved in this that around the legislature. So, this could come back again. I don't. But the two-year thing is that's wonderful. Yeah. It takes a lot of time. Yeah. Wonderful. That's kind of almost a record. And one of them went 45 minutes over. Two. A couple of went over. Yeah. But that's still pretty short. That's no fiscal. Any other announcements? Um, all right. Great. Uh, Dave, on to your reports. Great. Thank you. Um, yeah, I'm just thrilled that Jake continues to do this because calendar updates, what's happening, meetings, events, activities, court dates, he covers so well. Uh so I'm going to jump right down to enrollment. You can click

147on the information there. You can look at further information regarding enrollment there. And um we continue to see something we hadn't seen in a while that the overall enrollment is down in the beginning of the school year more than we anticipated. But numbers at the high school, like we've talked about, we do still anticipate pretty significant number jumps at the high school. Look, we're looking at 179 students in 8th grade going into the high school. We're losing a class with 120 students. So again, uh we'll see some a bump at the high school level, but our overall enrollment is down. And it happened last year, too. and it picked up a little bit at the beginning of the year. Will that happen again? That's hard hard to say. We're going to see fluctuations in enrollment.

148We've talked about this. That's going to happen. We still believe that that trend line will continue as moving uh forward. Um but we'll just have to watch and see because we haven't seen this in a little while during the year seeing this this number of students. But we have seen a pattern where the following year many of those student numbers return. So we'll see watch that close. Um where they're moving we try to track that information and you can see it's in international has jumped up there quite a few times recently. Thank you. I have one here. Okay. Um, so southern Montana and see some of those. [Laughter] That's Yeah. So those are students coming to us and have some in the Flathead Valley, some to western Montana, Southwest Montana, Midwest, US. same kind of

149trends we've been seeing, isn't it? Yes, we see some movement within the valley, but we also see movement um to different parts of the country. But again, are those are more families moving in those it's hard to say get back here next fall. Eighth grade class is huge. That whole middle school session is big. And again our numbers are big in middle school and high school. That trend continues. We are seeing lower enrollment in this down. Watching that closely for next year. So um also I wanted to update a little bit about our quick response to team and update emergency protocol procedures. We had a discussion in our work session recently and we had some of those topics related mostly around our speed of communication, maybe having students be aware of information there's an emergency

150um speed of information getting out to families training for guest teachers and so those that those kind of topics came up in our work session. I wanted you to know that we met as a QRT core team recently and looked at some of those things and we quickly moved to implementing some new new approaches in these areas. Um we also had planned to have a QT quarantine meeting today but that didn't happen. So we had to reschedu that. So but but I wanted to share with you today that we begun to implement some of the following strategies. I think you're aware of this. Of course, we started using a texting method of communication with a link to a website. That kind of concept was discussed in our book session. We went to work right away

151on that and got that and actually tried that out here recently. Um, we've requested parents to sign up for texting in emergency situations because um that that system seems to be working um more effectively. Um we we are in process of finalizing a Google form for parents to give consent to students to share their cell phone numbers for emergency messaging. So that should be coming out soon. We've developed a web page for emergency weather communications. Um you know that that specific web page is dedicated to that. So when there is an issue that we can provide updates at that spot and then we've developed a plan to train our guest teachers with a video training module. So we're working on a lot of these things and uh one thing I wanted to report on is

152this lastation that went out in a text format um we that was sent and received within less than one second. Yep. Awesome. So it is clear to us that that is the most effective method of communication in an emergency to get information to a link that goes to a live website. I think it's we found out it's both the email and the phone that can get delayed mostly the phone message. So our um concept is to really focus more on the text communication method in emergency. So those are some of the things we put in place right away. Um we'll be developing continuing to discuss this in our QRT meetings to refine those priorities that we discussed in our work session. But wanted to give you a little bit of an update. Thank you. Is

153it quite clearly laid out that signing up for the text updates only applies for emergency? In other words, if they sign up, they can sign up only for the emergency and not get I think it's clear in the messaging, but I'll look at that. That's a good question. It it would be for just emergency. And maybe you share this, but I just miss I'm trying to grasp it all. Is so with the in like you mentioned like what information students could get in case of emergency. Is there a reason they can't sign up just for the text messages that they're only parents if parents gave consent for their kids to do it? Would that be that's what you Okay, got it. That's what I Okay, understand that. Thank you. For some reason, I wasn't putting

154that message. Yeah, good question. I just Thank you. Um I just want to say I thought it was so wasn't so cool about the accident. But what was so cool was that that I went to the link and then I, you know, went to the website and then she like told me the information and then I was like, I'm going to go back and see what happened next. And then you went back and there were the updates and I was like, this is the end of our communication and it was just so clear and so just like you know what you knew when you knew it. Professional. It was so professional. It was so easy and then it was just like and now this is the end. there will be no more updates and don't

155come back. But that was also great like you also knew like this is the end. Um but it was so easy to find and follow and know um what was happening and what was going on and so just the speed at which it happened and then you wanted to go to the link and then find the information the the up-to-date information was great and then the close out of it was also really really awesome. So, it was um overall I thought ironic timing because we just did the test the day before. That Friday. Um but yeah, great. Really speedy. We had that meeting was it in February or March? February. March when we had our QRT our work session. March. March. I mean it's so it's been like just a few seconds later a whole

156new system. Yeah. put that in place primarily over the spring break and I forgot to mention we've identified also some of our administrators to help with that communication messaging that was a big component of that Lisa Bloom is here she was helped with that and so when that situation came about here recently she was sitting in in my room our office and really we're all working together to get that communication uh and it worked really well. It is very clear in any of those situations when I'm responding to it or if it's a principal in this same situation. You're trying to coordinate and listen to information but typing a message is not really very effective or possible in that situation. You need a delegate. you need to be able to say we need to work

157on this message to include this this and this and that's what happened in the situation. So it it really was very helpful. We've also identified backups and Jacob Phelps was with us. Amy Markwitz also helps out with this as well. So a lot of people worked together to get that messaging out in that situation. We designated them as communication support inter. Yeah, it really was. It was great. So, thank you. Thanks for just Let's not use it anymore. Glad to have it, but no, you no need to utilize that again. That was great. So, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. And related to that too, you know, there there you mentioned the bus accident. Um we don't have any additional information at that time. Well, the law enforcement is conduct just like many that um I was

158going to touch on the education foundation whitefish education foundation update with the music instrument campaign and Jerry's touched on that already. Great. Um, but I wanted to just to mention they're going to be working with donors and working folks to fund raise for this and the funds raised will be earmarked for instrument replacement within the WSD music departments prioritizing band and orchestra. Can people donate instruments as well as talk about you got a tub laying around? I have a well my son has a couple a really nice clarinet and a really nice he played everything several of them laying around I think they estimate $300,000 to replace all isn't that to replace all $295,000 to replace then they're working on an endowment approach to this idea they're working with this community foundation partnership It's a

159good effort. You know, I you know, our general fund is there's never been a budget line item to purchase edition, but so this is so beyond our general fund budget. It's good to see that they're working on this supporting music programs. And then a speech and debate banners that came up in one of our recent meetings for state champions and so those will be up in our high school gymnasium soon. Um we'll address those for team championships. So those will be up in there. Actually I shouldn't say soon because I don't know the exact timeline. I think they have to there's a little shuffling act that needs to go on, but the plan is this spring. Yeah. Before the end of school. Thank you. So before graduation. Good. Some dusting while they're out there probably.

160Some of them have been out there a long time. Felt really cold, but very gingerly. And then uh last we have some transfers and within our district positions of social studies teacher college and career counselor have been filled and the computer applications teacher at the middle school have a few resations. Do we need a new um middle school counselor that you're replac that one will be open in the near future? Yes. Because that is an accreditation need to have position. The other positions are on hold. Yeah. That have been vacated and those people moved into these positions because we're waiting for more budgetary. I was in a meeting um recently. It was a FBCC meeting and they were asking, "Hey, is there a place on our website where people emails can be found?" Because when

161they're trying to contact from the staff directory, it sends you to a box that you fill in with your email for the message. So, you don't really have a record of what you've sent and you don't know how many messages have I sent this person. So, is there anywhere on our website where you can just find people's direct emails and phone number? I don't think so. It does come back and say your message has done. Oh, they're like they want to see their message, you know, like how you usually do. It'll send you a copy of it. Okay. Like the message you sent comes back to you because you can click the box that says, "Do you want a copy of this?" Well, is there a way to directly contact people through their email? No,

162no, it's best practices not to put them on because that the spammers find them. So I can write a program tonight that goes out and grabs all the emails aren't list I don't know like there are ways to to by using JavaScript and other be able to find exactly what they're looking for because they're trying to advertise the honors program to the counselor so they can tell the students. So in other high schools they can just find the counselor and find their email but I guess they couldn't and so they would just it is a multi-step process. You click on the picture, right? You click on the picture and then the box comes up and you're still Yeah. And that's the message, right? But there's email. Exactly. And then at the other ones, it also

163has like their phone number so you can follow. It has their phone number. You have to wait for them to email you back to know what their email is, right? Yeah. That's what's weird. Yes. So you don't get their email bounced back. You get the district outside that says you arrested was sent but you do not see the actual correct I I can I'll look and see if there's a reason there may be if they have to email you back some feedback from sure this is unusual it's their way sure thank you I found it personally but That was intentional. [Music] If you know the format of our email, all right, I think it's your turn. So, thank you. He's not typing over there. Yeah, we may have to run the lecture. So, that's right.

164That's right. You know, I had most of my meeting minutes uh prepped before I came to the meeting. So, before we get uh uh to uh our monthly reports, let's talk about uh the latest update on the stars act. I know that's everybody's favorite subject. Wait a minute. So, um unlike the uh uh HB15 for a 3% inflationary increase that has been um signed by the governor, the stars act is uh still in the pipeline so to speak. So the latest that we know is that the STARS Act has passed out of the Senate Education and Cultural Resources Committee and it will now go to the Senate floor for second reading before being heard in the Senate Finance and Claims Committee. Okay, it sounds like it's a lot of steps, but all these steps are

165in the right direction and uh we're uh still very positive and hopeful that the act will pass and it will be presented to the governor for the signature soon. Uh we negotiated with uh WA uh with um with the stars act in mind and we negotiated two different uh proposals. One uh assuming that the stars act does pass the other one assuming the stars that god forbid does not pass. in which case we agreed to go back to the negotiating table. Yes, that's right. Uh if it passes, uh the elementary district will be receiving about $400,000 more in funding and the high school district approximately $200,000. Uh and these funds are They're hot rain just to balance the energy. So that's the update on the stars stack. Um any questions for I Okay, we can

166uh we look at our monthly reports. incredibly nine European months to nine school. I know. Yeah. And um all the numbers are exactly where they should be. Um we received our bond proceeds last month as as we know. uh not very much uh not much of the bond proceeds have been spent yet because uh things are only now starting to roll. Uh we did have some uh invoices to design the architects and to help construction advisors for their former representative fees. Other than that, not much more to report on those bond monies. Um, well, everything is pretty much where it should be. Any questions on those monthly reports? I was wondering, and I hate to bring this up, but I'm going to. Um, I was looking at the performing arts center and we were doing

167so well. We were almost at zero. Now, it's just started to fall again. Do you know is it just is it not being rented or is it church? Uh, is that why the church is going just lost? Is that what it is? Okay. Darn it. So close. So close the name of the church. And now they have a new building. Fresh life was about 45,000 maybe numbers, but that was a huge. Okay. been busy recently but yes it's been busy recently but it was our longest not longest 80 is the longest time render uh but one that was uh the most stable as far as income projections right we were able to count on the income every month year after year so we were um not having lost them um we wish them all the

168best in their new building. And um Michael, the pack manager, is working hard on on um you know, out in the community uh trying to get new renters. Thank you. That's I was just curious. I was like, "Oh, what just happened?" I was just wondering what happened. I forgot that fresh light moved. Thank you. Thanks so much, Lucy. Any other questions for Lucy? Um, is there any public comment on the consent agenda? Is there a vote on the consent agenda? Move that we approve the consent again. I'll second move by Sh second by Cherry. All in favor? We all consent. And then one more motion. I move we moved by second by Katie. All in favor? We all enjoy. Thank you guys. Thanks so much. Shannon, we just need you to start a church.