001for the I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you everyone for coming. Um we continue audio video recorded and we will jump right into approval minutes. Second. Are there any corrections or comments? Okay. All in favor say I. I post. Motion passes. Approval of claims. Second. the Strawman Associates. That's who did the audit. They're pretty proud of their work. They are. They're actually the cheapest. And part of the reason it was so expensive this year is because it was a federal audit versus just a regular audit. So they audit this year they had to audit all of our federal grants in addition to all of the school books. So is it elementary
002high school and what's a 210 transportation? Paul's always thrilled when I take money. Okay. But yeah, they audit I mean they audit your class schedule, your classroom time, accreditation. They audit more than just me. They audit everything we do. Okay. about three and a half days this year. Yeah, he's still not done. There any other questions or comments? Okay, all in favor say I. I motion passes. Um, public comment on non-aggenda item. Okay. Um, communications to from the board. We have just a few things here. Um, we have a letter of resation from Kelly Buch, our math teacher that I will pass around. We have a resignation letter from honesty podi who works in the uh cafeteria and she is on the list to rehire as a sub tonight. Sweet. So pass that around. And
003we have um a letter from Amy Hansen resending her original resignation letter um asking to um have her formal resignation um be contingent on the sale of her house. So um allows us to keep her around as long as possible. She's pretty valuable to our school district. So I'm going to send those around to you. I can answer any questions about Y's letter if you want to discuss or if you need me to say anything more about it, but it was pretty self-explanatory, but um yeah, her previous resignation was at the end of this year. So, middle of June, in fact, I think she references that the end of the school year though. Yeah. Yes. What's the possibility to stay monitoring? And I I again I I just feel it's to our advantage to acknowledge
004that and accept that it makes it'll be a bit more a little more of a challenge when she her house sells but we that en ensures that we have her continued employment until that time. It just doesn't the letter say 8 to 10 weeks or something? 6 to8 68. I I asked for eight and she said we had to kind of barter that a little bit but yeah so it's open. It will remain open. we would still and so people who have inquired I that's this is what I I told them this was coming to the board tonight we've had three inquiries and all three people who have expressed interest um have are made aware that this is what's happening contingent the board accepting them so she could function as a mentor is in the
005meantime or Yeah. So, she that that would be the hope that we would if we were able to um move relatively quickly on hiring that we would have a chance and what two of the candidates have spoken to her about doing some shadowing. One has already taken some time to do some of that um shadowing, but she has been uh gracious to offer any of that when when that hiring actually happens. But we'll try to continue to use those people that have expressed interest. We'll give them opportunity when it it's available. Right. Thank you. I don't have anything for the board chair's report tonight. So the best to tell me um so we're on to Roxy's report. Perfect. Whoa. That was I stood up with Sorry. Whoa. Um we can pass around and I will
006pass it to you around over here. Hi Bey. here just in time for the best report of the evening and the quickest too probably right Russ. Just kidding. Um so we are maybe a little bit in spring fever here. I'll give you one of these two for your notes at um the elementary school. And we it seems like we've had a very busy March with lots of activities happening. Um, we had our health programs and maturation programs that the health department comes in and Angel does such a great job um at completing those and we held them in the morning this year and the fourth and fifth graders were completely mortified of one another and so next year we'll do it in the afternoon. So yeah, they just can't they can't handle it. They're still
007elementary kids. So yeah, recess was very awkward that day, but I would like to report they've moved on from that. Um, perfect. We had living history for fourth, fifth, and 6th on the 25th. And then we had our March assembly on the 31st, and that was great. I was gone, but Rihanna and Eric Lennington did a great job. And I made sure that Eric wasn't too funny and didn't do too good of job because I do miss being there for assemblies. So, um, we also had a parent team meeting, um, that unfortunately I had another meeting that I was unable to attend, but, um, I had Emily Anderson reach out to me about reestablishing the parent team, really mainly just focusing on how to support teachers, fun events, and some fundraising. So, I know that
008the playground is something that they've really talked about. Um, and we had some good interest come to the meeting. I think our our focus is making sure that it's, you know, positive, solutionoriented, and I also have a teacher, Deanna, that's on it. So, it's important to me to have some school involvement on there so we can work together. Um, they've talked about a few different items like doing a bingo night and a color run, like where you take balls of chalk and throw them at kids. We're not going to do that this time during the year, but maybe at the beginning of next year, right, when people have had a break. But um and and so she's kind of checking on some fun events like that. So I I hope that'll be great. They're going
009to work on teacher appreciation. Um Bethany was there for the meeting, so we appreciated that. So um anybody that wants to participate in that, we'll send out messengers and let them know when the next meeting is. We also had a fabulous Missoula Children's Theater performance. And that would not have been possible without Anna Argan Bray who stayed at school very late and chased kids down to make sure that the snow queen happened. And it was a very cute performance. I would say that the characters that were called the snow chickens were probably the cutest snow chickens that the Missoula Children's Secret people have ever seen. It might just have been because it was the Longhorns, but I don't know. They were very It was a great play for sure. Um, do you guys have any
010questions? Okay, perfect. Have we always opened Misilla Children's Theater to high schoolers? We have not, but we've struggled with enrollment sometimes in the past years. And it was really amazing have some having some of those older kiddos take some of those lead roles. So, and I think that they were still a little bit I don't know how they organize all their role, but they probably still could have used more people. Yeah. What did Anna say about it? She loved it. She was tired. She needed a nap. And the older kids like it because it gives them some experience. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't realize for some reason I didn't realize until I saw the names of the kids who were performing and I didn't get to go, but I was kind of h excited to see
011that because we didn't have Longhorns theater. But yeah, it was it was a great opportunity for our kids. Um we are currently in our final masked testing window um for our state standardized testing. We'll do our dibbles May 6th through the 9th. So, and then we will gear up for some fun activities before summer and track and field day. We'll actually start training like three hours a day with our kids, but no, I'm just kidding. I love track and field day. Um, so looking at that, we have our reading curriculum, which is amazing. Um, it sure came with a lot of boxes, so thank you for delivering that, Russ. And the teachers are very excited to have their reading curriculum all ready to take a peek at for next year. It looks like there's more
012out here. Okay. School supplies. School supplies. Okay, great. Um, we do have some really fun events happening um at the elementary school. And one that's not on here that definitely we should talk about is senior citizen lunchon. That'll be May 1st at 1 p.m. That's a big one. So, make sure to call and get some reservations if you haven't already for that. We'll do a sixth grade wax museum on April 16th, and they're working with a high school with um Amanda Brown's history class. So, that'll take place in the elementary school. We're going to do um a kind of a little different approach to registration this year. We're just going to have parents come in and check to make sure all of their information is current. They do not need to refill out the registration
013paperwork. You could put that in bold in your article if you would like. Um, and so we'll do that the 5th, 6th, and 7th during school hours. And then we have a really cool opportunity. It's like a wildfire education day that's going to take place up at the airport for our third through sixth graders. And the band concert will be May 8th. We also will have track and field day, which is not on here, but one of the most important days of the year, May 22nd, and then the last day of school is May 23rd. So, we are busy too working on um trying out a couple different new recess rotations to work on eliminating like some of the um like I don't know if I would say drama, but just kind of some of
014the problems and situations we're encountering. And I have some staff members that are working on building some schedules for next year for interventions, lunches, things like that to just kind of take what we're doing this year but make it better next year. Okay. I'll put you on speaker. You guys have any questions? Okay. Who were you directing the reservation? I was directing it to told us to make reservations. Oh, I was going to ask if there's I don't think anybody is a senior citizen yet. Are they Mr. it right now. No, never. Don't worry. You We have a spot reserved for you, but you're going to be helping me, buddy. So, wow. Wow. Okay. Um, but we love to have people from the community come to that. So, I better get out of here. Do
015you have any more questions, Mr. Axton, or are we good? Next. Next. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Sorry for the interruption. my phone. We have on the phone with us now. And Dusty, can you hear it? Okay. Okay. We're moving on to um good evening. My little short. Um thanks Larry and Danny. The school looks good again. And I precede Larry. Um he has informed us that August 29th is definitely his last day. And I don't know what that means, but um I'm fairly he'll be around to help. He's going to stick out the summer and do the floors and um to gym floors elementary and stuff like that that he normally does. But August 29th after that first week starts, he's definitely done. So we really really are under pressure to find somebody to train
016underneath him for the summer. um working on projects for the summer and um Brad will have that report in a little bit. Track and field. Um we're working out here tomorrow. Um Casey Anderson will start digging in the new um disc that um Jamie had ordered last year and Mr. Shaw is working on that. And so I kind of um bits and pieces to help those guys out. We got the sprinkler located and everything. Um, we have the junior high track meet on the 25th and Jamie will go through all this, but that's this stuff that is going to be up here. Um, we have the night that is planned on the 22nd which career night. Um, and then the day of the 23rd, CCPA tomorrow night, honor day, senior lunchon on the 1st, graduation
017inside which is a blessing. Thank you very much for that. uh May 18th and sound system people are going to be here for that. So um we're starting spring work and BR has the rest of the report less than two minutes and I didn't use my hands. You did good just to tell you. Yeah. Right. Anything good? All right. I'm not going to be that short. I'm sorry. You're fine. Oh, I don't even know about that. So, I'll be quick through them. Um, good evening. So, it's busy. Um, I'll start with that. Simply following Russ. We appreciate his help. And you will see some work on the track happening. We're going to put in the new discus. We're working on putting in the new discus area. And that was um a lot of the money
018that we raised funds for with our fundraiser earlier on in the year. So between the raised funds that we made as a track team, um some booster club support and donations of work, we're going to be able to kind of start working to update out here a little bit. And so that starts tomorrow and it's super exciting. And as long as everything can get in place and and get there, um we do have a junior high track meet on the schedule for April 25th and I can always find jobs. So if you would love to come, you are welcome. Um and it's so much fun with all the junior high kids out there. Uh, FFA, I asked her too late for a list and the kids have been talking to me all week, but I
019know my memory will not do me well, do them justice to tell you the places, but they had a great end of their year and they were in Boseman at state. I've got I've got some of that's part of my report, too, to share. Perfect. Because I went and asked her for a list of everything and I didn't get it back and we didn't get it done in time for me to read to you and I don't want to leave anybody off. So, I'll let him share, but I am um very grateful for Brooke and all she does for our program. Um district music festival goes this week, so that's exciting. We'll um be represented in Great Falls there. We've started our sports track. We finally got our first track meet last Saturday. Tennis and
020golf have been going. I just saw the U JV tennis bus coming back and middle school track will have their first meet this Friday. Weather, even though it's beautiful right now, has really played with us. We've had a lot of cancellations so far. So, we'll move forward as we can move forward. Any questions so far? Okay. Um I have been busy working on in addition to the um the end of the year um working on scheduling for next year and I have completed all of other than cross country which will come out which comes out right before cross country season. I've completed the football, volleyball, basketball, and I believe wrestling schedules for next year. And and Amy's been wonderful, and she has them on the calendar, so you can refer to that next year already,
021aside from referees having to move or whether we're set with those. Um, all right. I'm going to move on if you're ready to all of my recommendations to get started on for coaching. Um, and what we need to start with is a little backtrack. This is the one I sent you the email on because we didn't have them last year or last, excuse me, last meeting was middle school track. And we have two coaches, but then we have in the past based on the CBA said if there's over 25 and there were 37 athletes. So, we already have already hired Damon Gilbreth. I would like to recommend hiring Jenna Bots and Roxy Benjamin to support in middle school track this year. So, second, you're going to be there anyway, right? What? But you're going to
022be there anyway. And that's what I hit her up with. And the fact that she can and being that if she needs some days, you know, she can have some room to play with that a little bit. Yeah. Thank you. You appreciate that. I appreciate scissor for that. This is your best. No problem. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor say I. Motion passes. Okay. Um I will move on to next year. And so these are all for the 202526 school year. Um, do I need to separate head and assistant or can I do like a sport at a time? You can do a sport at a time. Okay. It's not middle school. Perfect. Okay. So it um and I will preface all of these with saying that they are all what we previously had. Mhm.
023There is nothing nothing um new in this list of of mentions. So it would be my recommendation for the 2526 school year to hire Monty Geese as our football head coach for the high school with the assistance Adam Olsen, Eric Wilman, and Damon Gilbreth. So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes. This would be middle school. For middle school football, I would recommend hiring Dan Worth and Joe Manning to continue their um roles in the program. So moved. Second. I have a list for you if that helps you. Okay. No, we can hold up for anyone else have comments. Be quick. Okay. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes. Okay. Back to high school. For the high school volleyball head coach, I would recommend Shana Decon with
024an assistant volleyball coach Megan Lords and a volunteer as we have in the past with the mental health coach of Shannon Gman. Second discussion. All in favor say I. I oppose. motives. Um, this goes back to middle school. I'm kind of sticking to the sports together so I don't lose my spot. Sorry. Middle school volleyball coaches. I would recommend uh rehiring Amanda Brown and Shannon Gman. Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I opposed. Motion passes. Uh I don't know how you do these separately. So it uh last year what we had was and the and previously we had we have a high school cross country position and we have a middle school cross country position. So do I need to do I would recommend rehiring Roxy Benjamin into that kind of both positions.
025So, how do we do that? Weird. So, in the past and this year, um they actually take the middle school stipen and the high school stipen and they divided them evenly. Yes. Is what they did. And so, I guess I'll preface before we go forward. Yeah. So, before we go forward, I guess on how they preface how I would like to work it. Um, I do have a recommendation of a volunteer as Sally Scott to come with that program as well, but with being we only have the one paid and we did advertise it last year and we never got anybody. We we had great support last year, but they wanted to be volunteers and Sally would like to be a volunteer. So, um, it would be my recommendation to hire Roxy knowing going to
026that post again or that second position and and we can decide what it looks like based on, you know, who comes in, whether how how we do that. If you are comfortable with that and yeah, new staff too. I'm always open. So, we do have a second position. We will I plan to post and advertise. I just don't um have anybody to hire for it yet. So I would like to hire what we have in place and what as get started and go from there. Okay. So do I need I guess that being said, do I need to My question is do being it's high school middle school I don't need to do two different. Okay. But she does both. code. Okay, that's cross country is weird where Okay, high school coach and it Okay,
027so that it would be my recommendation to hire Roxy Benjamin as high school and middle school cross country. Would you like me to do the volunteer in a separate one? Um Sally Scott as a volunteer coach and then we will have the chance for the other one. So move second. I'll abstain. I have some potential there. Possibly the courtship. So stay tuned. Not me. I thought you were going to run with the kids. Golf cart. That's what I'd be doing. Any other comments? All in favor say I. I oppose. Motion passes. Okay. And then one more recommendation that I have. Um I would propose the hiring of Katie Gutter John and Roxy Benjamin for the cheer advisor. Um they were winter position this year and what their discussion moving forward would be that Katie would
028like to be in charge of the fall season and Roxy would be the lead in the winter season and they're there to support each other as needed. I need to have So moved. I'll second. Yeah, we did a good job. Thank you. I appreciate that. Any discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes. I believe that's all the recommendations I have. We will also need to post for a fall host as Mr. Clotser was this year's previous host. So that you will see that. Um we will I I believe there's great potential, but we will post for speech and drama and and um go from there as we previously had Mrs. Hansen. Um, and then we'll move on to winter and spring as some more time passes and I get things gone through
029and arranged. Do I have any questions? Do we have any issues with members of middle school track and bus this year or uh they fit on one bus so that's good. We went with it. Uh there is about a meet a week as long as weather is holds and everything holds. So uh the meet in Great Falls, sixth graders will not attend just because the way that it is run, they're not allowed to attend. Great Falls only runs their meet seventh and eighth grade and that's how it's always been previously. Any other questions? I think so. Thank Thank you. I don't have a ton. Um, we completed our annual audit and I was really nervous. Um, and as it turned out, it wasn't that bad, but it went great. Um, being that I was kind
030of in and out all year, I was a little nervous that I had missed something or me something up. But turns out I when you said you really had to dig. So kudos to Connie for keeping everything on track. It could have been. So thank you to her. Um, the salmon colored sheets with the budgets for the rest of the year. Um, we should be okay for the rest of the year. It will be tight. Um, and I will have those budget projections, fourth quarter budget projections for you at the next board meeting. And I apologize I didn't get them done with the auditor here running back and forth. Um, it's just something I didn't quite get done. And then the election status, um, we were able to cancel the election on Friday. It was
031the last day we could do writing. So, we have our three um board members and they're returning and they'll be sworn in in by acclamation at the next board meeting. So, thank you Kyla, Joelen, and Dusty for that. That saved a lot of stress there not having from that election. And then, um there's preliminary budgets on here and I just had it back on here. is going to revisit it because at the time that we sent this out, um the governor had not yet signed the bill that our preliminary budget actually is going to go up by 3%. Um that went into effect that that passed the Senate and the House that they are now allowing for a 3% inflationary increase to all school budgets. So that was a very that was a big win
032for schools in our corner. And then at the last meeting, we had done our um permissive levies, our non-voted levies that went out in the paper um and were advertised and it came to my attention that we're going to have to correct the minute because we did in fact need a motion for those. Um they've not changed. They were posted in the paper and I just wanted to make sure that we did everything um according to the rules. So we just have to make a motion to approve those. permissive levies. So, it'll actually go on as a um direction to the minutes, but I just want to make sure that we're transparent and above board on that. Um Okay. So, let's go ahead and vote on that before we move on. But, uh any comments
033or discussion or questions? Okay. All in favor say I. [Music] I. Motion passes. And then the next thing we have is obsolete property. It's that trailer. Um I passed around the pictures at the last meeting, but it wasn't on the agenda. And I just need a motion so that we can risk that in the paper and get that off Paul's hands. So move. Second. Any discussions? All in favor say I. I. Opposes. That is it. Okay. Got a couple more things that we'll discuss in the personnel report. Okay. Okay. Uh good evening. Uh first of all, as a result of uh situations out of our control, remember that we are shifting from the class C uh status to class B next year. Uh and when this school calendar that you have was was approved at
034the last schoolboard meeting, we were basing that calendar on uh what we thought were tournament dates. Those tournament dates have now been updated. And you'll see a slight correction to we we tradition sort of has been to have Fridays off during the what is the district and the divisional basketball tournaments. So those are now shifted to uh the divisional district tournament is the 27th of Feb. The divisional tournament is the 6th of March and um March 13th is the the m the Friday following parent teacher conferences would be we have conferences on the 9, 10, 11 of March and we don't we wouldn't have school that Friday. So um the shift really came with the date of 27th Feb and the 6th of March. Um still have the Fridays like we did in the current
035calendar. they just were shifted basically uh a week later. So that's the only correction to the calendar. So um uh but I do believe because it's a change we still need that motion the motion to accept the new revised calendar. Did you get a copy? You start at the same time. The vote. Yes. The vote that that's still what was voted upon by the staff and what the board agreed upon was the 25th of of August for the new staff orientation the 26th and the first day school is the 27th. Okay. Correct. [Music] Um any more discussion or questions? All in favor say I. I. Oppos. Motion passes. Great. Um, I sent you an email with some information about a new practice. I, uh, as still a we had a longtime administrator, but I'm new,
036still a new superintendent. I spoke with Jamie as the union rep. I spoke to Cali. I spoke to Roxy, and we decided to try this this new practice, and it's a thing moving a practice we should have moving forward, meeting with non-tenured staff. So, I'd simply report that that occurred last Friday, probably a little bit later than we probably should have had those meetings, but um it's a practice as we met with those teachers that we would meet with those people in the future, non-tenured staff, just to give them opportunity to feel supported by the union. Represent representative, thank bless you. Remember that even though not all teachers pay to belong to the union, it's still the district's obligation to provide that support if they want to. It provided us an opportunity to review the
037collective bargain agreement if they wanted to. And so those meetings were held last Friday. Just a new practice that we started this year. We would continue moving forward and we would just try to coincide that somewhere near the when the board meeting the board meeting to discuss renewal of future contracts. Um we will have our first crisis intervention team meeting tomorrow. We have a scheduled for two weeks ago but due to circumstances beyond our control we had to to revise that. Remember the crisis intervention team is a team. It's a committee of people that we hope never has to meet to be fair. Um, it's a committee of people that would be, just like the title implies, would be a group of people that would get together to outline what information goes out to the
038community in the event of a crisis, an untimely death of a staff member, an accident of some kind with a student or or uh and so we would organize ourselves to put out information to the paper, to the radio, to the to our people and make decisions b as a result of that crisis. So, we're going to organize ourselves tomorrow. Um, but truly, as I said, it's it's a group. We hope that tomorrow's the only time we have to have that meeting. So, um, I'll keep you posted on that. And this is a group that will review the emergency handbook and the procedures that go along with that moving forward. Um, as was mentioned before, we have the upcoming on April 23rd career expo. As Russ mentioned, the bank before, we're opening that to the
039community on the 22nd. And then um on the 23rd we'll have our students and and I we had a request actually from Big Sandy to to join us. So we're kind of working small number of kids from Big Sandy High School are thinking about coming. So I'll have to yeah I'll update you on that as well. We did uh have a successful East Coast trip. Uh Mrs. Hansen took 11 students, juniors and seniors uh to the east coast and they put in a lot of miles and had a really really great time. Lots of positive messages back. Sound like it went really really well. They had a lot of fun. the pictures certainly indicated that they did. So that's a we we have shifted now from having it every year um so that we can
040catch maybe a bigger group. We're going to do that every other year and then the international trip and we will get on a cycle of rotating those so we don't have two trips in one year. You know it's a small you know our our high school is not a huge number of kids and we want to take advantage try to have the most kids go on on each trip. So we're going to begin rotating those trips with this trip this year will be the east coast. So they wouldn't go again for two more years and then next year would be an international trip. So um we had we we've had kind of a tradition um the last two years of of recognizing students in front of the student body when we've had athletic events and
041we tried to increase the number of times we get together for non-athletic events. And so we brought the FFA in last week before they went to their state convention and recognized the whole crew. Had Mrs. Cunningham get up and talk about them. a couple uh couple people talked about, you know, Dylan Reeves got up and talked and it was it was really kind of a nice event and the student body got to recognize them and just like we do when we send the basketball team off, we had the kids tunnel up and the kids got FFA kids got to run through the tunnel. So, it was kind of fun and then after they came back, they were they had a successful trip and um we recognized the following students for their state kind of placings.
042Uh our mechanics team took fourth place and that consisted of John Liippard, Ian Smith, Tegan Rhymer, and Hunter Cole. Mel Starman got eighth individually in the horse evaluation and then eight seniors were honored. And what Brooke reminded me of is that the seniors aren't recognized just because they're in their last year of high school, but they're recognized because they've had to accumulate and do lots of things, jump through a lot of hoops, tick a lot of boxes to get the state recognition. It's the highest recognition the state FFA gives. And that that recognition went to eight seniors, Addison Rachel, Tegan Rhymer, Kellen Deons, Alicia Kaufman, Austin Chilik, Satie Cole, Rigan Meccl, and Dylan Reeves. And so um and it was really cool because what Mrs. Cunningham pointed out to the student body was like this
043mechanics team in Mel Placing that we go off to the state basketball tournament. We're competing against seven other teams. We're at the divisional basketball tourn. We're competing against seven other teams. These kids went off to this competition. I think she said Mel was like in a group of 170 people. you know, and the mechanics team was in a group of about 56 teams and they got fourth. So, it was pretty extraordinary when we when you stack that up against the number of people they're actually competing against. It was pretty cool. And as uh Mrs. Ball pointed out, we have a lot to be thankful for with Mrs. Cunningham. She's doing a great job and uh the FFA program is very strong and doing well right now. So, kudos to them. You might recall a couple
044uh weeks ago I mentioned to you and I've talked a couple times at these meetings that we've had we started we begin to use the emergent three app on our phones and that that's an app that we would use in the event of a of a drill a fire drill or some kind to identify that people are safe and identify their location. Well, one of the cool things that happened I just wanted to point out is that our workman's comp insurance people because we decided to go with that app, they're actually getting we paid $4,800ish. Cali, help me out. It was something like 40 $4,500. They're getting to $1,000 back. Our insurance the workman's comp people are giving us $1,000 because we chose to go with that app. So, I've got submitted that and we're
045getting that we should be getting that here before a year's end. So $1,000 is $1,000, but next year and next year if we do it next year, we get $500 in the second year. So I thought that was pretty cool. Um, tomorrow you're invited, uh, uh, Julie Robertson has been doing since last year, you might the board approved last year for her to be a volunteer to do a a weekly art club. And so they meet in our art room. Sometimes she brings pizza, whatever. Well, the kids, one of the things that she wanted to leave something for the school and they've been working on something they're calling celebrating class of 2025. So, it's something they want to begin doing every year to create a mural, something that they would they can produce and then
046put in the school of our ch place in our choosing. They're going to present that to me tomorrow. The paper's coming. Bethy's coming at 12:40. So, if you want to be here and be a part of that or check it out in the paper, but we're doing that tomorrow at 12:40. So, it's a tribute to our current graduating class and it's something that would be left as a as a legacy for us as a school district moving forward and they would something they want to do every year. Um Oh, thank you. Yeah, that's art show. Art show this weekend. And the art show is Friday from 3 to 7:00 p.m. Yes. Yeah. When is that? Prairie Rose. So, the crisis team meeting is tomorrow around 2. Will we be done? Oh, yeah. That's Thank you,
047you're bringing that up. Let's Let's talk. I hate to be that person. Yeah, you're that person. It's shocking. I am that person, but I have to think about that. Thank you for Yeah. Okay. We can we can problem solve that. We can problem solve that. Okay. Thanks for that. Thank you for bringing that. Sure. Um the final little thing I'm I'm working on that's kind of cool. as a on a personal note is that um we have a student whose parents are deaf, a student who's graduated from high school this year and the superintendent happens to have a daughter who's a sign language interpreter and so he's invited her to come to the high school graduation this year to do the sign language interpreting for us at at graduation. So she's coming from New York
048City to right now we're trying to work out the details but she's going to come I think and do the sign language interpreting for graduation. So I'm really really excited about that. So that's awesome. And again, I'll share my report uh tomorrow with that has some upcoming dates and things and some other things big picture things we're working on. Okay. The second thing I have um is the hiring of non-tenure of staff, excuse me. And we need uh two motions for this. Basically, I think on the front page, if you're looking at the same way I'm looking at, the front page is high school staff. Remember, high school staff in this instance is 9 through 12. And so what you have are teachers uh for next year uh who are I'm asking for your I'm
049recommending that we rehire um listed um names not to be mentioned but um you notice that the asterisk equals non-tenured two asterises equals the fourth contract with tenure status. So this year in the high school we don't have a teacher in that particular position. We do have some teachers who are non-tenured. Um, and I would recommend the rehire of that list of high school teachers. Second. Are there any questions or discussion? I don't need anyone to abstain. Right. this list anyway. Okay. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes. You see at the bottom of this uh page we had two previous resignations. We received one uh that was shared tonight. And so those are the three resignations. Uh recalling that Jeff Clots are the PE teachers positions been filled with the hiring of
050uh transfer reassigned uh Jamie Ball. I we interviewed a teacher for the science position last Friday. And um I talked to her again today with a little bit of luck. We'll have a science teacher before the week's out. Fingers crossed. Think positive or at least the beginning of next week maybe. And um yeah, so that's that's the positions we're looking to fill right now. on the back of this page then um again the top page top of the page note that um non-tenured are indicated by an asterisk fourth contract with tenure status or with two asterisks and um this when it's in this case elementary is grade seven through uh or prek through grade eight excuse me and um you'll see a list of three students there will be rehired as their fourth contract and
051receive tenure status so I would recommend the hiring of these elementary teachers for next school year. This is district one only, right? This is district one only. Is David Elementary? He's a middle school. So middle school under elementary school budget. So second any questions or discussion? All in favor say I. I. Oppos. And as has been previously noted I said tonight uh uh Jamie Ball is transitioning to the high school and so thus she's listed as retiring or resigning which actually she's doing neither but she has been reassigned to the uh high school staff and that's all I have. Okay. Right. We have committee report. So let's go ahead and start with well first. Okay. So three things that we would discuss the first time was with the classified teachers or the classified person. Um
052though their union doesn't have a rep that we met with that but uh we would like to bring to the board that we offer them 2% increase for 25 and 26 but the reasoning behind that the 3% inflationary adjustment coming from the state will help offset that um and to basically give them reach out with a good gest gesture good faith that was for the cost of living of 2%. Um, so that would be the first and that. Yeah. So it would need to Yeah. 2% for 25 26 and 2% for 26 27. It's a two year. Sorry. That Yeah. That matches this next year. What the teachers were getting to. Yep. Yes. That's what we would like to recommend. And if we did that, I'd write a letter to the to whom a may
053concern on them and then they would have a chance to counter or respond back. Um, yeah, I think we did have a motion. I think we should have a motion. This is a little This is accept accept their offer. I don't actually know if we need a motion because normally we go through the negotiation process without a mo I mean just on the personnel committee. Um so it's great for you all to know what our plan is but we don't really have to have a motion until we have a recommendation. Although we could do anything yeah feedback. We could make a motion. We could just have to change it if negotiations Yeah. Yeah, you can make a motion and then if we don't hear anything back, it goes and then you don't have to do
054it again. Yeah, let's do that. I'll make a motion. Whatever he said. Thank you. I'll second it. Thank you. Reasoning being they haven't invited us to the table to negotiate and we don't have to. We just feel like it's the right thing to do for our employees. So, this is just like saying good. Um any discussion or comments? Guess one thing we discussed is we'd like to retain good people and attract good people is one of the thought behind that. All right. All in favor say I. I opposed. Motion passes. Then the second thing we discussed was the STARS Act. Um, and it's passed the House, the government, and it's in the Senate. They're debating it in I believe it's in committee committee. So, I guess we it's still a little bit unknown, but if
055it does go through and pass the Senate, then I guess I'm not 100% sure. It's 11 times the quality educator. Okay. So basically it uh the way Calli described it how I understand it is if we increase our wages of our teacher certain positions then we would qualify to receive additional funding based on those teachers positions. um starting teacher pay starting. Yeah. And so if so we would have to increase some we'd incur the cost of raising some physicians pay but the return would be significantly higher. Um but in order to do that we need to make a motion to intend to qualify for the stars act this meeting uh so that we can qualify if it does pass the senate. Yeah. and it hasn't passed, but they're basically requiring that we commit to it
056before it passes because there's a pot and if the pot goes dry, then we Yeah, it doesn't sound like there's any strings attached other than raising. Oh, another thing is like how I figured we could So, currently starting salary for teachers is on step three pay and then for three years and if we did step five for five years then we would qualify. So it's basically raising the pay of the starting teachers, not raising the base pay because if we raised the base pay, it would affect the whole all the teachers across the board, it would cost us so much that it would wouldn't be worth doing essentially. So my understanding is a lot of districts are doing what they get their fifth year and pay them just like just like we do now with
057the third year. Yep. like we do now is at three, but we just bump it to five. Okay. Gross it up, huh? And then there's we get something out of it in the end. Okay. Do you want to tell them how much? Yeah. I can pass around the little spreadsheet. It's easier to see on the spreadsheet than because nothing's guaranteed, right? And so on my little spreadsheet, it has elementary and high school and it shows you the everybody's current salaries and then the extra additional cost. And it's just a few of them. And then it gives you how much it would increase our cost and our net on both the high school and the elementary. And the cool thing about this is that they include your clerk in this too. Yeah. You're So you get
058a bump for having a full-time work. So, and it shows you them the meetings I've attended and we saw heard about this in Mel as well. Again, the intention is that if you're read any of the statistics about starting teacher pay in the United States, Montana ranked like 49th or 50th um and one of the last statistics I saw and this the stars act is intended to raise that that base the base payment of starting teacher so it' be much more competitive compared to other states in the country. I can't remember what the the minimum is 41. Yeah. 615 in fiscal year 26 would be the minimum you'd be required to pay. So, and we you might recall that we've done this once before. Um the first time they did this quality educator payment was
059the year we gave 6% bump to all of our teachers across the board. So, fortunately, that's gotten us a lot closer to qualifying this time. Yeah. Yeah. That would also be anybody that's doing their second, third or fourth year, they automatically they automatically Yeah. It affects three people. Maybe four. Yeah. Teacher. So, we don't have terrible men that are there. Yeah. Lots of our teachers come in and you'll see some of our younger teachers come in now with a master's or a BA plus. Um they've become wise to the fact that if you're going to be a teacher what you're calling it, a bachelor's degree isn't going to get it done. You're going to have to have some other certifications if you want to be able to have a living wage. Yeah. So, but this
060kind of levels the playing field. So yeah, Will's recommendation or the committee's recommendation is to um move forward with a motion to show our intent to qualify. Second. Thank you. Any other questions or perspective? Public comment. All in favor say I. I opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. And then I guess the third thing we did to discuss uh Cali and Roxy both we had discussions with them. Currently we're going to wait to see how some other negotiations go um with non-classified and classified just to see budget wise. Um they are not requesting much of anything. So we're uh just going to table it for now. I guess insurance costs have gone up quite a bit. Um so when does that negot when when do you get the new rates? Um I got them yesterday. Oh
061just curious. Yeah. and we've looked through and and working with Carrie through them and we've off we offer, you know, we're gonna offer one more plan this year than we did last year. Last year we offered four. This year we're going to offer five. Trying to make it as budget friendly and as flexible for our people as we can. But when does it actually go into effect? July 1st. Okay. Was that your question? No. Okay. When the premiums come in. Okay. Yeah. The premiums won't change until July one. But everybody, the open enrollment will happen next week. So, we'll start sending that out to all of our teachers. And then Carrie Arinbrite has been a huge asset to our district that she comes in for multiple days and sits down with all of our people.
062We do it every year. Everyone's required to sit down with her and go through their rates. And so she helps them walk through that online of like, you know, okay, well, you thought this was the best plan, but based on your expenses, this might actually be more cost effective for you. That's been, I think, wildly beneficial for our teachers, or at least I think it has, whether they do or not. I don't know. But I think it's great having her here. Say again. Thank you. Very good. Any questions? Hey, buildings and grounds committee. So, we open bids on our projects. The first one was the elementary plumbing project and uh that was broken into three alternate projects. First one would be the main plumbing project replacing all the piping up there fresh waste water. The
063second one is uh fixtures in the bathrooms any sinks basically. And and the third one would be when they were bitten the job. They run up against a wall going to the bathrooms in the old auditorium the old auditorium bathrooms. They can't, they don't know how to get the piping there. So, they bid it separately to run it up into the ceiling and over and back down. So, the first bid was for the main project would be $477,427 and that is with Milk River out of Hav and it was the only one that bid the project. Uh second alternate which is the fixtures would be $7814.95. And then the third to get the piping to the bathrooms at the old near the old auditorium would be $77,000 637. So we have re we're recommending that
064we go ahead with the base and the option or option one to do those two and then with the thought that halfway through the projects we get a better idea of where our money is, we'll discuss going with a third option. just because we're not doing a third option. They're still going to run the piping right up to the wall and everything works in the bathroom right now and we hope we don't have a major issue. So that would be our recommendation is go with the 477,000 and 7814 the base option and the option one. That's fairly close to what we were estimating early on, right? Yeah, I think it was under just a little. It was under because we were looking to add 15 to 20% to that just in case. And even when
065we added that, we're right in the ballp, under, but that's without the third option. Correct. Price, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's a big that's a lot of money piped. That's a lot of money and it's everything is working in there. So the pipes will be there if we have to do it just put it off for now. So do we want to do both both the high school or the elementary and the high school project? I would do the elementary and the high school separate. So you want a motion on that? Yep. Second. This is district one. Um, any questions, discussion? Felt pretty confident in the one bid we got. Gary review or visited with them. Russ has visited with them that in fact turns out they're pretty goodized crew and they've taken on several
066big projects. So both Russ and Gary are real comfortable with them. So, they check out very well. They're out of H have and they probably might position a couple guys here in an apartment or a house or something. Um because they're going to be a lot of back and forth. They're a crew of 12. They might hire a couple more for the summer. So, they put four down here right away. Okay. So, there any way we can help put them up in the school? Like let them use locker room or something like that? Would that be out of the question? I feel like if they're here, then they're going to get it done faster. It's really comfortable. I mean, yeah, that's maybe not ideal, but the showers, you got to hustle. Yeah. Any other discussion?
067All in favor say I. I oppose. Motion passes. Then the high school electrical project. Uh we had several. We got four bids. Two of them were very close. One would be from Townsen Electric and the other from Liberty Electric. Uh Liberty came in just a little over what Townsen was. Uh Liberty was $111,437. Townsen was $110,900 and we discussed it and the committee would like to go ahead and go with a little bit higher bid just because they're local. They know the school. It's just good a good deal all the way around. So, we've visited with Gary on this and this could be done. Well, I heard that just because it's it's so close. It's only like $600 difference. We can do that, but we may need to explain to town center. That would fall
068under responsibility of the board to do that or me or Russ or we get it taken care of. So anyways, our recommendation would be to go with the Liberty Electric bid. So move it. How does that compare to our initial projections? I forget that number. It's under 135,000. We came in at 111. 111. Really? So 135. So yeah, that was good news there. Any comments? All in favor say I. I rock and roll. Forward. All right, personal. You've seen two letters have gone around, letters of resignation from honesty and Kelly Buchanan. And so we've accepted those one for a teaching position, one for the kitchen. At this time though with uh as I mentioned before in this meeting, we recommended that uh we pointed out the transfer of Jamie Ball to the high school reassignment.
069And so the position for her second grade position was opened internally. And I'd like to recommend to the board tonight that we hire Ann Arite for the second page for next school year. Second. Um any discussion? Madam Chair, thank you. This is district one only and I I guess I asked for discussion already. So all in favor say I. I opposed. Motion passes. So we have uh advertised for additional kitchen help. Um so that's just important to know. But honesty podman while she resigned from her full-time position is willing to be a sub for us in the kitchen. In fact, if given your blessing tonight, your approval, she's been uh she's asked been asked to help out twice later this week. So, I would recommend that we hire Monasty Pod as a sub in our
070for our kitchen staff. Sub sorry, sub for the kitchen staff. Sub for the kitchen staff. Oh, okay. Sure. Sorry. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Motion passes. Okay. Future agenda item. Remind the board meeting will be. Yes. Thank you. board meeting is at 4:00 in May and 4:00 in the afternoon instead of seven because of the booster club link banquet that night. Yeah, 13th. Yep. May 13th. You need to make sure that gets changed on our school calendar. Yes. May 15th. May 15. 13th. 13th. I think it said 15th on my agenda, but it's really 13th. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I think that's it. Like They might not.