001Oh, >> wow. You're trying to make me loud. >> Nobody wants to hear me that loud. >> All right. Uh, roll call. Miss Clark. >> Trusty Burlesen. >> Excused. >> Trusty Black >> here. >> Trusty D >> here. >> Trustee Lucine >> here. >> Trusty Moran >> here. >> Trustee Neil >> here. >> Trustee Sandy Wilson >> here. >> Trustee Sarah Wilson >> excused. All right, we'll stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. All right. Tonight we have special guest, uh, the BHS Jazz Choir. Um, so Please come on up. Mr. Malt, whatever whatever you have and want to present, I don't know if you want a mic or just speak up is fine as well, I think. Got it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mulch, as well as the jazz choir from BHS. Um,
002your guys's national anthem was great, amazing, much better than that canned one that I hear at like basketball games and volleyball games. So if there's some mechanism in this world where somebody could record that and provide that to those events when other people can't be there, I think that would be pretty amazing. So um but again, yeah, appreciate you guys coming making sharing your time with us tonight. Sorry for the bad pun. Have a great night. Yes. Welcome to the October 13th Boseman Bo Boseman School District board meeting. Thank you for joining us. Public comment will be taken throughout our meeting on agenda and non-aggenda items. During public comment, no member of the public will be allowed to comment on contested cases, other adjudicative proceedings, or personnel matters. The public portion of this board meeting
003are being recorded in accordance with district policy 1420 and section 3- excuse me 2-3-214 MCA. By remaining in this meeting, all participants and attendees acknowledge they may appear on the recording which will be placed on the school district's website for a minimum of one year from today. Further instructions about participating will be provided throughout this meeting. Before we engage in the business of this of the board, I would like to share the the purpose of the Bosezeman school district which can be found on the back of our name plates and on the wall to to my left. It reads Boseman public schools exists to ensure high level learning for all students. As we gather this evening, the Bosezeman School District acknowledges that we are on ancestral traditional and contemporary lands of indigenous people. The Gallatin
004Valley was excuse me the Gallatin Valley with generous rivers, wildlife abundance and soils was was claimed by any one not claimed by any one indigenous nation but used by many seasonal including the Crow, North Cheyenne, Salish, Coutney, Blackfoot, excuse me, Black Feet, Banick, Catota, um, Neespierce, Flathead, Sue and Shony tribes. We honor these enduring presence, stewardship, and culture contributions to the region and the state of Montana. Today also marks Montana's first official celebration of Indis Peachable Day. As enacted by the 2025 Montana legislature, we join communities across the state in recognizing and celebrating the strength, history, and living culture of indigenous people. Because community celebrations are taking place this evening, the district looks forward to welcoming local American Indian leaders and students at a future meeting of of the board of trustees um for further
005celebration of indigenous people day. All right, thanks for listening. Uh we'll move on to student reports uh the BSD7 experience. So, student reports. Who's who's excited to speak first? >> Yeah. All right. Thank you. >> So, Brid Charter Academy. >> Hello. Um, so recently in Bridget Charter, we have started our mentoring program. It's up and full running. I'm guessing you guys all know what that is because had speakers here before. Um, and we also have started having Bridger like centered talk times which have been really fun. Our most recent one was Bridger brunch and it's one of our biggest turnouts of like most most of the school year. So it it worked it went really well this time around. Um with other hawk times though we are having a lower turnout like not um bridge
006of run specified because students are focused on more academic hawk times which is really helpful and it's a really good uh representation of our students. Um and also um >> okay never mind on that one. Um, so the teachers like main goal has been getting to know all the new students and all the students they have had past which they want to know more about. And so that's been going really well. Um, we're also trying to figure out the website that I think did we create a website? >> Yeah. So, uh, we are making a website and it's been kind of finicky. It's been a little hard. Um, and we're so that's for like t-shirts, uh, sweatshirts, and like more merch of Bridge to Academy. Um, and then kids are also working to get their
007grades up to date and asking more about Hawk Times, which is a much a bigger increase from last year, which is really nice. Um, and then so we're also connecting with a group that I'm in called Big Sky Youth Empowerment. Um, so we've just kind of been getting connected with them again because we've had a lot of present presentations from BYP in years past. So we're also working with uh CAT mentors a lot more than we used to in the past. So because a lot of BCA students, they do have CAT mentors. So like they coincide really handinhand with each other. And we do our next holiday celebration that we do have coming up for Bridger is Bridger Thanksgiving. It's going to be on November 25th. It's normally a pretty big event. Um, yeah. and
008it's a really fun way that we get to meet everyone. Okay. Okay. Moving on to the student view of everything going on. Uh Bridgetger classes are working towards wrapping up our first units and projects. Um I know we're wrapping up several projects in Bridger classes, but with that six week uh kind of grade deadline, um we're wrapping things up, which is really nice. Uh there was a handful kids at Senior Sunrise, which was really exciting. Just I think a big part of Bridger that we've been focused on is not just is creating this additional community, but also like kind of helping kids kind of like spread their wings into the VHS world side of things. Um, so it was really nice seeing a handful of Bridger kids at Senior Sunrise. Um, Bridger staff are working
009to help students find the right path for them. This is something that we've always kind of done, but I've been definitely noticing it a lot more. Um, just helping kids find the path for their future. Whether this involves a future in high school or in college, um, it's much more centered around like what is best for this individual person. Uh, teachers are introducing seniors to the possibility of their future uh, much beyond colleges, seeing if college is even in their future. Um, I've noticed a bit quite a bit of this transition. um between like with emailing for extensions, learning how to write professional letters, uh things that are just going to benefit us in the real world, which I am very appreciative for. And yeah, uh hawk times are going great. Everything's just looking up
010world. >> All right. Thank you. Who's next? >> All righty. Good evening everybody. My name is Rich McGovern and I'm the student body president at Gallton High. >> Logan Haynes. I'm the uh student body vice president. >> And for the past like earlier months in the school, we've been staying super busy with a lot of big events and projects. We've been working hard to make sure everything runs smoothly and keeps our school spirit strong. Um we hosted a club fair with over 45 different clubs. We had it during lunch and we had freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors come through, learn about different clubs. We even had new people join student council, come and sit through our meetings just from our um club fair. And then during homecoming week, we hosted 11 international students from 10
01111 international teachers, sorry, from 10 different countries. And they they participated in the club in the I'm apologize. Um they they shared a lot about their countries and cultures through class presentations in the culture fair, sharing information about their governments, education systems, food, clothing, and so much more. And they also got introduced at our homecoming pep assembly, which is a pretty American tradition. So that was super fun for all of them. They were super amazed by that. And then homecoming week was a super busy for student council. We had several fun and engaging spirit days with so many people dressed in theme all days. Um that Friday we had a huge pep assembly where we had some games. Heard from all of our sport sport fall sports teams captains and we also hosted our first
012ever car decorating contest. We had sports teams decorate a car and then during lunch that day they drove through the bus lane and kind of threw out candy like very parade style. And then and as for the dance, it was stat statistically the most engaged Gallatton scene. We sold over, 1100 tickets at $20 per ticket. And then last week, we announced our freshman elections for freshman class president, freshman class vice president. And we've already seen quite a few interest with several applications turned in. All right. In the uh sports world, our volleyball team is still undefeated. continuing to uh beat Boseman. Um our boys and girls soccer is projected to bring home some hardware at state. Doing well. Football also been doing well. We crushed Bosezeman a few weeks back. Um uh cross country has
013also been doing well and obviously our golf team, both boys and girls, got third at state, so they did super well too. Um today our uh Native American club set up a large teepee outside our school to raise awareness for indigenous people's day. So that was awesome. They had uh some activities going on within their club as well, learning activities. Um and then music-wise, our first orchestra concerts are next week and our first choir concert is tomorrow. And then our marching band has their first like big competition in Wyoming. So super excited for that, too. Thank you guys. Boseman ladies. >> All right. Um, first of all, I would like to congratulate you guys in those cross town games. Um, good job, Gallatin. Felt a little called out there, but um, yeah, my name is
014Taylor Truden. I'm our student body president. I'm Jenna Kiddo and I'm student body vice president. Yeah. Um, we want to thank you guys for having us. We just saw you recently on Tuesday when you came in to visit Boseman High. Um, thanks for coming in and we'll try and make this short and sweet. We saw that this meeting is quite long, so yeah, we'll get through this. Um, our school's doing really good since we saw you. We had our homecoming. We've had our spirit week and then we were actually selling walking tacos at some of our football games to help fund raise for our homecoming to make it better for our students. Um, we've had lots of people come into our CCC to learn about colleges and our CCC is really pushing to help people
015fill out those applications right now. Um, our CCC is our college and career center. And then we we have teachers visiting actually from all around the world, which is pretty cool to see them walking through the school. Um, election day coming up on November 4th. We have our human rights club at Boseman High. They're doing a big booth for that. I know Gallatin is doing something, too, which is awesome. Um, and then we had our senior sunrise that went really well. It wasn't too cold yet, which was good. We were a little bit worried about that. It was a few weeks ago. Um, and yeah. All right. Um, and then we have our, um, freshman elections coming up and we have a lot of freshmen that are wanting to join student council. We have nine
016applications already in. So, that's really exciting that a lot of new freshmen want to get involved at the school. Um, And we also have some Halloween events coming up. We are doing our club fair a little bit later in the year and we're making it Halloween themed so that everyone can theme and get candy out to kids and help them be a little bit more engaged in their clubs. We are also doing a teacher costume contest. And so all of our teachers are going to be dressing up at on Halloween and we are going to be judging their outfits. Um and then sports wise, um football is four and three. So pretty good. They're decent. Um volleyball is 19 and one. Unfortunately, our only loss is to Gallatin. Um and girls soccer is 43 and
017two and boys soccer is 81 and one. And then golf girls just uh finished first at their state championship or Yeah. at state. And then boys finished fifth at the state tournament. Yeah. And then cross country has been doing good. They have their state tournament coming up soon in a couple weeks. And then for music, we have our first choir concert next Monday. And I'm not entirely sure about orchestra and band, but I think that those ones are coming up also. >> Thank you for all your guys' report and time. Um, what if somebody wants to ask a question? You're already leaving. You don't want is there any trustees that have comments or questions? Thank you all for your reporting. It's always good to hear those. I have two questions if that's okay. I'm curious
018about the student enrollment at Brard Charter Academy. If you know how many students are in school, >> um so this year we've had one of like the highest student enrollments um in the past several years, which is amazing. Uh as of the last school board meeting almost 140 students were enrolled in BCA. Um likely give or take a few because it's been a month. Um people are transferring in and out but uh 140 is our most recent number which is a lot more than previous years. >> Good. Thank you. Then a question for Gal High. What did you learn from the international teachers about their thoughts of our system compared to their system? Um, they were super super surprised about everything we were doing. I was in culinary and some of the teachers were so
019surprised that we were making snicker doodle cookies. None of them had had one. So, they were super delighted by the fact a snicker doodle cookie exists. and um through the the culture fair that was something so they could share their culture. It was really good learning experience for us students. I know some classes took individual time to go down in there and then others just passing by. Um but all their cultures completely different all around the world. We learned a lot of different things from them. >> Any other comments or questions? Thank you guys for coming tonight again. First meeting every month. It's great to see you guys and all the information you guys provide us. So, thank you. Have a great night. If you want to stay, you're welcome to more than welcome to
020have a good night. Yep. Take care. >> All right. Up next is recognition and awards. Um 2 2.1 2025A golf state championship team and all state individuals. Mr. Ader, welcome. Good evening. Just uh real quick, I'll introduce to you uh we'll have Matt Clark from Gallton High go first. Uh Coach Clark and then Coach Nelson from Boseman High. Our golf team's had extremely successful uh season. Uh we we're talking about the state awards tonight. Our boys and girls both went one two at divisional. So they were at the top all year long. So uh just wanted to make sure uh we knew that. A great season for our golfers. At this time I'm going to turn it over to Matt Clark from Gallatin High. >> Okay. Um thank you for having us. Um, got Cory
021Rosenova here, one of our coaches. Um, we're blessed to have her on the pro in the program. I got Ryan Dailyaly, Kobe Syri, Benson Lowerman, and Breick here. Um, tell you a little start with the boys. I guess we'll tell you a little bit about our season. Um Um, these three boys are all seniors. One of a very large freshman class three, four years ago when they first came in. And I said, "Man, if you guys keep working hard, great things are going to happen." and it kind of came to fruition this year. Um they've represented the program with high character. Um they'll be greatly missed. Um seemed like halfway through our our season this year, we were trending um the right way, winning the Billings Invitational and then f finishing second at the Bosezeman
022invite just one week before divisionals. Um we ended up finishing second to the eventual state champs, Sentinel, and actually tied them on day two. So, we were pretty excited going into divisionals. Um, uh, after, so it's 218 rounds at divisionals. After 34 holes, our boys were in first place. Um, eventually finishing runner up to a very talented Boseman High team. So, congratulate them. Um, we were, however, able to uh, bring home some hardware at state, taking third. Um, again, these three represented our program and have represented our program. um setting a high standard and leaving a legacy um behind for for another 19 returners next year that are chomping at the bit to play varsity golf. Um so I wanted to thank them for that. Um I think that's our third boys trophy in our
023short short uh existence which is pretty impressive. Breen is just a sophomore. She was our team captain this year. Um, uh, she was our one returner from last year's state champ. We graduated four seniors and, uh, to be honest with you, I didn't know what to expect coming into this year. Um, I didn't know who was going to be on the team. And, uh, again, halfway through the season, it seems like we found, uh, we've kind of found our stride and started making um, making a name for ourselves. Um, competing at a high level. um with 34 holes. Um at divisionals, our girls were in first place and eventually ended up finishing runner up to a very talented Boseman High girls team. Um but at state after that, uh all the best golf teams in
024the state were on the eastern side of the state. So I thought, man, we've got a chance to to to to do some great things at state. And we eventually ended up taking third place at state and bringing home some hardware. I think on the girls side that was our fourth uh school trophy and so that's pretty impressive in our early existence too. Um individually I do want to recognize these boys all three of them are three time all conference participants and this year they were all all state breen in her second year only. She's a an individual state or she's a team state champ. She is part of a third place team trophy. She was first team all state this year and she's a two-time Eastern DAA um allconerence golfer. So, we're excited about
025our girls team for next year. We're excited about our boys teams for next year, too. And uh thanks for having us. >> Thank you guys. might want to ask a question. >> Hey, I also want to congratulate the the Boseman High girls team. Um we run the junior golf tour here in town and uh seems like I've seen you guys. So, what a great group of girls. Super proud of what they've accomplished. Thank you, Coach Clark, Coach Nelson, and then um just as a reminder when we do at the end, we'll have a reading and then all of you guys can come up spread out. Do remember that these columns are not you can't see through them. So, if you're behind one, we'd prefer to see you. So, maybe spread out or we can move
026some tables or something like that for you. So, it's all yours. >> All right. Um, appreciate you guys having us. Um, I'm Coach Ryan Nelson. Um, it's always tough going after after coach Clark, but he does a great job. So, um, just a little bit about I'll introduce our our players here. Uh, first off, our um, one all state boy this year is Will Benny, uh, a junior. Uh, we have Avery Gardner behind me, senior. Kira Connell, senior. Isla Dybert, one of our freshman, Avery Sorenson, a freshman, and Heidi Huber, uh, one of our other seniors. Uh, just real quick thanks to, you know, Coach Ader, Michelle Hosteller in the office for they do a lot behind the scenes support, um, that kind of thing. Our admin, Dan Mills, uh, fellow teachers were gone a
027lot, uh, for school. uh the parents of all these kids who who have seemed like they've been with us for a long time. Uh especially the senior girls done a lot for the program uh been very supportive. And then um you know last the players just for all the hard work they they put in over the years. Um you know it's hard to believe that that that it's over for the seniors but um they had a great run so really proud of them. Uh let's talk about our boys real quick. Uh we graduated four four senior boys who have had a lot of accomplishments over the years. Um maybe they didn't have their their best state tournament. Um but they won divisional tournament this year. Uh they've been all state in the past. Uh they've
028won two divisional titles in their four years. Uh we were lucky enough to get Will Benny here who's just a junior. He was a golfer for us uh his freshman year and then uh went out this year, fit in good with the with the boys uh and uh had an awesome state tournament at a at a hard course. So, it was pretty cool to to have Will join us. Um so hopefully our senior boys will, you know, have a lot of good memories. They they accomplished a lot over the years. Um let's talk about our girls team. Um they they won state this year which was obviously the goal for them. Uh they've won a lot of tournaments over the years, won divisionals. Uh they won the Boseman invite this year. Uh the Helen invite.
029We've these three seniors have been in the top five seems like every week. Kira won >> three three Yeah. three uh tournaments this year. Uh at state, Heidi came in at second. Uh Kira was third and Avery tied for fifth. Right. And um and without our two freshman here, we you know, we wouldn't be standing here. So really lucky that they went out. Um we're pretty short-handed with girls, so we're lucky to have them. Uh the three seniors have played a lot of vars a lot of golf, a lot of varsity golf. Um they played a you know, like coach Clark said in the junior tour for years and um you know, they're just great role models for for girls who want to play golf or just girls who want to accomplish a lot and
030u be a positive influence in the school. Um you know, they're they're going to definitely be missed. So, um I feel like all of them are going to do great things in life and uh really proud of them. So, thank you. >> Congratulations, Will. Will, you just like basketball, you still need to listen. We had we had instructions at the beginning. You you led I apologize for the girls. Will misled you. Um if Gallatin can come up the the players from Gallatin and you guys can share the space right there. Um congratulations to all of you and your accomplishments this year. That's that's great. Um appreciate all your efforts. I do I know I saw a couple of you on Value. Will I saw you grinding a lot out there? Um Kier, I saw you
031out there too. Um Ryan, I know I've seen you playing football a couple years ago. Yeah. Seven on seven. Yep. So, yeah. Um, so are there any other comments for from trustees? >> Great. Congratulations to all of you. Um, it was really fun to track all your success this year. um coaches really appreciate you guys and uh do do a great job for these programs and these kids and give them the opportunity to achieve their highest levels that they that they can. And um so uh congratulations to the Hawks and Raptors. >> Without any other comments, Lauren, you got some questions and comments? >> First of all, congratulations to each of you. This is really amazing and it sounds like it was um really successful state. Um I want to start by thanking um your
032coaches, Coach Nelson and Coach Clark um not only for what they've done right here, but everything they do in this community um to just provide awesome opportunities for our kids that are supportive and uplifting. U my kids have also participated in the junior golf tour, so I've kept tabs on a lot of you for a lot of years. And Ryan, being that you're a senior, I think this is the last time I'm going to be able to embarrass you in public. Um, no, I'm not gonna embarrass you, but I'm gonna tell a quick story, or hopefully I don't embarrass you. I'm gonna tell a quick story that in my mind encompasses the golf world. Um, when Ryan and my oldest were probably 10 or 11 years old, they were in a tournament that they were
033actually too young for, or they were the youngest, too. And, um, it was a two-day tournament. And at the end of day one, my kid came off the course really bummed out because he had just outgrown all of his wedges. And we're not a golfing family, so I was like, "Sorry, buddy. I can't do anything tonight. Um, good luck tomorrow. Going to have to make it work." And we pulled into Bridger Creek Golf Course the next day. And Ryan walked up to my car with a set of wedges. And it was not lost on me that it was a competition. And that night, my son Holt said, "Even in competition, Ryan is a friend." And I really think of that when I think of the golf community. So that is stuck with our family, Ryan.
034And um I think you're all incredible golfers, but what we also like to know is that you're going to be incredible people in the world. And so that is what I think of when I think of the golf community. So thank you to you guys and your coaches and your parents. Um because you really represent our district well. Um and with that, I also just have real quickly, you don't need to listen to me talk. I want to hear you guys. Um, would each of you share a favorite golf memory? And then if you're a senior and you know what you're doing next year, no pressure because I don't even know what I'm doing next week. Um, but if you know what you're doing next year, if you want to share that also turn green.
035English. Thank you guys. Thanks for letting me put you on the spot. Um, I'm now going to read this award. I move that the board of trustees adopt the following resolution. Whereas the Boseman High and Gallatin High golf teams participated in the 2025 state doubleA golf tournament in Callispel October 2nd, isn't it? In um tournament in but October 2nd and 3rd. And whereas the Boseman High girls took first place, team members include Kira Connell, Isa Dybert, Avery Gardner, Heidi Huber, and Avery Sorenson. And whereas earning all state honors by finishing in the top 15 were Gallatin High, Ryan Daly tied for 14th, Breen Frederick fourth, Benson Lowerman 10th, Kobe Sacri tied for 14th, Boseman High, Will Benny 13th, Cara Connell third, Avery Gardner tied for fifth, Heidi Huber second. Therefore, be it resolved that the
036board of trustees recognize and honor the 2025 board Boseman girls doubleA state championship golf team. Kira Connell, I Isa Dybert, Avery Gardner, Heidi Hubert, and Avery Sorenson. Gallatin High all state individuals Ryan Dailyaly, Breen Frederick, Benson Lowerman, and Kobe Sacri and Boseman. All state individuals will Benny, Kira Connell, Avery Gardner, and Heidi Huber. Second >> motion made by Trustee D, seconded by Trustee Sandy Wilson. Any public comment? All those in favor? Motion passes six to zero. Well, congratulations on your season as well as uh to the coaches. Thank you for everything that you do for the players. Um, for simplicity, since we have one group that we're presenting an award tonight, it's simpler for us for all you guys just to come up here. You just pick a side. Lauren has some awards to hand
037you and then we'll just take a quick picture. >> I'll invite you. Avery, >> Kira, and Isa. >> You guys want to turn around here? You might have to squat down because we're not a very tall group. Apparently so. >> Apparently so. >> It's his autograph. >> I'm not sure. >> It's worth a lot. Um all right. Next next item is 2.3 board education city of Boseman presentation. Um Boseman water adequacy initiative ward. Deputy Mayor Joey Mor Morrison and Sean thoughts, >> welcome. >> Thank you for having us. >> Can you all see I don't know where where things are happening. Usually there's a screen in front of us that we're also getting to see in real time. >> Um >> yeah, thank you all for having us. First, I just want to thank you
038all for the work that you do. Um, I I know that uh folks sitting in elected office do not get uh credit enough and I know that those seats are are probably hard to sit in sometimes and I know that you all don't get thanked enough. So, thank you for deciding to to lead in this community and to step up. Um, we're going to go through our presentation and then uh try to practice as much brevity as we can. There's some technical information that we want to make sure that gets covered and then be able to field any questions if you have any. Um before we get started, I'll I'll pass it over to Sean for an introduction as well. >> Uh good evening, chair and trustees. I'm Sean Coats. I'm the utilities director for
039the city of Bosezeman. I manage the water, sewer, and storm water systems. Of course, we'll be talking about water tonight. >> Um and my name is Joey Morrison. Um I have the honor of serving as the deputy mayor of the city of Bosezeman. I'll be sworn in as the mayor of Bosezeman in January of 2026. Um, and so a a few preamble pieces. Man, I'm really handling this thing a whole lot. Um, it's not a we've got a long long hoses to be able to move around on our on our desks. Um, that uh some of the things that we want to make sure that we cover uh why we're doing these things. Um, we believe strongly that uh a well-informed electorate is essential for for democracy to function properly. Um and and this is
040a an election that often for one municipal elections are often high information elections. Typically folks that are voting are spending a lot of time researching candidates, researching ballot initiatives, levies, etc. Um and so we wanted to make sure that we got information out there from people that live and work and play in the laws that the ordinance that the the initiative is seeking to change. Um consequently, we cannot take a position. um we are bound by just being able to provide information. Um and so that's what our presentation will be covering tonight. Um so the Ward Initiative uh stands for water adequacy for residential development. Um it's gone by many other names in the press and in the paper, but really any of the things you're talking about, the ballot initiative that affects water rights,
041water adequacy, um and ties it to affordable housing is all talking about this initiative. Um so a citizen special interest group uh gathered the signatures put on the ballot. Um to reiterate this is not a policy that we the city created. Um this is this is coming from an initiative. Um it seeks to change city code to require developers who seek to use cash in lie of water rights um for for development to provide affordable housing in in order to access that program. Um, so some of the things to talk about the context of today in Bzin, we're going to go through sort of two buckets. Some water facts that Sean is going to walk us through and then we're going to go through some housing facts and kind of the economics of what gets
042a affordable housing project online and where this might kind of uh step in and intervene in our ability to do that. Um, so a lot of folks talk about the growth rate of of Bosezeman. Um, it's slowed down significantly um to 1.4% 4% um after nearly a decade in the three to four sometimes you know month by month as high as 5%. Um and through a variety of different means within the city uh since 2022 um we've built built or gotten into into the pipeline or under construction nearly 1,800 permanently affordable housing units. Um over $120 million in subsidies was used to make these projects work. um whether that was in form of tax recruitment financing resources, uh city dollars that helped to finance the gap or low-inccome housing tax credits or variety of other
043federal and HUD programs to help get those online. Um we often hear sometimes a vacancy rate being quoted at 12% for new construction that doesn't apply to um older construction. So consequently, we see a higher ability for rent renters to be able to negotiate um on their rent. We also see the pressures to continue skyrocketing rents um to have slowed down dramatically over the last couple of years. >> So to understand uh what the initiative is proposing, you you first have to understand the city's water policy. So if you look at our current water policy, it was put in place in the early 1980s. Uh for those history buffs out there, it was put in place because we breached the dam at Mystic Lake and found ourselves in water crisis at that time. So basically
044what this policy does is it says that any development that comes to the city has to bring water to offset its impact. Okay. So it can do that in a combination of one to three ways. The first thing they can do is start by reducing the demand side of the equation doing water conservation practices to bring the the water demand for that development. The second option is for the remaining supply gap that that development pay the city cash in le of water rights and then the city uses that cash to buy the water rights for for that project. Um the last option is that a development can bring usable water rights to the city and that's particularly challenging and I'll talk about that in a little bit. Um but historically if you look at the
045numbers 99% of the projects since the 1980s have used the city's cash cash rights tool and there's a good reason for that. Uh so what does the ballot language actually say? So the ballot language it says uh in order for a developer to be able to use this cash and move water rights tool, they would now have to bring 33% of their product as affordable housing meeting these AMI definitions. U 60% or less of AMI for rentals or 120% or less of AMI for for purchase housing. Uh this applies to all residential developments of three units or more. Uh one thing I want to stress out there, there's been a misconception that this would not apply to single family homes. It would in fact apply to single family homes. That uh this part of the
046city's code for the cash and move water rights has to be met basically at the subdivision phase. So if you have a 100 unit single family home subdivision, that is by definition more than three. So it would get caught by this language. There's one other element of the the ballot initiative and that is that currently the city code allows developers to do off-site water conservation programs and then get a credit for that back on their project. So an example of that would be uh if if a development said, "Okay, I'm going to select a 1970s apartment complex. Uh talk to that apartment complex owner and say, "I'll replace all your showerheads. I'll replace all of your toilets with lowflow fixtures." And then I get a credit for that back on my project. So the the
047ballot initiative takes that off the table says development cannot do that. Uh so uh what does happen if this gets approved by the voters? So if we go back one more slide there, there we go. So again, access to that cash and move water rights tool would become restricted. Projects that that provide 33% of their product is affordable housing. If a development uh does not want to take that option, their their next option is to provide the city with usable municipal water rights. Uh one thing I want to stress here is the professional that develops water rights for the city. That is a long process that takes us about five to eight years to develop a waterite and the infrastructure assoc associated with it. Um and the reason for that is we we live in
048a closed water right basin. So the state has closed all new water rights. You cannot apply for and get a brand new water right. So in order for the city to develop another water right we essentially have to acquire old existing water rights uh and then basically retire those and create a new waterite that we can use for a municipal purpose. So, you know, if you think about the city's time frame for developing water, we can take that on, right? We've got that long-term view. However, if you think about, you know, from from a housing standpoint, you know, housing development, you're typically t talking, you know, three, four years at the most. And so, um, you know, beyond that, the the risk gets pretty high. And the other thing that I'll say about, you know,
049developing a water right, even even as we go through those water rights applications after that five to eight year process, we're not guaranteed to get a waterite at the end of that process. So, um there's a lot of risk for us there. Um so, a few water facts. Uh we get about 40% of our water supply out of the highlight drainage. That includes the creek and the reservoir. Uh we get about 40% of our water supply out of the Boseman Creek Range and then about 20% out of the Bridger Range, all surface water sources. A few facts. Uh Boseman is not at risk of running out of water. I know that's been um discussion in the community. Uh one of the things that we have to do is with our engineering department is whenever a
050project comes through the door, we have to put our engineer stamp on it that says we have the water to supply this project. So to give you a snapshot in time, uh currently uh if you we summed up all of our 2024 demands for water and and we look at water supply on an annual basis. Uh last year we used 43% of our water supply in a normal water year. Now because our water supply is surface water, it is droughtprone. So if we were in a heavy drought condition, a one in 50 year drought condition, and we applied that same 2024 demand to that condition, we would have used about 60% of our supply. So that's a fairly conservative number. So it gives you a sense that, you know, we've got some room to grow
051with that current supply. But the the thing that I really want to stress here is that this is a snapshot in time. We continue to develop our water conservation programs. We continue to develop our water supply programs. Our water conservation master plan, for example, uh we've got 18 measures outlined in that plan. We've implemented 11 of the 18 measures. So, we still have work to do yet. And then the other thing that I will say is u uh we have a 50-year water supply plan called our integrated water resources plan that basically outlines our low lowest hanging fruit. What do we go after next for water? Um so again we we we continue to work on the demand side of the equation. We continue to work on the supply side of the equation. Okay. So
052to talk about some pieces about affordable housing, I think it's important to also just kind of zoom out um back to how and why the city even feels a charge to try to get affordable housing off the ground. Um the commission has decided now for several several iterations of this of the Boseman city commission um really probably back to 2018 2019 where we started to really aggressively think about how do we get permanently affordable deedrestricted housing online in our community to meet the need as we're watching as we hemorrhage young families that decide this isn't a place that's worth putting down roots as we lose businesses that say I can't retain talent as we see university enrollment bring students here and then they leave us because they can't find a place to to afford in
053this community. Um we consequently have an affordable housing ordinance um that basically give uses the two levers that we have at our disposal to try to get permanently affordable housing online. Um, one is either a height bonus or sometimes called a density bonus that says, "Hey, if you you can get an additional story of height that's not technic not normally allowed in that zoning district, but you get it if you will say 50% of every unit in that building will be deed restricted for 50 years or 30 years." Um, or the other the other lever, so that's one lever, a little bit of height. The other lever is parking to relax some of the parking expectations. Um those are two of the tools that basically we're saying hey developer if you want to build something
054we want something out of it we the public want some sort of good provided to us and they are taking the risk of saying I will lock in half of the units or 5% depending on which incentives they're using but likely locking in half of the units for the next half century where they're going to say this is locked in at this at this price point. Um and so those are the types of tools that we have to kind of play in to get affordable housing online. Um so one of the things that that means is well one I guess we want to make sure that it's just clear that the amount of effort that it takes to go in to get even any affordable housing projects online in the city. Um to be able
055to kind of talk about what where this kind of fits in. So area median income these are definitions that are provided by HUD. Um, so these are county definitions for the area median income in Bosezeman has has increased dramatically over the last um 10 or 20 years. I'm sure that's no surprise to anyone here. Um, every single affordable housing project in the last five years has required some level of subsidy. There have been absolutely zero affordable units built in the city of Bosezeman that did not require some sort of subsidy to get it online. affordable housing is extremely expensive to build. Um, land, labor, materials, sometimes called lumber. So, these these four L's, um, are increasing in cost and so it's making it harder and harder and harder in our market of high demand to
056be able to get affordable housing on online. Um, the city has to in order to get permanently affordable housing online, we have to work with public, private, and nonprofit partners to make that housing happen. and the policies that we have um because this is the expectation of of a high functioning city that we base our decisions and our analysis in data um that can tell hey with some reasonable level of certainty is this going to work or will it not work um when we have worked with um an an organization in our for our affordable housing ordinance called EPS or economic planning systems we're going to show a slide that they gave us here in a minute um when we were first crafting the affordable housing They found at that time um only 5% of
057the units of a project could be deemed to be permanently affordable for it to pencil out for it to be a project that a developer could build. And at the end of the day, if our goal is to get affordable housing built, um we could create a pie in the sky, say 100% of the units have to be affordable, but nobody builds anything, 100% of zero is still zero. And so that's um you know, these are the the levers that we have at our disposal to try to get housing online. Um so economic planning systems as I was talking about um we ask them to basically give us a snapshot of what do they think um based in data and and and market proformas um what would be feasible under ward and they found that
058virtually no developments would be financially feasible um and actually I think a few points to note so the one the the slide on the left um is a 30-unit single family house development Um, similar to, you know, kind of how Sean was describing, you know, a large subdivision being subdivided into single family lots. Um, those would be profitable. They would still pencil out under baseline conditions. They would not pencil out under the 33% requirement that Ward is proposing. Multif family, notably, it loses money even today under no ward. So virtually the only affordable housing multif family projects that have been able to come online in the last few years have been because the land was purchased a long time ago and it that was the value of the land instead of buying it at today's
059market. So that is a snapshot of what looking at today's market would be able to make feasible. Um, and so pieces just to just try to lift up that when we see additional constraints, we know that this is likely actually I'm going to I'm skipping ahead to a slide we have here in a few minutes. Um, so I'm going to kick it back over to Sean for a few more pieces about water. >> So just to highlight one final item here on the water system. If you look at Boseman's water use, we use 114 gallons per person per day. And that's a result of a lot of good work in our water conservation program. We contacted other larger cities across Montana and the average uh per capita use was 163 across Montana. Uh other comparable
060cities that also have water conservation programs, if you look at Boulder, uh Denver, and Bend, they're ranging from 133 to 157 gallons per person per day. Uh if you look at this in a little different way, gallons per household per day water use, Boseman is 188 gallons per household per day. National average is 254 and other aid western states is 314. So it gives you a sense that we've done a heck of a good job with our water conservation program. And basically what we have is five FTEEs that that staff that program full-time. So we started that investment back in 2013 and we've got these numbers. Uh but one thing that I really want to highlight here, you know, and and now that you understand the economics behind the initiative, there's there's been a narrative
061of the proponents of the initiative that the initiative will bring further water conservation. And I would argue based on the economics, it actually does the opposite. So, uh basically, if the economics say it doesn't pencil the to construct in Bosezeman, uh the demand does not stop at the city limits, right? it has to still go somewhere. So, it's going to go to the county, it will go to other surrounding communities where the water use is actually a higher per per capita use. So, I would argue that it actually increases water use in the valley. >> The uh the the piece that I wanted to highlight at the end of of that previous slide was I think uh we've heard uh in the in the public discourse around this of you know we've we've slowed down
062to 1.4% 4% growth rate. We've got a thousand units on the in the pipeline, a 12% vacancy rate. Like we we've got time to to play around and try these other these other mechanisms. Um and one of the things to stress is that Boseman's at 60,000 people, which takes the wind out of the room in some in some spaces to to grapple with 60,000 people living here. But a 1.4% growth rate of 60,000 is still about 800 to 900 people will move here this year. So that still means that our demand expectations from a few years ago of needing roughly a thousand units to be built every year for the over the over over a fiveyear average is still pretty much true today. Um and so just to sit back and and think of 1.4%
063doesn't mean we necessarily have that much time. These there's no reason to believe that the units that we have in the pipeline or built right now are not going to be absorbed by the market quite quickly. Um, so, uh, as as Sean was saying, I don't know if there's much more for us to reiterate here. Um, it could limit housing supply. Um, the, uh, the other piece to to lift up is so one-third have to be affordable. So, the other two/irds, they have to be completely identical in the the language. They so a developer could not say here's one/ird that are, you know, timber and then here two/3s where it's marble countertops and and and gold enamel, everything to offset the price. they have to be built identically and just charge two3 charge additional cost
064to the two/3s to compensate for the other one-/3. Um, so that's basically the only way that a developer would be able to make this work is basically putting an an additional fee on the nonaffordable units. Um, so to reiterate some of the the pieces that we are working on, um, and and I guess you hit you hit the county part. Um, this is a the housing crisis in in our community and in frankly in the United States is is extremely challenging. Montana is we're in a lot of ways quite behind most other states in terms of tools that municipalities tools that counties have to be able to get permanently affordable housing online or to resource those through other means. We are consistently having those taken away. Um even when I talked earlier of hey we've
065got these two levers for our affordable housing ordinance, the state basically took away one of those two um of saying you don't get to use parking as as a bargaining chip to ensure affordability anymore. Um so when we are thinking about these solutions um we we at the city we work as uh I believe when we are in our best position we are operating as a convenor bringing together local experts and local uh you know the the local talent that we have in this community and bringing them together. Two of the ways that we are doing that is our community housing action plan and one that uh Sean alluded to earlier of our 50-year water plan, our integrated water resource plan that we're in the in the process of of redoing right now. Um these
066are the ways that we try to build the toolbox um for the city to be able to deploy to get affordable housing online. Um so a few things to consider are the elections coming up. It's basically in 10 minutes. Um it's on November 4th. Um ballots should be mailed out this Friday. Um, you can check your voter status at voterportal.t.gov. Um, great information for everybody. Um, and if there's a few things that you take away from our presentation, um, know that these are the things that we feel strongly and stand uh, proudly behind. Um, it is unlikely that this initiative will result in more affordable housing due to the high costs and the 33% requirement. At this time, Bosezeman is not at risk for running out of water. We proactively plan our water supply and
067emphasize water conservation to ensure current and future residents have access to water, which I don't want to I don't want that part to be said as though we are very flippant about our water. Um there's no city in the Rocky Mountain West that is not thinking constantly about water. And that that amount of thinking is what led us to say we need five full-time employees thinking, strategizing, and planning for how we maintain our water supply and where it goes. And most importantly, there's no silver bullet to make housing more affordable. Another regulatory barrier creates barriers to comprehensive solutions and the other tools that we need at our disposal. So, that's all we got. >> Thank you guys for your time and all the information. Uh, trustes questions, comments. Gary. >> Yeah, thank you very much
068for the presentation. If I read it correctly, it the ward initiative would require a developer to get their own water rights to their project. H how does that how do they get their own water rights out of city water? >> Yeah. So, it would they would have to get their own water rights if they were not willing to bring 33% of their product as affordable housing. So um those are the two options essentially that would be left given the initiatives and and yeah just to as as Sean was explaining you know five to five to eight years to get a water right between willing parks. You know, I I want to give Sean a water right and it we still have to go through a very long process to be able to transfer that water
069right. >> All right. Any other questions or comments? Jason, >> um it it feels as if it has nothing to do with water nor affordable housing. It's an anti-growth policy. What What would your take on that be? Like we're closing the doors to the community. I would say I we so uh I I have heard uh concerns from community members that that is perhaps the intention of the outcome. What I can say is the the policy the folks that wrote it um wrote a policy brief. It's a little over 20 pages. Um where they document that perhaps growth would basically not be possible, that maybe development wouldn't be feasible. Um but they it's throughout their language that they do want affordable housing to come online. >> Thank you. >> Greg, can can you just back
070up and clarify for me the process of the ward initiative? Where where was it born from? How did it get on the ballot? How does that whole process work? Who who were the people that came up with the the board initiative concept? >> Oh man. Um I I can I can start a few pieces. You can you can finish it out um if if there's anything that I miss or if I feel if I'm getting if I'm getting too far off of the the compliance territory. Um so this is a the way ballot initiives work in Montana. So during years like this, this is a general election year, um the ballot g ballot initi initiative folks that put it together, um which is a mix of um local local members of of Bosezeman that have
071been here for a while. Um one notably John Meyer, also running for mayor, um is one of the authors. He tells us this every Tuesday. Um the uh the process thereby is on a general election year you have to get 15% of the voters that voted in the last election to sign your ballot initiative to make it onto the ballot. It then comes to the city city of Bosezeman Gallatton County um to verify for form in compliance with the form standards put by the state. if it meets those and it gets the signatures um then it goes onto the ballot. Um and that's what's in front of us here today. Um there is a meeting from uh April 22nd where the city gives more of a position um on on this initiative that was done
072at a time when it had not was not officially a ballot initiative and so it was not consequently something that was going in front of the voters at that time. Is there anything that you want to add? >> No. captured it. >> Oh, just a the process piece. Um, since we're we're uh trying to be as clear as possible, they come they they submit their ballot initiative to the city. The city attorney of the city of Bosezeman works in that capacity to serve the Gallatin County elections office to verify for then it can go get signatures. Then when it gets signatures, it goes in the ballot. They don't mix those up in order. Any other questions or comments? Like they had numbers up there. Thought you might like those. Were they good enough numbers or
073Okay. Right. Um I you know I've been I'm involved in the chamber and um it's amazing to me how many groups are coming together based on a lot of the facts that you guys presented um that usually don't talk together um regarding the direction that this might what this might cause and the challenges that this might cause our community. Um my my concern would be similar to what I heard um here and then definitely in other meetings as well. It's just that the ability to create low income housing where does that push it? Um we still live in the same beautiful place and whether their address is a Boseman Montana city of Bosezeman one or if it's um four corners which is still Boseman. Um, and I really believe in uh since I'm in the
074commercial real estate business and development business, uh, that people that are moving here more and more, the 10-minute or 15 minute drive no longer matters as much as it did 10 years ago of that, oh well, I want to be five minutes from downtown. They don't care as much anymore. And so, the choice to develop and get a piece of land further out is not going to change. and um the county doesn't have the same measurements in place at this point in time because they're dealing with other things than the city does. Um so I I appreciate you guys' information um and providing uh the facts from a city's perspective and understand the line that you guys have to walk um regarding communicating those things. So appreciate your time. Thank you very much. >> Yeah,
075thank thank you guys so much for having us. I I start as we were sitting getting ready to to come up and present, I did feel a lot of envy for you guys. Like y'all's meetings seem so fun. Uh you start out with live music. Um if the jazz choir is not busy on Tuesday nights, we'd love to have them. Um but yes, really really uh grateful that for the opportunity and really appreciate um the opportunity to talk about these things with y'all. >> Thank you. You guys can aim for this. You guys, you guys need to get there someday. Listen to Douglas. He's been here. >> It wasn't just dark outside. All right. Um, action items. Consent. I'd entertain a motion. >> Sandy. Sorry. >> I move that we approve 3.2.1 3.4.1 3.4.2 3.4.3
0763.4.4 under action items consent. Second. >> All right. Motion made by Trustee Sandy Wilson and seconded by Trusty Moran. Any public comment? All those in favor? Motion passes six to zero. Board discussion committee reports. >> Thanks, Chair Black. Um no official um committee of the board had convened in the last month, but I did want to um draw attention to um Boseman Reed's community coalition, which I I think will turn into a standing board committee and Trusty Moran um was able to attend that. Um it was held at the new marketplace, HRDC marketplace upstairs from the um food bank and um really encouraging that we had um a large gathering of the right community partners who are focused um on finding where um our students to be kindergarten students are prior to them walking into
077kindergarten classrooms. Uh where where do those families live? um the students that have legging literacy skills and how do we best meet um their needs. So it was the first of what I think is going to be um a lot of coordinated effort. Um and it's very um it was very nice to be in that room and know that we have someone full-time in Megan Roth focused on this um all the other organizations in the room. It's one of the many things that they're trying to um juggle. And so Megan Roth is the backbone to that community community um literacy program and has great partners. Um uh Trusty Moran, anything you want to add? But it was a good first start. >> No, I think you it was just impressive to be in the room
078with so many people who care about early literacy. All right. Is that it? Okay. Thank you. 5.3 Long-Term baseball softball facilities. Casey, you're back up. >> It wouldn't be a 2025 20226 schoolboard meeting without a discussion of baseball. Um we um since our last meeting, we convened the long range facility planning committee to talk about um both the title N implications for softball and baseball facilities. Um but uh really focused on what is the long-term solution. We had a variety of um solutions that we were um looking at. Uh we were able to get cost proposals on on most if not all of them. and um and then also heard from some community members. And so what's linked in there um a ways down the agenda is a um community baseball complex um that is
079um going to master site planning at the city of Bosezeman with a private um developer who would like um basically would like the district to contribute to um and have that be the long-term home for high school baseball and potential softball um in the in the community. So, it's multiple. The master plan has multiple full-size baseball fields and then many youthsized fields, parking, indoor facility, all of the pieces. About a $40 million project initially asking um for a $ 1.5 million investment from the school district for a long-term access similar to the swimming pool access um is what we were um talking about um at that facility. um interesting, very compelling and caused the committee to unanimously put pause on making a formal recommend recommendation to this board uh until we see what happens with
080that process. um at which point um after we see that go through the master site plan and um have further discussions with the developer um around timelines um the LRFP will come back together and make a formal recommendation to the board about long-term facilities for um baseball softball. So, at this time, we are still um per your action at the last meeting, full steam ahead on the short-term um lease of Heroes Park and um advertising, hiring coaches, uniforms, all the things that need to happen to prop up um high school baseball for the this spring, uh spring of 26. And we're just on pause currently waiting to see um this new development, what happens there before making a long-term facilities recommendation. Any questions or comments from trustees? Gary. >> Yeah, thanks Casey for that. I'm
081curious. Is there a time limit on uh working with the Heroes Park um use that facility? >> Um like and like how short term is shortterm or long-term? Yeah. Um I I think Heroes Park has a desire for us to invest in their facility. Um we are we're already um we're looking towards a one-year agreement there. Um we'll build that an agreement that allows for multiple years if if both boards um um approve that. I think in terms of like technically 2039 is when that lease um between Gallatin County and the American Legion board is up. Um we have heard from the the county that um they do not want to be in the baseball business long term and so there is some worry about the long-term longevity of that facility. Um all the more
082reason to look at these other long-term solutions. >> I just um have a quick clarification. At the end of number five it says launching baseball in spring 2025. Should we change that to 2026? Yeah, let's do that. >> Done. All right. Any other comments or questions? Um I I would just add being on a long long range facilities plan group. Um it was kind of uh this option came forward and it feels like u one it's somebody's very passionate which probably needs to be on this project and felt like this can't be really very true. So um because it would be an amazing opportunity for the school district is what I think we all felt and walked away with. Um, they have a very tight they're very motivated based on what they communicated. >> I
083think they were talking about six to eight weeks of like knowing like how close they would be to and when they'd be start moving dirt. Um, seems very ironic to city people didn't want to stay. Um but um seems like a very quick turnaround and that sort of thing, but um I know that the the um city managers in that meeting and heard it and so um so it seems like it makes a lot of things. Um it would be a very very interesting and very positive situation and there might be other ways instead of a contribution um that maybe that could be managed which I think might be worked on. Chair Black, can I throw in just a a note about the funding because that will be a challenge that the board should be
084aware of. We're way early in this process, so I I don't want to by any means throw cold water on it or anything like that, but um realize that the district doesn't have currently $1.5 million sitting around that we can um just issue to someone in exchange for a right to use. We do have building reserve funds that we could use to construct a facility, but if we use building reserve funds, that might that project has to be on district owned property. If it's not, whether it be a project at the city sports park, whether it be at Heroes Park, whether it be at this new proposal down the road on on Oak Street, we can't use building reserve funds for that. So, we would need to find alternate funding sources um preferably that didn't
085compete with our core purpose um to come up with that funding. So, it's a it's a challenge. It's a hurdle we'll have to overcome if this ends up being the direction we choose to go. >> And Mike, to to that point, I think if um in item five in here where it says five part recommendation, if we click that link, you'll see many of the recommendations that were presented and then how they where the funds would potentially what categories the funds would come from. So, if you want to learn a little bit more as a trustee, if you haven't looked at that, that's a good spot to go to look at and how what funds apply that Mike was referring to in what situations. So, might have already done it. If not, you might want
086some homework. I don't know. Um, all right. Next item, public comment on non-aggenda items. Erica Dan public tonight. All right. Seeing none, moving on. Reports. um executive cabinet report. >> What's being passed out was in my um parent communication um this week, but whenever we find good news, we want to um make sure we celebrate along the way. Uh so the 2023 legislative session um produced House Bill 352, which was um targeted early literacy. Now it's called targeted early intervention because there's a numerousy component. Um what we um what we have found and that we knew to be true in research is that early intervention really really works. Um and so what you uh what what this shows you is last year we started the first four-year-old targeted early intervention program at Morning Star Elementary.
087Served about 72 students. um they uh we wanted to like make sure that we were um clear about what assessments we were using. Students getting into that um into that program had to show legging literacy skills on any of the subtests um on the PY assessment. When you put all the subtests together, you get the composite score. We didn't restrict kids getting into the program on the on their composite score. It was on any of the subtests. Um so we didn't really have composite scores for those kids entering. That's why you have an NA there in the fall of 24. Those 72 um students do a 4 day a week program at Morning Star Elementary. We assess them at the end of the year. 66% twothirds of that population proficient on their composite score. Then
088you fast forward, they go to summer break, they come back as kindergarteners. Um the N gets smaller from 72 to 58. Um not all those students um are enrolled in our kindergartens. Some of them moved away. Some of them are going to other schools with open enrollment, variety of circumstances. But you take 58 of them who enter our kindergarten um classrooms. They go through the fall assessment with all their peers. They come in at 71% proficient. Um we have uh we're doing some an analysis on the rest of the cohort but this cohort it seems um at this point in time 58 students who is defined by their lack of literacy skills is more proficient than the average cohort coming into Bosezeman public schools. So pretty pretty exciting. Um, we've also done some work that
089this seems to be um pretty sticky that um it it happens during their four-year-old and then they show up as 5-year-olds after a summer and they're still proficient. We'll watch that. If that continues to be sticky, um, this intervention alone, if we can go out go out and find all 150 students that enter our kindergartens on an average year that are not proficient, get them a year early in our four-year-old program, so we completely close our achievement gap and have and over 91% proficient by by the time our kids are in third grade. So, it's a um pretty unique thing that when um the legislature um puts some money towards something and we implement it with great community partners and then get the results not five years down the road or uh build it over
090time, but immediate results. Um it's it's kind of why I do this job. Makes me excited. Any questions on that comments? >> Just a quick report update. School funding interim commission uh meets tomorrow and Wednesday in Helena in CE will be leading the conversation again. Um reporting back on the feedback that they've gotten from the road shows they have. Those road shows will be wrapping up at MIL and at the teachers conference this week. So, uh, feel free to share any public comments you want and then those of you that are going to MEL, uh, be be present for that conversation. Also, >> thank you, Mike. Um, since you didn't have any numbers and Casey did, I'm just going to go back to his u case. This is That's all right. Um, this is this
091is great information and I think like you said, seeing the results so quickly and the impact um is something that we don't always have the opportunity to do. We implement something and it takes a little bit more time than maybe what people want to see or whatever, but this is um and I think in in a large school district, this is relatively immediate. So, good work by everybody that's been involved. Thank you. Um any other see any other executive cabinet reports? >> Yeah, so um just wanted to update the board. We have our fall benchmarking as as superintendent Bertram said um Acadians in elementary for English language arts um reading we have Ames Webb which is new um and it's second grade through 8ighth grade for math and then 68 for um reading as well.
092So that's a new benchmark and then as we mentioned before we have our language screener in kindergarten. So um we are hearing just a little bit of rumblings. Um Mars and I were able to meet with Eric, the union president, today and just a little bit of like there's a lot of assessment going on. Now, we know that two of these are new and so they we're not sure what the time is going to look like when we get into the groove of of doing them over and over again, but um so just something that we're keeping an eye on because then those close and then today mast the state assessment opens for three through eight. So a lot of feeling like there's just a lot of assessing going on at the very beginning of
093the school year. So again, we'll keep an eye on that and collect feedback on that piece of it. Um the other thing to have a report on is um Chad Berg um our director of special education is walking a group through the RTI build group and and looking at developing a new model for identifying students for special ed right now. Um we use the oh my gosh I'm drawing blank the discrepancy model discrepancy model um and we're working at moving to using RTI response intervention model for that and there's a lot of components. He's had two meetings so far this year. One the first one that covered low academic achievement and defining what is low academic achievement and then also define insufficient response to intervention. How do we measure that? Because those are two huge
094components that if you shift to this, you have to have a very strong system to be able to um show a student is one low academic academic and then also they're not responding to the interventions that we're providing them. Um the most recent meeting talking about those interventions um is talking about um really digging into what are research or evidence-based interventions making sure that we have those available and what are um a lot of discussion in that meeting was around what's the actual effect size. A lot of interventions will say we've researched this it shows this but there's not a lot of effect size. So you know they're not moving the needle a lot for kids. And so how do we start to look at that? And there was some discussion in the room um
095during that from from teachers, from intervention teachers, special education teachers. Is is there um a need for the district to develop a list of those high impactful intervention tools that we we can say schools, this is what we want to point you to. So, a lot of really good work um with that RTI build group and a lot of good excitement around it. I'll just add to what Mike was uh talking about just now and and say that Mike and I are also meeting with our respective middle school and high school principles talking about where they're at with their staff well-being goals. >> Thank you. Any other reports? All right, moving on. 7.2 to trustee reports requests calendar future agenda. Sandy. >> Um well, I had the um honor of visiting the BHS GHS their
096beginning of the year guidance guiding coalition and um I stayed for about an hour. Um and they started it out by asking all the teachers in the room um who their um which what teacher was most influential on them. And it was so cool to listen to the wide variety of teachers and high school or elementary or whatever that and and they shared a lot of how they impacted um their learning in their future. Um the topic of the morning at least I didn't stay for um to hear it all but it was about hawk time and um what's prime time prime time. And I have to say over and over again how that room is so safe to be able to say from whatever department they're working in, here are our challenges and here
097are our thoughts. And um it's really incredible that they have gotten to this point. And I felt at that time, I didn't hear where it actually ended up going, but I felt at that time, boy, if we're if we're talking about hawk time, prime time this year, we're we're doing pretty well with all the changes that we've been dealing with. You know, they've been uh going through at the high school. So, um it was upbeat. They were excited to see each other getting both schools together. That's kind of an example of one Boseman, but I think they split off after the after that first meeting was my take on that. So, >> thank you, Melissa. Um I visited Longfellow two weeks ago for about three hours and observed six different classrooms. Uh one the four
098one of the fourth grade classrooms was actually working on a map exercise in partner work and they had to they were given a word that related to Montana and then they had to find a city that started with every letter in that word. It was fun to see the partner work and the teacher was happy that I was there because she said it was her one of her favorite lessons to teach. Um, students were also working on Square One Art. I went to Longfellow's fun run in the rain. I also attended Morning Stars fun run last week. And then at Sack Jia, I attended their staff meeting. Ashley wanted me to attend their staff meeting before I start observing their classrooms. And this was my actually my second staff meeting to attend at SAC. I
099went to um one of the levy presentations last year, last spring at SAC. And I liked how Ashley started her meetings with celebrations and they probably talked about three to five celebrations. And to see the excitement in the room with these and it was there last spring when I was there and in the fall that the excitement was amazing. And then the staff, someone from the staff emailed all the teachers and told them them to bring in some form of flexible seating into their mating. And Ashley and Holly did not know that was happening. And so you had teachers dragging in bean bags, camping chairs. It was pretty funny. I mean, they were they were shocked. It was it was fun to see. And then they talked about their panorama survey. I left halfway through,
100but it was interesting to see Ashley show the results and talk openly about the results. And you know, you fill out these surveys and sometimes you think, do people actually read a survey? And so I think it showed the teachers that we are reading them and looking into them and working on the working on their thoughts that they brought up. >> Thank you. >> All right. Well, thank you uh for trustees for going out and reporting back what you're doing because I know we've done that a lot over the years but maybe not reported back. So I appreciate it bringing into the public and having that those communications. So, thank you for your extra time, a few minutes at the end of the meeting. So, without anything else, Gary. >> Yeah, just to follow up,
101I was at Emily Dickinson uh twice last week with the kindergarten uh PLC group, which was very informative. Um my plan is to meet with every grade band PLC as soon as I can. uh they did have comments about the uh test assessment stuff and um then I was asked to attend the staff meeting on Wednesday to explain the school funding interim commission to the staff. So I did that. Um and I was just a thought as you all know my mind is focused on our system of education and I was very what struck me last Tuesday when we were at Boseman High was when the students were introducing themselves and explaining all the stuff they do clubs leadership and stuff like that. It was just very impressive that um I I think those participation
102those activities is influential and helping people develop leadership skills and communication and uh so it's very good to see. >> All right, last call. All right. Motion to adjourn the meeting or adjourn the meeting.