001[clears throat] [laughter] [clears throat] [laughter] >> Mike's trying to log in. Sorry. So, he should be on in a second. >> [laughter] >> Sorry. >> [laughter] >> I see what your favorite color was. You just beat me on red. >> [laughter] >> I guess purple. Whatever. You just wrote purple. Red. >> [laughter] >> of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Is there [clears throat] any public comments from the previous meeting? Start with recognition and reports. Good evening, members of the school board and administration. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak with you today. Over the past year, I have had opportunities to travel to Fort Worth, Texas in February in February, and last December, I
002got to travel to Las Vegas, Nevada. These experiences allowed me to learn more about the equine industry, observe professional events, and gain real-world knowledge outside of the classroom. Today, I would like to share what I learned and how these experiences helped me grow both academically and personally. In February, I traveled to Fort Worth, Texas to attend the NRCHA Celebration of Champions, which is one of the most prestigious events in the reined cow horse industry. While I was there, I had the opportunity to receive what was going on into hosting a professional level equine competition. I observed riders and trainers preparing their horses for competition and saw the level of dedication, training, and care that goes into performing horses. I also learned about the many professional involved professionals involved in the industry, trainers, veterinarians, farriers, judges,
003and event staff that all work together to make an event like this possible. Watching these professionals work helped me work helped me understand how many different career paths exist within the horse industry. This experience gave me a better understanding of the hard work and commitment required to succeed in the equine world. It should also show me how important teamwork and professionalism is in large events. In December, I traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada during the National Finals Rodeo, which is one of the biggest rodeos in the world. During this time, Las Vegas becomes a major center for the western industry. People from across the country come together to watch rodeo events, attend trade shows, and connect [clears throat] with businesses that support the western lifestyle. While I was there, I had the opportunity to see how
004large-scale events are organized and how businesses and organizations work together to support the rodeo industry. I visited trade shows, watched rodeo competitions, and saw how the sport sport brings together athletes, sponsors, and fans. This experience helped me understand the economic and cultural impact the rodeo that rodeo and agriculture have across the country. Through these experiences, I developed several important skills. First, I strengthened my communication skills by interacting with professionals and learning how they work together within the industry. Second, I learned about professionalism and responsibility, especially when observing how competitors and trainers prepared for the high-level events. These experiences helped me gain a better understanding of career opportunities within agriculture and the equine industry, which are both parts of Montana's cultural culture and economy. economy. Overall, my time in Fort Worth and Las Vegas gave me
005both valuable real-world learning experiences outside the classroom. These trips helped me better understand the equine industry, develop important life skills, and explore career paths for the future. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share with you what I learned from these experiences. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Good Good evening. Uh I just handed you uh three uh papers that I did for my classes. Um I did two papers on my on my English class and one history paper about the history of reined cow horses and how my me and my family personally got into it. I'll share with you share with you what I learned from my off-campus experience at the NRCHA Celebration of Champions show and how it affected my overall learning. This year at the National Reined Cow Horse World
006Show, I competed in the Youth World Show in Reined Cow Horse. It has four events: cutting, reining, fence work, and steer stopping. I reined for kids that made the top 10 competing in the uh World Finals. And my dream came true. I competed among a crowd of 10,000 people in the Will Rogers Coliseum with the top 10 adult riders in the NCHA, as well as the other 90 youth competitors. I ended up seventh in the in the world. Morse Ballistic and I are already working towards next year's Youth World Show in Reined Cow Horseman. For this experience, most of my learning happened in the classroom. But being off campus has shown me how education connects to real life. At the events, I saw trainers, owners, veterinarians, and professionals working long hours behind the scenes. Their
007success depends on communication, responsibility, time management, and attention to detail. Skills are taught in school, but don't always get get seen out creatively used. A lot of A lot of responsibilities are caring for your horse, making sure they are prepared, making sure you have yourself prepared, feeding water your horse, making sure your tack is all like >> [snorts] >> up-to-date, making sure I mean, you give a lot of go break, start break. That's it, you're done. That's That's in the air in the air show, but then uh time management, especially when you just see a lot of higher-up trainers, right? They ride up to 20 horses a day. They can only spend a certain amount of time feeding and watering, and also riding each horse, getting them schooled, getting them prepared for each show. Academically,
008I also had to stay on track. I completed an online science using district resources while earning college credit while doing it. I also worked on history and English by interviewing trainers and journaling my time there. This experience taught me how how important it is to communicate with teachers and stay organized, especially when learning outside the classroom. Overall, this opportunity helped me become more independent and confident. It showed me that learning doesn't just happen at a desk. It happens through real-life experience experiences, responsibility, and staying connected to your goals. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Also, I think there's some videos we have, but I don't know. >> [clears throat] [cough and clears throat] >> Thank you, guys. Thank you for letting me present to you guys. Thank you. Next, we have trustee reports. Um we're now
009accepting letters of interest for the open elementary district 15 board position. They are due to the district clerk by April 2nd at 4:00 p.m. Um calendar and PT PT Trying to figure out when to meet for that. Um so we do have to replace one board member. If you want to apply for these, you have to replace one. Um Sam and Dave and Mike. We're wanting to move the committee meeting to April, and then the approval of the calendar to the May meeting. Let's meet in May. Are you able, Molly, to do a committee meeting in April? Yes. So I can get the TV on there. I don't think she's on there. Can you check to see if she is? She's on facilities and transportation. Um and then kind of just note to teachers, I'm
010not sure who's on there for you guys. Um but I had Marissa, Carol, Marty, Seth, and Gal. Is that how we ended the year? And I believe Chioko replaced Gal. And then somebody sat in for Marty. And when we did this in May. Seth was in for Marty. You were in for Marty? Okay. And Seth was supposed to be somebody else in there. I think Seth >> [cough] >> and Marty [clears throat] couldn't make it, and that's why And then there was somebody else that sat in there cuz we had five people. >> was one of them, but I don't know why. I remember him saying Seth was in there, but somebody had to sit in for Gal at that time. I don't know who that was at that time. So, if you guys just
011want to give me that list, I'll update it. Hopefully. What? No, I You guys have always given them to me. Is there a day in April before our meeting? Or I guess it doesn't have to be the prior meeting. It could be comes to me. That works for anything meeting in town. And the teachers. I think it was Gal that probably needs to be contacted first to make sure she's got her time to mock up together. Yeah. So like the end of April, maybe? Mhm. You might [clears throat] want to do it ahead of time. It was past. I think it'd be fine if you did both of them. As long as we're not We're if we're not negotiating this year, we're not looking at changing minutes per day. So I'm going to keep it
012pretty structured. I'm pretty open in April. So, I guess if you guys I'm fine if you guys want to visit and call up with a day and just not during the day cuz I'll probably have to do it after school or something. Do you have anything in April that won't work for you? The 23rd. Not the 23rd. That's Okay, I'll let you guys come back to each other with these dates. Um Is there something else? I think we're getting I know you said when I was talking. You need to move the handbook review. And then Oh, yeah. The 19th isn't going to work cuz lots of people are going to be gone as far as the handbook committee meeting. Is there days that are options? [clears throat] We'll be looking at the last spring review.
013I think the 30th and 31st potentially would be the last. Or the next week after that. I said four dates as ideas, but I don't know where they would land. Did you just push reply to me or did you put file? I think I put file. Okay. I We don't have the board meeting till the 13th, so as long as we can do it by the 7th, then I would get all the changes attached to the board meeting for review by [clears throat] public. That'd be my only request. Was the 30th or 31st an option for you guys? Um both of them that I put in there. And then 20th, a lot of us are in town for professional development. But I don't know if that will Would they feel like talking to you after
014professional development on that Friday? That's Friday. Yeah, I'm I'm very free in the day. Can you guys only have half days? That doesn't make any sense. No. Okay. I'm not sure who Yeah. So could we do it Monday or Tuesday, the 30th or the 31st? >> Mhm. Do you know? Are you looking for after track practice, Chioko? [clears throat] What's that? If they do it the 30th or 31st after track practice. And what time is that? Where are you usually done by? 6:00? Probably 5:30. I was going to say I We can't leave the school before 5:30 cuz it's the whole board. So. Do you want me to check with the other two that are on and see what their work is? Yeah, check between those two. Cuz I know that Seth is up on
015Tuesdays. That's when he does the meeting. I don't think he is doing anything for the next couple weeks. I will Seth, what you have for your bucks okay? Yeah. All right, I can do it. Okay. Okay. So back to that report. Oh, you will be back? >> [clears throat] >> Uh so we're going to move pretty quickly through all those things, but um I had a chance to go to Black Hills in Dickinson and uh do mock interviews, but then just a chance to visit with teachers that are in in training right now and pitch what what do you collect as to offer but also just get some insight about what they're concerned about as far as um all salaries and and different pieces of that. Uh on the last week we went to took
016a group of teachers to St. John to visit um their school. They are both a BAR and a successful all school and so spent the entire day in almost in the Canadian border um and lots of of good information teachers saw um a lot of um uh in in use examples of all of it combined and had just a always a good chance to get out and see other schools and see what they've been doing. Um and see how they're implementing different pieces. Uh then we came back and we had the graduate profile last last week um with the visitors from OPI and and then they also stayed and ended up visiting the school the next day. Uh lots of good information. They were really excited about seeing our kids and our our teachers and
017and what was going on and >> [cough] >> I answered a lot of questions for the community. Um our next one is on April 7th. Um and that will be the last the last go around um before it gets brought back to the board. We had the Jungle Book. Um lots of people lots of fun. Uh Except one day is tomorrow. Uh St. Patrick's Day but it's the bigger deal is as we had this conversation a few months back it's the showcase of learning and so the teachers in particular have taken on um a lot with this one. They've created a basketball tournament mixed in with uh all of our students running all of the jobs and doing everything from coaching to refereeing through scorekeeping to announcing and then the teams are all made up
018of the the elementary [snorts] school kiddos. Uh creatively thinking about how to get teachers I mean how to get um parents and community member in here members in here to see and talk to kids about what they have been learning. So uh get them in maybe with a little bit of basketball and get them to have a chance to see what all of the awesome work that all of our kids are are doing at at kind of all the levels across the board there. Uh it's about just uh right around $2,800 on the floor auction and so um Yeah, I I don't know. I I didn't really have an expectation for that so it's $2,800 that we we didn't have otherwise. Um floor designs will be coming out Well, they've been working on some different
019floor designs and as I've said um before the floor will be uh have a very very very limited paint on it. Um it will be it will use stain which um will help ensure that the longevity of it is even even longer because the paint breaks down and so the the the more we can use the stain the more we're just worried about re-waxing it and and those kind of things. So instead of a five to seven year sanding and refinishing it turns into a seven to 10 um which I mean fair enough the floor other than a few people in the room >> [cough] >> the floor will probably outlive most of us but the longer we can extend it that's a that's a good thing. Uh So um all the BAR visit update
020they are the last BAR visit will be um April 17th I believe. >> it was the 13th. Hm? I think it's I thought it was the 13th. 13th you're right. Actually you're right. I thought it was the 14th. Um April 13th will be their last visit here and um then actually and our successful all coach is going to be here the 31st and 1st of April as well just as an after thought. I mean it's a good time to come in and and see what's going on. Uh the one to one learning center planetarium um will be here on the 24th and 25th. Um we've actually um worked really hard on this. Uh the Zoo Montana will also be here on the 25th. So Club has partnered with us to make that possible. Um to
021kind of defray cost and so they will be here on the the 25th to participate in that as well as participate in the zoo and I get a chance to interact with our kiddos as well. Uh the Constitution Road Show is coming on April 10th and then BAR conferences uh end of April where four people from the district will be going five people from um the community will be going Amy, Kayla, Mike and myself and then Stacy's going uh from the county if you will. So um yeah. I think that's it. Are there any people here that want to add anything to the report? Uh I'll put one thing in there at the back of data there. So we have couple different things right? I want to highlight a couple and I believe where that
022little table right behind you there was a little table there. There oh That moved. There is some sheets there shared not knowing how many people will be there packages of that. So um the gentleman that is in charge of Milligan is um he is a a board member from Reed Point that is also like a a data junkie and so we have been working with him to look at our data. You all should have the sheet in front of you all the board members should have this. Yes. Um and so first and foremost that was the the homework I assigned um for you guys to watch that video on this this information in front of you and and remember prediction is a prediction and we're going to be sharing these are called score cards and
023we're going to be sharing score cards which are budget score cards. Um budget score cards um as well as attendance score card um and this the intent here isn't um the answers are never in the numbers but the answers to the questions should come out of those numbers and uh create some conversation and what they've already have with us. So just as an example of this one um this was our first score card from them. This is using predictions based across the state basing off based on our past numbers. Now I will tell you as you look at um our 26 27 school year and you look at enrollment for K-12 that is working through those numbers but by all accounts we will not have 12 kids in our kindergarten class. So it's it because
024it doesn't take preschool information into that it it can be a little bit deceiving. But this gives you an idea of like generally looking at first and foremost where numbers go up where numbers have gone down um over and the longer we we um look at our data the better we have a an an idea of that. So if you're looking at just looking at fifth sixth and seventh grade thinking okay well you see an increase in fifth sixth and seventh grade and then you see a decrease um in freshman year and then you see a spike back to um sophomore year. There's there's a couple I mean you can there there's there's no definitive answer on that but fifth sixth seventh grade is where people start allowing their kids to participate or can't participate
025sports. So there's a tendency to see a few more of them in the school. Um freshman year is always eighth grade freshman year is always across the nation is a challenging time where you um generally lose kids. Um in and I would I'm going to just make a hypothesis on this one but when you look at the question that may become out is why does your enrollment [snorts] jump um in sophomore year traditionally that's that's because sophomores can't live without Mrs. Walker and so they have to start rolling into this building literally rolling into this building for for drivers ed. drivers ed. And so um but as as as we continue to kind of look through data and present these to you and um have them in front of you hopefully there's more and more
026good questions that get asked about those and looking for patterns and looking for okay why are where are like in this one in particular why are there ups and downs? Okay, people move in people move out but in general is there the the negative numbers in particular is there something we need to know about that versus somebody moving out that's maybe out of our control. Um are there other reasons that are driving or influencing those numbers? Okay? Um the other sheet that you have with you is just a very kind of quick um if you just as an FYI you can come in the school if you ever are really bored and want to know when um uh you can come in and attend a uh a BAR meeting as a board member. Um well,
027we have two different meetings. We have small block and big block meetings. The only thing we have to know is if you're coming in, we have to aggregate the information so you have to make sure that the names are are kept private, if you will, and that. But this just gives you kind of a We're we're elementary-wise, we're in the beginning stages of this. We started in January. High school and junior high started in October. And we've been working through it. Um Amy and I have a call every week, and every week we seem to tweak things and and push and get a little bit different. So, this first The first page, when you're looking at that, that is just kind of a breakdown of the areas that of focus for our our K-6. And
028then if you look down through that that information, that just gives you an idea of some of the things that I mean, we can pull from that, but then also there's all sorts of conversations weekly uh weekly every other week the elementaries have a small block meeting, which is K1, 2, and 3, 4, 5, 6. They meet and discuss all things students, like how students are doing. Um and and the coolest part I will tell you about um all of us, we're we're naturally prone to negative things. And so, um every one of those conversations about every one of our students starts with a with a strength and what they're good at, how they're attached to the school, who the people are they're connected to at the school, all the positive. Um so, to try
029to keep us from ever um battling that human tendency to be like, "This We're we're struggling with this." So, if you look at the next piece of that puzzle, the next little graph, that's 7th, 8th. Um just random things for you to look at. Overall grade trend over time. If you look at that, there the grade trend on that one is is pretty good. Um but grades are grades, but then as you look through, just gives you a little bit different information as far as um you know, like that first one where you were started at about a 3.53, and we're we're gradually moving up. This is our conversations um no kids No kid gets We don't want to focus just on our kids that are struggling, but we're talking about kids that are are
030maybe doing really well and there's a slight dip. Why is there a slight dip? Is there something we need to know? Um what How do we help that student? Uh the teachers have been amazing um at both levels. I can't I can't say enough about how they have moved kids from at the high school level, they moved kids to home rooms. They've done different pieces as far as getting tutors. In the elementary, they've they've taken high school kids and worked with them, but they've uh continually finding ways to work reach out to parents or or do different things. So, it really is um exciting to to see them grabbing on and and working through from that, and and it's it's pretty fun. The last piece of that, one of the things that just came out
031and teachers Teachers have been doing this, but again, we're we're looking to be more systematic about it as far as the really work on that that last piece on there, that 54 break tags in the last month. So, we All of the adults in the building have access to cards that go out to anybody, but uh out to any of the students. And so, those are called break tags, like dog tags. And uh just in the last month through our K-12, actually let Let me back that up. Through our pre-K, so I'll say our daycare through our um fourth graders, we've sent 54 different messages home to parents about whether it's character, grades, something they're doing that that that adult has specifically noticed about that student doing well um in some avenue of the school.
032And so, uh it's really I mean, it's not quite half of our students, but almost half of our students have got some sort of positive message home uh just highlighting what what they're doing. And the the teachers and staff have done a really good job of of just looking for looking for all of those kind of things. I don't Sorry. Is there any public comment on non-agenda items? May I add um to the athletic director's report, since he's not here? Is that all right? Yep. Um the all-conference and all-state list came out for the basketball uh season. Um 12 student athletes make the list every year. And for the 4C girls, Nacio Connor came in first. She made all-conference and all-state, and she was asked to play in the Treasure State Games. Um ninth was
033Ali Shepherd. She made second team. And then for the 4C boys, Roger Beach came in second uh all-conference and all-state. Uh eighth was Caleb Fry, second team. And then 10 was Eldon Morris, also second team. And then Chase Lodinger, honorable mention. Thank you. Um Dana? What? You're on here for >> [clears throat] >> public comment for non-agenda item. Oh, I meant to hit no. >> [laughter] [laughter] >> Are we moving past all the reports? Yep. Did you have something? Did you They asked you. She asked you. Shake your head. Cool. Yeah, you shook your head. It's okay. If you have something. No, I Go ahead. Um you guys have any questions about anything before we go, cuz this is coming up. Yeah. Yeah. We've done this a few times. >> We have. I didn't know
034if Does anybody have any questions >> This is a mental health class that we do with our eighth graders, and we have four classes. They'll do it during their PE class. And so, it's on >> [clears throat] >> We have it through Montana State University. It's an accredited program. Um we've had a lot of good feedback over the years, so if you have any questions, just let I did have a question. Why um I guess I'm wondering about the not informing the parents about it. I already did. A month ago. Oh. So, it says in here that they don't have to be. You can opt out. Oh, I see. It's a It's not an opt-in, it's an opt-out. So, it says in the letter that we sent home that So, I sent I sent home
035a letter about a month ago to all the eighth grade parents, and then they call us and contact us if they want to opt out. Okay. We just automatically put them in. They have to call us to opt out. Perfect. Is that what you mean? Yeah. I was going to say, I did I did contact them. >> [laughter] >> It's And is the state museum still part of this? So, Sabre is she's part of this program now. So, it doesn't necessarily have to do with museum. She's just part of this program through MSU, so. That was it. Sorry. I just wanted to question again, cuz there wasn't >> [cough] >> there wasn't a chance [clears throat] to discuss Thank you. Any public comment? Public comment? Move to old business. Handbook reviews. Well, based on the
036discussion we just had, uh that those a little bit more time, looks like conversations is was set to be on March 19th. So, moving that back and setting that date and bringing that to the April meeting. Um just because there's a lot of people gone. Yeah, you don't know if he heard Phoebe say she would be gone February 1st. So, the recommendation is to table certified and classified handbooks until April. Yep. And that's what you were going to ask. Thank you. Mhm. Yep. It's on the motion. I move we table that. I second. Phoebe made the motion to table the certified and classified handbooks until April. Lena seconded the motion. All those uh is there any public comment? Public comment? Or discussion. Phoebe made the motion to table the certified and classified handbooks until April.
037Lena seconded the motion. All those in favor, say I. I. I. Do we have any? Yes. Mhm. Motion carries. Uh Move to consideration of possible action to renew or non-renew tenure of teachers. Um yeah, the list for you. Uh I would make the recommendation as noted above to renew uh the four contracts and non-renewal of the contracts. Any board discussion? Any public comment? Is this um is this letter B? Yes. This is B. Yeah. Um Are you going to do those individually or you going to like one at a time or you going to do it in one swipe? It can be either. However however somebody makes the motion to be it can be either or. So may I please um um make an appeal for um the recommendation for non-renewal um for next year.
038That is in the non-renewal letter B and it's on the first part before the four names for the non-tenure to be renewed. Thanks. Yes. So you can make um comments about it. Um can I stand in? You may. Yep. Thank you. Um good evening Miss Chairperson Lisa, uh Vice Chair not here, um you know Miss Ryan Todd, Miss Miss Deena Thomas and Miss Dana Thomas and Mrs. um Samantha Wright. Good evening Mr. Superintendent Keefe and to my colleagues and to the community of Ekalaka. I stand before you tonight as a veteran social studies educator with 13 years of classroom experience and the last three of which I have dedicated to the students of Ekalaka Public Schools and I am here to formally appeal the recommendation for my non-renewal and to share a record of my
039commitment that demonstrates why my retention is in the best interest of our students' success. While the board agenda lists my non-renewal as being for no cause, I am aware that under Montana Code 204-206, the district has the technical authority to non-renew a probationary teacher without stating a reason. I believe a no cause resignation should not be used to overlook a teacher's proven performance or to bypass the professional support promised to them. Um in private feedback, it was suggested that I needed to improve my community linkages and my parent-teacher partnership. And as a social studies professional, I have treated that feedback as a mandate of excellence and I am here to show that I have met and exceeded those expectations. Um to understand my dedication, I ask the board to look at my proactive efforts over
040the past four years. Um So on my first year here as a first time teacher, I told during my interview I said that first year is always going to be a hard year for first like first year teacher in the school. Whether or not you have five, seven years, let's say 10 years of experience. We always go back to like the basic of it because we don't know the people. We don't like especially for me, I it was my first time flying from Philippines coming here. And then I um the previous um administration, Mr. Parnell and Mr. Cook asked me if what my work ethic is. Like how will I be able to teach the kids here their history where I where I'm not from here. So I told them how and I gave them
041I told them the plan, explicitly said that I'm going to study two weeks one week before. I have to be one one month ahead of them to be able to understand my content and to deliver my topic the best that as I could. Um and so because of that, on my first year here, on my Saturday and Sunday at I'm always in the school. I didn't go home at 12:00 in midnight. Just to study the history here. And then I go out to churches in the town for like one month and like there was one time in one Sunday I went to three churches just to meet the people. And just to know who are the people in Ekalaka. The first day I came here, I went to the museum to know the history of
042Ekalaka. Call me weird, but on the second day I went to the cemetery. Why? I want to know the history and I want to know where the people in the history is laid down. Like wait, this is different here. This is different from our cemetery. Then you know where I went in the following days after that? It was the fair. I talked to people. I stuttered and that like because it was not it's not my first it's not my native language. I tried my very best to understand the people in town. And after that school year, I was so proud of myself. I got the renewal. It's like okay. Maybe next year it will not be a struggle as my first year. Because I already know the content. I already know which one would work.
043And so I was so proud of myself. And so um in my second year, I thought I had to step up because knowing it will not I don't think it's enough. So my second year, April 2025, >> [snorts] >> I visited the office to launch a mock trial project for my senior class and demonstrating my commitment to high level academic rigor. I personally consulted with Attorney Corbett Harrington for his professional insights and invited both him and County Sheriff Dwayne into our classroom recognizing them as a premier resource for an authentic hands-on educational experience. Beyond the senior year curriculum, this initiative also engaged the junior class to preside or presiding or presided as a jury on my mock trial. Um those students have now transitioned into their senior year and in this school year we are
044progressively developing the framework for this year's mock trial. Miss Cook Um I didn't tell you ahead of time that normally public comment is three minutes. Oh. >> So I will give you another minute. Okay. Thank you. Um so so um on the first year of this of the first semester of this academic year, um I had a surprise visit in my classroom and then I seek for support and comment and like um and then I [clears throat] had to go on maternity leave. But I went on leave one day prior to me giving birth. I was swollen. I didn't care. I I just I I was here for the students even if I was already like so heavily pregnant. But anyway, um I underwent surprise evaluation and um I involving full period observation and then
045that was in October and then I I had my another surprise evaluation November 3rd and then um after that I well, during that evaluation I uh during my post evaluation conference, I asked if we could have a pre-evaluation conference on my next one so we could talk about the framework of my lesson plan so that if there's like stuff that needs to be changed it needs to be changed on the pre-evaluation conference. Then the evaluation will work better because then it's not I mean there's no way I can really teach that if it's already like if it's already over. But um and then I did my best um and so when we got an email that we should collaborate with cross curriculum with my fellow teachers, I did. So that's how we got Mr. Tom
046Carroll to come in and talk to my eighth graders on Montana history and I also have um with Mrs. DeFord, we contacted Anna LaBree for it and then Anna LaBree came and then talked to um our Montana history um class and so yeah, I thought I did my best and I thought I thought it would matter whatever I do would matter. And so during my post conferences um it still said that I'm not going to be renewed. And it's just that um >> [clears throat] >> I have a lot of I wonder like I wonder if I did or did not do anything it would it would change anything. I wonder if there's some plans that are already put in place and just ready to move whether or not they do anything. Um like just
047like everybody else in this in this room, we all wanted to be um in a peaceful and and a safe environment for us to um to do our best. And so um in conclusion I have given my 13 years of professional life to education and three of those to Ekalaka. I believe what you just requested. I have fostered good partnerships and I have personally insisted on the membership necessary to meet this district goals. I'm a licensed expert, a dedicated colleague and a member of this community. I respectfully ask the board to um to reject the recommendation for non-renewal and allow me to continue serving the students in class. Is there any other public comment? Okay. Sam, do you want to do time or Okay. Um we are currently talking about the non-renewal of a high
048quality educator um who is licensed and has become a part of this community. This while um coming up in this meeting, we're going to discuss letting go of five other quality educators filling classrooms. Excuse me, looking for their replacements to fill grade levels next year. So we have five on the list coming up next who are our emergency teachers who could become licensed teachers, which I understand do you have to advertise for their positions. But what that means is we're looking for a lot of people. And we're looking for a lot of high quality educators who we need here. We are fortunate to have these high quality educators and we're not likely to replace them with people who are more qualified. Sarah Beth has invited locals to speak in her classroom. She traveled to Missoula
049for special training that was encouraged by our superintendent um while the NEA convention was going on in Missoula as well. Um he encouraged her to go to a separate one. Um this was October before she went on maternity leave and her and Miss Della Cruz took the trip to Missoula. Is that true? Did you go to Missoula? I went with her but I didn't attend the training. >> Yeah. Um and this is more specialized training than most of us have received this year and she went and participated in that to try to increase her knowledge. She encouraged her students to take part in a civic bee essay contest and eight of them have made it out of 60 selected in the entire state. Even having the boss tell her before maternity leave that he did
050not want to renew her, she still worked hard at it. Now she's completed a second observation and still being told that she will not be recommended um even though she's made improvements in all of the areas on the previous observation. Um she's still given all of this, she's still preparing to train these students for Miles City regional civic bee on March 28th. She's filled out the event form. She's been gathering resources and trying to set up practices for those kids to go compete. Um one of our classes that struggles the very hardest told me that she is the kindest teacher in the school and that she always treats them well. Um our seniors said that um they respect teachers who try hard and teachers who try to teach them the right content. And um when
051we have um these quality educators, these are the people our students need emotionally um as we move through hard times and educationally to deliver the right content. We cannot afford to lose these teachers right now. So please do not erode away the good people we can get here. Do not non-renew Mrs. Napoli and hope that we can find someone who tries harder. Is there any other public comment? I would just like to say that um Sarah Beth has made this her home in Ekalaka. She's brought two of her kids here and she's going to have more kids hopefully entering our school system and with a local guy and seems like that's kind of the deal. You get somebody here either they're from here or they married a guy from here. So um or a girl.
052You don't have to marry a teacher. But that's all I have to say is she's made this her home and and her kids is home. So Okay. Um I'd also like to speak in support of her. So uh um as a colleague, I have personally seen how she tries to build partnership within the school and the the community uh between the school and the community. Recently uh in my journalism class, my students has written two articles and those articles are about the visits of two locals and I believe those uh those visits give opportunities to students to listen to local stories uh learn history that's from Carol Carol and Anna LaBree and uh with those visits, I think uh those are proof that uh she tries her very best to communicate with the community and
053to build partnership. Okay. Is there any [clears throat] other public comment? the board discussion the discussion or the motion >> [clears throat] >> This is a heavy decision because the way it's worded is you just feel like there's a there's some things that we don't know. So that's why it becomes heavy. I move that we go with the superintendent's recommendation. Second by motion. So to clarify the action, are you doing this as a whole or Yes. Do they have to be I think you were not going to have to be separate from your initial list. Okay. I I move that we renew the four. And I second the motion, Kim. Sam moved or I'm sorry, Rena moved that the Board of Trustees renew the employment contract of Ms. Stella Cruz, Ms. Ellington, Ms. Kimpton, and
054Mr. Muzio Yuga. Muzio Yuga. Muzio Yuga. Sam seconded that motion. Okay. Uh is there any public comment? Public comment? Board discussion? Rena made the motion to move that the four trustees renew the employment contract of Ms. Stella Cruz, Ms. Ellington, Ms. Kimpton, and Ms. Yuga. Mr. Yuga. Muzio Yuga. You can just call him Mr. Graham. Mr. Graham. Thank you. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. I [cough] got to make sure I have it. I think this is all right. My hair is annoying this open. She just got it curled. Is that what you're doing here? I I'm trying. No. He said he can raise his hand to vote, but it's I don't speak on here. >> [clears throat] >> May I talk to the sorry. I move
055that the Board of Trustees not renew the employment contract of Sarah Spath employees for the 2026-2027 school year without cause in accordance with section 20-4-206. Is there a second to the motion? I second. Sam has made the motion to um move that the Board of Trustees not renew the employment contract of Sarah Spath employees for the 2026-2027 school year without cause in accordance with section 20-4-206. Rena seconded the motion. Is there any public comment? I feel as if if it's not going to renew her because of non-stated reasons, I think there should be a stated reason. I feel at the very least, uh she's owed that. As to a reason why she's not being renewed. Is there any other public comment? Any board discussion? Sam made the motion to move that the Board [clears throat]
056of Trustees not renew the employment contract of Sarah Spath employees for the 2026-2027 school year without cause in accordance with section 20-4-206. Rena seconded the motion. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed, same sign. I. Sam? Yes. Rena? Yes. Mickey? No. Mickey said yes. I have mics over here and it's also yes. Any discussion on the motion? Motion carries. Consideration and possible action to non-renew non-tenured emergency authorized teachers. Can you set up my copy for a second? What if that's not working the way you want it to? Do you want him to voice in on it? Do you guys have a vocal instead of No minutes. Call in. Yep. Okay, you got it. He can just dial. You want to send it? Yep. Uh 406 5312. That's your number. 5312. I'm just
057pushing in again. Yeah, I think it's fine. Chris, can you hear me? I'm just pushing in. Can you hear me? I just put it first or after you guys? I mean you can put it first. Can you hear me Chris again? I think Yep. Can you hear 5312. Sorry, my technology is not working. Can he hear us or is he there? >> He's hearing it through the outside right now. So, he can speak through my phone. He can hear us, he just can't speak through I'll keep you guys updated on the vocal. I think people are aware. Hey Mike, we'll have you keep listening through the microphones, but you're on my phone if you want to speak. Consideration and possible action of non-renewal non-tenured emergency authorized teachers. Uh we have five emergency authorized teachers that
058are in some stage of working on certification. For Montana law, we do have to open those positions up. Um and so uh the the non-renewal allows us to to do that. Um and keep those open until um April, and then we'll hopefully fill in those positions with >> [clears throat] >> Is there any board discussion? Well, we're required to do this, right? Yes. I just want to say that they haven't done it for a job because I think all of them have, so. Any public comment? Any public [snorts] comment? Um >> [cough] >> just so you guys are aware, and then I do like to toot our into the hallways of our high school. Teachers do a great job, too, don't get me wrong, but um our elementary staff, I just finished all of our
059math test data, and so um that being said, we increased I'll give you some exact numbers here when I pull it up, but we increased our level threes, keep in mind, the level three is the highest level we can go, level one being the lowest, and we decrease our level ones in elementary side. So, speaking for these teachers who are on the list, we decrease our level twos and we increase our level threes. So, I would say that we're making some really good progress with these teachers. So, just keep that in mind as we're going forward that we're making some amazing progress and our kids are doing well and I'm really proud of teachers and kids. So. Thank you. Thank you. We have a public comment? Work discussion or motion? We have to advertise for
060the position, but if we get a teacher that applies for the job that has to have to take them over? No. We We have to go through a hearing process, but we still can choose who we can move forward with. If they're not certified. It has to be posted for six weeks, and then we have to approve the posting when we have the emergency authorization. Can you clarify? Like, it's been posted on the equallacka.net for a long time been looking for an elementary teacher. Does that not count? When did that post to go up? Um off the top of my head, I cannot. I feel like it went up after our Matitsi visit. When was that? I would say like when I was in when I was in Mexico, I felt like I don't know
061why I was there and I was like, "I don't know why I got all these jobs posted." So, has that been six weeks? Does that count? That does count. Absolutely does. So, then if that counts, it has been six weeks, why do we need to >> So, I I I would just say one of the the board feedback pieces last year was specific that we rushed to hire non-certified teachers without even giving ourselves a chance to see if there was um other applicants out there. And so, this I mean, in theory, we wouldn't have to hire until July 1st. Um this was an an attempt to meet a try to meet a mid-ground on it to make sure that we give ourselves due diligence through the hiring time as kids are graduating, as people are
062looking for jobs, and erase that doubt as well. Can I just say that I've obviously taught in this district 30-some years, and the camaraderie in our current elementary staff is probably the best it's ever been. That um it's amazing to work with people who all want to work hard, and these girls are putting forth their very best efforts, these ladies are. When you walk down the hallway, you can see what they've done. They've dealt with some really difficult >> [laughter] >> situations and some really difficult personalities, and they're doing it and shining at it. So, I don't Yes, they are on emergency licenses, and I don't ever want to uh make light of how important I think that a degree is, but they're working toward those, and they're doing their very best. So, I mean,
063I would I don't think you need to look much further. I think that you've already you filled your needs. We have a public discussion? >> [cough and clears throat] >> I would like to know how many weeks it's been advertised. It's I would say I'm pretty sure it's been a couple months. And can you clarify, is it every position needs to be advertised? Every position that has an emergency authorized Okay, so >> person in it currently. But it's in every elementary education And we have the music one Britney has as well Correct. Yes. on the website. >> [laughter and clears throat] >> They have to reapply regardless of whether it's been advertised. Correct. >> [clears throat] >> Cuz they need the authorization. >> [laughter] >> Don't they just have to write up a letter of
064interest if they've already have all that application stuff on file? I mean Cuz they actually they have to reapply. Cuz that's part of the emergency authorization for the next year. I mean, all that stuff's on file, but their pro- their process is much easier the second go around or the third. Well, I mean, normally you just say please renew my application that's already on file. And so, those Yes. I mean, but they still have to reapply. Okay. When I was under emergency license, I [clears throat] maybe was wrong, but I did not have to reapply. I just had to do a letter of intent, and I was hired back. They did advertise, but I feel like this equallacka.net should be consistent with the What do you say? Six weeks? Mhm. And it's on OPI as
065well. That's what I'm looking at right now. So, We opened I opened them on 112. Oh, look at that. >> [laughter] >> I was I was I was not going to say anything. Yes. And all five positions were open on 112. Music and elementary. That's what they all cover. So, then >> [clears throat] >> we would just need to have this motion, and then that six weeks has been met, and our teachers can reapply. Correct. Okay. I was going to say, I don't know if this like creates any relativeness, but um this exact thing was sent out in our curriculum, so it's everywhere, and it's I hate to say hoop you have to jump through, but the hoop you have to jump through. And so, all of the clerks that are all doing renewals right
066now in March, it's going on everywhere. So, it is an MC step that we have to follow. I And I would throw in there that at the board's [snorts] um direction, if the board wishes the the recommendations to come to the board at the April meeting instead of the May meeting, >> [cough and clears throat] >> I have no I mean, it's been open for the time that once it's been that they've expressed their letter, we can those can be brought back in April if that's the choice of the board, or if they want to wait till May. Thank you. Is there any board comment? Thank you for [laughter] looking into that. Is there a motion? I move that the Board of Trustees not renew the employment Kendall Kittleman, Lena Lovelace, and Ceily Maniece >>
067[snorts] >> for the 2026-2027 school year without cause in accordance with Section 20-4-206 MC. I second that. Sam made the motion that the Board of Trustees not renew the employment contracts of Peggy Biswell, Jana Fix, Kendall Kittleman, Lena Lovelace, and Ceily Maniece. BB second the motion. Is there any public comment? >> [clears throat] >> Work discussion? Can we add in there to that they can immediately reapply? Or to hold on in April till the mayor? Is that something separate? So, they can just reapply. >> Okay. Um Sam made the motion to that the Board of Trustees not renew the >> [laughter] >> employment contracts of Peggy Biswell, Jana Fix, Kendall Kittleman, Lena Lovelace, and Ceily Maniece. BB second the motion. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed same sign. Motion carries.
068So, Okay. With what we're saying. Okay, I move that they can immediately I don't agree. Oh. I'll move just that. >> You can just request it. Not a Not a motion, just >> Oh, a question. Okay, then I request that they can immediately reapply. So, you want hiring to be brought in April then? Yeah. I don't remember her right now. >> We now move to personnel certified tenure teacher consideration I recommend to renew the tenure teachers as presented and offer contracts for the 2026-2027 school year. Is there any public comment? Public comment? Board discussion? Motion? I move that we approve all renew all of the tenure teachers for the coming year. Is that a good [laughter] way? I'll second. Rina made the motion to approve the renewal of tenure teachers as presented and offer contracts
069for the 2026-2027 school year. DB second the motion. Is there any public comment? Public comment? Board comment? Give me his name. Vote. I I skipped the list right about it. I don't think I have to. So I'm saying all tenure teachers here just going through the list. >> [cough] >> No, it says as presented. So You're okay. Rina made the motion to uh move to approve the renewal of tenure teachers as presented and offer contracts for the 2026-2027 school year. DB second the motion. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed same sign. Motion carries. Classified salary matrix. Uh as we looked at things last year and as we head into this year um our classified staff got steps but they did not get um a raise as such with that and so
070to uh to stay competitive market as far as um within the county we um looking at our budget and and whatnot are proposing to uh 2% increase across the matrix for our classified staff. Board, any questions? Comments? Let's make sure they're Yep, that people are there. Any public comment? Public comment? Is there a motion? My question is can I put it in the minutes? Yes. I mean you you can get the actual numbers. Is that something about you? No budget comments. Let's stand. Yep, that's fine. I'm just putting this comment in the minutes. You know, looking ahead for the future. The nice part is now that I got included in QDC, which is a quality education components. The increase of this is not quite all what you get for me, which is fine. Something that
071we thought of the last two years and we didn't like doing. What did you call them again? The QDC, quality education. Okay. It's not that anymore. It has to be quality staff. They haven't changed it on their budget sheet yet, but they're going to. Pay employees to do that. I move to approve the new classified salary matrix as presented. I second it, please. Sam moved to approve the new classified salary matrix as presented. DB second the motion. Is there any public comment? Public comment? Board comment? Sam made the motion to approve the new classified salary matrix as presented. DB second the motion. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed same sign. Motion carries. Classified hire considerations. All right, we're going to make this one complicated. Based on some things that have happened
072in the last few days um we uh I would recommend um based on conversations with um Mr. Ford and uh as our special ed director, I would um make a recommendation to table the para special ed hirings till next board meeting till we have a chance to um dissect numbers a little bit to make sure we know what we will need for next year um because we're not um 100% on that yet and so we just want to make sure that we know and we're not hiring more than we need in the sense of that. I just want to make sure on that. Uh as far as the other classified people um uh route driver, secretary, cook, all of those other than the para special ed positions uh we would recommend that those be re-offered.
073And that's how we are daycare is also. That was the request of when we made our hires that they be hired later and then mine will be in April. Who is the first one you said? Daycare? Oh oh yeah. Yep, daycare is just tabled for another And then I'm not on there because I'm not doing it. Is that supposed to be May's? It was all Lisa. Okay. Um So when will daycare come back? May. May [clears throat] will be the one to decide on me. Maybe the transitions. So [cough and clears throat] can you word the suggestive here? I mean if you want to hire staff in April or do you want them in April or in May? Um I think I'm hoping with para in April. If you want to If you ask we'll
074be prepared Uh yeah. I mean I would I would rather do it no different than our other staff. We're going to do it sooner rather than later. So they're not getting they get there is a change in that that they know. So you can move to table the paras until April, daycare until May and hire during May meeting. Classified hires as presented. Our paras not just >> [clears throat] >> Is there any public discussion? Sorry, that was just a recommendation. I was just clarifying. Any public comment? Rina? Um I'm being told that my name's not on the para list. I'm a department para and department emergency off. Para? I don't know what that person is. Para what? I don't know. I would put you No, you are on the you are on the She is
075a half and half. She's not being not as a para. Okay. You're the special ed. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, we're good. She has teaching in her blood. She thinks she's a warden. Very good. I move to table the hiring of the all the paras until April meeting and daycare until May. Is there a second? I second. Sam made the motion to table all the para hirings until April and daycare hirings until May. Rina second the motion. Is there any public comment? Public comment? Board comment? Do I have to state that she has just tabled and Xander's on there? Yes. Yep. >> [clears throat] >> Uh Sam made the motion to table hiring paras until April and daycare until May. Rina second the motion. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed same sign.
076I abstain. Mike abstains and motion carries. >> Is there a motion to accept the recommendation of the superintendent of classified hires? I just made the motion to approve the rest of the classified hires. Rina made the motion to >> [cough] >> uh accept the recommendation of the superintendent to move to Oh, sorry. Rina moved to approve the rest of the classified hires as presented for the 2026-2027 school year. Phoebe second the motion. Is there any public comment? Board comment? Rina made the motion to move to approve the rest of the classified hires as presented for the 2026-2027 school year. Phoebe second the motion. All those in favor say I. I. I. I. All those opposed same sign. Motion carries. Chaperone additions. I would um ask that uh Winder Ellington, Patrick Clays, and Seraphina Clays be
077added to our chaperone list. Any board discussion? Any public comment? Public comment? A motion? I move to approve the chaperone additions as presented. I'll second the motion. Phoebe made the motion to approve the chaperone list as presented. Lisa second the motion. Is there any public comment? Public comment? Phoebe made the motion to approve the chaperone list addition as presented. Lisa second the motion. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed same sign. I abstain. Sam abstains. Motion carries. Annual school election. >> [clears throat] >> No election. Okay. Um only one candidate has filed for each of the school board positions. Therefore, we will cancel by acclamation. [clears throat] It has to be posted 30 days before the election, so next week I'll >> [cough] >> post it that the trustee election will
078be canceled. Um I put on here the different levies that are currently withstanding at this time that do not need elections. And then I attached the preliminary budget data sheets for next year. Uh Mr. Capps and I have had some conversations about the shortfalls on the overbase levies, and so we do feel it is necessary to run um general fund levies at this time. And so if you want to flip to those um on page five, if you look at 9E, that's page five of 12, you're looking at the elementary budget. And that has a shortfall of just shy of $41,000 in it. And then if you look, same thing um on the page 11 of 12, it has about $8,200. And so um the biggest thing going forward is the state again is looking
079at if you're going to your taxpayers for money and how um you're trying to fill locally first. And so as you guys can see, there's the highest budget with the highest budget without a vote. And then if you go down to 10E, the highest levy overbase authorized or imposed is between FY22 and FY26. If you don't continue levies, that number will never change. And so let's say we run the high school levy this year for $8,200 and it passes, that that number will go up next year. And so that automatically fills our overbase for next year with the potential to not have to go out to taxpayers. And so the longer you don't run levies, the more income for you as your budget increases, if that makes sense, cuz that overbase then fills. And so
080we haven't run an overbase levy in a number of years. Uh our high school has been filled for quite a few years. And then I checked last year, our elementary was I think like four or five thousand dollars. We didn't run it. And so um it's our recommendation to run this year not only for this year's budget, but for future budgets because there's a formula behind it, but that auto that overbase auto fills if those levies are passed. What's that I just hold the potential to not have to go out next year or for a few years. And so if that kind of makes sense. Courtney, can I ask a question? I guess is it public comment or board comment? Go ahead. Just with the RC up here, you have the safety levy for high
081school and elementary. Is that more for me or is that going to be branched out a little bit more? So we ran It can be it's very specific on the safety, but we can still hold it. So any levies you guys want to remember this are rollover. So like let's just say a worst case scenario, we don't have payroll next year. You can hold that money for a counselor for 10 years. It does not have a timeline on the levies that you run. If you move money, if you transfer money, >> [cough] >> and you earmark it into the building fund for safety, you have a two year that you have to use it for. If you earmark it to put in new doors, you have two years to use it. But these levies are
082uh forever. So even if we didn't use it for a long time, it is sitting there for I have to go back and read the wording. Of of the ballot. That's overbase again. I appreciate that. Um >> [laughter] >> And these So and remember this also, we're going to go out for the full amounts, but there is a chance that if we get to the spring these numbers change a little bit cuz these are not set in stone until August. We can approve up to the full amount or slightly lesser. And so um our inside or out of district tuition does affect this number a little bit. But if we don't get that tuition from the other school or for some reason they don't pay and it's a vital to pay, we could potentially run
083a shortfall. So I'd rather approve the full amount and go to the voters for the full amount. And then if we impose less, you can always impose less. So there is a chance of imposing five to six thousand less in each school. But again, don't have the authority to have all of it. Then we But then we're running a shortfall for the following year also, if that makes sense. So I thought I'd add into this conversation one of the pieces we've talked a lot about with the levy at the high school. So for example, when you think about the $41,000, um the first thing the state looks at is are you um maximizing your own budget before they worry about how the school is funded. The second piece of that is um currently on that
084year over when you think about 41235, um approximately if you that dollar amount is exact, it it would be about $1,237 for the general taxpayers across Carter County as a whole. So if you think about the 1,600 people in Carter County or whatnot, that number um in the families, but it's $1,200 total for everybody else. So the challenge of our our county still comes back to because of the oil and gas industry, nothing is pumped out of the ground here. It just traveled by us. The only way you ever capture that is is a mechanism like this. And so to to capture the $41,000 for our elementary budget, it's $1,200 for our taxpayers. Courtney, have we heard if how much money we might be getting for this year or FY25? Will there be any money
085coming in with that? With the new with the newest one? We didn't get anything. >> No. We won't get it again. So this is based on a 40 uh on a 97% tax rate. So that number should increase. So it should be 98 or 98 I mean it should be less, but what we know at this very split second, it would be uh 97% of it is 3% of it is on the taxpayers. >> [cough] >> And there's also a chance that our taxable value goes up again. It's gone up the last two years. So that can also decrease our taxes so we don't have those in the long run. We run assuming that it's going to be a similar taxable value. Okay. Board discussion, questions? So let's look at the year. Oh gosh, I
086meant to fix that. That's okay. So the years are just blank. Elementary safety is one rate. I assume >> but I wanted to clarify. And high school safety is Yes, those are the same. So next year the psychologist and the safe lobby are all the same. >> [laughter] >> Any public comment? Public comment? Any other board questions or a motion? >> [cough] [snorts] >> I move to cancel the trustee election by acclamation and run a general fund levy for equal access elementary district 15 in the amount of $40,985.05 and Carter County High School District 3 in the amount of $8,243.50. I'll second the motion. Sam made the motion to move to cancel the trustee election by acclamation and run the general fund levy for equal access elementary district 15 in the amount of $40,985.05 and
087the Carter County High School District in the amount of $8,243.50. Lisa will second the motion. Is there any public comment? Any other board comment? Sam made the motion to approve to move to cancel the trustee election by acclamation and run the general fund levy for the equal access elementary district 15 in the amount of $40,985.05 and the Carter County High School District 3 in the amount of $8,243.50. Lisa will second the motion. All those in favor say I. I. I. >> [clears throat] >> All those opposed say nay. Motion carries. Resolution of non-voted levies. Um so I passed this out to you guys before the meeting. I had a couple formulas wrong so you have a new sheet for the permissive levies. Reminder that this is just a notice. So these numbers are again not
088set until August. It's required by law that the public be noticed in March. Uh so this is based off of last year's numbers and a little bit of this year's numbers. So some of like the bus depreciation is going to go down because two buses will come off this year. One bus or two buses? I think it's two. Come off the depreciation schedule and then um you now are required to estimate $100,000, $200,000 and $600,000. So the legislation recently changed that and the formulas that go into it. Um and so you can see if everything stays relatively the same because of the state wide equalization and overbase stuff that the mills will actually go down. Or sorry, the mills will go up just slightly in each one and the dollars are Oh sorry, changing those.
089I got to read this right right away. High school is going down. Elementary goes up slightly. But the high school does not include the debt service that's on there. So it's high school is going to stay relatively the same now that the debt service goes on because of the bond. The debt service is not required to be on the notice because it is not a permissive levy. And you also have to state what you're using your school major maintenance money for which is um SMMI money that's in this year's budget and in the next year's budget. If you don't need it you can save it. >> [cough and laughter] >> Any public comment? Public comment? Any other discussion or a motion? I move to approve the notice estimating non-voted levies as presented. I'll second the
090motion. Rena made the motion to approve the notice estimating non-voted levies as presented. Sam second the motion. Is there any public comment? Public comment? Rena made the motion to approve the notice estimating non-voted levies as presented. Sam second the motion. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries. Policy 8700. So we have been digging to make sure nothing has been missed and obviously there's been a lot of I guess I wouldn't say turnover in this this position. So policy 8700 was approved in June 2019 but has was never placed in any of the policy manuals and so it's um I guess interesting policy that we're dealing with drones and whatnot. Uh we were having a conversation about it and I don't know >> [snorts] >> if you want
091to spend time on it if you want. And so the verbage of that is essentially in front of you. The only piece I would add in there is that we um that there's some way to have approval because when this was first set in there um we have technically we have kids a group of students working they use some drones and use different things. So having written approval from superintendent or designee is probably in our best interest. Is there board discussion? Any public comment? Public comment? Any other board questions? Motion? And how do I think about that? >> [laughter] >> Mike was the only one on the board that asked. I remember like for this when this 8700 policy was adopted but never made it into the policy book [clears throat] or planner. I remember
092adopting it at that time we had a bunch of individuals down at the flight your own drone at the school uh parking lots during lunch activity and during cake on Friday. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, her mic's right. There was town people flying them over the football field. During during the game. More than once. Like People in the town No, just one town just flying over and hovering over the games. Like coming down. It's illegal, yeah. So we did that against them. I wanted to Did you guys check to see if there's any newer policy about this? There is no recommended policy from OSPI as of now. And I sent them this to make sure that this was acceptable for 2020. for for additional wording. And they were good from 2020. >> [cough] >> Is there
093[clears throat] a motion? I move to approve the changes to policy 8700 as presented. Second that. Sam made the motion to approve the changes to policy 8700 as presented. Ruby second the motion. Is there any public comment? Public comment? Board comment? Sam made the motion to approve policy changes as presented. Do we second the motion? All those in favor say I. I. I. I. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries. Informational, we have the curriculum tracker. So, Sam had requested um if there's a great option uh because to you kind of look at what that rotation what that is. And so, this is what we have on record as far as the curriculum tracker. We have been um when I say we the Britney and myself have been working really hard to make sure we're
094providing budgets to each of the classroom teachers. Uh that is actually usable for their classrooms. which has or has not been a common practice here. So, as well as looking at what does our what does our rotation look like and and how do we um maintain what we need and and figure out what we don't need if those things are on there. If this is um this is what we currently have. Okay. So, Sam, can I add a little bit? Yeah, I would. That's that's I had looked at OPI and tried to do some research, but I really like more information. I'm sorry. And Mr. Caffey and I kind of talked about this today. So, we look at how and I I'm pulling up the exact numbers right now. But like our elementary and I
095know I keep talking about this, but on our math scores, we um we had a 14% decrease in level ones for math. 10% decrease for level twos as well. And then we're seeing that our junior high is dropping off. >> [cough] >> Is it because our elementary curriculum builds upon itself and it does a nice job of scaffolding it and putting it in the correct order, but then when they get to junior high are we just presenting concepts that they've never even seen before. So, are they really testing that or are we just Is the curriculum not aligning the way it should or does it align with the standards compared to you know how old it is? Do we know how old our math curriculum is, Mary? Mary Chance? Um For junior high or high
096school? You you could look at that later. Oh, junior high and high school I have no idea. Sharon had picked it out. Well, it's because she knew her stuff. So, I I would throw in here the math piece is complicated for 7-12. Mr. Emmons has done a great job of attending the workshops uh online as the state math standards are changing. And so, it's actually a good time to be looking at what our curriculum is in math, especially 7th through 7th through 12th, but um because some of that actually a lot a fair amount of that is changing. I also had some Carol. I wonder if part of it is not having a junior high teacher as well. I know we're probably never going to get one, but I do think they still need that
097home room teacher and that can keep track of them in all areas, but I know that won't happen. It's just my own opinion. So, my next question is for the subscriptions that are expired and stuff that's upcoming in '26 and '27, like are we in the process of creating a plan for that so it goes from K to 12? Um what do we as a board need to be doing? Do we need to be looking at budget? Do we need to be part of that process or how can we help with that? Cuz some of this like the 7 through 12 math expired a long time ago. So, [snorts] May I? Um Mrs. Carol always taught high school math and then Mrs. Fix taught a lot of the junior high math. And it's probably been
098a while since anybody looked at the math books that they used. So, and I think those high school integrated math books are also expired. You know, was it 2023? 21. 21. Um two of them in '23 and Well, and then I mean the subscriptions. Okay. So, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is are subscriptions their online parts? Mhm. Do you know that? For math? Mhm. That's what I wondered about like the expiration. Is that when it's not current or does that just mean our subscription? >> the subscription. But we still have the physical books. But physically we have physical math books. So, like let's let's let's use Chiocca as an example. So, like her earth science she has the physical books, but each year we have to renew her an online portion to be
099able to access her teacher and her students. So, when you renew >> an example that I'm familiar with just cuz it's started since I've been here, but I'm not familiar with these older ones. And is that something that you use? The online portion? Yeah, I like it. For some of them, not the earth science one. >> [clears throat] >> Not exactly. [laughter] But if you look at their school students, is that I don't Do our elementary teachers use it? Does it have a boss online science? That's only available from third grade. Or [clears throat] third grade up. I used it some sixth grade. I did dabble with it a little bit. They have their activities and videos online, modern examples of Yeah. Jenna, what did you say? I didn't hear what you said. Jenna? What?
100What? I don't What did you say? I did I had sixth [clears throat] and seventh grade science and I used the online some. Okay. I would say though that it shows evidence-wise that our curriculum for science is newer than our math our science state scores and our math scores are through the roof. So, I think it just goes to show that maybe updating our curriculum maybe in the math realm wouldn't be a horrid idea. And then Mr. Caffey, reading-wise, are we for sure going to SFA for reading curriculum next year? Is that a for sure go? K. And then with that portion Okay, I'm not sure. Yes, so we did that. What is What do you think? I think Yeah, the same one the same one we started with was very successful. We just did
101it with kindergarten. kindergarten and uh I mean preschool with him. Like Caffey. It's like a lot of information on OPI. And so, where can I go to see what the most current curriculum is and the recommendations are? Do we know? OPI won't won't give you a recommendation. They won't. That is local control. >> So, like um the What Works website, that that's all all of like teaching tools, all of those kind of things. Um I I mean curriculum like we is very personalized to what you or school wants. And so, the challenge is nobody cares about us. I mean, they care about California. They care about Texas. Cuz if you make curriculum and it gets sold there, you're in the problem. Make curriculum and it gets sold in Montana. Yeah, Sam. So, it's a matter
102of digging in and then letting And like I said, Mr. science of math basically, science of reading, the science of I don't know what the fun term for it is. Um but the science of math is is becoming numeracy. Um uh uh topic. And so, looking at a K-12 scope and sequence for for our schools at at at least a 3-12 would be beneficial. You said Chiocca had a follow-up comment. That's okay. Chiocca? Um we're part of the peer review curriculum consortium. And so, um when we revise standards at the state level, then Kim Stanton usually has us get together and go over a curriculum guide for the peer review people. We're part of the consortium. And so, usually she invites us to help put that curriculum together. And it takes the state standards and
103then breaks it down into something easy to read. Um And she kind of knows what every school around her uses. She might have some of ours. And she looks at the textbooks. So, what we have is a list of textbooks. >> [snorts] >> Um the question is did they match our curriculum? Thank you for listening. Appreciate it. When is curriculum decided on? If there's any changes for this year. Sooner than later. I well, if we if we want to implement next year, we would probably need to have it heard by high school. By June at the very very latest. Early June. I thought it was Yeah. Cuz it Doesn't the policy say the board approves want to ask you all these questions as well as because it does require board approval. So it would have
104to be approved in May to be ordered in time. Yeah. To get information on it, you know, I think I believe our policy is administration along with teachers >> Yeah. to be There's a committee, right? I was going to say there's a committee. And I don't know are there is there a certain number of board members that need to be part of that committee? Or is it just I think they have the committee and then I think it just comes to us for recommendation and approval. Yep. It would still be nice to have all that information before we bring it to the board. Decide. It says 2120, the board is responsible for curriculum adoption that must approve all significant changes and curriculum adoption of new textbooks and new courses before such changes are made. The
105superintendent is responsible for making curriculum recommendations. The district shall ensure that the curriculum is aligned to all content standards and appropriate learning progression for each grade level. Talks about reviewing every [clears throat] 5 years. Having re-bid and schedule. So you can assist on state standards. Well, not for our meeting with the public meeting with OPI, you know, the other night. I just wrote that thinking about curriculum and looking into it and what's going to align with the direction of the board. Just to make sure that we're headed, you know, the right steps so we're not spending money on curriculum that's not going to fit. Uh consent agenda. I have a comment. Yep. On the work session, um so my thought our work session was pretty lengthy. I'd like to capture more notes about it in
106the minutes. I don't know what the rest of the board would like to do, but not obviously a transcript, you're not word for word, but it would be nice to document um discussion that was had with those in the public. So when we have our next work session, we have a recap of it. Because we discussed a lot of stuff. I don't want to forget anything, so I would recommend that we um table these minutes with more detail on the work session on February 9th. So you have the work discussion. I think it would be really helpful also to have the comments from the public and in our minutes of the work session. And I wouldn't say every page in the handbook because we kind of went through the handbook, but I was thinking maybe
107um we could we could say like see attached handbook for draft revisions and just attach that so she's not on page eight, this was the recommendation and it's all right there. That was something that we did cuz that's what I told her. I made comments so I was actually working on has all of those comments and she's great. And so that's something I was going to ask you for before we do our next work session is if you can share that with all of us and I don't know if you want to share with the teachers also so that or whoever was part of that. I think it'd be helpful to sort of refresh, save some time going into the next. Yeah, be able to review it before our next work session. Um you guys
108actually have access to it. It's in a new handbook folder and uh staff share Yep, I made a 2627 handbook folder so that you should be able to see all my comments. If you cannot, let me know. Can we edit on that back one? >> [laughter] >> I'm pretty sure you can, let me know. >> [clears throat] [laughter] >> I just have the note for myself. I can always revert version files back. So will that if the board chooses to table that, separate separate motion from the rest, right? That's fine. Yes, [laughter] that's what I was thinking. Yeah, you can approve all and table >> [laughter] [laughter] >> So okay, so this one is good, classified certified ones. You're talking about the other one. We didn't That's not in here if it was on March.
109You're talking about March 3rd. >> Yeah, I am. But I can still go edit that so you don't have to have to table this. So after I said for work on March Unless you want this one more detailed also. >> Probably I would. Yeah, I can go back and edit the work session. Cuz there was a little bit more detail. Yeah, but the March one is the biggest. That, but at least you know now. But like I came in to that work session knowing that so I don't really mind. This one with the February 9th. Right. Yeah. Yep. And I took good notes, but Carol? We teachers also took good notes if you're talking about the last one so I don't know if you Can we [snorts] share those or not? Is that against the
110rules? Our teacher notes with you guys on those on the last work session? I mean if you want yours. Yeah, I'm just Cuz it has to be yours is my question. Yeah, but I don't know but if you if you want to just if you want to just check mine, you guys have access to my comments. Okay. I just Could you just let me know? Okay. I didn't know if they could be shared with us not in an administrative capacity, just So if you want to keep them I just didn't know if that was So the only thing that's going to go before the board in April is a full annotated version of the handbook. So just like I do before, I always strike anything that's getting removed and I highlight stuff that's changed in
111a color so you guys can read it through and all the changes are highlighted. I was just meaning before we go to the board, reviewing our work session. Yes, I will send them the change list so they can read it before that. You guys are having the ability to make comments but not edits on it. You just do that? Actually it was set up that way. [laughter] So in here, what is the difference when you say like fuel to be voluntary versus fuel to athletics? Why is it said both ways? Yeah, I have to type all those in and it might just be a fact that they wrote on there. On the receipts? The receipts on their letterhead or on the receipt or on the terminal when they come back. And so we're trying to
112looking at in that committee. I was just looking at Farmers Union and they fuel to athletics. And they weren't going to a particular place. Yep. Yep. I don't know unless they took a vehicle. Does that mean they went to Baker? Cuz I was saying they went to Baker. What day was it? No, cuz I have your fuel to Baker date. Did you write on that one? Oh, what day was that? I'm wondering. Well, they It was the 19th. I know. I already did it the second time you were I'm just saying like Yeah, you might have messed up filling out the thing. Yeah. That's all I I would say cuz I we drove it to Scobey that day. So you might have messed up. >> I mean there's a lot on the 19th. Like you
113there's Scobey and Baker brought us that. Cuz that's the credit card. That's the credit card. Cuz where else did we go? Yeah, we went to brought us that Tuesday and we went to Terry's. So there's Terry on here. My guess is somebody just wrote on there and shoved it in the question box. Cuz it was Brandon both times and that was the first time. Some comments on the receipts all right where I went. Other times I would write my name. Okay. >> [laughter] >> So it's the bus driver's fault. You just didn't you didn't write it on that. >> [laughter] >> I didn't write my fuel like put it all in there. I didn't put it in there. I know they had the cake that day. Oh gosh, the adult ed costs added because of
114the decorating and the crickets. And the yes, just crickets. >> [snorts] >> One other class? And rock climbing. Did you write rock climbing there? You can do it slowly. And then I I have some questions but I didn't know if some of those words. What's the last call? The last call? What are you looking for? Uh sorry, they're not page numbers. Okay, what's what's the code? That'll help me. A 201 or a 101 or Let's see. Oh, if I can find it, maybe you can talk about the 406 signs. I'm just wondering what that is. 406 signs. I'm not familiar with these, sorry. I work for this district. We do all March's bills. And then I go over all my March ones I just put in. I'm going to do a little bit of something
115like this. And I'm going to the last call. The 406 signs is where we got the athletic signs through, wasn't it? 406 signs were the bull or the dog bones. I don't remember. Is that what it was through? The 406 signs was all the new dog bones that are all in the gym. Oh, okay. So. Okay. And then Remind me again what the parent square is. The parent square is a communication app. That's what I thought. Okay. And it's on here, guys. Yes, one of the onboarding forward inner or for the website. One time fee and the other one is the application. So it's both of them. Yeah, so we're at So it's last pass, not last call. Last pass is our um the admin team uses it for our password management system. And so
116like I have probably 60 to 70 passwords in there. So if anything happens to me, Grant can go in there and then they're still able to access Okay. Can we go back Um back to the dog bones, there are several spelling errors on those. I think Velcro just spelled wrong. >> [snorts] >> Um grassland, it says grassland instead of grasslands. Federal Credit Union and then I think it says farmer union instead of farming union. And those are just the ones that I noticed, but there are several spelling errors on those. So. Thank you. Yes. What are the heart necklaces for? Those were the Valentine's Day rock paper scissors. Oh, yeah. >> [cough] >> We have enough for probably next year also. Okay. We had a fun Friday rock paper scissors. I think it should be
117just kept at the high school level, however. There was a lot of tears in first grade. >> [laughter] >> So they lose their necklaces and then they're like We should have just handed another set out like I did. No, it is. That's my little Valentine project. Or maybe like fifth grade on up or something. I don't know. Or something crushed. >> [laughter] >> Well, so for Mrs. Spice, they took all their winnings. No, they kept the one. >> [laughter] >> They lost the other. Yes, that's what I meant. And then they have to Yeah, he said that I'm No, you are. I have a really great assistant. I appreciate each and every one of you. All right, any other board discussion that I missed on the consent agenda? Any public comment? Public comment? Board discussion?
118Is there a motion? I move to approve the consent agenda as presented except for the work session minutes from February 9th um for those to be more detailed. I second that. Sam made the motion to um approve the consent agenda as presented except for the work session from February 9th February 9th as for it to be tabled to include more details. May I have a second the motion? Is there any public comment? Public comment? Sam made the motion to approve consent agenda but to table the work session from February 9th to include more details. May I have a second the motion? All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed same sign. Motion carries. Uh we will now close the meeting to executive session. I'd like to say something real quick. Sorry. Can't
119right now. Um I won't take a All right. And then we'll continue with our quarterly superintendent evaluation follow-up. >> [laughter] >> Well, since we're on a break right now. I would like to interject something. You guys all voted to not rehire. Right? You >> [clears throat] >> Oh. I think you have a quick point that you can follow up. I'm going to make a point right now. >> [clears throat] >> I don't know if you guys know this, but she's on a work visa for exchange reasons. So what you guys voted for is for her not to get rehired. She loses her work, she loses her visa, she has to go home. To the Philippines. So that I cannot go with her to the Philippines because I am an active member of the National Guard.
120So what the school board has voted for is to separate a family of a local family. And I very much doubt the legitimacy of anything of a school board separating a family. All because you guys don't have enough spine to stand up. Okay, I'm finished. I hope you guys don't sleep tonight. The public quarterly superintendent evaluation follow-up. We chose to do it quarterly rather than once a year because we got the results back. But I think