001Trustee Burlesen here. Trustee Black here. Trustee D here. Trustee Lucine. Excused. Trustee Moran here. Trustee Neil here. Trustee Sandy Wilson here. Trustee Sarah Wilson here. All right. Well, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Welcome to the June 9th 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 public will be allowed to comment on contested cases or other adjudicative proceedings or personnel matters. The public portion of this board meeting are being recorded in accordance with the district policy 420 and section 23-214 MCA. By remaining in this meeting, all participants and attendees acknowledge that they may appear on the recording which will be placed on the school district's web site for a minimum of
002one year from today. Further instructions about participating will be provided throughout the meeting. Before engaging in the school business of the board, I would like to take to share the core purpose of the Bosezeman School District which can be found on the back of our name plates and the wall to my left. It reads, "Boseman public schools exists to ensure high level of learning for all students." Uh, now uh CJMS um the Eagle Choir is here. Marjorie Phillips, if you guys like to come forward, CJ. Miss Phillips, could you wait for just a minute before you send them off because we'd be happy to have a picture with them up here. So, they went Yep. up here. Um, and thank you very much for coming. We appreciate it. Great job. And it looks like you
003guys had a great time on a trip, a good trip. So, congratulations on that. But yeah, if you guys want to stand right here, we'll surround a little bit, maybe get a picture. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much again. Um, all right. We'll move on to 2.3 in our uh agenda, recognition and awards. Um, former trustee Tanya Reinhardt, if you could come up, take the hot seat. Do you want me to explain how the mic works? You know which button to push. It does feel kind of weird. All right. So, um Tanya, well, one, thank you for coming back tonight. Um we appreciate it. We appreciate everything they've done over the multiple years of your service on the board. Um we'll first of all open it up. We have a little presentation for
004you towards the end, but we'll first of all open up with um any trustee comments to start. So, we'll open up that. I don't know who seat 15 is, so somebody might have to rate that raise their hand. Go ahead, Tanya. First, I just want to thank you for your service to the board and this community and your unwavering dedication to public education. And um obviously as you know, but for everybody in the audience um when I ran for school board, it was alongside Tanya and you were um just a wonderful mentor and a lot of strength and guiding light during kind of a crazy time and I really depended on your wisdom and experience and so I hope you know how much that's appreciated and I'm very grateful for you. Thank you very much,
005Lauren. Greg Tanya, thank you for everything you did for the Bosezeman School District. You and I were attached at the HIT for two years in board leadership and I really appre appreciated the partnership that you and I had um in that in that leadership room to support our superintendent and support our kids and uh couldn't have done it without you and all the time um before and after that with the the contribution that you gave to the school district. It's very recognized. um you made a huge impact and uh thank you for everything that you did and good luck in trustee retirement. Thank you very much. I'm failing so far. Listen, um thank you Tanya for um your dedication for nine years to the Boseman school system. And I'll never forget when I sent a
006letter in to the trustees during COVID and your response and you said that was the best email we got out of all the emails we've seen all year. But thank you for your continued support. Thank you Melissa. And I think it was because of the brevity if I'm remembering correctly. Short, succinct, and to the point. Very short and simple. And then I al I have something from Gary since he wasn't able to be here. He sent me an email and asked me to read it. So says, "Tanya, it has been a pleasure serving on the board with you. Your passion and commitment to our students, teachers, administration, and parents has been solid and productive. You always looked at everything with detail, asking good questions, and providing very enlighten insightful feedback and information as we deliberated
007on many different issues. You have represented our district very well at MTSBA delegate rep assembly meetings when you've had resolutions before the group. You've spoke extremely well and delegates in support of our resolutions. They they all have passed and have resulted in positive legislation and policy for not only our district but our districts in the state as well. You have a very positive influence in directing our district and all districts. I will miss you on the board, but wish you well as you move forward in friendship will not end. I look forward to connecting with you as soon and I'm sorry to miss you tonight's meeting as we recognize your relentless energy and commitment to our stu students, staff, and our community. Thank you for a great ride, Gary. um just I don't want to
008repeat everything that everybody said because I agree with that but um even more than that just your friendship and your mentorship of me when I came on this board your unwavering dedication you always have kids in mind and I really just felt your advocacy um for for everybody in this community so thank you um I know Sy's going to present the award But I just want to say in here is something to help relax you from all these tense board meetings over the years. And there's also um uh an engraving that I want you to look carefully at and think about. It's about keeping that you keep the kids in the center of the room. Thank you. My honor, um so I had to write my thoughts down. um as I often do to make
009sure that I don't forget anything. But when when I think about you, Tanya, and your service on the board, the word service comes to mind. Uh you spent your life serving others. You served in the military as your career. You did community service in a variety of settings, which you recognized for several years ago. um your service through your church has reached so many people and your job um was the current job that you're in was in service to veterans and they're transitioning into um public life and currently until now your unwavering support but you will support public education after this but unwavering support for public education and the students and teachers it serves in our community. um an incredible an incredible life of service and I'm so grateful for all of all of that
010and knowing you. I'm not sure what your next steps in life are, but I'm certain it will involve serving others in some certain way and I can't wait to hear and see see what that is. It's been an honor serving with you throughout the years on this board. You have represented the board on numerous committees and consensus callings. You came to meetings for appear to discuss and debate the various issues that fall under the purview of the school board with integrity and with honor. And I have gained a friend that I admire, respect, and wish the best. Thank you very much for what you've done. Thank you very much. Appreciate that, S. Should I read the resolution? Okay. If there's any other comments, anybody else? Thank Casey. Trusty Reinhardt, uh, thank you for your years
011of service. Um, I think I've mentioned this to you many times, but you you ask thoughtful questions. Uh, you dig deep into issues and, uh, you pushed me and this board um, towards excellence all the time. I I appreciate your feedback over time. Um, I it was, um, well thought out and, uh, I grew a great deal under your leadership. Thank you. Thank you. Is it my turn? Sure. Do you have some comments in a public agenda setting, public setting? Thank you for reminding me of that, Kevin. Um, I just want to take a moment to thank all of you, the the staff first and foremost. Um, central office, you guys are amazing. I I will so miss being inspired and challenged, Marilyn, by the different thoughts and ideas. Pat, thank you for always being
012open to sharing a a quick joke about the Navy if appropriate or inappropriate. Um Mike and Lacy, you guys are absolutely amazing. I already told Mike Waterman this weekend that we're going to have to figure out how I'm going to understand my taxes in the years going forward. So, um, those are just the quick quips. Um, Casey, the leadership that you have displayed at Bosezeman School Public Schools, it always takes a couple years to see the impact of the of what somebody's policies and procedures are and the and the role that they take on as a leader of an organization. And when we sat at graduation this weekend, it was so evident that everything you have done has kept students in the center of this room. and you have made a phenomenal space for students.
013Um, thank you for all of it. Um, as far as the board is concerned, everybody keeps asking how I feel about leaving. And I'm going to miss it. I'm going to miss the students and the teachers so very, very much. And I feel like this is the absolute perfect time to be leaving because this board is highly highly accomplished. Um Sarah, you are going to bring a new skill set that has not been seen at this level. Super excited for the expertise that you're going to bring. The passion, the understanding having kids that are early on in their time at Bosezeman Schools. Sorry, this is a little harder than I thought. You're amazing and I'm very excited for everything that all of you are going to continue to accomplish together. So, thank you for keeping
014students in the center of the room. And a little shout out to the teachers that gave me this t-shirt when they found I wasn't running it again. And so, I I feel funny not wearing a bow tie like Douglas did, but um please receive the message with the love as it intended and thank you for all you do. All right. With that, um, oh, I have my mic. Okay, good. Um, it is recommended that the board of trustees adopt the following resolution. Whereas Tanya Reinhardt was elected to the board of trustees on May 3rd, 2016. And whereas Trustee Reinhardt served on several board committees and also served as the board representative to the various schools during her term. And whereas trustee Reinhardt served as a board of trustee vice chair from May 16, 2022 through
015May 20th, 2024. Be therefore be it resolved that the board of trustee recognize and honor Tanya Reinhardt for her service to the Boseman public schools and the Bosezeman community. Second motion made by Trustee Sandy Wilson, seconded by Trusty Moran. Any public comment? All those in favor? Motion passed seven to zero. Thank you. And then Tanya, if you want to come around, we'll have a picture with you as well with your reward. Good. Thank You can stay for the whole meeting if you'd like as well. We always have public comment open. All right. All right. Next up, um 2.3.2 2025 softball all state individuals. I think Mr. Ader, I think I saw you to start us off for this. Good evening. I'll have Coach Coleman and Zoe come up here in just a second. Uh the
016Gton High softball team made it to state for the second year in a row. Uh this year they won their first game, lost their next two at state. Unfortunately or fortunately, however you look at those two teams went on to play in the state championship. So Galton had a great season, beat everybody, uh and ended up losing to the top two teams in the state. So uh bring up coach Coleman who puts in a tremendous amount of time for the program. [Applause] The floor is yours. Not often do I have this opportunity. So, um, this year, Zoe being recogniz recognized with this award as our first ever, um, all state selection in softball. Uh she's an outstanding student. She's an outstanding human and she puts a ton of time in with her family and travels
017for the uh softball teams around the nation. So um with that her her batting average was 554 for the year. She led the conference and she was second in the state in that batting average. And um we're just super proud of her. I'm going to give her some time and have her thank her family that's here to celebrate as well. Um, yeah, I'm just super grateful for everyone who's supported me and like these few years I've been putting in for softball and my parents and coaches and amazing teammates that I couldn't do it without and yeah, I'm very grateful. Well, congratulations, coach, um, on your guys' season. Congratulations on the all state award. Um we are oh just for we're changing a few things as far as for people that have been here on awards
018before. We're going to we'll have some comments from trustees and then the person reading the award will do all the questions. So trying to maybe streamline stuff but if anybody has some question comments specifically for either of them um go ahead right now would be a good time trustees. Um if not I think Melissa you have you're all set. So again, congratulations on your guys' seasons. That's awesome for what you guys did. Thank you, Zoe. What year are you at Gallatin? I'm a freshman. A freshman? Yes, ma'am. Wow. And then did y'all have a JV and a varsity team this year? Yes, we did. Um, how would you I don't know how to How would you promote softball for obviously Boseman High only had one team this year. So, what would you do to encourage
019kids, young girls to get involved in softball? I would say just like try it out. It doesn't have to be for you, but I mean I stuck with it and I know a lot of other girls who did. Um it's a great experience whether you take it as far as you can and play at the college level or just do wreck ball. It's super fun and I've loved all of it. So would you do you plan to play in college? Yes, I do. Good. Well, congratulations. I move that the board of trustees adopt the following resolution. Whereas the Gallatin High softball team completed the DA state softball tournament in Great Falls May 22nd through 24th, 2025 and finished the season with a 14-7 record. And whereas Gallatton High's Zoe Bassam was selected as first team
020all state. Therefore, be it resolved that the board of trustees recognize and honor Zoe Bassam for this accomplishment. Second, [Music] Motion made by Trustee Mor Ran, seconded by Trustee D. Any public comment? All those in favor? Motions passed 70. Congratulations. And then Trusty will uh Moran will meet you outside for a picture. Congratulations. All right, Mr. Ader, I think you're up again for 2025 tennis state champions and individual champions and all state individuals. All right, I'm going to bring up uh Coach Pazito from Bose Spacito from Bosezeman High first. She'll introduce her Boseman High all state athletes and then coach Curry from Gallton High will bring his athletes up and he'll introduce them and talk about their state championship. And just a reminder of the coaches as well, if you can bring your players up
021with you, that would be great. Um, first I want to say thank you for taking the time to acknowledge all our athletes and their performances. Um, I'll introduce who I have here with me today. I have Harrison Rodar. He placed second in state for singles. And then I have one half of my third place doubles team. This is Colin Gross. Um, they placed third together. Um, overall they got they tied for second as a team. So I think that speaks volumes about how much they achieved and what they did. And then I have my state champs for doubles, Isabelle Bar and Sarah Sanford. They um won the state championship and contributed to our overall um third place for Boseman. So congratulations you guys. Really proud of all your effort. Congratulations. Great job. Um, make sure
022you thank your parents for putting all the time in and then also your coaches. So, thank you for everything that you're doing for this school district. Um, do you want to ask your questions now? First of all, congratulations and it sounds like it was a pretty successful season. Um, will you each just say which grade you were in this year and if you're a senior, what your future plans are? Um, I'm Harrison Rotor and I'm a junior at Boseman High. I'm uh Colin Gross and I'm a junior. Okay. Uh I'm Sarah Sanford and I'm a junior. Um my name is Isabelle. Um I was a senior. I graduated on Saturday and I'm actually going to be playing tennis at a school in Minnesota next year. Thank you. And coach, it sounds like you have some
023great players coming back next year. This is wonderful. last year. Yep. It's wonderful. And then um so good luck in Minnesota, Isabelle. And then um since there's only four of you, if you each want to share maybe a favorite memory from this season or just something that sticks out. Um, my favorite memory from the season was I got to play doubles for uh two meets with my good friend that I introduced to tennis. Um, that just started a year prior and we ended up going to a third set with the second place team in state and he'd never played. I'd never played doubles in high school before. My uh favorite memory for sure was um winning that third place match with Oliver. He's not here. Um but just being able to uh you know get
024that done cuz he was a senior. Um so that was super great. Uh my favorite memory was definitely winning state. Um because uh I've tried so hard for the past two years and then finally winning was really great. Um yeah, mine was also winning state and also just the culture we have as a team. I think this year especially, we were very close as a team, the boys and girls team. So just all my teammates and coaches and support systems we had this year was just incredible. The best year for that by far. Well, thank you and congratulations. So um if you guys just want to step aside or go back to your seats and then we'll do a reading at the very end. When we get done with Coach Curry and his group, you
025guys come back up and we'll do a reading. All righty. Thank you for having us. Um, I just want to review our all state uh and championship teams. Um, we had seven we had 11 uh players go to state this year. Uh, seven of those players uh got all state which is a school record for us. U Mason McCarti uh who's not here uh as our three-time boys single state champion. He's 65 and0 uh never lost a match. She's only the fifth player in the state to ever uh win three state doubleA titles for boys um and the first one to do so in 13 years. Um Dean and Dylan, which uh Dean is here, they got fifth place in boys doubles, which was a huge accomplishment for them because they were uh trying to
026and working towards getting all state all four years and they really finished strong by winning that fifth place match. Uh Raina, which is here, right here, um got second place as a freshman in girls singles, which is really unheard of. She had an incredible year. She was 25 and two. She was our division champion. Uh and like I said, just a really impressive year for a freshman. Um Avery, who is here, um also got fifth place in girls singles. Um she just had an amazing state tournament. Worked her way through the backdraw, won four excruciatingly long matches. she was kind of our dark horse of the team uh this year. Um and then Olivia and Alex who are also here um placed second place in girls doubles. Uh this is the fourth year in a
027row that Olivia has placed in the top three and Alex has gotten all state all three years that she's been on the team as well. Um so they really did great. And then uh as we said, our girls won state uh team championship for the first time in our school's history, which was really amazing. Uh it truly was a group effort. Um we sent six girls from divisionals to state. Uh and everyone contributed to that state championship by uh earning points and working together to do so. Um we kind of had just like a a full squad that did it. We had the veteran one senior uh who battled a bunch of injuries to get back and made it to the state championship game with her sister which was really cool to see. Kennedy and
028Sophie had a a really incredible end of the season and uh scored some points for us uh really important points and won a gutsy match at uh state to start things off. And like I said, Avery just had a really incredible tournament which helped our team uh gain those extra points to win state basically. Uh and then lastly, Raina got second place uh and only losses were to the eventual state champion all season long. So once again, a great freshman year. Thank you. Thanks for all your work, dedication to the kids. Um, I will just ask for the student athletes, if you're behind a column, they're really great for support, but we cannot see through them. So, if everybody could maybe just slide this way. So, um, that there's a couple more. Hopefully, your coach
029won't bite. So, all right. Um, I guess first, uh, go ahead, Lauren. Um, first of all, thank you because I did want to see all your faces. Um, and congratulations, especially, um, with the first girls state championship. It is really awesome and it's fun to see these firsts happening at GHS um, since we've only been open a few years. So, uh, that's wonderful. And then I think I heard your coach say there's only one senior, but will each of you tell me which grade you're in? And then for a lone senior, do you want to also say maybe some future plans if you have them? One senior girl, one senior. Oh, one senior boy, too. Okay. So, yeah. Will you just tell us maybe your future plans if you have them? Or you could just
030say I'm going to enjoy the summer and figure it out. My future plans are to attun. I'm Alex. I'm a junior. I'm a freshman. That's wonderful. And hopefully we'll see you back here next year. Um and then if all of you or a few of you would like to share a favorite memory, that would be awesome. Well, for me, uh the boys won two years ago and it was a lot of fun to be there for that to see the girls. And it was also really nice to host everything. We all give each other gifts. We do team dinners at like different players houses every match which is a lot of fun. My favorite memory was definitely so Olivia broke her back earlier in this year and um She missed the first couple of matches
031and then my favorite memory is the first day she came back and we got to play again as doubles partners and we totally crushed the first two matches and it was just amazing. Yeah, my favorite memory was just also like all the community and like just how much we all like each other. It was really fun. Do you have any more questions? All right. Well, thank you. Then if we can get uh the Boseman Hawk tennis kids back up here and coach, that would be great. Then are there any board uh trustees comments? All right, before I read the award, I also just want to say now that I have all of you up here, thank you to the coaches. And one thing that was very obvious is just the team camaraderie and the really
032positive environment um not just when they're out there playing, but a lot of the favorite memories were things that weren't even during a match. And so, thank you for your dedication to all these student athletes. And to the student athletes, thank you for all you do. And um I am very honored to um present this award. I am move that the board of trustees adopt the following resolution. Whereas the Bosezeman High and Gallatin High tennis teams competed in the DA state tennis tournament in Bosezeman May 22nd through the 23rd, 2025. And whereas the Gallatin High girls team finished as state champions with team members members Jesse Anderson, Mackenzie Campos, Avery Childra, um Jane Edwards, Kalia Herrera, Alex Mansour, Olivia Mansour, Alex Ramsey, Helen Rafe, Moira Ross, Hannah Rupert, Sophie Stark, Megan Sullivan, Kennedy Va, and
033Raina Wilson. And and whereas the following athletes were doubleA state champions, Gallatin High, Mason McCarti, boys singles. Boseman High, Isabella Bar, and Sarah Samford girls doubles. Whereas the following athletes earned all state honors, Isabella Bar, Isabelle Bar, first girls doubles. Colin Gross, third place boys doubles. Miranda Eisenberg, fourth place girls double, girls singles. Harrison Rotor, second place boys singles. Sarah Sanford, first girls doubles. Oliver Ward third place boys doubles Gallatin High Avery Child fifth place girls singles Dean Gunderson fifth place boys doubles Mason McCarti first place boys singles Alex Mensor second place girls doubles Olivia Mensor second place girls doubles Dylan Rosenfig fifth place boys doubles Raina Wilson second place girls singles therefore be it resolved that the board of trustees recognize and honor individual State Champions Mason McCarti, Isabelle Bar, and Sarah Sanford. Gallatin
034High's 2025 girls tennis state championship team and all state individuals from Bosezeman High and Gallatin High. Second. Motion made by Trustee D and seconded by Trustee Sandy Wilson. Any public comment? All those in favor? remember to meet Lauren D outside. So, congratulations. Great job. [Applause] Mr. Ader, thanks for coming back. Um, this is for 2025 track and field state championship team, individual state champions in all state. It was a, as you can tell, it was a great spring for uh, athletics for Boseman High and Gallatton High. Uh, at this time I'll have uh, coach Blaine Peterson come up and introduce the Boseman High athletes and any staff members. And then I'll have uh, Chantel uh, Jagger Smith come up and introduce her uh, state qualifying athletes, staff members, and her state championship team. Thank you.
035sitting in the chair. Uh I just want to take a minute to thank thank the board and uh all the support that we have from the administration and the community. Uh it wouldn't be possible without the help that we all have behind the scenes. So thank you guys. Um chat a little bit about our all-state athletes here. Uh to begin with, Morgan Jones is not here tonight. uh she's she was selected for the Midland Round Table All-Star Volleyball uh tournament over in Billings, so she's over there uh practicing for that all week. Uh but Morgan this season placed first or second in every single event, every single meet that she jumped in uh this year, ending with second place finish at state. Um has herself in the top top 10 in in school history with
036a jump of 5'4. Um so Morgan had a great senior year. She's her only senior um out of our all state selections. Uh Scotland Jones sitting right next to me placed in both the 100 and the 200 meters. Um she's only the third Boseman High girl to do that in like 18 years. Um so she had a incredible state meet getting fifth in the 100 and fourth in the 200. She competed in five events at state. Uh she had qualified in the long jump as well and then ran on both our short and long relay. um Kylie Neil. I hate to to group these two together, but they've kind of been together their whole lives. And when I start looking at uh their their numbers and and stuff from the season, they they had a
037very uh very similar season that kind of mirrored each other. And uh their development through their their high school careers is already mirroring each other as well. Um Taylor and Kylie are both sophomores on our team this year. Uh each of them led the way in our in their respective distance groups on the boys and the girls side. Uh they each qualified in all three of the distance races, the 800,600, 3200. Uh they raced in the 1600 and the 3200 at state. They did not do the 800 and they each placed in both of them with Kylie getting sixth in the 1600 and third in the 3200. And Taylor was fourth in the 1600 and third in the 3200. Um they are both representing themselves very well in their their red and black uniforms. Uh
038they're both top 10 in school history as sophomores already in uh each of their respective three distance races. They were also both uh constant presences on our our long relay teams this year as well. So these guys had an incredible season. Um a lot of hard work has been put in by these athletes up here. Very appreciative of it. Well, congratulations Coach Peterson. Thanks for everything that you're doing. Um, congratulations to the athletes. Great job this year. Greg, you have a few questions. Thanks, Coach Peterson, for everything you've done. Really appreciate it. Um, I have a lot of questions for the three of you. I don't. Scotland, how long you been doing track? Uh, since sixth grade. Yeah. And I know you have big goals for yourself next year going into your senior year after
039a very accomplished junior year. Yeah. Um, well, I want to do track in college. My entire family did track at MSU, so it's kind of a legacy thing. And if I don't do track in college, that's gonna be kind of awkward, so we'll we'll see. But that's that's the plan to run MSU in a couple years. Yeah. You do come from a long line of athletes, aunts, uncles, mom, and dad. Yeah. Lots of MSU Bobcat trackers. Yeah. Arlington, Montana. Uh, a lot of roots. So, um, it was great watching you develop the last couple years. You've um come a long way. You're getting faster. You're incredibly strong. Uh it's it's a blast to watch you compete. Thank you. Um Calli and Taylor, I won't say much because I'll hear hear it later. You know that
040I'm proud of both you. I told Nathan that last year and uh so thank you very much for everything. Blaine and I think Chair Black's gonna maybe have you all Yeah, if you guys want. We'll get um the Gallatin kids and coaches up here first and then we'll do the reading after that so you guys can come back. Thank you. Hi. Hi. How's it going? Good. Bring them bring them in tight, Coach Shantel. Not yourself, your athletes. Oh, pillars. Okay. Yeah, the column still exists. So, if you're behind one, there's a lot of people up here. Um, first off, thank you guys so much for the opportunity. It's amazing that a school board recognizes what um is so great for these athletes and it means a lot to them. It means a lot to us
041and just know this is not everybody. Um, I don't have to tell you all the spring slash end of the school year is a very busy time and so there are some athletes that really wanted to be here and had conflicts. Um, some are going to MSU next year. There's orientation tonight. Um we have track practice tonight for Bosezeman track club. So some I think are there and just other um end of the year travel and things like that prevented some from being here. So they wanted me to tell you guys that they're they wish they could have made it. So um I think I'll start with just introducing them very briefly. Um and then I'll kind of speak as us as a whole because we're a team here. Um we've got Alec Naring on
042the end. He's our new shop hook coach this year. And I think a lot of you guys know the man hiding behind the pillar, but that's coach Kennedy. He was my coach all through college and I roped him into coaching after retirement. And he's been a um great role model for all of us. Here we've got Ren Fritz. She's a senior. She was a part of our 4x1 relay and took third in the long jump individually. We've got Kate Breeding, um a sophomore and she placed, oh my gosh, I'm sorry. I don't remember. second in shot put and fifth in javelin. We got Ava Diral, a senior. She placed fourth in the javelin. Next, we've got Kate Lindsay, our sole freshman state qualifier. She placed fourth in the high jump. Ally Coey, she's a senior
043and she um play or she participated in the two-mile. Dan Jackson, our distance coach. She's been here since the beginning coaching our distance gals and guys. Next to me I've got Isabella Donnagy. She placed third in the 100 meters and the 200 meters and was a part of both podium relay teams. Then I've got Riley McGrath. He's a sophomore. He is our state champion in the boys shot put and then also tied for second in discus with his teammate Jack Murray who I spoke about last year. He couldn't make it tonight, but I'm sure you guys remember he was state champion discus last year. Had a very phenomenal season. So, next to him, Reed Bartholomew. He's been running for a really long time and has put in so much work in the mid-distance events and
044placed fifth in the 400 meters or right. Yeah, in the eight they have they had this all good here. Um, in the 800 meters, excuse me. Okay. Next is Hazel Cooper. She placed second in both the 800 and the 600 meter run behind teammate Isabelle Ross who was our state champion in those and was also a part of our 4x400 meter relay. And last but not least, Finley Samuels. She was an integral part of our 4x4 relay and our mid-distance squad all throughout state and competed in the 400 at state in the 800. So many more that could not make it tonight, but um I'll just speak briefly on behalf of the group behind me. And um we had the privilege of watching some truly remarkable young people rise to the highest levels of competition
045in our state. Um as you guys know, earning all state honors is no small feat and so I don't want that to ever be um disregarded. They they reach high and they really achieve it. And um what I really enjoyed about this season is a lot of them are not just running for themselves. And so there was plenty of family members or people who could not be with us uh this season that we dedicated this season to. And it was just really remarkable um how much grit, Gallatin grit, these guys showed and it was a season to go down in history. Um these girls, especially some of these seniors with me, have been putting in work all four years. and it's really paid off. Um, and something I realized sitting here is all of our
046senior girls that are moving on are all participating in collegiate athletics. All but one are participating in collegiate track and field. And the one that is not is Emma Hardman. If you're not familiar who she is, she placed first as a team in state in volleyball, basketball, and track. And she went out for track her senior year and was um a phenomen phenomenal javelin thrower. So, the athleticism transferred through. So, she's um looking to play basketball at MSU. So, incredibly proud of these girls and um I know the boys were reigning state champs. We graduate graduated a lot, but they still showed great perseverance and um I just couldn't be prouder of all of them. And I lastly just need to thank the coaches and the parents and the community. Um Mark, all of the
047support I've had. Um I could not have done it without them. Um, and the job's really hard sometimes and these coaches just keep my head held up high when it gets really tough. So, thank you. Well, congratulations, Coach Jagger Smith. Another exciting season this time for the girls. So, congratulations. Good job. And continue to create a culture and community over there. So, that's exciting. Congratulations to athletes, Greg. Yeah. Thanks, Shantel, for everything that you that you do for the kids. Um, do we how many seniors do we have in attendance tonight? Do we have any? Ally, could could those of you that are seniors tell us I know your coach just touched on it, but tell us what you're doing next year? for cross country. I know many of you are are there more seniors.
048I'm sorry. Yeah, I know many of you are um regular attendees for honor things that we're honoring you for here at our meetings. Um, can some of you just give us an idea of other activities you're involved in with your school besides track and field or sports? Me and Hazel play soccer for Gallatin as well. Great. Well, it was a blast watching you all uh excel at the state meet this year. It was it was your weekend and it was it was amazing to watch you all accomplish so much. Um after all the work you put in all year. Uh Hazel, you and Izzy were phenomenal going one and two in your races. Uh I'm a distance fan, so that was that was really fun for me to watch. Um there I think you might
049be doing the wrong sport in the in the fall, but um who who am I to give such an opinion? Hazel. Um but uh I think Coach K agrees. But um congratulations to all of you. It was was well earned. Um and it's my honor to support the recommendation. Actually, could we bring the Boseman kids back up to read the honor, please? Great. Are there any other uh as the Boseman group comes back up, are there any other comments for trustees? All right, you're clear. It's my honor to support the recommendation that the board of trustees adopt the following resolution. Whereas the Boseman High and Gallatin High Track and Field teams competed in the DA state track meet in Callisville May 22nd to 20 to 24th, 2025. Whereas the Gallatin High girls track team finished
050as state champions with team members Anita Black, Kate Breeding, Alli Cohen, Hazel Cooper, Ava Deirdorf, Isabella Adonah, Dylan Free, Zoe Fritz, Emma Hardman, Llaya Caro, Kate Lindseay, Llaya Pritham, Isabelle Ross, Claire Rutherford, Finley Samuels, Lauren Weaver, and whereas the following Gallatin high athletes were doubleA individual state champions. Riley McGrath shot put Isabelle Ross 800 meters and 1600 meters and whereas the following athletes earned all state individuals by placing in the top six. Boseman High Morgan Jones second place high jump Scotland Jones fifth place 100 meters fourth 200 meters Kylie Neil sixth 1600 meters. Third 3200 meters Taylor Neil fourth 1600 meters third 3200 meters Gallatin High Reed Bartholomew fifth 400 meters Anita Black fourth 100 meter hurdles Kate Kate Breeding second shotput fifth Javelin Hazel Cooper second 800 meters second 1600 meters second 4x400 relay
051Carter Dulky fourth 4x100 relay Reseky fourth 4x100 relay ava Vader fourth javelin Isabella Adonah third 100 m 3rd 200 m sixth 4x100 m second 4x400 relay Dylan Freeze sixth 4x100 relay Zoe Fritz sixth 4x100 relay Louisie Camps fourth 200 meters fourth 4x100 relay Sam Kilwine fourth 4x100 relay third long jump Kate Lindsay sixth fourth by 100 4x100 relay fourth high jump. Riley McGrath, first shot put, second discus. Jack Murray, second discus. Isabel Ross, first 800 meters, first 1600 meters. Third, 400 meters, second 4x400 relay. Claire Rutherford, fifth, 1600 meters. Second, 3200 meters. Finley Samuels, second 4x400 relay. Therefore, be it resolved that the board of trustees recognize and honor Gallatin High individual state champions Rally McGrath and Isabelle Ross, Gallatin High's 2025 girls track and field state championship team and the all state individuals from
052Bosezeman High and Gallatin High. Second. Motion made by Trustee Neil and seconded by Trustee Moran. Any public comment? All those in favor? Motion passes. 7 to zero. Um also just to note we'll make the correction um on the let's see for read our farm regarding the fifth in the 4 800 instead of 400 I think. So we'll make that correction as well by in the minutes. So but congratulations and if you'll meet Trusty Neil out in the out by the lockers that would be great. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. Mr. Ader, you're back for the 202425 Montana Coaches Association DA Coaches of the Year. [Music] And if the coaches could come up as well, Chantel, if you want to take a picture real quick, you can with your team. Yes. See? All right. First
053of all, I want to thank the board for honoring uh coach of the year. Uh, coach of the year awards are given out by the Montana Coaches Association. Requirement is usually you have to be a member and your team has to place at at the state events. So, uh, we're lucky here. All our coaches are state champions this year. And that tells you, you know, the key to our success in athletics is our is our coaches behind us here. They do a tremendous job. They make my job easy. So, Erica Cannon for girls soccer. Erica couldn't be here tonight. Erica is coaching soccer tonight. um coaching youth soccer. She does it year round all the time, all age groups, boys and girls. Um you know, uh Boseman High won their second, you know, won the
054title two years in a row. Erica has won the title many times. I think Erica is the standard for soccer coaches. She's great to work with. Siobhan Gil Martin, Boseman High swim. Uh she Boseman High has uh placed at state a few times, boys and girls, and Siobhan's been the coach of each of those. She's also the coach of Gallton High and Galton High swim had a great year this year placing at state. Casey Dermine boys cross country uh placed at state. Casey's teams have placed at one state multiple times. Uh our teams are going to continue to be good uh in the distance because of Casey's work. Gallton High Matt Clark girls golf led the girls to a state title this year. He brought led Gallatton High boys to the state title a few
055years ago and I believe that was his first state team title for Gallatton High. He also led Boseman High to a couple of titles. Taylor Cummings, secondyear basketball coach, firsttime recipient of the coach of the year award and state champion Gallatton High girls basketball. Coulter Curry led the boys to a state title two years ago. And then this year, uh, Coulter led the girls tennis team to a state title. Uh, Coulter was also instrumental the last two years in helping, uh, me with the, uh, the state tournament that we hosted that we were lucky enough to host two years in a row. Um, Graden Curry, girls cross country. I don't know if Graden made it tonight. He didn't make it. Uh, Gallton W for the first time this year. We obviously some of those athletes
056that were Gton High track athletes did very well for the cross country team this year. Uh, Erica Gusesen, girls volleyball. I believe uh last time Boseman High won state volleyball. Erica was the coach and coach of the year then for that and girls basketball. And Chantel Jagger Smith who maybe is sneaking back in. She led the boys to two state titles and then this year led the girls to a state title. So each of these coaches will be honored at the uh Montana Coaches Association clinic uh convention in uh Great Falls on I think it's July 31st at noon and they're they're honored along with coaches from the other classifications and other special award winners. So there you go. You can go ahead and ask them some questions. Thank you, Mark, and all the coaches.
057Congratulations on your great seasons. Um, it's probably all about the coaches and not much about the athletes that you have to deal with. It's what I usually hear, right? When you win, right? Um, oh, maybe I've got the opposite when you um so, but I I do uh know some of you specifically. Erica, thanks for making my daughter tougher at a younger age. And then, um, Taylor just I helped a little bit. Okay. Paybacks. Um Taylor also I know from my experience with as my daughter was a sophomore. I'm sure pretty sure that was it. Um waking up early in the morning going helping her out. So appreciate that. So I know um and I just reflect on those few things because I know the dedication that many of you have and that's why you're
058here is because you're dedicated to the students. to make creating a culture um of success and um a standard and having expectations, holding kids accountable to what you're hoping for. Um and then probably also managing a parent or two every once in a while. So, appreciate all your efforts. Um I are there any other comments? I just want to say thank you again and I know I said it to the few coaches earlier um but each of you care about our kids a ton and it is very obvious when you come up and present um you're often teary or emotional about it and that effort that you put into our kids on and off their fields or courts um or golf course um it's all recognized and as a parent and a board member I
059just want you to know we really appreciate appreciate all you do because we know it's a lot more hours than just that practice time or whatever else and we know that it's all heart also. So, thank you very much. Sarah me just want to share a full circle moment with Chantel. So, I first met Chantel in 2013 when she was a sophomore in college and a pre-ervice teacher. And just to watch her be a student athlete at MSU and then go on to coach at championships both at BHS and GHS and in addition to the work you do in the district, the work you do with Bosezeman track club. And thank you for taking on the sixth grade gaggle and teaching them sprints because not everybody would want to do that, Chantel. And you do
060it with so much grace and it's appreciated. Thanks, Greg. Yeah. Uh, coach of the year. You're a group of amazing human beings. I know that you all put all the heart and soul into your programs and I've had a front row seat to coach Casey's uh for five years. Uh, he's had all my kids at this point. Um, and um, that that's a lot of kids. And, uh, I I agree with Kevin. I appreciate the you you coming to our board meetings after your teams and your kids have accomplish accomplishments every year and presenting them to us and about 80 time 80% of the time um especially with co coach Clark it gets a little bit emotional and um uh so just thank thank you to all of you uh for for what you do
061that it's I I consider it a volunteer position the stipend is is that much it may as well not be a stipend um and uh so for for everything that you that your heart and soul and everything you do for our kids. Um, appreciate it. So, thank you. All right. I guess I would Do you guys have any comments or Well, I She's going to do the reading as questions for you. So, if you guys have any comments, I'll give you that the floor right now. All right, Lyanna. Yeah, Ju just to reiterate some of what everybody has already said. I'm I'm like blown away at the talent, the time, the dedication, everything that you put towards the kids in our community. Um, so I have two questions and one is besides this job of
062of coaching, which as Greg pointed out, it's hours, it's not really for the stipen, but you all have full-time lives um otherwise. So, what what else are you doing in the district? Like what what are you teaching or doing in the district besides coaching state champions? Um outside of track only kids from all around the valley I'm a teacher at Gallton I teach art classes like ceramics and graphic design I teach health enhancement at Gton High. Um, I coach football in addition to golf. I coached middle school basketball the last couple years at Sacramento. Um, I uh I work as a project manager full-time and so um coaching is my passion. So I'm very grateful for the opportunity to coach at Gallatin. Um it takes up quite a bit of my free time. Uh and
063I'm hoping to continue to get more young youth girls into camps to grow basketball um in Bosezeman because it has been slowly declining. Um, so that's one of my future goals. So, uh, I'm a full-time coach and a part-time shoe salesman. I, uh, uh, own both running company downtown. Um, and then put on some events and sit on some events. Um, I am also a health enhancement teacher at Gallatin High with Mr. Clark over here. Um, and I have two small kids, so I am busy with them starting to get into sports now. And um kind of like you guys echoed, um coaching is a year- round thing. You know, I would love to say it's a the three months of the season. Um but we wouldn't be standing here if it was only three
064months of the season. Um put in a lot of time outside of our seasons um to build our programs and um so yeah, that's that takes up all the time. I have two children who are also keeping me busy. All of their things, but thankfully those overlap we do. I'm married to a track whole coaching community both schools. I think that I just want to say this is the first year that the coach of the year that well we're incredibly grateful for all your talent and time. It's no small thing and it totally recognize that. So, um I do have one other question. You don't have to all answer or I think it's it's kind of underneath the surface there, but what is your why for I mean you have full-time lives and your coaching
065and have done incredible things with the kids in our community. So if anybody wants to share about why you do it, love to hear it. I think I'll watch my struck this last year watching all cliche and cheesy but it does feel like the ones behind their for them. Um, I think it's the relationships with the kids. I mean, I can say that's what definitely keeps me in it. Um, kind of the full circle moments when you see them graduate and then you start attending their weddings and they're having kids and um, you're still following and you still you know, coach Gus, and you get to have that relationship still. Um, is definitely why I'm still in it. I also really, really value what kids learn from sports. Um, I think they learn so much
066outside of the classroom, participating in sports, um, that really set them up, um, to be successful later in life. Um, so I still really believe in what we're teaching in community um, that we're building. And, uh, I get asked that a lot, like, what's my why? And I I think for me it's from a sport that I got so much out of. You know, I I ran in high school, I ran in college, um you know, got a sales rep job with a shoe company. Um it kind of really formed my life. And so I felt like when I got into coaching, it was my time to to give back and hopefully maybe instill that in someone else, give them that opportunity. Yeah. Um I can piggy back off a lot of that. That's a
067um I feel like I had a lot of really influential coaches um and females um who participate in sports, build really strong relationships and confidence through sports. And like I said, I work full-time as a project management. I was raised by educators. And it's a way for me to still be able to give back to the next generation and build those relationships like Coach Gus was talking about um and that sense of community for young women. So I really um I love doing that. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's kind of a second or third career for me. Um, I did a few other things before I got into education. I was actually in business. Most recently, I just wasn't feeling like I was getting any reward out of doing that. And so, I actually went back
068to school and got my masters of arts and teaching. And, um, my dad was a professor at the University of Montana and I saw the reward and and the joy that he had doing what he did. And I I just want to try and and give back and be a positive influence on kids. Yeah. I would also say relationships are the most important part for me. I mean, getting to walk away after a player has played for four years and still be friends with them and get to see them grow. Um, and that's what I would say is the best thing is just getting to work with and develop these students through four or five or six years starting in middle school or earlier and really see them develop not only as a really good
069player but as a person and develop all around. It's hard to go after all of those. Um, but my why would be kind of similar to what was said, but I did a lot of activities when I was in high school and track was where I found where I belong. And so that's what it taught me in high school and in college to find the appreciation for the sport. It's a very diverse sport. If you look at the kids that lined up behind me, you've got Riley McGrass and you have tiny little distance runners like Finley. And so it embraces diverse group of kids that can all come together and show their strengths in different ways. Um, but on top of that, I had phenomenal coaches growing up and some of them I dragged along
070with me as I said. Um, but they've taught me so much and it was in a sense a way when my career was done right alone. Well, congratulations and thank you so much for everything that you do. It is recommended that the board of trustees adopt the following resolution. Whereas the Montana Coaches Association exists to raise the quality and competence of athletic coaching and administration to the highest level possible through leadership development, educational programs, training sessions, and informative publications. And whereas the Montana Coaches Association strives to recognize those professional men and women who have devoted their energies over many years to bring excellence to athletic programs in Montana schools. And whereas the following Boseman School District coaches were selected by the Montana Coaches Association as the 2024 2025 coaches of the year by leading their
071teams to state championships. Boseman High, Erica Cannon, girls soccer. Siobhan Martin, boys swim. Casey Germanine, boys cross country. Gallatin High. Matt Clark, girls golf. Taylor Cumins, girls basketball. Coulter Curry, girls tennis. Graden Curry, girls cross country. Erica Gustoson, girls volleyball, and Chantel Jagger Smith, girls track and field. Therefore, be it resolved that the board of trustees recognize and honor Erica Cannon, Matt Clark, Taylor Cumins, Coulter Curry, Graden Curry, Siobhan Gil, Martin, Erica Gustoson, Chantel Jagger Smith, and Casey Germine for their accomplishments. Second motion made by Trusty Burlesen, seconded by Trusty Neil. Any public comment? All those in favor? Motion passes seven to zero. Well, congratulations to you guys. That's awesome. I would say Taylor, I appreciate what your comment was regarding and um getting younger kids involved. Um I think that's I I hear a
072lot of different things about all the sports in at the high school level. And it doesn't really start at the high school level. It's the opportunities for the younger kids getting them interested, engaged, doesn't matter what sport. So, I think that's pretty critical and hopefully that's something that you can do with all many of the coaches throughout our district, not just certain pockets. So, um I think ultimately it does benefit. I think um this weekend at as an example, it was at graduation and I know knew more Gallatin kids based on me coaching some kids along the way than I did at Boseman High. So, um I think that's really important and to do that part of it as a community still at the younger ages regardless of what school they're going to end up
073at. So, congratulations. I'm going to change this up, this piece up because you guys are all here. There's not very many people out there. You guys can come up. We'll have a picture up here and give you the award up here. So, thank you. Short one go around. Stand like a short person. This little person. We go this way. Sit down. It's like class photos. Ready? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. On to action items for consent. Is there a motion? Motion to approve consent items 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4. Second. Motion made by Trustee Neil, seconded by Trustee Sandy Wilson. Any public comment? All those in favor? Motion passes seven to zero. Motion to approve consent agenda item 3.5. Second. Motion made by Trusty Neil, seconded by Trusty Burlesen. Um, any
074public comment? All those in favor? Motion passes six to zero. All right. Action items. Singular um 4.1.1. Casey Mike presenting. Go ahead. All right. Um, good evening trustees. Agenda item 4.1.1 is a territory transfer request. Um essentially a redrawing of the school district boundaries. Under Montana law, territory transfers are allowed um if uh the property um proposed to be transferred is contiguous to the new district. And in fact, this one um is it's within the Bgrade school district currently, but it's on the line of the B of the Belgrade and Bosezeman school district. Um the the property has to have schoolaged kids. Again, we've checked that box. and the property has to be at least three miles from a school um currently and and and the properties are indeed three more than three miles from
075the school. Um there's some unique aspects to this request. In the past, these uh territory transfers have been relatively procedural. They don't happen that often, but from time to time they do. Um the things that have changed, I think, or make this one uh this particular request unique is first of all, open enrollment um has now been made law within the state of Montana. So now students can um attend school in any district they wish. um regardless of residents. So we haven't seen any requests for territory transfers since that um open enrollment became law. Um this request is for extracurriculars only. So the the students the school age u kids who live within the uh territory proposed to be transferred don't intend to attend school within our district. They wish to uh participate within the
076extracurriculars only. MHSA rules specifically say that you can only participate in activities in the district where you reside. So even if they were to come to our district for open enrollment, um they wouldn't be able to participate in in our extracurriculars because they don't reside in in that district. Um process is is laid out pretty clearly in law. Um the the proposal has to come to both um the transferring and receiving school districts. We're considering this issue here in Bosezeman tonight. Um it's my understanding the Belgrade School District is also um um considering this from their end um tonight as well. If either if both districts approve um the the request, it's it's it's again pretty procedural. The the county goes through and makes changes to the the tax rules and we move forward. However,
077if either district uh the receiving district or the transferring district denies the request, um it goes immediately to a hearing process with the county superintendent. um they've got 40 days after the receipt of the petition to um to call for that that hearing. And then um there's a there's a list of of things they must consider. But at the end of the day, the law states that um if the transfer of the territory is not in the best and collective interests of students in the receiving and transferring districts and will negatively impact the ability of the districts to serve those students, the county superintendent shall deny the territory transfer. Um we are uh th this issue is again before the board. My understanding is um Belgrade is recommending denial of this request for their own
078reasons. um administrations discussed this request here internally and it's our recommendation to deny this um request as well because of the chance that it will um displace students who currently attend our schools from participating in in extracurricular activities and therefore may not be in the best and collective interest of students receiving transferring districts and could negatively impact the ability to of our district to serve those students. U board certainly has discretion over um direction to proceed with this. It's my understanding that one of the petitioners uh for the for the request is in the audience. I'll let um I'll let her come on up and and and speak into the microphone either as public comment or if you have um questions for her. We administration stands ready for questions as well. Would you like to
079come up? You're more than welcome to. And then I know you'll give it to us anyways, but on the clipboard right there, if you can just write your name and then your email address. Okay. At some point in time that'd be helpful and I can do that. Yeah. We'll give you the opportunity to speak a little bit here to begin with. Okay. I'm Heidi McFarland. I'm one of the petitioners. Um I have four kids. Um we have one that did participate in sports in Belgrade, but it was quite a hardship for us to get all the way over there. We go to Petra. Um I'd like to say that like three of your participants here for tennis and well it's all tennis were are Petra students as well. So, you know, there's a positive reason
080for having kids come into the Bosezeman district. So, but if you guys have any questions for me. Okay. I don't think we have questions at this point in time. Probably uh any trustes comments or questions I guess either for the applicant or for staff. And then if not, I'd entertain a motion. I move we accept the superintendent's uh recommendation um for action item 4.1.1. Second. Motion made by Trustee Sandy Wilson, seconded by Trusty Burlesen. Any public comment? I mean, my only comment is that, you know, I live and work in Bosezeman. I'm part of the community here. We're right on the edge. Like, it is such a hardship for us to get all the way to Belgrade. That's part of the reason we don't go to the Belgrade school. Um, it just takes that much
081longer to get over there. Um we are looking for extracurriculars including all sports, not just necessarily cut sports. Um choir, we have a ballerina in our house. We have a soccer player. We have volleyball players. We have all kinds of sports. So um and we're just wanting to come into the district. We're not necessarily saying Gallatin versus Bosezeman. We just want to participate in the Boseman sports. So, um, so we have a motion. All those in favor. Motion passes. Seven to zero. Six to zero, right? Or is it all? It's the whole district. So, it's a it would be both districts. We we wouldn't want to divide up the elementary and and high school to be a total. So, motion passes seven to zero. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. All right. Next board discussion 5.3.
082Thank you, Chair Black. Uh Mr. Van, if you want to drive that, uh, we'll just use that document um to walk through and you can um scroll to the um where the red writing starts. Thank you. Okay. Uh before you this evening, you have a um discussion item of the 2425 long range strategic plan. at sort of a looking back um at the school year um in terms of the um progress towards goals. Um th this document when it's final has multiple pieces. One is progress towards district goals that we'll discuss in detail this evening. It also has school site action plans that are being um completed right now by our um building principles. We're having year-end um conversations about those. During the year, those documents have a lot of individual student data in them
083and then we clean that up um uh for FURPA reasons and and so those will be cleaned up and ready for approval in July. Um and then also in this document you have documentation of all the schoolboard brunches and lunchins including the the data sheets and the presentations that were given at each of our 13 um school sites. Um so talking about um progress towards measurable goals, a reminder that um I see the long range strategic plan as my primary job description um and ensuring that we are moving towards those goals. And we have some um exciting things to share. Um first of all, grade level reading. We have a goal by 2029 that 90% of our third graders would be um reading at grade level. We've um been in a sort of three-year flatline
084um as we were seeing significant increases in multilingual English learners. What we saw this spring um is the highest um reading data we've seen since uh we started the Acadians assessment and corresponding the highest level of multilingual English learners um in the district. Um so it's a 6.76 increase from the prior year. to me. Um this is um one that I we were jumping up and down and um really proud of the work being done um across our district. Uh we are not only um buffering uh the influx of uh students who um don't have English as their primary language, but we're closing those achievement gaps, we're closing them for English language learners, for students from poverty, and from students with um disabilities, which is um kind of why we're here. uh and uh very
085much aligned to our core purpose. So very excited about that um data. U you'll notice in that chart that um we don't have uh middle school data represented. Uh as you know, we moved away from the STAR assessment as we took on a new state assessment. The new state assessment will be um uh proficiency benchmarked this um spring and summer. Um and then we'll get those scores in the fall. U that new masked assessment um serves grades three through eight. Um also notice um I did put in there our ELA proficiency at the high school which is another jumping up and down moment for us. Um it's the highest um ELA ACT score ever um in the Bosezeman school district since the ACT came on board as a state test in 2015 2016. Uh we
086heard a lot of um uh mixed comments around changes at the high school in terms of hawk time and prime time and collaboration time for teachers and um uh block schedules and all of those things. Uh we fully expected an implementation dip and we um saw the highest scores ever um in our district which is exciting. Uh if you go scroll to that, that's a visual of those third grade reading scores. The red line is multilingual English learners. Um so despite moving from 7.3% to 9.11% of English language learners in third grade, those are um onetoone correspondence there, that those are that's a third grade MLE percentage. U we moved up to 79% of of our um school sites proficient. Uh which means that we have multiple schools at or above 85 um 95 some
087some very high percentages in some of our schools. Um that that second graph uh also equally equally exciting. This is that same third grade data showing that uh we saw increases um from the prior year for IEP students, multilingual English learner students, and free and reduced um lunch students, which means we are um closing achievement gaps. There's a little bit of a looking forward. Um we we haven't achieved our goal. We're not at um 90%. And we also know that um uh part of doing this work is is really doing equity work across the district. And so we're going to be adding um some supports via literacy language coach focused at Highlight and Whittier um who have dynamic student populations. We're also rolling out we've done a lot of work on the science of reading
088more on the word recognition, decoding and phmic awareness side of the reading rope and we're now spending some time on the language side of the equation. and we'll be rolling out a new language screener and um intervention tool in every kindergarten classroom across the district. Um and then uh we're rolling out um upon the recommendation of our literacy consultants um sort of a differentiated core um at Highlight and Whidyear specific to foundational um skills in phonics. And so, uh, we're excited that those three pieces of the puzzle are going to, um, propel us even closer to our goals. And I can't wait for what this looks like a year from now. Um, you can stop me at any time if you want me to chunk this or do you want me to keep going? Any
089questions or comments? Doing a great job. Oh, I'll just make a comment. Um this has been a consistent um approach of our um you know via our LRSP through our superintendent identifi identifying goals while at the same time having consistently increasing English learners from year to year in our school district. and um just the wanting to do things the right way and uh setting setting goals according to um educating all kids. Um reducing um uh reducing achievement gaps and uh surging surging forward regardless of who we have what kids are in the building and what their profile is and where they come from and who they come from. um set setting our our graduation goals and our third grade reading goals and all of our goals according to um educating kids. This is nothing new
090and this is this is as far as that approach is concerned and uh this this data showing increased um and and continuing increasing um uh results is um is worthy of jumping up and down and celebrating and calling the chronicle. So thank you. Thank you. Sandy. Um Casey, I wonder if you could just share with us what you think um in a nutshell contributes to this continued growth and in literacy. Yeah, I think it's um it's it's a it's a couple things. It's high quality professional development on the science of reading. Um and doing that for multiple years and building that into the culture. Um then it's um our braided MTSS and PLC systems um where you know first best instruction for all students and then very targeted focused skill-based interventions um and teacher and
091teachers collaborating and embracing the vulnerability that comes with collaboration and and moving from my kids to our kids. Um, and then I think most recently it's um some honest conversations that leadership is the lid on some of this. And so some brave conversations and brave moves by our um building leaders that um are pushing some buildings from good to great. And um and then uh I I think also for our team that um the the work is not done. So, it's sort of a relentless pursuit that until that all really does mean all and until we get there, we're going to keep turnurning on this and we're going to keep finding resources and prioritizing resources. The final piece I would say is the um the the the willingness to um you know, this community um
092walk through challenges on equity versus equality and all those pieces and um we are putting resources where they're needed and that's equity work in action. Thank you, Sarah. I wonder if any of this growth was like not a result of but the summer literacy program that was offered last summer for early elementary grades. Yeah. Have contributed do you think? Certainly. We saw um data for our um the biggest impacts were with our youngest learners. Um uh so you know the incoming kinder incoming first graders we we do know that um you know extended school year opportunities 120 hours is not bad for anyone. Um and so yeah we did have 200 plus students. Um it's a factor in this third grade data. Yep. Okay. I'll keep I'll keep rolling. um graduation goal. Uh we saw
093a decrease in the four-year cohort graduation rate. Uh when we dove into that um a few factors there. One, there was an increase in in um dropouts from prior year. We also saw a pretty significant increase of students who are um staying with us um beyond four years. um so students who had to wrap up um credits in a fifth year um andor changes in state law that allows us to keep special education students up to the age of um 21. Uh the graduation rate is from 2324 um and and so then you go back four years. So I think the important piece with graduation is um none of the changes that have happened at the high school for 2425 are reflected in this number. um and you won't see a full um the full
094result of those changes until 2728. That would be the first cohort that had four years um of of the changes at the high school. So, it's it's something that uh we're looking at um closely. We're also um uh a as you've as you've toured our schools and and heard from our high school administrative team um students who arrive as newcomers, multilingual English learners at the high school level, you know, 15, 16, 17, 18 years old um is is a challenge um in terms of um getting them the skills they need to be successful and ready for graduation. And so we are um this graduation goal has been a bit nebulous for our um elementary schools and our middle schools. It's a it's a high school goal. Um so we are in the in the future
095iteration of the LRSP will be um uh tying multilingual English learner supports K12 or preK12 to this goal um to try to help that cohort um increase their graduation rate. um that the graph there is um Bosezeman versus um the state of Montana graduation rate. Our current 2324 um rate is very similar to the state of Montana. We've been above the state rate um for for a while and so uh we'll continue to lean into that. Um you see in that next graph that um are we have some achievement gaps tied to graduation rate for students with IEPs, multilingual English learners, and free and reduced lunch students. Some of the IEP students is sort of a unfair u metric because it's a four-year cohort graduation rate and we those students um by design we keep
096beyond um their senior year um some of them until they're 21. And so I'm less concerned about that piece. And so as I mentioned, we're going to lean into the multilingual English learner um pathway. Uh moving on, professional learning community's goal, we we've adjusted that um dur by spring of 2028. That was based upon um the last revision we did with our community, moving that date to 2028 based on what we know. Um the timeline is at the high school and the middle schools that just went through significant change process. Um we currently have four promising practices schools or four model PLC schools, one promising practice school. So five of our eight elementaryaries are um meeting this criteria. They're the only five schools in the state of Montana that um meet that criteria. Um we,
097as I mentioned earlier, we're focusing resources at Whittier and Highlight. Um and then Morning Stars is is a bit of an asterct. Um Morning Star is the highest performing elementary school often in the state of Montana. They have um their um data is well above 90% in most grade levels. And so to show three years of sustained increases um is difficult when you're 90 plus% proficient. So Morning Star is working with Solution Tree on some other data metrics um to help um to help tell that story better. Um we have uh Sarah Hayes for an additional um school year as um PLC admin coach and have really seen great benefits from that coaching model. Um really helped move middle schools forward this year and in particular spent a great deal of time at Highlight. Um,
098if you were at the highlight board lunchon, um, Principal Shiovika talking about moving collaboration time to Fridays, being hip-to-hip with Sarah Hayes, having bold, vulnerable conversations. And, um, I I wish we don't get into school site data, but I wish I could flash the highlight winter to spring data because it's pretty awesome to see what happens when, um, when uh, leaders have bold conversations and and teachers lean in. So, that that's exciting work. Um she'll continue to work with uh Whittier and Highlight at the elementary and our two middle schools and then at both high schools next year. So she'll have a full plate of of support. Um a few things that we're um looking forward to. Uh we we took a pause on STAR assessments and and to see how we would be able
099to use the mast assessment. Unfortunately, it's less useful to day guiding day-to-day classroom instruction than we thought it would be. Um, and so we will be leaning back into some um universal screener benchmark tools. Uh, we'll be adding Ames Web Plus um at uh the elementary and at the middle school for math and at the reading uh at the middle school for reading so that we'll have a um benchmark screener tool um in reading and math up through 8th grade. Casey, yes, you got a question. Okay, um, okay. So, just to recap, you haven't found mass to be helpful in the day-to-day like for data and helping with like PLC's. Is that what you're that's part of what you're saying? It's not as useful as Okay, correct. And then, um, so you're going back to
100some universal screeners. Um, I guess my question is just like balancing how much testing, you know, how all of that fits in. Is that can you just give me a I don't know like a landscape of how that how that is for teachers how they're receiving that and Yeah. Um does that make sense? Yes. Um I I guess the um the masked assessment is taking way more hours than we had anticipated and it's required and that is unfortunate and that's all I'm going to say about that. I think it's also important to add that our teachers are asking for a universal screener. They they want to make sure that they're being able to measure and progress monitor their students effectively and the mass just didn't provide that for them and so they're asking for it.
101Okay. U moving forward as you know we had a few placeholders in the LRSP. One of those was a non-instructional operations. So about a third, is it a third, Mr. Waterman, of our of our employees are non-instructional employees, so food service or custodians. And so we were looking for a um a goal to help engage them in the work of the district. Um what we learned through the staff well-being consensus and negotiations processes is that the staff well-being goal um hits all of our staff and is hitting the right things. Um, so we're not recommending that we um that we move forward with a non-instructional operations goal and just lean into that staff well-being goal. Um, early literacy. This is another um another exciting one. Um what you see there is um kindergarten um scores
102and um you see um the impact of a significant increase in multilingual English learners on proficiency in kindergarten. Um and so whi which um which makes sense um if you so we saw fewer kids coming in proficient than we had in previous years but a significant increase in that kindergarten population going from 4.77% to 11.45% multilingual English learners. Uh the next graph um is the exciting work that we're doing with Bosezeman reads to help combat that. Um, and so, uh, 100% of the students in those four-year-old programs at Morning Star, um, were not proficient in reading. That's how they got into the program. That was the eligibility criteria. Um, by the winter, um, over half of them proficient. By the end of the year, 66% of those kids um, proficient, high percentage of multilingual English
103learners, high percentage of special ed, high percentage of free and reduced lunch. um the population closer mirrors highlight and wittier than it does Morning Star in terms of the demographics in that um in that program. So uh it shows that early intervention works and uh works really well. We saw that with the summer program as well. The incoming kinders had the biggest gains um during during the summer program. Next year we're adding capacity to 90 students and then we'll take a look at incoming scores and um and see where we go from there. We're running out of space at Morning Star. So future um Boseman Reeds Early Learning Center um would likely land at at another location possibly Irving um as as the next step for adding classrooms there. um staff well-being goal. Uh we
104uh we've done a lot of work around that. Had multi-day consensus process. Um we have a measurable goal. We have associated action plan. Um that was the goal for the year to get that get that completed and then we'll incorporate that into the LRSP framework. So each site will be working towards um staff well-being goal. Uh you might have saw today also we received a um part of the the process was uh uh Alyssa Pac who's our wellness coordinator wrote a grant um and we received that grant from Bosezeman Health. $20,000 which provides stipens for wellness champion at every site to what we found is the one-sizefits-all wellness events um aren't drawing um the crowd that they used to when when Bosezeman was was smaller and and Bruce could send out an email and a
105couple hundred people show up to an event. Everyone's too busy and um and it it doesn't work like that anymore. So, we're looking at um uh creating smaller events at each site tailoring to the culture and needs at at each building, which is exciting. Um what you saw, and this was um sort of expected, um we took the panorama survey in the fall. Uh and then the DOCCC and the staff well-being talked about when would we take it again, and we chose the month of um April when seems to be one of the hardest time periods of the year for um educators. So, by design, um, we put it there and we got the results we were expecting. Um, it was it was hard in the fall, it was harder in the spring. Um, and
106that's, um, good data for us moving forward. That's sort of our baseline data on the staff well-being goal. Um, keep going, Mike. We'll go to student well-being. Wrap this up. Um, student well-being. By 2025, district will establish a system that measures responds to barriers that limit student engagement. Um we brought together um consensus group um stakeholders that built a measurable goal associated action plan um really tied to student mental health, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideiation. There's a lot of things going on um behind the scenes on building out that goal. I'll be excited to share more when I come back in July um about the detailed action plan we have um in that area. Um as I mentioned um part two is school site action plans. Those will all be when you see this document again,
107those will all be live links and populated. And then section three is those board lunchons. Um those and data sheets, those are all presented. Um uh those are all live links currently. Um so it's a discussion item tonight. Take any feedback on um on this as a whole and then it will come back as an action item in July. um as well as the looking forward pieces, which is the um five-year plan and the LRSP implementation framework for the next school year. Well, thank you, Casey. Uh trustees, any comments or other questions, Sandy? Well, I really appreciate all the work that's gone into this. a lot of dots have been connected. Um, and really great information in here and hopeful information that we're all on the right track. Also, I look at the collaboration that's
108just involved in putting all of this together, um, which is the big dot in our district, one of the big dots in our district. So, I really appreciate that. And I was I was wondering about the um uh doing sites specific um kinds of wellness programs for other schools and I'm glad to hear that they're thinking about doing that because I had heard that at the consensus meeting as something that um they thought would work better. So that was a really great idea. So I thank you for this. Yeah. Biano. Yeah. Um, thank you for everything with this. There's there Sandy and I were talking about just I don't know how other districts do it or what other superintendents do. This is the only thing that I've seen and that I know, but it is
109incredible the amount of um just the the interconnectedness of how this district runs. Like it's it's impressive and I so appreciate everything that's going into it. I know I know that there's work to do and I know you're on that and I really have a lot of faith in how that is playing out. But this this like we're just getting the review and every time I dig into something I'm um just to see how everything relates and points back to to the LRSP um it's awesome. Thank you. All right. Well, Casey, I just add, you know, thank you. I think this just reflects the collaboration that we have within our district um and a reflection of including not one person but many to the work but that also takes leadership as an individual. So um
110I just appreciate everything that going into this and all the people. So thank you to you and um all our staff and people trying to do their best with all the challenges that this creates, but it's well worth it at the end. So um All right. Any any public comment? All right. Seeing none, we'll move on to uh board discussion 5.4, which is high school baseball update. Yeah. Thank you, Chair Black. Um I think it was uh September. Um trustees took a deep dive. Uh we talked about um implications for um title n implications and other implications for adding um high school baseball. Um at that time put together an if then pathway and since that time have uh we've been working on items and our community's been working on items to make high school
111baseball um hopefully a reality in um 2526. Um this is a discussion item tonight. No no no decisions by um board of trustees. It also gives an opportunity to acknowledge some um incredible fundraising that happened in the community um in a short period of time. And so I'll walk you through some of these items and certainly um stand for um stand for questions. Um if you recall, we had sort of this if then pathway and if was around um addressing title n um implications. Uh yeah, the the one that says this. Yes. Thanks, Mike. And then yeah, just make that bigger. Perfect. Uh I I can say we haven't 100% alleviated um the you know that there could be some Title N um claims or issues down the road, but we've done our due diligence
112with the tools that MHSA has given us to address some of the Title 9 issues. So um we conducted um the student interest survey. um student interest survey came back and said there was a um there there was um a high percentage of um students that wanted access to volleyball, boys and girls basketball and and baseball. Um volleyball um is the highest cut sport that we have. Um and so we are moving forward with adding and building into the budget freshman B volleyball teams at both high schools in direct response to the student um interest survey. Um, with with that said, um, we're we're comfortable. Uh, we're probably not going to if we add high school baseball hypothetically and look at all of the participation um, uh, rates, uh, we're probably not going to be
113under that i5% um, um, data variance between male and female participation. And it's important to note that part of that is just the large number of students who are in our high school football teams that skew that data. So when you have, you know, a 100 plus students at Gallatin High School in in in football, um that that is is challenging to overcome that number. I did want to um call out that uh this evening um we honored a bunch of state champions. Gallatton High School had six state champions this year, all in female athletics, every one of them. Uh which was uh pretty exciting. So, we'll continue to monitor um the the title N implications, but feel pretty pretty good that uh we can move forward um and and check that box. Then you
114move to the um logistical implications. Um one of those um hurdles was was startup costs. Um double A communities around the state have engaged community donors in the in that process. Um we we had a very organized group, Boseman Varsity Baseball Initiative. I see some of them in the in the audience. um that uh kind of led the way on the private fundraising. Uh had a recent fundraiser um and uh the the ask was $100,000 for year one startup costs and they've um achieved that. Um I do want to um pause if um if you guys want to come forward um I assume you're with baseball. Yes. Yeah. Co come on forward. Tell us who you are and uh we'll talk about this item for a moment. You sit right there. Turn If you turn
115on that um the little people sign um the microphone will turn green. Hi, I'm Elizabeth Matthews. John Thorne, and we're with uh we got asked to be here for the baseball initiative. So, Yeah, any questions that you guys have for us would be great. We want to absolutely thank everybody for looking at this opportunity. The the amount of fundraising and the support that we've got in the community has been absolutely unbelievable. I know that we asked for extra time to raise the money. We obviously didn't need it. So, I think that there's a a really big want in the community for baseball. So, thank you for looking at it. Certainly, and I I'll let trustees respond, but um I I just want to uh thank you and your colleagues uh which are our parents and
116our community members who came together to make this happen. And um I I I don't think we have a check in the bank yet, but it's uh it's coming. Yeah, we don't have the check. That's Yeah, we um emailed back and forth with Mike Waterman and we can get the check anytime you need to. And then both of us represent both each high school um on the booster. I'm the treasur of Gallatin High and John Thornne's on the booster. You're not you're not treasurer though, are you? No. Yeah, he's on the booster club for Bosezeman High. And so each of the um booster clubs donated Gallatin High donated 10,000. We said asked if Boseman High could maybe beat us and we were thinking they might do 10,000 in one and they did 15,000. Um, so
117both high schools are um very supportive of it based on what we hear from our our members too and they're supportive of giving money towards the the cause. Well, I would I would just add um regarding you guys had a great event. So, a lot of people out there excited about baseball at Riverside. Um I was there for a short period of time but had to go to practice. So um but you know thank you for I mean I there's a great deal of passion obviously within that group which is true about many sports and um also that's a reflection of our community as far as the speed goes of raising the funds. Um and then also just parents interested in what their kids are doing and what their interests are. So and that's where
118a lot of these things start. So um I appreciate your time and effort in that. um and look forward to getting a couple more boxes checked, I think, is what I I see on this list. But, um I think they're very doable. Um and I'm looking at this because I think it's a great opportunity, as it's been mentioned multiple times for a lot of for a lot of students. Um and and then the biggest thing is um as we've seen a lot of these different things is making sure that all the parties continue to agree to uh participate the way they originally what the the whole conversation was at the beginning. Hopefully in five years it's exact same conversation. It's for the kids. It's for um and it's not high school baseball. It's not Legion
119baseball versus anybody. It's everybody still five 10 years ago. And even if there's people that disagree with things that happened, which definitely is going to happen, but I hope that's the case for years to come. So, thanks Annie. Um, I I just was curious about what the long-term goal was for playing space like um is what I'm I'll I'll touch on that. That's part of Okay, thank you very much. And I and I just I'm really glad that we're really paying attention to that title n piece. I I uh grew when I was in high school. Um you were a cheerleader or in pup club and that was you were a student athlete, right? And so it's really I think it's really important to keep track of that. But um understand the football piece of
120all of that and as long as that's in the forefront, that's great. Uh Chair Black, if I think I will finish this and then if trustees have questions for us or um our audience, that would be that would be great. Okay. Uh some of the other things that we're working on um behind the scenes is uh we need a long-term with Legion. We've seen this already become challenging um across the state and um simply simply from administrative pers perspective, we're we're not going to compete with the Legion program. So, um our seasons need to be separate um and so that we're not competing for coaches and players. So, we sent anouou to the executive chair um of the Bosezeman Bucks on Friday um that it's a non-competeou that um once we come to agreement on
121that that would come to this board for approval. Um to your question, Casey, they the Legion board they're meeting tonight on that. Okay. It's their regular board meeting, so we should know very shortly. Okay. Uh we we are u and to your question trustee Sandy Wilson on uh field space uh we're convening um uh two two things going on with the field. Um we've received a preliminary umou u rental agreement on Heroes Park um where the where the Legion team plays uh by the fairgrounds. um we've are working through that and we'll be making a counter proposal um to them. We've met with um the the way that that arrangement works is um the county owns the facility, leases it to the American Legion Club. There is the ability to do a sub lease to
122a third party. Um that has to be agreed upon by the Legion board and the county. And so we've met with um county um administration this past week and and have a copy of that formal lease and we'll be um responding accordingly. Um long range facility planning committee, we don't um we want to avoid if possible paying rent um long-term for um athletic facilities. Um and so the long range facility planning committee will be meeting. I think we have it scheduled for June 17th um here at the Wilson to talk about um options um whether the long-term option is Heroes Park or the long-term option is something on district property. Um we are um knowing that um we can't depend on startup fundraising year after year. That was a one-year ask. And so we need
123to build um the ongoing costs for baseball into the existing um athletics and activities budget. Um we are planning for that for 2526 and Mark's been working with the other um doublea um his counterparts on what those anticipated costs will be above and beyond the $100,000. And um and then uh we we don't want the addition of baseball to take away from other activities currently in place. So, it's um in essence, it's going to be a budget ad um to to our um general fund budget at the high school. Um and then when when the all those boxes are checked, um we have a September deadline to communicate with Montana High School Athletic Association that we're moving forward with baseball. Uh we intend to get all of this wrapped up to meet that um deadline
124and ultimately um MHSA would need to approve that and um this board would need to approve that as well. Mr. Waterman, am I missing anything? Any am I missing anything from your end? Okay. All right. Well, thank you. Is there any other questions or comments from the trustees? Any other public comment? I was just going to say that one um just misconception is that we're just high school parents doing this. We really targeted the whole community and so if you did attend the fundraiser, you saw there was a lot of younger parents. So this is something that's not just it's going to fizzle out in a year or two, we really raised the funds. We sold the tickets on May 15th for our fundraiser. They sold out in two days. Um, and it was, yeah,
125we easily raised our funds and it was because we really targeted the younger players because if you look at our Boseman youth program, we have a lot of players compared to when my boys were playing, they have two to three teams for each of their sections compared to that one. So, I think it's just important that um, yeah, we've raised the funds and just continue with the momentum of um, getting high school baseball implemented. Greg, Casey, can you or Mike um just take a little bit deeper dive on budget ad? We just cut 4.3 million a couple years ago. Tell me more about what that means. Budget ad. Uh interesting Neil, we've we've done some initial work on that. Um Mark Aer has done some some compiling of some numbers. So, um, with all sports,
126you've got travel costs, you've got umpire costs or or referee costs, um, associated with it. And in addition to that, or stipens for coaches, all the the coaches that we have to pay. Um, in addition to that, for for baseball, we've got a facilities issue that we would need to address probably some kind of rental situation in the short term and to be determined in in the long term. Um, we've got some real preliminary numbers um, like on an ongoing basis to include um, uh stipens to include the travel cost to include the referee umpire um um cost. It's running about um 85ish,000. I I don't want I give you that number, but I don't want you to think it's that precise at this point because um because it's not. Um so relatively the equivalent
127of a of a teacher is is what this is going to cost. And that's before we get to the space cost on top of that. So, um it's a it's a significant ad um with um the the fundraising will get us off the ground. Startup costs get the initial teams going, but on an ongoing basis um you know the the the um operational costs alone are about the equivalent of a teacher and then more for whatever the space rentals have costing. I'll add to that um that we we went into um uh we went into the negotiation cycles this year with um some known costs off the top. So, for example, the literacy coach that I talked about at K5, the two MLE positions, um high school baseball was was another one of those ads.
128And so, you saw um in the inflationary increase from the legislature, 3% the next two years. Um you saw the stars act um and then you also see increased enrollment at the high school which um and we've communicated over time that the high school budgets in better shape than the than the K8 budget. Um so we fit it in there on on the front end and so and we're transparent with um the BEA that um those were the items that we were um coming in um with um and so we didn't couldn't negotiate with those dollars. Sandy, I'm just curious because I don't know anything about baseball, but will will there just be one team, a varsity team, or it's kind of in the weeds, but just curious. We're planning for um a sub varsity
129and a varsity team at both buildings. So, four teams total. Any other questions or comments? All right. Well, I would I would just add I know you guys said if there was anything else. I think I maybe heard that. Maybe I made it up in my own mind, but um I know we talked about title nine. Um we're looking at that for volleyball. Um I do know that our numbers in softball are low and um even though Gallatin as an example had a great year. Um my daughter played softball. Um I know from the organization and you guys you mentioned that you guys had a youth program. Um, and you from what I've seen, you guys are very well organized and understand how to do that. Um, I think that's the biggest challenge for girls
130softball is that the uh younger ages is not well organized. It's hard to find where when wreck starts, when it stops. Um, you can coach it and then the next year you don't get any information back from them saying we're having another season. Um, so and I know that's completely outside of this, but I think that would be um could be a future significant impact to the community of from a title n standpoint. Um, that because you guys and I only say it to you guys because I know how organized you are at the and how successful you guys are at the younger ages and starting that um and making it organized and making it the ability for people to know where to go and start those kids at a younger age. I think that's
131that would be a significant um help to our community for those other programs. Um I know it's a different size ball, different bases, but um some similarities enough. You still have a bat, you still hit a ball, still have gloves. So um just my thought from seeing that over the years um because there's definitely and I know I've talked to the Gallatin coaches as well. Well, it sounds like next year their numbers, they had some great senior class this year and their numbers are going to probably they're expecting to go down next year and Boseman struggled to get just a JV team. So, um that's just my suggestion. It's all it can be. So, but thank you guys for all your effort. Thanks for the information. Casey and Mike number crunching all this to figure
132it out. And Mark, uh same to you as well. So, thank you. number of girls wrestling is astronomical. the the clubs that they've got new clubs in town that's going to absolutely double, triple, quadruple the number of of girls in wrestling here in the next three to five years. Yeah. Thank you for that reminder as well. Yeah. So, and then also if I could just ask you guys uh name and email address, we're simplifying, so that would be great. So, thank you very much. Uh, all right. We're good on that one. Thank you. Um, any public comment? Don't everybody run up at the same time? All right, we'll move on from that. Uh, reports. Uh, executive cabinet. Yeah, I've got one for the board. We just met uh Lacy was part of this. We just
133met last week uh for our second year of the uh transition to teaching program that we started last year and uh really happy to announce that um we had 11 new candidates this year. So um five that'll do kind of the full um tuition program and another six that will do the ABC to teach. So um so that's really going well. Trusty Black, I'm gonna take a few minutes. Um, we started the school funding interim commission meetings last week in Helena and just want to give you a quick report. Trusty Burlesen was there for a day and a half at the U MTSBA building and uh, Representative Matthews was there as well. Um, lot of lot of conversation. This is a graph and I'll I'll walk you through it in a second, but there's a
134presentation from a researcher out of Georgetown University. U a lot of time spent a lot of challenging questions I would say asked of the the people in attendance legislators trustees um administrators and some some even private homeschool folks um talking about um just the challenging questions that that we face as an education community. This is a graph that they shared. I thought it was uh particularly interesting a scatter plot. Um it's not my graph and so I'm just showing you someone else's work right now um which is a little bit little bit weird but this is a comparison of Montana school districts. This is actual Montana school data comparing um spending on the x- axis. So spending per pupil along the bottom um along the x-axis in increasing amounts per pupil expenditures versus um reading
135proficiency. And the grid the the kind of the gray lines down the middle represent the averages average per per pupil expenditures and average reading scores. You see average reading scores for the state somewhere in the 45% range. average per pupil expenditures is around $19,000 per year. So there's equal number of of I should tell you there's um each circle represents a district and the size of the circle represents the size of the district. So double A district circles are bigger um little tiny districts are smaller and then the colors represent the relative wealth of that district. So green districts represent relatively wealthy districts. Um red districts are are relatively u poor districts and then the yellow ones are are somewhere in the middle. So the the vertical line in there about $19,000. That's the split.
136So about half the well half the districts of of in the state are on the left, half are on the right. Same with that that horizontal number that average. Half are above that line, half are below. So the legislature spent a lot of time um looking at that upper left hand quadrant in particular. That's the ones that of of most interest to them. That's where the most value is return on investment. So the school's spending the least amount per pupil um and generating the the the most return as as in terms of of of actual reading score. So the question becomes is how do we how does the state design a system to take advantage of the the knowledge that those schools have and and emulate that in in the best way possible. So about
137a day and a half that was the biggest outcome for me. I'll give Trusty Burlesson a chance to reflect on that here in a second. Um and then we went into the uh first meeting of the school funding interim commission at the capital. Um there's 20ish members I think on that on that committee. Um kind of an organizational meeting to start off. Um we we elected a chair and a vice chair who happens to be Representative Matthews will be the the vice chair of that interim committee. Um organizational stuff. There's an overview provided of the of the school funding formula of House Bill 153 which trustee Lucine worked on um to a significant extent. He actually provided some testimony in Helena on on uh on Wednesday. Um the the committee is looking forward to moving
138forward with the Souls vendor to do a a study to find out what the high performing districts and states um across across the US and across the world are doing to fund their education that we aren't doing. So we could uh potentially um change our model to follow that and then some discussion about the I'm going to forget the committee name the innovation and excellence and working group um there's a additional committee members besides the school funding interim commission who will be added to that group to provide some feedback and and recommendations to the to the larger group um this coming fall. So I just want to share that with you. I know we'll get into board of trustees in a second, but I want to give trustee Burlesen a chance to reflect on on
139her experience there and Helena and um give you all a chance to answer questions. Um well, first of all, I'm really glad you're showing this graph because um a bunch of us sat around and kept checking that upper leftand quadrant to see where um where Boseman schools were and there's a lot of Boseman schools represented in there. Um I think my takeaway from that day and a half is that um it was a very provoking discussion. Um I really appreciated that there was a variety and diversity of stakeholders in the room that we were spread out. Um, and I I think the the message that I walked away with is that we have some um we have some good advocates on that dennial study, which was what my first concern was. Um, and I think
140they heard loud and clear and I'm very very heartened by who was elected as chair and vice chair for those committees that we'll be able to like it feels hopeful how that study is going to come out and moving forward. Um, so yeah, my takeaway was it was a spirited discussion and many strong advocates um, across the state that were I think pushing back is what I want to say and representing the best interests for schools across Montana. So that was inspiring too in that way even when I sat there with lots of angst. Um I was I was really grateful for the presence of Boseman. Like Mike was you were there. Eric was there. Peter Strand was also there. Melissa Romano who's a teacher and Helena she was there. And at one at one
141point that was like pointed out like how many of us in here are actually still in the system. And Melissa Romano was the one like district employee who still works full-time in classrooms. It was there. And I thought that was just an excellent point. Sandy, um, is there a facilitator to this? Um, to the So, there's two kind of separate meetings. The the school funding interim commission participated in this presentation at the MTSB headquarters for last Tuesday and Wednesday morning and then the the commission itself met at the capital um on on Wednesday afternoon. So for the for the meeting at the MTSBA building with um with where that graph was shared and the conversation Trusty Burlesson was talking about that was facilitated. Um the school funding inter commission is is self-guided by representative uh
142by representative Bey and then chaired by representative Matthews vice chair representative Matthews uh and I'll I'll share this document with trustees but um Mr. Waterman and I um uh doubleA superintendents meet on a weekly basis and we're asked um by uh school administrators in Montana to put together double A priorities from the superintendent lens for the dennial study. Um and we can add that. You want me to add that to the slideshow real quick? I think I can do that. It's right here. Oh, are you talking about the graph? Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. I should interrupt. Tell me more. a graph on there. Oh yeah, I'll touch on your graph in a minute. Um uh couple couple things I want to um talk about with this. Um we quickly settled on double A
143priorities. Um some of the same priorities that the previous dennial study worked on, recruitment and retention, um school facilities and technology, special education, special needs including English learners. Um some of those items are already in the funding form or in the definition of um free basic public education, some of those not. Um and then this final one, a district size structure and equity um that kind of um taboo conversation around consolidation. Um the we've doubleA superintendents have um ongoing and mounting concerns um around the representation we are receiving from the organizations that we pay dues towards Montana schools boards association school administrators of Montana MQC um and and there's and there's some others on the list and we're beginning to have um further like regular conversations around just removing ourselves from those organizations is not
144the solution um because we we lose our voice completely then um but leaning into those organizations and having some further conversations um and so that's my goal in the next year is to meet with the leaders of those organizations and and explain um my frustrations um around Montana doubleA school districts represent 43% of the enrollment moment across the state. Um but when you move to most of those organizations, it's it's similar to like Mark going to an MHSA um meeting, every district gets a vote type of thing. So when you have 400 school districts um the eight school districts with 43% of the kids are drowned out in that in that conversation um and yet we are paying a considerable amount of general fund dollars to support um those organizations. So, I haven't said that
145in a public meeting before, but I'm saying it in a public meeting today, and I'm going to keep telling um that story. Um this graph um Mike and I put together during the last legislative session. If you move from left to right, you have small school districts on the left and larger school districts on the on the right. Um the data shows that large school districts spend way less per pupil and get better results. And there's some reasons for that. Um, way less per pupil is all about economics and economies of scale. Um, in this room today, we've had conversations about multilingual English learner position focused on coaching our teachers. Multilingual English learner position focused on direct student support. A reading coach at Highlight and and Whittier focused on doing equity work and supporting those.
146Those are not conversations that small school districts can have because they don't have economies of scale. And so they still have to have a clerk and a superintendent and a principal and and all of the things. Um and so uh my hope is that um I I am not out to take away anyone's local school district or local control. Um I am out to make sure that the dennial study pays attention to simple e economics. And if we in this room or in any room were to build Montana public school system from scratch, it wouldn't have 400 districts. It makes no sense um to have that many districts. And so I I'll keep having those um conversations. Um I will work through board leadership to make sure that I don't um speak on behalf of
147the board. I'm speaking for myself, but I'm tired of watching this um happen over and over again where the conversations around funding formula are taking the current model and just tweaking it or adding more dollars to it. We have our taxpayers saying enough is enough across the state and we need it. We need a new system of public education and it's it can't run with 400 plus school districts in the long run. All right, any any questions or comments? Okay. Uh any other uh executive reports? Okay. Uh next board of trustees 7.2. Any reports? Yeah. This is this is on the heels of um what Casey's talking about because we uh after we had that um day and half and Helena with the education finance and when uh when they went to their dennial study
148we had our board of directors meeting um and and what I walked away with like we had a very long discussion about what is what is the value of MTSBA to our trustees. So there there was like we had a lot of discussion and we talked about a lot of different things. Um and it currently at the moment I so I'm a municipal director which means I'm I'm uh representing Bosezeman schools. Um but then I then I realized I'm also like the the vice chair of the region. So region nine um we had Cara Edgars who was a trustee up in Big Sky is actually the regional director representing this whole area. So, it includes Park County, Madison, um, Mir. I have to look at it, but it's kind of like this whole skinny area.
149And we currently don't have a regional chair for that area. Um, what I walked away with is I' I'd love to have just conversations with each of you individually at some time and just talk about MTSBA and see what that role is and what that looks like. Um so not you know not for discussion here but I just want to get a take from everybody and would love to meet with each of you about um what is the value because there's this recognition of um and it's it's dropped people don't attend you know the meetings people are not as engaged um there's a lot of services I think that are used like I know I know we attend think tank Thursdays um and that there's some video online training that's utilized by the board but
150I I know MTSBA MTSBA would like to know how to bring more value to the trustees and for the the kids that we serve. So that's in a nutshell what happened at our board meeting. Any other trustee reports? All right, that said on I already did. I already asked. Yeah. We're in section six now. I didn't screw up that, but I appreciate you trying to make me feel bad and guilty. Wow. Jeez. Am I Haven't you been here for the whole meeting? I'll I'll adjourn this meeting. Good job,