001Clark. >> Trusty Burlesen. >> Excused. >> Trusty Black >> here. >> Trustee D >> here. >> Trustee Lucine >> here. >> Trusty Moran >> here. >> Trustee Neil >> here. >> Trustee Sandy Wilson >> here. >> Trustee Sarah Wilson >> here. >> All right. Thank you. All right. We'll do the pledge of allegiance. Please stand. I >> aliance to the flag of the United States of America. Welcome to the August 18th Boseman School District board meeting. Thank you for joining us. Public comment will be taken throughout the 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 personal matters. The public portions of the board meeting are being recorded in accordance with district policy 420 and section 2-3-214 MCA.
002By remaining in this meeting, all participants and attendees acknowledge they may appear on a recording which w 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 the meeting. Before we engage in the business of the board, I would like to share the core purpose of the Boseman school districts which can be found on the back of our name plates in the wall to my left. It reads, "Boseman public schools exist to ensure high levels of learning for all students." Again, welcome everybody. Um, let's see. So, we don't have uh anything special to begin with. So, we're move to action consent items, which I would look for a motion. >> I'd like to make a motion to approve action consent
003item 3.21, 3.41. 41, 3.42, 3.43, and 3.44. >> Second. >> All right. So, we have a motion motion made by Trustee Moran and seconded by Trustee Sandy Wilson. Is there any public comment? All right. All those in favor? Motion passes seven to zero. All right, next item. Moving to action item singular. Um, let's see both districts. I think Casey, this is for you. Um, approval of 2025 MTSBA annual meeting electronic ballot. >> Thank you, Chair Neil. trustees. Um in front of you, you have um a sample ballot along with the um detailed information for Montana School Boards Association. There was not a quorum at their annual summer meeting. Uh so they've moved their um membership voting items um to an electronic version. We took their ballot, marked all the items in the affirmative um and
004had board leadership weigh in on that. And the recommendation is that um you approve the annual meeting electronic ballot items as presented. >> Comment question. >> Motion. Yeah. >> Move to approve the 2025 MTSBA annual meeting electronic ballot items as presented. >> Second. >> All right. All right. So, we have a motion on the on the floor made by Trustee Neil, seconded by Trustee D. Is there any public comment? Seeing none, all those in favor? Motion passes 7 to zero. Uh, next item 4.2.1, which we consider approval of 202526 high school district budget. Lacy, you're up. Good evening, trustees. Um, while we're getting this pulled up, um, this is stated on the agenda as two separate singular action items, but I'm going to go over, um, the budget all in one presentation and then at
005the end um, there would be two separate motions called to pass the budgets since they are separate. Um, so we'll just jump right in here. Um, you guys did receive a preliminary budget presentation at the last July meeting. Um, at that point we did not know what taxable value looked like. Taxable value is a huge driver for what our taxes look like, what the rates are for our um, for the public. And so we get that the first Monday in August and then we have two weeks to throw a bunch of numbers into a spreadsheet to calculate um, what it looks like from a taxpayers perspective, what it looks like from a budgeting perspective. So, we're going to go through all of that today. As this is the annual budget meeting, we're looking to accomplish
006two major things. They're the first two items on the list. That's establish the 202526 spending authority for the budgeted funds with the Boseman School District. And then we're looking to set the 202526 tax levies. When we set the tax levies, um we are responsible for setting the dollar amounts on tax levies. by law, the county superintendent is responsible for setting the mills on those levies. Um, we're going to talk a lot about mills today. Um, we have a really good understanding of what that means. Um, and we work really collaboratively with the county superintendent to make sure that we're all on the same page for what that looks like moving forward. Um, so just kind of as a caveat, um, you guys are setting the dollar amount for the tax levies tonight. Um, we're looking
007at what the property tax changes mean and what they're going to look like for you, for the public, and how we can help educate everybody on what changes those are. And then we do have some election law updates that will impact our schedule and timetable for how we usually call for an election, when we can take trustee oath oath of candidacy, um, and how everything runs for the county. So, we'll just jump right in. Um, in a little bit of a recap to what we went over last time, we have wrapped up wrapped up our 2024 25 books. Um, and this graph just shows you the actual budget, the actual versus budget, um, what we budgeted last year in our general fund versus what we actually spent. So, this is for the year ending June
00830th, 2025. The orange line is the actual and the blue line is the budget. So, you can see that when we set the budget for last year, we were looking about a at a $3.7 million deficit in the high school and elementary general funds combined. What you can see is the actual amounts of money that we spent is that orange line, which is just slightly above that dark black line there, which means that we were able to put about $420,000 um into one-time funds into our interlocal agreement. So, that was really good news. Um, come the end of the school year. When we break those out and we look at elementary versus high school separately, we get a little bit more of a telling story. So, this is our elementary budget to actual for June
00930th, 2025. You can see that the budget once again is well below um that yellow line, which is the actual. Our elementary budget to actual ended up being in the red by $959,000. Um, that sounds like a lot, but when we look at the overall budget in the elementary for general fund versus how close we were to um actual, we were 2.6% off from what we budgeted to what we actually spent, which um if you're less than 5%, you're doing really well. So, so we're proud to to be able to show those numbers. Um, obviously we don't want to be in the red, but it was a much less in the red than what we had originally anticipated at the elementary level. At the high school level, what you'll see is a different story. So,
010the actual for the high school ended up being a $1.4 million in the black and the um original budgeted deficit for the high school was $200,000 in the red. So you can see that when we combine the elementary and the high school, that's where we got the $420,000 surplus for the year. When we look forward to the structural imbalance for 202526, so that was year ending June 30th. This is beginning of the year July 1. What we foresee is we foresee continuing a deficit in the elementary. However, it is very slightly trending in the upwards direction, which is good news. The high school you'll see in the green um we are projected to have a high school surplus of $231,000. That's the first time we've been in the black since you can see in fiscal
011year 20. Um that's due to a couple different reasons. That's due to increased growth at the high school. Um some really preliminary numbers show that they're continuing to have growth. Um so we'll see what that comes back in October when we get the actual count in. Um but it does appear that high school does continue to grow. Obviously um the levies passing passing in both the high school and elementary have made a big difference. But that the the biggest line for that is enrollment growth and all the work that the high school has done with that master schedule this year has made a huge impact. Um they've been able to mitigate adding a lot of new FTE even with the huge increase in schools. So that's helped keep the cost containment um relatively normal and
012and help put them into the right direction. So when we're looking at adopting the budget, these are the budgeted funds that we're looking at adopting. You can see the year-over-year comparison between um fiscal year 2425 and this year um fiscal year 2526 in yellow. This is for the elementary. We're looking at a $3.3 million increase in the budgeted funds. I won't go through all of these, but the biggest ones that you should pay attention to are obviously going to be the general fund. Um the huge increase in that is obviously the stars act passing and the doubling of the quality educator payment. In addition, we um were able to pass the general fund levy in May. Um so that gave it an additional boost in the general fund. The next highest one is the transportation
013levy. You're going to see this trend in both elementary and in high school with transportation. And there's a couple reasons for this. The first one is we're I believe in year three of a five-year contract with first student. Each year the um cost per route increases. So that's one reason for the budgeted increase. Another reason is we've had to add a lot of additional special education routes, a lot of regular education routes. We've added routes for Bosezeman Reeds and PreK. Um, so we're having more buses running to make sure our kids have the right home to school transportation. Um, so that's one of the reasons you're seeing a big increase in transportation as well. Um, and then the final reason is we're looking at um, by law we cannot we have to be able to
014offer children the right to get to school in less than an hour. And so some of our bus routes do take over an hour for those kids to get on the bus and make it to school. So we do have to offer individual transportation contracts in which we would pay the parents to commute those children to school. So we made sure that those were budgeted for as well. Um, the next big one is technology in elementary. That's up $126,000. The reason for that is it's just fund balance reappropriated. So, they had a larger balance at the end of last year rolling into this new year. Um, technology is one of those things where we buy a lot in bulk, but we don't buy it every single year. So, um, Mike and his team do a
015really good job of anticipating the needs and planning about five years out, knowing what they're going to have to spend and when. Um, so that's one of the reasons we saw the technology fund budget increase this year. And then the next big one is retirement. Um, retirement is paid um to PERS and TURS to the state and it's all based off of a percentage of gross um gross salary. So, as salaries increase, we have to increase our retirement fund um to keep up so we can make sure that we have enough money to put into everybody's retirement um accounts. So, that was elementary. This is high school. It mirrors it pretty consistently. Um this is another $3 million increase between last year and this year. General fund once again is the big one because of
016stars and enrollment and levies passing. Um we do have the exact same situation in transportation and that's why the large increase there. The building reserve is 159,000. Building reserve is another one of those items where um a huge amount of this money and building reserve is for capital projects and maintenance. And so as projects start and stop, we have different fund balances every year that roll over one year to the next. Another increase for the building reserve budget is we are levying 700,000 in our transition levy as opposed to two or as opposed to 500,000 from the previous year. So that is a little increase there as well. Um and then once again retirement is the exact same situation as with elementary. As salaries increase we need to make sure we're keeping up in the
017retirement fund. So overall um this is the exact same information as those last two slides just in a little bit different format. Um you can see that the general fund is the big one that accounts for 52% of our overall budget. U building reserve is the next one at 17% and then debt service is at 14%. So before I move on to taxes, does anybody have any questions about the budget that they want to ask before we kind of change gears? Okay. So, this is where it gets um this is where it gets into what we have routinely tried to do a really good job at being transparent and communicate. Well, um property taxes have always been complicated and with some of the legislation that passed this last year, it's a different level of complication.
018Um, and it's just means that we're going to have to do more or as much as we can to educate the public of what that means. Um, when you get your property taxes, there's a couple different numbers on that bill that you have to look at. There's a market value and there's a taxable value. When you look at market value, that's the estimate of what the fair market value is. So, it would be a similar number to what a realtor or an appraiser may come and say what your house is valued at. It's not typically identical to what they would say, but it's it's in that ballpark. Taxable value is going to be based off of an equation, and it's the percentage of property's value that is taxable. So, in the past, we have had
019one percentage that we utilize across the board for market value. With the 2025 legislative session, they made it more into a tiered structure. So there's more numbers that go into the equation to figure out what a taxable value is worth. Um here's just a comparison of how that's lined up over time. So the blue line is going to be your market value. And you can see that that's increasing year-over-year. Um this year it increased 11% for elementary and 13% for high school um from the previous year. Typically, the taxable value kind of mirrored that at a much lower dollar amount because it's it's a ratio. It's an equation. Um the last time we had our properties assessed, which is every two years, and we're on an assessment year now, um was 2023 24 when people
020saw about a spike of 55% in the Bosezeman area um of taxable value increases. That was statewide. there was huge taxable value increases. Therefore, um after the last legislative session, a lot of work went into how can we help reduce property taxes on residential properties to help help keep our property tax owners whose many are on fixed incomes um keep it within a budget. So, there was a lot of property tax fatigue. Um this session came out with some new new calculations like I've said. Um, the hard thing about this one is the calculation that they changed it to is only going to be for a year and then they're changing it again. So, there was a couple different bills. There was a House bill and a Senate bill that worked together. They were a
021bit intertwined, but um, it's just changing and so it's really hard to say what it's going to when we look at this graph next year. Taxable value is going to shift again even though it's not a reassessment year. So that's when it's a reassess when it's typically not a reassessment year. Um the only change we've seen in the past is new construction, but this time it's just going to look a little bit different. >> Yeah, >> trustes. I'm just going to add a little bit of color to that. I I really like this graph. It's I think it's really demonstrative of what's going on both um in the community and with um the the politics associated with that. The market value is the blue line and the blue numbers on the on the y ais
022over there. And what you see is a stairst step pattern up and then flat up and then flat up and then flat. That's because we have a every other year reappraisal cycle within this state. So every other year the the market values reassessed. That's the steps up. Then the next year it's not a reappraisal year and it stays relatively flat. You see just a little bit in the non-reappraisal years of increase. That's newly newly taxable property springing up out of the ground and being added to it. But the big steps up are market value reassessments as as property appreciates in the state. You see the same curve on the on the red lines, just not as pronounced um on the lower numbers. Step up flat. Step up flat. Um the things I'd tell you is
023and and just remember this is going to be a confusing thing for a lot of people. The market value is an estimate of the value of your property if you turned out and sold it. Taxable value is a different number. It's not an estimate of your market value. It's really not really related to it. It's a political number. It's a number that the legislature determines. It's a percentage of your market value, but it they set that percentage um to figure out how much revenue the state generates and where the relative distribution of tax impacts hits. And we're going to talk about that a little bit more in these in these in these upcoming slides. Market value is an estimate of what a property is worth. taxable value is a political number. Okay, >> Sandy, >>
024um will will we be talking about I think there was a bill that was passed that kind of um lowered taxes for primary homes and will that that'll affect us also, correct? >> Yep. And that'll be next year. >> Next year. Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Yep. That's the kind of two-step process of these bills. But yes, next year that will affect everyone. >> Thank you. >> So, this is just a look and this is a lot like what Mike just said is that um step step straight step straight process. Um you can see that it was always really not easy to estimate, but we kind of had a a good idea as to what we were looking at. this the last couple years have kind of blown all of our um all of
025our good estimations out the window as to what taxable value looks like in the future. Um >> so what you need to know about that is that even though you see property growing out of the ground, there's new tax base, new properties being added to it. Um the value of our taxable property, the amount of that property value that's taxable is less than it was last year. It's it's it's very um contra I can't think of the counterintuitive is is the word I'm looking for. More value less of its taxable. >> Um and then this is just the growth rate. So you can see where fiscal year 24 we had 54.1 or 54.61% in the elementary 56% in Bosezeman High School for the taxable value increases. Um, and now with this political number, like Mike
026said, um, you're seeing it drastically, well, not drastically, but decrease more than it has in the past. Um, fiscal year 16 is the last reappraisal or reassessment period that occurred in which taxable value actually decreased. So, it's not normal. Um, it usually means that there's something happening at the legislative level that's causing it to do that. This is a good um graph. This is only for the high school district, but the elementary district mirrors this quite closely. Um if you start on the left and look at that blue bar, the 432,22425 taxable value is what we based um everything on last year. When you look at the newly taxable value um in the in our district, that is what they assessed this year as property that was not on the tax roll this year is
027on it this or was not on it last year is on it this year. So that added an additional 3.78% to our total newly taxable or to our taxable property. However, with the changing taxable value structure, um the change in existing property value actually decreased 8.5%. When we talk about um a decrease of 4.75% in the high school, that includes all of that newly taxable property. So, even though, like Mike said, the community is growing, we have more homes worth more money out there. Um even with all of that new growth, we're still seeing a decrease. However, if we didn't have that taxable or the newly taxable property included in there, we would have seen a decrease of 8.5% rather than 4.75. And the elementary mirrored that um without the newly taxable property, the decrease
028would have been 10.3% rather than 6.75%. So, here's that magic equation that we've been um alluding to. So, as you can see, the old tax rate was 1.35% and that was across the board. It didn't matter if your home was valued at 500,000 or $50 million. That was the same rate applied to all market values. Now, when we're looking at property taxes for this upcoming year, this is the tiered system that it's going to take. And this tiered system applies to all residential properties. So, Sandy, like you mentioned, how is it going to impact long-term rental, short-term rental? When does that come into effect? that comes into effect the next year and that tier structure changes again. So, it's going to change again and then it's going to make it more complicated based on if
029you own your home and it's your primary residence or if you have a VBO. Those are all going to be taxed um at different rates. What's really important to see here is the old tax rate at 1.35%. You can see those first two tiers up to 400,000 and then 400 to 1.5 million. those tax rates are significantly lower than that 1.35. I would say the majority of homes are valued somewhere in between there. Um, obviously we have a wealthy community and we have a lot of homes that are worth a lot more than that. Um, and when they do go over that $ 1.5 million threshold, they are getting taxed at a higher tax rate. Yeah, >> Lisi, just really quickly, the residential property value, that's market value or taxable value. >> Market value. That's
030what I assumed. >> The calculation based on the percentage is how they figure taxable value. Yep. >> I'll give you an example. So, if your house is worth $400,000, you would take your market value is $400,000. You would take $400,000 times 0.0076 0076 and that's how you get your taxable value. >> So you guys have seen this screen before. This is tax impact um for eight different residential addresses um within our district. Um we're comparing last year to this year. So the very first line is going to show market value. You can see that um it's split 5050. Some residences the market value increased from last year. Some residences the market value decreased from last year. Um, one thing that did come from the last reappraisal period prior to this was a lot of people
031protested their taxes and they protested what their value of their home was worth. Um, so that may come into play within our community that some market values did decrease because of that protested amount. Um, but overall it's it's a split whether your house increased or not. When you look at that though and you plug in the old taxable value equation versus the new taxable value equation, you can see your pri prior year taxable value um in all but one of those homes is more than what it is going to be for this year. So these homes, when you look at that market value up above and you think about those tiers that we looked at, the majority of those homes fall into those first two tiers where the taxable percentage rate is less than what
032you would actually um would have seen last year. So you can see current year taxable value has decreased. Therefore, the taxable value has changed um for the majority of these has gone down. We've always talked about the 95 mills. The 95 mills, a a mill is based on taxable value. So the higher taxable value is, the more a mill is worth. The lower taxable value, the less a mill is worth. So when we talk about levying 95 mills, it's a set number of mills. It's 95 times the taxable value, and that's the dollar amount that you levy. So when you look at prior year 95 mills, you can see it's a significant decrease um for the majority of these homes with the new taxable value structure because the value of a mill has actually come
033down. So you can see that when we're looking at our community um we we have good news for our for our residential property owners. Um for the >> address >> unless you're address seven. Yep. um the 95 mills is going to not be as impactful when it comes to their pocketbook as it has in the past. >> The 95 mills and that reduction means less revenue to the state of Montana. Contrast that with what's going to happen to the district that Lacy's about to explain to you. But um this means less revenue coming into the state of Montana from those property taxes. So then when we look at the actual mills that we assign, um, prior year we had 143.11 mills and we're looking at doing 157.64 mills for the current um, for the upcoming
034budget. What that means is because the value of a mill has decreased when property or when taxable value decreased, we have to levy more mills to obtain the same amount of revenue. So it doesn't mean that because a mill has decreased in value, we don't get that the same amount of money. We can still get the same amount of money. We just have to levy more mills in order to do so. In addition to maintaining status quo with revenue, our budget has has grown. So we have to levy additional mills um in order to keep up with that as well. So you can see that even though mills have increased from last year, the actual tax change is a positive impact for residential taxpayers. Um they are paying less for property taxes. >> Lacy, I
035I have a question. Why? Why on B? Why, based on your slide before, why would seven be the only one that has an increase when you have things that are the six and two are over the $ 1.5 million threshold? >> Their increase in their market value is 34%. So the increase in the actual market value is substantially higher than the other market value increases. And so when you take that into consideration with the tier structure, it's going to increase their property taxes more just because their actual value of their home is worth more. >> Oh, because Okay, the $500,000 is the biggest difference there. Yep. >> That's impacting them the most. >> Okay. >> And that property went over that $ 1.5 million threshold. So the tax rate on that last $240,000 is higher
036still than um the the rest of that property, >> right? Okay. >> But like in in contrast, address 6 is well over that $ 1.5 million threshold, but because the market value didn't change that much from last year to this year, um that's why they aren't having the increase like address 7. So, um, this kind of comes back to we can generate the same amount of revenue but levy residential property tax payers less money um or impose less levies on them. So, what that looks like is the blue is going to be the market value. So you can see here for residential market value as we've said has grown um regardless >> yes this is statewide sorry um taxable value is 2%. So across the board taxable value for residential properties is is much lower
037than what the market value increase looked like. When we look across the board there's different types of um property taxes that are imposed. There's residential, there's commercial, um there's centrally assessed wires, poles, and pipelines, and it keeps going on. When we look at, but who's picking up the slack on the residential property decreases, um there's also equations that go into calculating commercial property and centrally assessed properties. What we're seeing there is the market value for those have increased, but the taxable value has also increased for those. So what you're seeing is because their taxable value has increased, they're picking up more of the slack on the revenue that we're we're lacking now from or we're losing from the residential piece of the puzzle. During the last um reappraisal cycle, um residential property across the state
038grew 43% I think from a taxable value perspective, which means more of the tax impact of our district got pushed onto residential. This time, if you look across the state, residential taxable value increased only 2%. And that's because um the the legislature changed those tax rates that we just looked at. So um and what you and um what the legislature intentionally is trying to do is take some of the tax impact off of residential and move it back more into balance to where it was before. Um before property values spiked. Um we had the big 53% 55% increase last year. that moved tax impact to residential. Now, um you see residential growing at a slower rate than things like um centrally assessed wires, poles, and pipelines. In our district, um Northwestern Energy is the largest
039taxpayer with their transmission and distribution lines, their wires and poles. So, they'll be picking up a lot of the tab that you saw those that list of eight addresses. Most of those taxes decreased. That tax burden will be shifting. The district's still levying that money, but instead of hitting the residential property owners, it'll be moved to those centrally assessed properties and also to some extent to large commercial properties as well. It's a redistribution, not a change in revenue. So just on that, so those are the taxpayers that actually pay it, but they're also people that provide service. So probably means that at some point in time it gets pushed back to everybody else. And we all share it in because their prices go up. >> Sure. Economics. >> I think all those Yeah, that's exactly
040right. So, I mean, you right. We're the ones that buy from Northwestern Energy. We're the ones that buy from Verizon when we talk about um um telecom and those types of things. And we're the ones that buy from businesses downtown when they're when their property taxes goes up. That absolutely gets uh pushed back to us. However, I would tell you that they're not voters either. you know, and when you look at the the legislative people who are sent to Helena by voters um to do the best they can, um those centrally assessed properties don't vote. Like the the businesses don't vote. Residential vote people are the ones that generally vote. >> And kind of leading me into the next slide, thank you Kevin. Um is some commercial properties and the tax impact on those. So,
041these are four other random um commercial properties throughout our district. Um you can see all four of them um prior year market value. Once again, it's split 50/50 whether or not that market value increased or decreased much to much as the um residential did. Um but when you look at the actual prior year taxable value versus the current year taxable value, you can see address A and address D. It's a significant increase in taxable value change. And what that does is the mill is going to be worth more. So when you're levying 95 mills, as in that third um line item group, you can see that that's where it's generating the additional revenue for those 95 mills is through these commercial properties. Um and then once again, you go a little bit further and you
042look at the mills that we levied last year, the number of mills we levied last year versus the number of mills we're going to be levying this year. um and it's a significant increase for those commercial properties. So yes, it is economics and it is um somehow going to get passed along to people in the community. However, when it when you look at um your escrow account or you look at writing a check um to the county for your taxes as a resident and as a property owner, you're you're going to have less of a hit than you would have otherwise. So, going back to our numbers, um, for the tax impact, um, from fiscal year 25 to fiscal year 26, we're looking at, um, increasing our levy revenue, um, $2 million. These two red
043boxes are the important items to look at. Um, for the bottom lines, you can see that there's a few there's some different changes in these dollar amounts. So, the general fund is one that I think is really important to push um to point out. We're levying $334,000 more than we are la than we did last year. And this is um K12 total. This isn't um districts broken out. When we asked voters for a 240,000 and a 250,000 general fund levy last year and they passed those, we are still levying those amounts. However, because taxable value has gone down because some of changes in the legisl legislative sessions last time and this time, um we're getting additional GTB that actually offsets um the local taxpayer contribution to that. So, we're having to levy less by the
044local taxpayers um to increase our general fund budget by those amounts. Um let's see. That's that's one that I really wanted to bring your attention to. Obviously, the transportation, you saw those big increases in the budget um about what we talked about with the contract and the additional bus routes. Building reserve is increasing 588,000 for a couple reasons. $200,000 more in the transition levy than we did last year. Um we had the building reserve elementary um capital improvement levy um on the ballots this last year that was for an additional $300,000. Um so that's where the increase comes there. Um debt service is the other one. We always need to make sure that we have enough money in our debt service fund to actually pay our bonds. So that's why you're seeing a slight increase
045there. even though bond payments haven't um actually increased at all. But I'll show you how that works as far as what we levy versus how much money we actually do receive. Um there's always taxpayers that don't necessarily pay their property taxes and that impacts um the revenue that we have coming into those different funds. So bottom line um a $2 million increase overall K12 in the um tax impact This is by fund. So this is um just the number of mills levied per fund. These blue lines indicate when it's a reassessment year. Um typically in reassessment years we've seen market value increase. We've seen taxable value therefore increase. So you see those step downs. um as a mill had a higher value, we had to levy less mills. However, this year you're seeing the increase
046because the the value of a mill decreased. So in order to get the same amount of revenue, we have to actually levy more mills. And then this is just a comparison from last year to this year. Um for the total dollars levied um once ago that once again that goes back to that $2 million increase. um transportation making up about half of that which is only 8% um of total dollars levied but it has a big impact for the difference between last year and this year and then building reserve general fund and debt service. So where does this money come from? Um you can see up here the bright green is the local property taxes. That's where the majority of our revenue is generated from and that accounts for 45%. State revenue is the blue
047section of this pie and that accounts for um 32%. The other ones are um less. So fund balance reappropriated that's balances as of 630 that we rolled into this year to offset um tax impact in certain funds. Um you'll see the dark green at 8% 8% that's county revenue. So that's our transportation levy and that's our retirement levy. Um we send those amounts over to the county and they bulk them all together with the other districts within the county um and levy the mills based off of total dollar amounts and spread it out over county so it's more equalized. Um and then non-levy local revenue those are things like adult ed fees or interest earned. So, it's a really um minimal number there. What I think is really important um especially for the school board
048since you guys are setting the budget, adopting the budget, setting the amount of money that we're asking taxpayers for is where does this actually come from? When we look at who is authorizing the money that we're levying, the really important piece of this puzzle is that blue chunk 62% that's what our voters have approved. So that's our community saying yes. We don't necessarily mirror what other districts have as far as this graph. Um because we have a really supportive community and they tend to say yes. So when we're looking at who's deciding how much we're levying for this $58 million, 62% of that is from our taxpayers saying yes to our levies. Um the red is the permissive mills mandated by state law. So that's our general fund base. That's the 95 mills. Those are
049things that we don't have control over. What you guys have control over is that green piece of the puzzle, and that's the permissive non-mandatory mills. So, the permissive non-mandatory mills um would be our tuition fund, our adult education fund, our transportation fund. Um and those are the pieces that we're we're looking at setting tonight. And then I briefly mentioned this a little bit earlier, but this is um the percentage of levied taxes that actually are collected. So this is the checks that make it to the county um for property taxes. We're we're we're really lucky. People pay their taxes within our um districts. You can see that u fiscal year 24 was the lowest that we'd had um in a really long time. That was the year of the 55% reassessment period when everybody's property
050taxes went really really high. Um so that's understandable, but that was um $1.15 million in revenue that was not collected. So even though it's 97% collected, it still has a pretty big impact. Yeah. >> So was that because of appeals? >> Protested taxes protested. Um, and a lot of the protested taxes were um, not overturned, but they agreed with the people protesting them. Um, so yes, that was a huge part of it. >> I'll add on this just real quick. This is a function of two things. People pay their taxes on time here. We're we're super grateful for that. It's also a function of diversity um, with within our tax base. If you look at communities where a lot of their tax base is concentrated like a laurel with the with the big refinery there
051or the bentonite mines in Ecalaca, they've got one primary taxpayer and if that that primary taxpayer protests their taxes, the district just doesn't collect the revenue until that's all sorted out. So again, we are super fortunate here. Strong base, diverse base, and and and folks pay their their taxes on time. And I have no reason to think that this upcoming year is going to be any different, especially with the residential property taxes decreasing for a lot of people. Um, I think it'll be very straightforward and very successful. Um, so just some of the big takeaways from this. Um, property property taxes are complicated. Um, market value increased across the board. Um, residential taxable value decreased, commercial taxable value increased. This is a really hard thing to communicate and have people understand. You guys hear this
052day in and day out when we talk about the budget. Um, but for those people that come on in off the street with a tax bill in hand, they don't understand this. So, it's really important for the district to be able to communicate this, communicate it well. We're going to have a lot of um levy presentations theoretically in the spring that we're going to have to really come up with good systematic ways of helping educate how this has changed and how it's going to keep changing moving forward. Um it's a spinning wheel. So, it's it's just changing constantly and we have to try and keep up with it and educate them as much as possible. Um, as far as our district taxes, the total district levy amounts did increase. We're looking at increases in revenue.
053Um, because the value of a mill decreased, we had to increase how many mills we're looking at levying. Um, and then in addition, the residential property taxes decreased, which I think is great news for for our taxpayers. >> Important shifts to public. Um, and another just big takeaway that I want everybody to understand is we have a really good solid budget. We obviously wish we had more money. There's room for improvement in that aspect, but we're we're doing a really good job of managing it, man managing our systems and our programs and our people and making sure that we can um compensate people as much as possible but still remain within the confines of what we have. Um, so when I look at our district as a whole, um, I'm really proud of the place
054that we're at right now. I think it's a really good place to be at. Um, looking back at those budget to actuals. I mean, we're just about perfectly breaking even. That's where we want to be. We don't want to have money in savings. We don't want to be spending more than what we have. Um, so I do feel that that we're in a good place right now, and I think that it's going to continue going forward. And just as a as as a backup, we didn't look at it here, but 90% of our general fund budget is salaries and benefits. Think back to what we did in negotiations and what the legislature did through the STARS Act. We gave record raises this year um with with more to come next year. We've we've got most
055all of our positions filled. Uh Pat, I think there's a couple special ed two special ed teaching to just piece out. >> I was going to talk. >> Oh, okay. So, um we're doing well with staffing. um a lot of that even though it's a high cost of living area, we've been able to recruit and retrain teachers thanks to um good negotiations, good legislative year um and leaving us in good condition as well. So don't forget what's behind those numbers, I guess, is is my takeaway there. And then just before I wrap up, um these are some really important things that I want to bring to your attention just because it's been the old deadlines have been in place for so long that it's a big change and it's a shift. Um and we're just
056going to have to move things up in the calendar a little bit. Um but this is to help the counties out. Gallatin County does an excellent job of running our elections, but it's it's stressful and it's a lot of work and um so we're just basically these these new laws are giving them a little bit more leeway um and a little bit more time for planning um to make sure that they can continue to do as good of a job as they possibly can. Um the first one is the um trustee declaration. So that's that oath of candidacy um for the open trustee positions. In the past, it was always due by March 27th. Now, it's going to be due by um February 10th, which is significantly earlier. Um for writing candidacy, that one is
057always after the fact. They bumped that one up an entire month. Last year, we were looking at cancelling a trustee election because we didn't have more um candidates than the spots available. We couldn't cancel it because of the writein um deadline. So, by bumping that up, that will give us the opportunity to cancel that election if needed. Um, calling for regular elections. So, this is the one that we typically do in February at the board meeting when we do that preliminary budget presentation. The new deadline is significantly earlier. So, it's 145 days prior to the election. You have to call for the election. You can amend that after the fact up until February 25th. So, when we're looking at calling for an election, we're probably looking more at that December 8th board meeting. Um, if
058we choose to change that, we'll have some time to do so, but we'll actually have to call for the ele election two months sooner than what we have in the past. Um, and then the ballot certification, making sure that all of the terminology and verbiage on those ballots is accurate is just moved up, um, 10 days. >> Yeah. Thanks, Lacy. And on the calling for the regular election, does does that give you guys enough time to know what the budget's going to be and funding is going to needed? >> We'll do the um fall enrollment count. The fall enrollment count is always a really good indicator of whether or not we'll be able to call for a general fund election. Um so that's the big one. The other items that we look at are the
059ones like the building reserve. We knew last year that the building reserve was expiring. It was six years. We knew that we were going to call for that election. So certain things like that aren't going to be as difficult um of a decision to make. I think we'll probably air on the side of caution when it said when it comes to calling for an election. And then um we do have that buffer that we can change that if needed as as things progress a little bit more. But yeah, it's it's bumping it up two months. Yeah. So, just looking ahead to the next um six to eight months, we're looking to adopt the budget tonight. Um October, we're going to get the budget calendar out for approval. That's an annual item um that the that
060you guys approve um each October and then we'll look at that October enrollment count. And like I just said, Gary, that'll have a lot more to do with what we do at the December meeting as far as calling for an election. Um November, we'll present those enrollment count results to the board. um December if necessary, call for an election and then we'll watch for those trustee o oath of candidacy declarations. We'll have two trustee positions um up this upcoming year. >> So with that, I would take any questions. >> Sandy, >> um so will there be a second enrollment count? >> There will still be a second enrollment count in February. Yes. Yes. And the point of that would be if we're >> we we use both those enrollment counts to calculate what our funding
061is. Um it's the average of those. >> But um for preliminary budget discussions, we use that October enrollment count. >> All right. Thank you. That clears that up for me. Thank you, >> Sarah. >> I just wanted to say thank you. How you presented that information was so clear and I appreciate all the charts and graphs. Sarah, you're gonna have to use your mic and bring it forward when you talk into it. Just >> and Sandy, if you move spots, you need to change your name plate. >> All right. Any other trustee questions or comments? Gary? Oh, >> yeah. Thanks. I I'm just curious what your thoughts are into the future, like next year and even the year after. Is there any stability to this or too many moving parts coming up? >> Stability as
062far as what the budget looks like or as far as property taxes. >> Stability as far as having the funds available to do what we need to do. I think that looking as far as what we can see um from the legislative session being every two years, negotiations um happening during those legislative session years. I think that we've set ourselves up really well for this year and next year. It's really always hard to tell beyond that because we just don't know what the legislaturator is going to do and how they're going to change things. The quality educator um component was really big for us. Um, enrollment is always an unknown. Um, high school's growing, elementary is stagnant. At some point, the elementary population grows into the high school population. So, is that going to change
063down the line? I just don't know. Casey, >> I just want to um thank Lacy for uh reiterate um what Trusty Wilson said, making this clear and summarizing it in 30 slides. Um, however, uh, also draw your attention to the actual budget documents, 516 pages, um, of detailed information and the amount of work that Lacia and Julia and Mike and the rest of the business office do on an annual basis to culminate in this moment um, is fantastic and I just uh, thank you for what you do. Greg, do >> you have a comment or motion? Sure. Yeah. Any any other comments or for the trustees or questions? All right. Well, uh Lacy, thank you very much again. Um echo what Casey said. So, thank you very much and to everybody that works on it.
064I know it's a lot of work and starts now next year starts tomorrow. So, uh Greg, go ahead. Motion to approve to adopt the proposed 20252026 high school district budget as presented. >> Second. >> All right. Uh motion made by Trusty Neil and seconded by Trustee Lucine. Is there any public comment? I All those in favor? Motion passes seven to zero. Great. >> Move to adopt the proposed 202526 elementary school district budget as presented. >> Second. >> All right. Uh motion made by Trustee Neil, seconded by Trusty Trustee Leine. Is there any public comment? Are you sure? All right. All those in favor? Motion passes six to zero. Again, Lacy, Mike, thank you guys very much. All right. Uh board discussion is next. Uh 5.3, which is high school baseball update. Casey, I think this
065is yours. >> Thank you. And uh Mr. Waterman, I'll be um chiming in as well. Uh what we provided in your packet, trustees, is an update on where we're at with the pathway to high school baseball. Um, this is a followup from a June um 9th document that was shared with trustees in the community. I'm not going to go over the whole thing. I'm going to um touch on the items that have changed or we have more information on um from the last time. Uh first one being uh those if components addressing Title 9 implications. Um the the one we were um working hard to address was um disproportionality. Uh we did that via um adopting Sure. You can post it. Yeah, you can pull it up if you want. We did that by um
066in this adopted budget is uh freshman B volleyball teams um and discussing with Mr. Ader earlier today. Uh we're seeing continue to see large numbers at volleyball triyouts this week. And so despite our ability to add um freshman B teams, we're likely to see a fairly large cut list um in for volleyball at both high schools. We'll continue to monitor that. Um moving down to the the then logistics um securing private fundraising. Um special thank you to the Bosezeman Varsity Baseball Initiative. some of those members in in our audience. Um they um dropped off a check um in August bringing that total up to the $100,000 total that um was asked for fundraising. So that was a significant list lift by um that community organization. We're thankful for that. Um moving to the um long-term
067with Legion for partnership and synergy. We've been very clear that we don't want to compete. We won't compete. we won't move forward with um Legion if it's going to run concurrently with high school baseball. Uh we don't have a signed. We're continuing to talk about it, but we don't foresee any issues there in conversations with um the parents involved and the um executive committee um of the Bosezeman Bucks. The the conversation um we last had on this is around students who are, you know, maybe freshman um sophomore, don't make the JV or varsity high school baseball team. and is there uh something that the um Legion community can do to keep those kids playing during the high school season? And so we'll we'll keep working on that. I don't anticipate that's going to be a
068barrier at all. Um the the next ones are about facilities and facilities are um important and um complex and are being uh it's challenging um in Bosezeman and it's going to be challenging across the state. Um Mr. Ader shared with me recently that MHSA has extended the deadline for doubleA schools to opt into baseball from September 1st to October 1st. That's primarily due to two other AA districts who having issues with facilities um finding short-term and long-term um feasible and affordable options um for high school baseball. Uh we have a variety of options that we are looking at. Um, I can tell you that the shortterm for the Hero Stadium uh is sort of on pause at the moment. Uh, we will circle back to it, but we are looking um to ensure that we
069have some long-term options as well. Um, you can anticipate moving forward. Um, this is a discussion item this evening. Um, but Mr. Waterman and I um and Mr. Ader are Mr. Vanver will be prepared to provide a um recommendation um to this board um for approving or not approving high school baseball for the 2526 season um at a board meeting in September. Part of that um uh recommendation will include our recommendation for long-term facility options. We held a district long range facility planning committee in June. Um good conversation was was uh had. Um there were some options that were discussed. Heroes Park with the current grass infield and outfield structure. Heroes Park with um the potential for the district to move forward with um installing um not installing but purchasing um turf u for an
070infield or infield an apron. um the option of building turf, baseball, andor softball fields on district-owned property. Uh we're we're vetting what that would look like at Cottonwood and Dursten. We're vetting what that could look like at the bus barn property. And then also um there was a direction from the sports uh from the long range facility committee to continue to work with the city of Bosezeman on its synergies at the Bosezeman Sports Complex. And so uh we don't have um all those cost proposals finalized. Uh Matt Stark, facilities director, is working with um some engineering firms on what it looks like on our property. We're working with the city of Bosezeman. They're also working with Sampoint, Idaho. Uh because the um the synergy at the sports park looks very similar to the war memorial
071fields in Samppoint um that are serve that community as the football field, the soccer field, the baseball field, and the softball field. the photo that's in the document um is of that of of that field. Um so today I'm not necessarily concerned about disproportionality as it relates to title 9. I am significantly concerned around facilities as it relates relates to title 9. There are two ongoing formal title nine investigations and um lawsuits um being worked through in but um also in but um the board of trustees um just had a um closed hearing or an open hearing I believe on uh a title 9 complaint around the disparity between baseball fields and softball fields in but both are city-owned complexes. Um that was then appealed to the county superintendent. The county superintendent upheld the board
072of trustees um denial of that claim and um we although it has not been filed yet, we are um we have information that that group is moving forward with a formal lawsuit um in in that community around those fields. So, um, a lawsuit in impacting MHSA athletics and activities related to fields for softball and baseball in but also impacts baseball and softball fields in Bosezeman. And so, we will be um, uh, paying careful attention to that. Um, that is why some of the facility options we are pursuing have a have a softball component to them. Uh we are very worried that if we were to move forward with um a turf option for baseball and don't have turf on our current softball fields at Gallatin High um or at Bosezeman High that we're going to
073put ourselves in a um liability situation for Title 9 um almost immediately. So we will be weighing through that looking at costs. What I did uh what we do have up there that yeah that chart uh I'd like Mr. Waterman to walk through it a little bit. there are some um some yeses and some nos in terms of these different options and the funding we have available or can access related to those options. Thanks. The the funding issues that we have associated with this are largely due to who owns the the money that we would use and what it would be specifically used for and how it would compete with other priorities that we that we have in the district. Um the interlocal agreement is what we use to balance out our structural imbalance that
074Lacy just walked you through. Our general idea is that our structural imbalance um can't exceed um we have to have at least two years worth of of funds in the interlocal agreement fund um for the structural imbalance. The idea is that if we need to change directions in this district, if we need to do some significant things to get our our budget cut up, we need two years runway on that um decision right now. So, we can use the interlocal agreement fund for any of these options that Casey described. It would just take away some of our runway. It would it would give us a shorter um shorter distance, a shorter uh future look about correcting any budget imbalances that we have. So, that's um the interlocal agreement. Transition levy is is uh pretty much
075open. Um we um aren't going to use the transition levy for grass at at Heroes Park if if that remains a grass field simply because there wouldn't be an ongoing cost or sorry an upfront cost. It would just be an ongoing cost every year that the district would have to use to uh purchase that right to use. Building reserve has to be used on district-owned property. The voted levies that we have have to be used for capital assets on district-owned property. So, it's something that we would be allowed to use those building reserve funds if we made improvements at Cottonwood and Dursten or the bus barn because those are district-owned properties. If we were to proceed with turf at Heroes Park or um the sports park, we wouldn't be buying the turf. We wouldn't be
076owning that asset. We being the district, we'd be buying a right to use those improvements. And right to uses, right, rights to use aren't allowed under the building reserves. So that's why you see nos under for uh the district-owned uh non-district-owned property for building reserve. Lastly, the CJMS lots, you know, we've got a couple acres for sale um neighboring Chief Joseph Middle School. If that if that property was to sell, um we just have to keep in mind that that property is owned by the elementary district and high and baseball is a high school problem. So, it's something that we wouldn't it's it's it has to do with the taxpayers who own that asset and who be receiving benefit of those funds. That's why there's some TBD information up there. Mr. Waterman, the nos in
077the interlocal agreement column, even though you said that we it could be used for any of those items, there's no because of the probable size of the purchase, >> right? We we'd run the interlocal agreement fund well below our our two-year um runway that that we've established for for the district as well. So, I guess the bottom line is is I don't necessarily know that the board needs to know that that the details of all of these, but just know that there's complication with each one of them. Um, both when it comes to size, use of funds, then where the where the improvements would be located in addition to the Title 9 concerns that um that Casey shared with you. The the only thing I'll mention is uh while we're looking at multiple options for
078the long term, um the short-term option um that we're weighing is the use of um some sort of lease agreement at Heroes Park. We we don't um believe we have another option in town um on city or county fields. >> And once we start baseball, it's probably going to go forward. We couldn't start it for one year with a short-term option and then not have a long-term option to fall back on in the second year. So, we want to make sure that we've got both a short-term option and a long-term option in place before we bring a a program that's expected to be permanent into our budget and into our district. >> Uh the only other thing I'd add is the long-range facility planning committee um had conversation about this, was generally agreeable that um
079the the option of putting turf at Heroes Park was a um a viable solution. um the more that discussion moved on, there were members of that committee that um didn't feel like that was the the best long-term option. So, I I guess I'd characterize that conversation as there was no formal motion. Um no formal uh but but a conversation and no unanimous agreement on the be best pathway forward other than vetting further all the options. Gary. >> Yeah. Thanks. I'm curious what options we would have in partnership with other entities to fund a a a different facility. >> Lots where this conversation started. um the ability to fund to to work with Bosezeman baseball at the at the Heroes Park is obviously working with an external entity. Um the city of Bosezeman, the sports park
080is is working is is a different entity. Um we've had conversations about developers who are interested in in developing property outside of town that we didn't even list on here because it's not close enough to becoming reality. think what we're focusing on is those um abilities to have to to provide synergy with what's already happening um in the community. The ones we're doing some due diligence on Cottonwood and Dursten and the bus barn property likely you'll see that those are going to be the most expensive options that we have. Um so we're we're trying to I think focus more on what we can do with with others. Did I answer your question? I don't know. >> Yes. Um thanks. And one other question is how what's the financing of to me there's two things. One
081is the facilities and the other is just the operation of the sport funding staff and travel and all that. How how does that weigh in? >> I can say that the you know the facilities some of these we're looking at large one-time costs from one-time funding sources. Um there are other options like maintaining um you know Heroes Park as is going to be an ongoing maintenance cost um that the district will bear because we'll be using that field during the crummiest weather of the year. Um and so trying to and then handing it off to um to the Legion program with an expectation that it's ready to go. So there there would be some maint ongoing maintenance costs there that we would have to budget for. In terms of the um funding the program outside
082of facilities, um the the one-time costs help us with some of the one-time upfront uh major purchases, uniforms, um you know, bats and balls and equipment and some of those things. Um we've had to also budget for stipens and budget for travel and umpires and all of those things. Uh that's in this document. It's been built into the budget. um we couldn't ask Mark to say um find a way to make that work in your current budget. It doesn't work in his current budget. So there was a expansion of the high school activities budget to accommodate high school baseball. And we've anticipated that when we went into negotiations, we included the fact that we would need to set aside some money operationally to fund stipens, travel umpires, those types of things that we had to
083set aside in the budget that detracted from what we could have done for for um for salaries and benefits for our staff. It's included in the budget currently. Um, listen. >> I have a question. Is, so neither field would be at obviously Boseman High School or Gallatin High School. Would the district run into any problems down the line if a student were to get an accident on their way to practice? Is there any liability? >> Probably. Um, yeah. Um, and we see that all the time when when we have shared facilities and have and have to go from one place to another, that's a risk that we would assume. um we do the best we can but it's it's a risk we currently incur. I'll also tell you that just I guess candidly we've had
084some issues with comparison between our our two facilities and there's been a lot of um interest in having um facilities at one high school mirror those are that are at the other. So we're we're seeing a leveling up um if one building has it the other building wants it and and kind of stepping up. So um we would we don't have a funding source for any of that. Um, but it's it's a challenge that I would anticipate in the future. >> All right. Any other trustee questions or comments? All right. Is there any public comment? >> Garrett, I think you know the routine. You can put your name name down. been up here for a minute. >> Okay. I'm Garrett Schultz. Hi, trustees and administrators. I'm with the Boseman Varsity Baseball Initiative. Been up here
085a couple times before. Thank you for having me. Um, it's exciting to see the progress that's been made towards this initiative. Um, probably the biggest reason I'm here is just to let you know that the community is really excited about this. like the passion and and excitement and um the want for this program hasn't changed at all. Um a couple of you were at our banquet. Thank you for for coming. Um we held a banquet in I think it was in May at Riverside and our goal was $100,000 and we raised more than $100,000 in one night. Um and so the community, like I said, uh very much wants to see this come to fruition. um already stated, you know, we really appreciate all the work that it takes to to get to this point.
086I know it's not it's not a fast process. I wish it were faster. You guys probably do as well. I am um getting a little worried about the timelines that we're up against here. Um if they hadn't, you know, if the state didn't extend it, we'd be looking at a go no-go decision probably at this meeting, right? Because the original deadline was September 1st. And so there's a lot of things out there, namely facilities at this point. Everything else seems to pretty much be on track. U but that facility piece, it's got to get solved in in a short amount of time. Um the Legion program, I don't represent them in an official capacity. My kid plays for them. I coach that program. Um I don't currently, but I can tell you from knowing all
087those families that that they want this to happen. I think if you want to come in and have broad support from the baseball community, using Heroes Park um is a big win for both programs. Initially, Mr. Bertram already said it, it's really hard to play baseball in the spring in Montana, particularly on a grass surface. Um you could do it in the first year, you could probably do it for two years. Um but after that, I think you got to go to turf. Um, the Legion program has has got some costs. I think the the first proposal was 700 or maybe 750, something like that. That's what it would cost to turf the infield. um and by the school district. If the school district came in and did that and that was their buyin, the
088longtime Legion folks, if anybody's opposed to it at all, the people that built that field and pay $3,500 a year um to play on it and put blood, sweat, and tears into it year after year after year, the school district buying into the turf would go a long way um to making all those folks happy. Um, I I really think that would be a win-win. So, understand your comment about having the short-term piece solved in addition to the long-term piece. I think that's smart. Um, but I can also think of a whole bunch of seniors this year that if they don't get the opportunity to play high school baseball and the only piece remaining is the long-term piece, I would be really sad for those seniors that missed out on this on this one year.
089I feel like we're really close as a group and as a community to getting there. Um where I would I would love to see you move forward even if you have the short-term piece and you know that you're going to work on the long-term piece. So that's all I have. Um thanks for all you're doing to make it happen among all the other things that you have to focus on. Um we just really want to see it happen. So thank you. >> Thanks G. Thank you. >> Garrett, would you mind signing in on that on that registration form? Thanks. Would you like me to sign you in there? >> Hi, Liz Matthews. Um, and I just wanted to basically say what um Garrett was saying. I have to write down my things because I take
090notes for our meetings um and I put them in a long one. But um just that we I went to the board meeting last Monday for the Legion also and I just really stressed with them that they need to come up with a breakdown. They said they handed numbers over but we said we really need you guys to break down your cost per month, what everything is so you guys actually can work with it. They have someone working on that um on Friday and we're hoping to get numbers for Friday for you. It doesn't sound like they got them to you. Um but hopefully you'll get them this week so you have exactly the numbers that you guys use for Heroes Park. If you've ever been to a game at Heroes Park, you have the
091Brides, you have the M. It's a great um background and just yeah, hopefully that by October 1st we can get baseball because the community wants it. If you guys were there, we sold out in two days. we can easily um it's yeah baseball is a big sport and hopefully my senior will get to play. Um he got Yeah, just reading all the news articles about the senior the Shiners West East game, all this stuff. We're just going to miss out our kids having opportunities to um play and represent Bosezeman High School, Gallatin High School. Um, there's just something Legion is great and we've been a part of it for five years with my oldest and my incoming freshman's played in it the last two years also, but there's just something about high school baseball representing
092your team um representing your high school. Even though the kids play together, they're excited. I took um a handful of boys out to dinner and medicine hat um two weeks ago for um dinner um and they got to try poutine for the first time because the conference is Alberta, Montana. Um and they just talked about there was actually equal number of kids just by chance from Bosezeman High and Gallatin High and just talked about how excited they were for high school baseball. Um, there's only six kids, so it's three and three, but they were just talking about how they're going to play each other, who would win, who would play in what position. So, they're strategizing and they're really excited for it, too. So, I just hope that we can come to a conclusion and
093get high school baseball this year. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, all right. Since uh you guys came up and spoke to the Legion people, I would just highly encourage the continued we I forget when we had that long range facilities planning committee, June 17th. Um I think we walked out of there with pretty clear instructions. So I think and it sounds like you went to the meeting. So, um I think encouraging them to really come with their best foot forward um and not swinging at the fences as they communicated to to the group um and do that rapidly. Um I think for our board or I can only speak for myself, but I think that was a real important piece um that comes forward out of the Legion. And I know personally I've
094also heard from a lot of different people so um that have an interest in this. Um, I I still think that this is really great for kids because it's not only the Legion kids. It's the kids that potentially um have not been interested in playing Legion from March 15th till August and but they might want to play baseball and so they might still play. They be if it was just a spring sport, they would play as well. So, um I think that's the opportunity for high school um high school kids that um intrigues me the most. Uh but it to me going back and looking at Casey's information and being in that meeting the the piece that is continually missing at this point in time is still that you know our agreement whether it's for
095one year or 5 years or 10 years or 30 years. Uh that's really important and a critical piece of that and we definitely need information on that. So however much you guys can engage with them and communicate that's that's probably the missing piece at this point in time that I can that I can see for uh Casey and the administration to bring forward. So, um, appreciate your guys' efforts. Um, is there any other questions or comments? Trustees, Sandy, >> just just curious how many double A's will have baseball. I think it's So Mark, so you said so everything everybody except for Helena is what you said, right? >> In case somebody didn't catch it on the mic. >> Okay. >> I apologize. >> No, that's all right. >> I think uh Calispel and Great Falls
096are in similar situations with um facility issues currently um and also budget issues currently. Jerry. >> Yeah. I'm just curious what would the season time frame be? Do we know anything about that? When would it start? When would it end? How many games will be played? >> Uh starts. >> The spring sports season starts March 15th for all sports next year. So baseball would be in there. It is. I think it's ending. There's big debate. It's been ending a week before everything else, but I believe it's going to end on Memorial weekend next year. So, the same as all our other sports and about I think you can schedule 18 games. We'll have to double check, but 18 games. 18 or 19 games is what the number is for scheduling. >> All right. Any other
097questions, comments? All right. Thank you for the update. Uh 5.4 discussion MTSBA resolutions. Casey, >> thank you. Uh we had a board discussion regarding the MTSBA resolution process at our July meeting. Um the listening back to that and having conversations with uh Mr. Waterman and and Lacy Clark. Um the two primary areas um focus points that we heard come from trustees were um around the concept of ballot language and ballot language that allows for clear communication of potential um potential and known levy amounts that would be sunsetting. Um and then the second one um was around um Trusty Lucine's ongoing work um and this board's um wrestling with what what it actually looks like. Um how we've described that currently is an expanded statewide process to reimagine rather than make minor adjustments to the system
098of public education in Montana to better align with the people's goal in the Montana Constitution. Um we have seen the resolution process, the dennial study, the education interimm commissions, all of those all of those entities um making tweaks and changes to the current system um rather than reimagining and looking at the entire system from top to bottom um and you using the work um that's been done is happening currently in Nevada as a as a potential um example of what reimagining a system is versus tinkering with the funding formula for a system. Um, that's what we that's what we um heard. We brought we have some time on our hands, so we're bringing those items back um to see if that if we're on the right track um for um building out some resolutions. We've
099also um Mr. Waterman has had uh conversations with Lance Melton and we are not certain that um the best pathway on the ballot language um is legislation. Anytime you start talking about what school ballots can and cannot say, we could have some diminishing returns there. Um and so we we Mr. Waterman can expand on this, but talking with Mr. Melton around Montana School Boards Association actively engaging and providing better information to school districts around what you can actually say on ballots. There's a lot of law around um what you have to have on there. There's not a law there's not a lot around what you can't have on there. And so we feel like there is some current law um the way current law is right now that we could provide more details on a
100ballot than we currently are um for situations where there are um offsets and expiring building reserve levies, technology levies, those pieces of the puzzle. So that would be more about MTSBA engaging school districts and providing um technical expertise and and knowledge. The second one would be an actual resolution around um having the next legislature fund a multi-year um process um in the budget. Um it's not going to Mr. Waterman sits on the um the dennial study. There there's not the time nor the money there to reimagine the system of public education in Montana. And and if we want to do that to get better outcomes, um the dennial study is good, but it's not enough. And so a resolution to um would be around the next legislature um putting an investment in place and and
101the infrastructure in place to actually do a multi-year study. Mr. Roderman, add anything and then we'll take some. >> Just one quick just uh I guess order of business. This is not an action item for tonight. We're asking for continued discussion. Resolutions are due to MTSBA in midepptember. So it would be our intention to take this discussion back, formulate into an action item and bring it back to you for the September 8th. I think it is board meeting um and action. >> Darren, >> yeah, thank you guys very much. I I think you're right on track, at least from my perspective on this. Um, if I I tuned into the school funding interim commission meeting last week. There was a Zoom meeting and at the end Pat McCracken who's the staff lead staff person on
102that recommended to the commission that they read the NCE blueprint and they read the Nevada Commission on Innovation and Excellence report that came out last December. Um, I've been through those several times. I'm going through them again. I have both of them available if anybody's interested in getting those and looking at them. But I think it really helps support the concept of taking the time with the right people in the room to really revisit our system of education. Um, so they're good documents. I think you might find them helpful to understand kind of what this what this means. So I I think you guys are on the right track. So I appreciate that. >> Any other comments or questions by trustees? >> Sandy. Well, I I support um what Gary just said as far as
103the resolution with looking at our system of education um in a very focused, wellmanaged, well facilitated thing that would take a couple of years because it's a big project. Um and I think the time is now to do that. It the time was yesterday actually probably but but we are where we are. So anyway, I just wanted to say that I I support that and if we don't have to go through the legislature, if there are avenues for us to do to further educate voters on um on what's on the ballot and what they're voting for, I think that would be great. All right, any other comments? All right, Casey, Mike, thank you for working on this. Thank you for your time on it, Mike. >> So, I I I'm hearing the board um say
104that you want us to bring back a recommendation with regards to um 4B up there and and kind of let 4A alive. We'll bring some draft language back on the September 8th meeting. >> Correct. All right. Next item, public comment on non-genda items. All right. Uh, reports number seven, reports. Executive cabinet reports. >> It's been a while. >> I know you've been on the mic. >> It's been very quiet here. Um, next Wednesday we are going to have a executive cabinet and um and other kind of affiliated personnel are going to have a tabletop to test our new incident command structure with the addition of the director of student programs. Um, Mike Vanurren and I had a chance to uh work with um the police department and um emergency services for Gallatin County to um
105kind of reconfigure our incident command structure. So, we're going to have a tabletop to test that out. >> Thank you, Marilyn. >> Yeah, I just give you a little bit of a hiring update. So, we um as Mike said earlier, we we have successfully hired 38 brand new teachers to the district. Um there are a couple of positions that we had difficulty filling. One was a school psych position, which I think the I think the trustees are aware. Um those are difficult to fill. I mean, we have one uh university uh system in the state of Montana that has a school psychology program, U of M. And I think like Chad and I talk about this frequently, I think they average under six graduates a year. So, they are in high demand. Uh the way
106we're going to manage that is Chad just like last year, Chad's going to work with our existing school psychologists and kind of have some of them are volunteering to take on some additional duty and you know they'll be compensated for that. So we'll have good coverage. And then the other position that we didn't get filled this year was a uh.5 Spanish teacher at Bosezeman High School. And again, I you guys I I feel like I've said these things before, but you know, 10 years ago, we could easily fill 0.5 teaching positions. Now, with the cost of living in Bosezeman, it's very, very hard to fill teaching positions that are less than full-time. Dan's been working with us and um he's got a great plan to open up some other elective courses be uh besides Spanish
107and help uh help those students move into some other electives. Okay. Um, next week we welcome back all of our teachers. We have three scheduled PI days which is very exciting. The things that we'll be working on, we are bringing on a couple new resources. Um, Ames Web and so if we if let me take a step back. So last spring we surveyed staff. We surveyed and worked with our guiding coalition. What are your needs? Um, and we heard pretty clearly um that we needed to bring back a universal screener. If you remember, we dropped um using STAR as a universal screener because we're bringing on mast at the um 3 through eight level and we wanted to say we're not going to just keep testing to test and so we wanted to see what
108product the mass test gave us and it wasn't what I anticipated it was going to be. I will say that Casey said it was not going to do well and he was right. I was wrong on that one. Um and so we're bringing on Ames Web as a screener for math in our elementary level and then math and reading at the middle school. So we'll need to provide professional development around that. The initial professional development that'll be happening um over these three days and then continued professional development provided by Pearson. We are also bringing on TED um TED TED TED which is a language screener and we're piloting that in our kindergarten classes only. So, we'll be doing a language screener with all of our kinders um and then also providing a intervention tool for
109those that will need that instruction. So, that'll have initial training and then ongoing training um throughout the school year. And both of those really tie to that professional learning community goal that we have in the LRSP um that we need to build that capacity. Our teachers need that data to be able to do the work in their PLTS. um for that piece of it. We also are bringing on a new um SEAL resource at the middle school level and that is directly tied to that student well-being goal as well. And so um we have to do some initial training with that. And then the other um subject or area that we heard loud and clear was training for our MLE um sta training our staff to support our ML students. Um we for this will
110be our third year with a platform called Elevation and it has a lot of through their strategies platform a lot of great um resources for teachers. So we're going to do some deep dives into those strategies over the course of the year starting over these first three PI days. So that's kind of what we have on on um on the docket for our teachers as they return. Um, and then I do have one more piece um that will probably hit home for most of you who still have students in our schools is that we will be resetting all student passwords um before school starts. You're welcome. Um we uh we have a really solid plan for this. Um we have a at our huddle meetings we're going to be talking over we we um let
111the principles know at our IC retreat and then we've asked for them to consider it. What support do they need at their building sites? Um, and then we're going to talk about that. And so we will be sending home parent communications because the parents will have access to that password in their parent portal. So they'll be able to get it to their students. Um, students will have access to it within their power school. So if they're able to log into their power school, they they'll have that. Um, teachers will have access to be able to help support students that first day of school. So we are waiting until after schedules go out for high school and middle school. Um, so we don't need to worry about that. And so we'll probably be resetting them. Right
112now we have it um pencled in for August 28th which gives some lead time before the start of school moving into that piece of it. So um you'll be seeing we'll be sending communication home to parents, sending communication home to students and working through that. And and as we kind of talked about at the IC retreat, um I know that there's a lot of things that come with technology, but security is our number one thing that we have to have. I mean it came true. We were in IC retreat. Internet went down. We were able to backtrack. Why did it go down? It's because we had a DOSS attack which a denial of service. So it's just somebody tried to overload our system. Our system goes down. And as I explained to them too, like
113throughout the course of a week, we have hundreds of attacks on our network just to see if they can get in and create some vulnerabilities in there. So this security is so this will be something that we start to do on an annual basis is resetting student passwords. We have school districts that we've kind of consulted with that do it four times a year. It just becomes a habit. They understand it's coming and they manage it. So, we're going to start on an annual basis and go from there. >> Are you resetting the parents passwords as well? >> No. >> Okay. All right. >> Any other reports, Casey? The only other thing I'll add is we had um instructional as Mike alluded to instructional cabinet retreat this past week. So all of our administrative and
114um central office team here for two full days on Tuesday and Thursday. And it was um uh very uh reassuring and um rewarding to be able to point to the long range strategic plan as the thing um and have unanimous support and of that in the room. and um that we we have a fantastic educational leadership team. They engaged in a lot of different training over those over those two days. Um I will um there was sort of a touchyfey moment where we were talking about our why and without um smiling one bit. Mr. Van Beern said his why was two-actor authentication and secure networks and then we just moved on. like it didn't um but uh what he's mentioning about um security and cyber attacks um it's it's relentless. Um so today um we
115I I heard from multiple staff members where they receive text messages apparently from me from some other number. They receive fishing um emails um impersonating me. That's sort of the thing that happens at back to school. They take all the leaders in the in the district and impersonate them because you're typically getting emails from superintendents and principles this time of the year. Uh this uh business office got a very um complex um basically saying you you haven't paid this bill and provided all of this detailed of forwarded messages that they had apparently sent to me. um that was all fabricated and tried to get the business office to cut a check for $49,000 for consulting services and some sort of VIP membership. And it's all it's all bogus. Anything else? All right. Next. Uh board
116of trustees request calendar concerns reports future agenda items. I do have we do not have a meeting next week. So no second meeting in August. Um myself and Trusty D will be working on some amazing communication by the end of this week. So be ready for that. That will not hopefully be hacked by someone's email. So um I'll have to rely on Trusty D if she's going to use AI or not. I probably will not. So, um, so you can look for those, um, at the end of this week. Gary, you have something as well. >> Yeah, just to update you on the school funding interim commission. Um, I'm actually encouraged by how the commission is operating at this point. And I thank Mike for serving on that. The one important thing at least for
117me in the last meeting last week was they initially well two things. NC is the facilitator. So Janice case uh and I forget the other guy's name Jason somebody. Um anyway they're going to be the facilitators. They're the ones doing the Nevada facilitation. Um, the other thing was they were planning on selecting one parent group to be involved in the working group, but they ended up not selecting one. They had three that applied. I think I'm correct. And through the discussion, it was like, well, we need all these people to comment. So it it ended up at least the way I took it was they're going to have these road shows um Callispel Haver and Billings in person and then Janice case through the discussion said well we can have virtual meetings from other parts
118of the state which they wanted to do. So they they they're looking for input from people around the state on this topic. Uh especially parents and anyone else interested in participating. So um the next meeting is September 15th and 16th. That's I think an in-person meeting. Um and then the road shows start on the 17th, the first road show. I don't know where that's at yet. Next meeting is October 14th and 15th. Then they'll road show round number two and then November 13th and 14th. Uh it's for the working group. Uh December 15th, session four for the working group and then they have to have the report to the commission by the end of January. So that's where this time frame of really looking at what our system is. This is way too short. Maryland
119is on a 10-year mission. Nevada, I think, is 5 to seven years. So, that's what it takes to really look at this system and figure out what we need to change and how we can fund it. So, uh just give you a heads up and I would encourage you to engage in that and participate and uh I'm glad to help you along in any way. Thanks, >> Sarin. >> Today I was able to meet with Kale at Whittier and was able to speak with him as they get ready to welcome 260 students to their school. So, I did my first liaison work today. >> Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. Thanks for sharing. >> Um I will put in the email as well, but Gary mentioning meetings upcoming uh reminded me. So, our early sign up for
120that. If people are interested in that is by the end of this month, I will send a reminder out as I said before in the next couple days. If you are interested, uh please email Lori um in attending that um so we can get you signed up hopefully before August 30th. Um I I I'll put in the dates in our email when those when that actually is. But um so so yeah, just a reminder. All right. Anything else? I mean, Sandy, yes. >> Um, Gary, are these meetings on Zoom that you just listed? They're also on Zoom. >> Uh, Mike, can I probably expand on this? I think the like the September 15th and 16th meeting, that's in person of the commission and the working group in Helena. >> Okay. >> It'll be broadcast like
121all other public meetings at at the at the capital. So you can make public comment or >> That's what I was wondering. >> Yeah, you can tune into it and you can make public comment. You have to sign up before you can send written comments in. >> Okay. >> It's all on the legislative website for the school of funding inter commission. >> Okay. >> If you need help, just let me know. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. I don't have anything else besides to adjourn this meeting. So during this meeting,