001to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all okay welcome everybody as you can see Don isn't here I'm filling in so everybody be kind to me please I'm going to read all the words the notice of meeting being recorded this meeting of the School Board of Trustees Committee of the board of trust IES or committee subject to the open meeting law is being recorded in accordance with sections 22-31 2-3 d202 2-3 d203 and 2-3 d214 dnca all members of the board committee staff and public in attendance are advised that the public portion of the meeting will be recorded in both an audio and video format cameras and recording devices are placed throughout the meeting room to complete these recordings everyone in attendance is reminded to honor basic
002rules of decorum during the meeting and guidance associated with providing public comment as stated in policy 1420 F by remaining in the meeting those present consent to being recorded and displayed in the footage that will be posted on the school district's website on to the general public comment statement the board recognizes the value of public comment and the importance of involving members of the public in its meetings the board also recognizes the statuto and constitutional rights of the public to participate in governmental operations to allow fair and orderly expression of public comments the board will permit public participation through oral or written comments during this public comment section individuals wishing to be heard by the board shall first be recognized by The chairperson Who is me tonight individuals after identifying themselves will proceed to make
003comments within a reasonable time period citizens make comment on items within the jurisdiction of the school board that are not on this meeting's agenda citizens May comment on agenda items when that item is discussed citizens may not comment on matters related to students or staff privacy the chairperson May control the comment period to ensure an orderly progression of the meeting and may redirect or terminate an individual statement when appropriate including when statements are out of order too lengthy personally directed abusive obscene or irrelevant um agenda item public comment statement prior to vote on motion citizens are wait do I read that now okay citizens are now invited to comment on items within scope of this motion the chairperson May control the comment period to ensure an orderly progression of the meeting and may redirect or
004terminate an individual state statement when appropriate including when statements are out of order too lengthy personally directed breach personal privacy rights abusive obscene or irrelevant please identify yourself prior to making your comment so at this time I will open it up to public comment thank you after all of that at least I have something comment all right Tammy I'm just updating for the DC uh New York trip we have 15 kiddos signed up right now and the max is 20 so we're thinking we'll get there um and we have a couple more that are interested just haven't signed up yet and spelling be is tomorrow uh in my room at one o'clock if any of you want thank you Tammy and just a reminder to you all if you haven't signed in please sign in
005any other public comments all right moving on to reports uh first up we have student council some past activities we did a pep speech and drama and kind of just skits and all perform the entire scho um so do say coffee the school basketball game and we're going to make a little bit of money than you guys for your recommendation um we help organize senior night to honor athletes band members and spee and drama seniors and then our upcoming events we have um tomorrow morning we're hosting a pep assembly for the high school basketball teams uh we have a few fun games and competitions planned to get things rolling in the morning um we're also planning a high school funding LOD for skiing no warning sometime in March depending on when Red Lodge get back
006to us um we are going to do like a fun day like last year just due to lack of commitment from students Lots K she didn't show up because it wasn't as interesting to them so we're looking into finding some different alternatives to those who decide not to go snowboarding or skiing and then looking even further ahead um we and the senior class would like to um decorate grad caps like they did in last year with the same structur requirements um for those seniors that wish to do so the senior class advisers along with Miss Hernandez um will approve the decorations ahead of time and all the Caps will remain in the school until the day of graduation um we the student council are also planning to go on a trip at the end of
007March for an annual student council trip we're looking at Salt Lake City as a potential destination um continue activities we're continuing to encourage students involvement and participation in school activities and are welcome to new ideas and opportunities and we're always constantly thinking of trying to think a fun ways to engage our students um and us a student body are very grateful for the opportunity we have been given thanks I'll just remind you there's still a little guy basketball coming up and I know they would love some coffee and donuts too thank you guys I have a question um well actually have first have you can catch your names uh I'm Emma I'm bro Emma and broy and then why did you choose Salt Lake um honestly there none of us have been to it been
008to Salt Lake really and explored the city and it's a safe City and it's there's a lot of fun stuff for us to go do from what we saw online so hopefully we'll be able to find some fun stuff to do what's what's your goal for going is student council members to go out of school get on a bus and go to another town what's the purpose General mart and also I like yourest yes because you worked hard all year right yes little reward um learn about government in other times yes how organizations operate you know I mean you can work yes we're gonna work very hard to work together as a team how long is this trip gonna take um say a long weekend maybe three three four days depending on travel times and
009also dates dates are still up in the air we're we're looking and I can speak to it a little bit more two years ago we we had the idea of an annual student council trip um these guys work so much behind the scenes you know even just as simple as the coffee and donuts on a Saturday morning getting there at 7:30 instead of sleeping in like whatever I ask them to do they're there on top of doing all the other stuff in school they have the kids in every Club every activity every sport right so it was kind of the idea just to reward them a little bit um that was more more than anything with that so we're trying to keep that that trip going now long weekend get them out you know we
010call group bonding General Mar marryt is a good I like that that's a good keep it any other questions thank you thank you thanks and then I'll make a quick comment so I I shared out with the board um there breakfast tomorrow um served by the FFA I all the board members are welcome to attend that grab a little breakfast and then I think it piggy backs nicely into that 8:40 pep assembly so 9 o' 9 o' assembly so I you can make next morning out of and if you wanted to stay all day you could catch the spelling be as there but that's doesn't start till what one yeah but every all the trustees are obligated to have eight hours so you can get it all done tomorrow thanks uh next up we have
011activities director uh little update obviously on things that are going on right now so uh District basketball throw that in the schedule for tomorrow uh boys play at noon and girls play at 4:30 and that starts up at Red Lodge um so hopefully we'll see how the weekend goes and hopefully we uh have some teams moving on to uh two weeks in buildings at Metra um track had a sign up day last week we had 29 sign up uh good number uh more I remember right more boys than girls I think is how that worked just kind of a quick breakdown so I think later on in the agenda there's a higher uh for the coach but uh good numbers so far so doesn't look like track season out there right now obviously but uh
012hopefully uh we'll see what happens when we get into March March 10th is the first day of practice for that that's mhsa start date um so our question was asked what happens if we can't go outside it it's it's the gym they have preference in the gym so we'll go with that um this Friday morning at about 11 o'clock we will actually be scheduling basketball and volleyball for next year that schedule just came out today from mhsa uh Jolan has a little bit of work to do um we got to go find some games so I will see what we can do I spent most of the afternoon firing out emails and contacting other ads to see how we can fill that schedule normally you get 18 games and we ended up with 14 uh
013so working on that it'll be a little different basically all we're down to is our usual um six teams that are in our district we have those games all lined out two games up in Red Lodge at the beginning of the Season like we normally do and then I've got to go find four more so we'll we'll kind of see how that plays out um football schedule came out about a week and a half two weeks ago actually had a board member asked for that schedule um we are going to Shelby at the beginning of the season on the road and then we will be playing Big Timber at our place and then it's the usual conference from there on out colle STP Baker Red Lodge Hunley those teams that we played this year little
014different order but the two non-conference games changed and that's a two-year rotation so after this year we were that new schedule had to come out they just redid everything so Shelby's dropping down from parone excuse me how did that work yeah they they came from eight men up to 11 men um they tried to petition like us to go uh to stay in eight and didn't work so we have them on the schedule so in year two everything will rotate we'll go to big tber Shelby come us so but a lot of that stuff's going on right now for next year in scheduling already so um take my hat off to Sam the transportation guy uh with weather with uh different games numbers drivers he's managed to juggle a lot you know he's been in
015contact with me hey I think we need maybe need to take one bus nope we can take two buses um I threw everything at him for districts he's got take boys up for a noon game girls up at 4:30 he's got the pet band so as usual Sam did agree till tomorrow did a great job so easy working with him we get a hold of each other and and uh do a lot of texting back and forth so other than that that's what I have Brady there's any questions any questions for bar perfect thank you appreciate it thank you uh next up Transportation tell us how good you're doing on getting buses yeah well he has a lot more faith in tomorrow than I do right at the moment anyway um I just want to
016update you guys on three things so you'll know how far along we are uh first of all uh I think all the board members are aware that we uh are in almost done upgrading cameras in the majority of our buses and uh so through Mars we got a deal where we get um six additional cameras put in each bus so that makes all the all the buses have now between six and nine cameras inside and outside uh very very high quality audio and video and uh covers uh outside front outside the back both directions from the inside and then along the side shooting down into the seats and really really good coverage um one of the interesting features is their motion activated so even if the bus is not running they work and uh I
017sent out an email reminding all the staff that uh if you're walking around a bus and it's not running you're still being recorded so um hopefully that doesn't alter anybody's life I don't know um but already we've had a change in student behavior on a couple of buses that we we thought that would happen I don't how long it'll last but uh it's been it's been really good so far and I know the drivers are uh much more they're much happier knowing that they got a dash cam recording all the time out front and recording them and the students um so they feel protected by that so I think that's really good and the the cameras are really good quality so do the Sam do the do the drivers let the kids that to get
018on the bus do they let them know that the new cameras are there oh yeah I thought very very big deal prevents they they're waving at Mr Richard on the camera so they know he has access they think it's direct so they're I try to let him know any message that he received that morning so he could help kway I wait back did you see yeah so that's a I think that's been a really really positive thing and going really well and uh the cameras that Kelly put in for us we left them in place so we just have additional uh backup on a couple of those buses that have that we had um two three buses that didn't have any cameras and so now they're totally up here didn't that it's really nice uh
019the other thing uh second thing is just winter weather um this has been a challenging February and uh drivers have been doing an amazing job the county has been doing great staying in front of us um and and actually our biggest problems with roads have been the last two weeks trying to find it um because everything's so white you know you can't we don't know where the road is and uh we've only had one time that a bus actually dropped a wheel in a ditch uh I'm very surprised that that's all um I came really close today and after I was stopped I was like oh yeah I could see you it's right there I thought it was over there and so it's it's kind of a challenge right now um you know we a
020few years ago implemented the policy of uh to follow the County transportation policy if the actual Ambient Air Temperature is 20 below or less we don't run buses when cancel school we don't run buses first year we did that I got quite a bit of push back people call us wimpy uh you know how come can't you get the bus started or whatever that has transitioned a lot to where this year I've gotten tremendous amount of feedback from parents Thanking us uh for caring about their kids safety and so uh I think that's really good uh I mention that because I believe tomorrow morning we'll be mornings it looks to me like we're dropping pretty fast out there and I think we're going to be below that threshold tomorrow morning but um I I check
021it at five o'clock and Mr beggar and I are in contact and make that call so uh but that that has been a change in people's attitude where they're saying hey thanks for caring about that and as you know if if the bus stops running at 20 below it's it's dangerous real fast and so uh anyway that just update you on that uh any questions on any of that comments to this point because I'm going to turn the corner pretty hard here okay it's not a bad thing we're um so here's the deal I don't know if you realize that the last time we bought buses uh is almost those two years ago and uh that doesn't seem like it because they just got delivered it seems like the other day although it was spring
022but we're coming up on that deal again and I I've got something I want to throw out Mr burer and I have talked about this and uh as an option uh there is uh and has been for quite a few quite a time uh a few people who really want us to have uh a big coach bus like a Prevost uh one of those buses for the teams and stuff uh they are people who are not going to have to work on them or maintain them or clean them or stuff like that but they are people who want one of those buses at the other end of the spectrum we have people who were like de it we were never having anything but just a basic yellow school bus no air conditioning make it as
023plain as possible she's not here in the in the middle of that is the majority I think or what I hear is the majority of people who like yeah we'd like for it to be nicer but we don't want to be stupid about what we do I would just remind you that in order to use Transportation funds we have to buy a yellow school bus with flashing light lights and stop signs um there are school districts who uh use Transportation funds and buy buses that don't fit that category and uh this shouldn't surprise you that I want to be honest I hope that doesn't surprise you I think you guys want to be honest and so um I have always said no I'm not doing that I mean if we're going to be legal uh
024even if it's you know a challenge which it often is uh over the course of the last several months I kind of percolated in idea that I think might be a fair compromise uh I've talked to a couple of people including the State Transportation director I've talked to Felicia who the actual Authority on things and uh believe that this might actually work and so what I what I would propose is that uh our next bus purchase which would would be in the next budget year so August is something like that um that we would buy uh the world's nicest yellow school bus uh with the intention that we run it for one year I would actually put it on a route at least one day uh it's not required to ever go on a route
025but I would put it on a route at least one day I'd be real picky which route and which day but um after a year then take the lights and the stop signs off and wrap it uh probably white with our logo or whatever um and change it and make that an actual activities bus at that point so that we and that is all legal and all legit to do that with the transportation funds then once we change it then it becomes an activity bus and the next time it gets replaced we can replace it with depreciation funds does not have to start out yellow what I'd Envision is uh the bus that is our number eight bus that most people refer to is the sports bus or uh actually get used for band more
026than anything else is the rear engine snubnose it's a bluebird allamerican uh that has bucket seats in it and I talked to our salesman this last week and I said well here's what I've seen here's what I'd like to do and he said you're not the first school to do this he said let me tell you what you can do what you can't do so uh it would be certainly air conditioned uh it would on the inside have uh overhead luggage compartments on both sides actually the inside would look very very similar to an airplane so you'd have the overhead compartments you'd have reading lights you'd have your own ducted air conditioning coming down over each seat um uh it would have uh a lot better driver compartment and uh the seats I he says
027I can't do cloth seats and I can't do reclining seats and have it be transportation funing funding so it would still be vinyl seats non-reclining but after a year those could be replaced either with new covers or just replace the seats with reclining seats that would cost more obviously um I asked him about um aluminum wheels and he said can't do that on Transportation but when you wrap it you can swap the wheels out and that's not that expensive to swap the wheels and that does make a dramatic difference in how it looks having polished aluminum wheels he said I can do aluminum wheels for you in transportation but they have to be painted block and so he said to get that block off is basically the same price as buy a new wheel so
028um I was trying to think if there's anything else on that that I was thinking about um oh uh and also a grill guard um that they would include in it so it would you know for long trips Night Trips and whatnot uh upgraded lights an air horn few things that make it like look like a coach bus and um I've seen several of these I would guess you've seen some of them and after they're wrapped they don't look like a school bus much at all um but they drive like one our maintenance is the same uh all of that uh the last buses we purchased uh if memory serves they were 174,000 each um this one the way I had had him Speck it out uh currently he said Bluebird is holding on all
029pricing right now to see where tariffs land but uh it would be around 225 to 240 something like that so obviously more but you're getting a whole different class of bus when you do that and then the wrap Mr beger do you remember what our bid was on the wrap seems to me around 10 15 did we have that bit or was that just a thought we got a I thought I remember somebody me around 10,000 I was thinking around 10 that just a conversation we yeah so let's just Ballpark and say that it would be about that and then uh probably you know I I has to take the gas on the wheels but um let's say let's just Ballpark and say 20,000 uh at the end of the year to upgrade it and
030make it you know look team like um and I don't know that to me that seems like a fair compromise um you know a compromise means nobody's happy uh but I think in this case maybe it would be a majority of people would be happy with that uh or happier and we'd still get to use Transportation funds for it um I don't believe we actually need um jinx this but I don't think we need to add any route buses in the next two years um I think we could we could skip this yes let's hope uh we're keeping up with repairs and maintenance and stuff pretty well and uh they're doing I've got a great set of drivers that are really taking care of their buses that's a huge deal so um so anyway so
031that out questions yes I think the one thing that you just didn't mention specifically was this was also discussed at Transportation committee oh thank you right so and it was recommended out of there recommended to you know kind of look at this talk about the the pricing and keep the the conversation going up in preparation for a potential decision that budget adoption I don't think that this is done being committee uh by any means um there recommended those that I presented here we talk about it we we have an April we scheduled that meeting yeah we did that's right and I should be able to have a hard bid by then which will only be for you know 30 days but at least gives us a closer bid looking at it I have one question
032what um what would you estimate for actual comfortable seating high school kids put reining seats in on that bus no like you would ordered it what would that oh what will it hold like yeah because so our current one that would be the same configuration I believe seats 4 seats 42 Jason are you asking more like what's it like to sit in those seats yeah because I mean they're pretty comfortable yeah and I mean this is stuff that will be more discussed in community but um you know you have 42 but if you take the cost of taking all those seats out and putting reclining seats in I would imagine that's very subst yeah that's that's a bigger deal and I don't know that that's actually necessary uh well I mean not was necessary but
033um I I guess that's a judgment call we make at that point of if that's worth it you can get um cloth seat covers that will go on these seats and changes of cloth um that upgrades the look a lot um you know this is probably a selfish thought but my first thought is a lot harder to clean final uh but um I don't know I mean there there has to be in order for it to be a yellow bus you know a yellow school bus is without question the safest motor transportation in the world and um part of the reason for that is is the overkill on safety stuff so the fabric is uh flame resistant the floor is flame I mean nothing inside that bus will bar and um so I mean it's
034got to get real caught for toart and so that's part of it being yellow bus it has to have that F that upholstery and then but once you take it off of being yellow or you modify it some way then you're not under those regulations other questions or comments CH or something else you want me to research about it or some other direction or what I think the one thing for to really try your best toil down actual passenger what what it's going to go down Road comfortably because I know that our newest buses that we bought really like them but it's those seats are tight very tight so so the like bus 8 which it would be very very similar to that there are 42 bucket seats in it and I'm I'm comfortable sitting
035next to you in one okay and yeah they're so whereas the others are designed for three to a seat and they're they're scrunched up so we get another row this isn't like I mean there's plenty of room so bus you're talking is it a snub nose as well rear Pusher right right uh you can actually get slightly more capacity with a front engine snub noose and then the driver is sitting like by the motor um it's hard to get those as nice um they they tend to be I mean it's just a different style of blue things and uh you just for purpose of just information uh blueart is no longer making any buses that don't have SE so that's not a that's a non-issue and starting next year they're going to give the driver
036an airbag so I think maybe where we should have started in my opinion [Music] anything else thank you Sam I have a so on the um employment opportunities on our website install bus cameras is still on there oh okay off okay Elementary principal all right so we had our January sour assembly on uh Friday the 31st our next one for February is going to be next Friday the 28th at 1:30 in the big gym anyone would like to attend um we had our January I meetings for all the Elementary classes take place on the 29th and 30th of January and then next week we will be having our February I meetings both on the 26th and the 27 um we had three teachers participate in a training for PX Heroes last Thursday and Pax Heroes
037is a specialized Pax training that um provides teachers with additional strategies to be support uh students with behavioral needs so we had three take that first training and then we have four teachers currently signed up for another training opportunity March 7th we have the Kindergarten Roundup for kindergarten and Kinder one uh scheduled for Friday April 11th from 8:30 to two um so Kinder one and kindergarten students will not have school that day as we start rounding up all of our future j-hawks big thank you Miss FIS Miss MacArthur Miss tber for all the planning that they'll be putting into that it's much appreciated we had our P day last Friday we started off with the QPR suicide prevention training and then we followed that training up with u Mand mandatory fun mini events we had
038um teachers be able to choose from participating in a Badman tournament um a sip coffee and paint session and a drum line course so I want to thank uh Mr R Miss Kerper Mr warburn Mr Denham and Mrs Richard for running all those sessions for the teachers and a big shout out to Mr K and Miss Goodrich for winning the Batman tournament they will be receiving their trophies hopefully by the end of the week um let's see we had Valentine's Day celebrated last Thursday lots of candy and sugar around the elementary school mixed in with indoor recesses so thank you to all the teachers for hanging in there hopefully we can go outside someday soon um Miss Hardy uh Miss Hardy's fourth and fifth grade students host a carnival in their classroom for um our
039younger students to participate in on that day as well we have um the second round of teacher evaluations that are currently going on for non- tenur staff started that on the first week of February and they're scheduled to finish um on March 6 we have about two and a half more weeks of the third quarter which ends on March 7th and then a little testing update we have the second second window of mass testing is closing this Friday and then looking ahead the third window opens up on March 24th and we also have the optional sat for juniors is coming up around the corner it's going to be taking place on Tuesday March 4th and that was for um any Junior who wish to participate we had 23 in total sign up for that testing
040opportunity any questions Julie March 4th sat correct right thank you on to middle school high school principal all right um we had state speech and drama since our last meeting um we our kids did really well uh Keith Frank placed eight Sophia shell play seventh auy Blair plays fourth and Austin sh play second at level um Bob Reed was actually nominated for a coach of the year as well to keep going to that conference beginning of March in Great Falls so that's exciting um FFA is starting their District competitions they had horse judging last week um mechanics March 4th it's ALS also National FFA week so they're doing the breakfast Mr bger reference um something every day this week today was blue and gold breakfast tomorrow a scavenger hunt Thursday and um trivia on Friday
041um spelling we talked about uh State wrestling was this last week weekend we had two of our boys um qualify for State uh Tristan Knight finished fifth and um Trey basil DOA I believe was out first of the tournament but but did well um senior night went really well had lots of kids recognized um FFA did those flowers ficia did the cookies um but it was a good night well attended um field of trips are starting to get on the books Miss Atkinson is taking her sophomores to Hart Mountain um the 28th of February uh Mr Fritz is headed to world class academic world quest in Missoula on March 2nd through March 4th he's taking six team students this year so I think four teams I think when he started it was like three or
042four kids so that's grown um Science Olympiad uh is March 4th and miss goodr miss ninger are taking 15 7th and eighth graders to uh bman for that uh Middle School mini courses are getting close those again are March 12th and March 19th um one option of the mountain course the ski and the other kids um are doing rock climbing one day and the uh golf simulator um on that other date a Big Sky Regional science bowl for uh high school kids I don't have a number on that yet that's March 7th in Billings uh State BPA is March 9th through 11th uh Miss Richard is busy and all the kids been been doing big sales uh every Tuesday this February and I think they're doing quite well and just getting you know busier with
043the testing and those types of things things for State um like Mr Richard said quarter three ends March 7th um and middle school student council is uh planning and preparing uh for a middle school dance in April so they they will likely be at the March um meeting visit with you guys about that so that's any questions fory comments all right thank you on to consent agenda make one update um trusty Dale if you don't mind um there's a new item in consent agenda um listed as number five that is new library books um that are being added to the library so ask Mr kriskovich to um you know if and when new books are purchased for the library to put those a part the consent the gy the trustees can have look at those
044titles as you see fit so that was request made from and that listed in b in there I move to approve the consent agenda okay it's been moved by Ken and seconded by Kathy um do discussions any discussion public comment all those in favor say I I all those opposed all right there's six of us tonight my first all right action items uh new business Elementary election resolution um background um there is a resolution in the packet calling for um election um that district clerk Smith put together trusty Dale Adam and Ste seats are up for re-election in May um additionally um trustee should consider a general fund Levy uh the purpose of the elementary general fund Levy is to offset potential lost revenue from the sunsetting transformational learning grants and to potentially fund an
045additional fifth grade teacher uh the budget committee began examining potential numbers for a live Levy uh during the January committee work and continued the work at their February committee meeting um actual Levy amounts do not need to be uh determined at this moment um furthermore trustees May cancel the election at a later date um reason that the motion is up for consideration is that there's a February 2015 excuse me 25th deadline uh to declare an election uh so listed some you know potential uh strategic objectives uh the big one here obviously we we have to call for the trustee election uh to take place um but asking that the board consider a potential um general fund Levy um again to kind of offset some of that lost Revenue that we will anticipate seeing as the
046transformation women Grant goes away um in addition to um if the trustees um want to keep our numbers um in line with the Strategic plan if you're looking at those K5 K3 numbers would be 15 students per teacher and then our fourth fifth and sixth grade would be 20 students per teacher that um we're likely going to be seeing uh what we anticipate the addition of fifth grade which would round out two kindergartens two first two seconds two third two fourth and two fifth um and Mr Richards uh world you know the number right now is 19 um is that right Mr that's the last I checked on fourth grade I mean excuse me never mind that's fifth grade um going off so they're within the Strategic plan uh um number this year but as
047that small fifth grade goes across um our number for for fourth grade um I'm not gonna assume Mr Richard has that number off top um in fourth grade next year's fourth grade next year oh next year's fourth grade yeah um but we know that this year's fourth grade is 31 so that clearly exceeds what we're hoping to have in fifth grade that would that would also exceed accreditation um you know standards as well even if we were to put an eight in there 31 is is just too many um so I think that's something to consider we don't need to make that decision tonight um but because of that February 25th deadline um we um need to consider different um an election and then if if the trustees want cancel that um at a certain
048date hard budget numbers um are not going to be in place until March 1st um those come to us from from OPI um we had tried to get ahead of it a little bit with some calculators that OPI had put out um f did quite a bit of work um using opi's budget prediction uh calculator and then OPI followed up and said sorry that calculator is not functioning um correctly so all that work was for not um um so we're kind of in a holding pattern um and we've set a budget committee meeting for um about a week after March 1st to begin take a little bit of a look into into those numbers um but would be happy to take any questions or if budget committee members want to um say anything I think
049only thing I would ask if anybody's able to come to that budget meeting to try to get an understanding so we can all make the best decision what we need to do for the stuff to the public as well did we put an official we did find it I thought we did just important it's not small March 11 5:30 5:30 5:30 and so the recommendation is that uh Board of Trustees call for either a male Ballot or a PO election um that's for you all to decide Elementary truste election and an elementary general f election I move that uh we call for an election Elementary trustee and Elementary general fund I'll second uh other board discussion public comment all those in favor say I I I all those opposed that one's 5 to Z the
050high school election resolution similar story um here with a general fund uh lety keep in mind that there is no trustee election in the High School uh this year uh truste caring conceit is not up U for for election so there's no trustee election um however again coming up on the end of the transformational learning grants um and then looking at you know some strategic plan initiatives largely that have been uh and more and more funded out of that transformational learning grants um to to try to keep some of those um uh initiatives at efforts going um to have a robust you know CTE program continuing to offer Advanced opportunities continuing to offer certification in some of those vocational Fields um embracing technology um trying to recognize you know that we have student interest in
051the coding 3D printing Health Sciences a industry um a portion of uh Mr Turk's salary um in the wood shop has been uh build to the transformational learning grant to get that process up and running a lot of the Investments uh from some of the equipment uh has been paid for out of the transformational learning grants um so I think the idea here would be um putting that into the general fund which makes it more sustainable as a long-term uh opportunity um getting it away from a grant funded opportunity even though the purpose of the transformational learning there was to initiate and Spark and get these programs up and running uh but at the end of that I think it's something to consider um if if the trustees want to make a um a longterm
052investment in in some of those programs um additionally and the budget committee has looked at this in pretty great detail but our most recent purchases for K8 reading and K8 math programs which are well over $100,000 um over a six-year um subscription period have been paid for that transformational working Grant as well that when we come du at the end of six years and we need to make another big decision on on those curricular learning materials that in the absence of the transformation women Grant becomes a general fund expenditure to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars so it's something to keep an eye on um and that would be you know potential rationale um for um a general fund budet in the high school as well so recommendation for the moment um you
053know kind of holding on budget numbers to make sure we have a clear picture but uh the recommendation is the trustees call for either mail or poll election um that just wrong a High School general function yeah I think on the [Music] notes I move that we call for a um meil bill at a pro elction a high school um general fund so do we have to differentiate like which one we want to do have to mark that on the resolutions so we'll have to go back and amend that yeah okay I didn't know yeah so just as a general information pie um about 75% of our voters vote absentees so they're mailed anyway mail okay so all right so do I need to change that say mail yeah I I said that too I
054don't know if you heard me did do okay I just was checking just to make sure you hear me Jason I'll I feel like I heard it I heard it I thank you yeah okay we have a motion by Kathy and a second by Craig uh do we have any further board discussion I think the only thing I would say in the budget comme just and this is probably more for people that want to come to that is we'll be discussing both Elementary and the high school ones and they are their own separate am yeah different whatever come to so and we can run one or not I believe that's so please come and put your input [Music] in public comment all right so this is high school so all in favor say I all
055opposed six to zero certified staff retirement incentive previous discussion um the Board of Trustees may let to offer an early retirement incentive package um if the board elects to offer an early retirement package of teachers organization board will use the early St of fire all of that information uh was presented last month um language taken from the collective marketing with JTA um I did have um trustees recommended that we bring this back um as a potential action item um in the month of February um I did have a teacher um approach me um with about 20 years of service to the district um the teacher asked that the board um considered a four-year health insurance buyout um and so have that conversation good conversation uh with the feature um however I think in light of
056um you know pretty lengthy Insurance buyout I think there's you know long-term liability there um that um I would be a little bit cautious about um I think the recommendation I don't think the recommendation Remains the Same uh Board of Trustees take no action of re well I think that if we did decide to do one it should be open to all staff and there has to be some way to decide longevity or something I think it's kind of hard to pick and choose but just something that make sense yeah be offered say the first three that come but I don't know how you do that well so that's based on that's based upon longevity to the district right so the trustees in the past have said hey we're gonna do one we're GNA do
057two we're GNA do three um so you know teacher comes forward and says hey this is kind of you know what I had in mind um that teacher has you roughly 20 years there might be a teacher that has 25 that has 30 that has 35 that it might not even get down to that teacher I think the teacher was just here's an idea you know that's that's out there I don't think as long as I've been here I've never seen a four year um I think most of SE is a threee you know did that last year so especially in light of our conversation about General um all of that any retirement incentive gets paid out a general so you know keeping in mind that there is a potential long-term Offset you know if
058you know you've got a teacher that's you know making that and we talked about it's making this much money they retire salary liability is you know potentially reduced you know to some extent but at the same time you lose you know to lose institutional knowledge to lose experience um I think some there's some work out there that says this is what it costs you to bring a new teacher on board uh with training with um just getting a new teacher up to up to speed you lose a little bit so it's it's kind of you know one of those things maybe hold on to teach for a couple more years in like decrease so I'll entertain a motion none for motion right I don't have to do any public comment all right motion dies or
059action dies what is it the agenda item dies agenda item dies something died you're doing well you're not uh Personnel Personnel strategic objective uh being that we've effectively recruited and retained staff or alone from Mission well as a vision um recommendation is to hire Jo Richard uh K1 through five principal K1 through2 testing coordinator uh K1 through2 title mind coordinator in addition to all other duties is assigned um recommendation is um that the board hire Mr Richard for those duties uh for the 2526 school year uh this is the fourth and 10e and contract for Mr Richard uh contract details are to be negotiated at a ler time later time uh which would also be brought in front of the board once budget numbers become a little bit more clear um as well as you
060know working into um some future negotiations as well so might be an adjustment to some teacher salaries so I'll make a motion to hire can I okay we have a motion by Kelly and a second by Ken any board discussion public comment all right all those in favor say I I I all those opposed this is 6 Z right because of the overlap yeah just just because you're tenure doesn't mean you can start slapping off keep up those News letters okay keep doing what you're doing it's good Hernandez Mr Hernandez uh recommendation is to hire Mandy Hernandez as the 612 principal for 2526 year contract toti so move wait who she's already SL I know there was some feedback over there okay I have a motion by Ken and a second by Kelly uh any
061board discussion public comment all those in favor say I I all opposed motion pass Six to zero recommendation is to hire Mark alre for head high school track um Activities Committee met on February 3D to interview uh Mr Al um recommendation coming out of the Activities Committee is Board of Trustees Mark alre as the head high school track coach for the 25 Seas Mark g mark G Al I move that we hire Mark G alre for the head high school track coach for the season okay it's been moved by Kathy and seconded by Jason uh any for discussion public comment all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion pass 6 to zero February 18 2025 personal action report uh recommendation is the Board of Trustees approve I move to approve the person
062I'll s it it's been moved by Ken and seconded by Kathy any board discussion public comment all those in favor say I I all those opposed same sign motion passed six to zero superintendent contract um negotiations committee met on January 28th uh to discuss uh Mr Baker's contract draft contract uh is included in the packet for review um negotiation committee recommendation uh Board of Trustees for the draft contract the motion to approve the draft contract it's been moved by Kelly and seconded by Craig any board discussions I just have one question there more clarification um what from the committee what was the reasoning for the onee extension when we only one year into the threee that's what we did a year ago too okay and that's one of the things to for longevity and for
063for the superintendent to have some stability you know and uh he ask for no increase in wages if you get have one more year and I think that that's something that's commonly done three years is the maximum you can do so we can't say you know we're going to give them a fiveyear contract we can't do that and so the way that that offsets is that you can add add a year if you want each time so it's always three and I think it helps for the stability of the school and the staff and what's going sure no that's good question thank you I think it was the quickest meeting we've ever had quickest one I've ever been of there was really nothing other than kind of changing dates on that year extension so it
064prettyy quick any other board discussion public comment all those in favor say I I I all those opposed motion pass 6 to Z there's no policy I'm sorry to report there's no policy oh man I'm kind of glad that's too much for me to have to go through third wait till next month I know um the jolet Little League memorandum of understanding uh is included um in the packet Stacy BL Lo Meer submitted the mou for trustees consideration um included in the packet I think it checks a lot of the boxes on the Strategic um plan mainly with making sure those relationships with our community are strong um I see blae he's here probably to answer any questions if there are any it's pretty similar last year uh my recommendations Board of trust J I'll
065make a motion to accept the little ml second it's been moved by Kelly and seconded by Jason any board discussion I guess the only thing I is are there any significant changes from last year blaz you want to speak to that um so we did is update the uh plan so there so the actual memorandum itself nothing changed at all um and then the master plan we updated for a few of the things that we did um the last year is make that we set up a little temporary backtop for t-bow to help with alleviate the fields and I think the kids enjoyed the smaller field a little bit better too um then Outfield fans we did a flag poll because the only for the little leag pledge is the only other one was in
066the subdivision there and it had that F Joe Biden sign so it was kind of not appropriate so so we got that flag pull up to avert the attention away from that I don't know if that's going to be there or not anymore but um um yeah and then so that's it but any of those improvements we send those through Mr begar for for approval and he needs to shoot it back to you guys he can so I think the relationship is real strong yeah the next year the things we have is eventually the upper field we'd like to get the dugouts covered you know because they just have the half fence and that doesn't really meet safety standards so that's one goal to get that covered um and then we'd like to get some
067sort of uh Maps or something along the back stops because that when balls hit it they if you notice they still get push out so that's kind of our two goals for this year I I just like to say I think that our school district is very fortunate to have a group like you yeah that works on these fields you know we try to give you the support we can but the school benefits and you benefit and I think it's I appreciate it and I just want to thank you and everybody and you know it takes a lot of volunteers and because you guys don't get paid a lot you know my pay got doubled this year it did it good up to zero it takes a long but it takes you guys to round
068up the volunteers you get the volunteers to do it and it's just nice to have a community that has a group that's dedicated to working for those kids you know for the for the softball baseball t-ball um we're just I'm just thankful as a board member to have you guys here working with us at this scho we're thankful for you allowing us to use the facilities so we're not going to raise their rate you can double can double it very job so just thank you thank you any other board discussion further public comments all right all those in favor say I I all opposed motion passed 6 to zero buiness policy second readings um who that you word again recommendation of the Board of Trustees approve second reading of 2100 2120 2123 2132 2160 216
069so move it's been moved by Ken and seconded by Craig any board discussion all comment all those in favor say I I I all opposed motion pass 6 to Zer discussion and informational all right I'll start with the snow day um February 3D um we had a snow day um as you guys will all know um turns out it might not have even been the worst sweather day that we had I think a lot of consensus that maybe today was worse um but you know to some extent I think most people got here um and you know Sam spoke to it a little bit we've got a temperature uh reading it's pretty easy you know when it's 20 below and he's got that thermometer you know that's the plan we've posted that emergency procedure document
070a number of times up on Facebook and we even sent it out with through Infinite Campus um in preparation for this like most recent now so people are aware of that uh the cancellation of school that that process is is to some extent a judgment call um more so than just when it's 20 below um which is a harder one to make um and you know it has to do with you know working closely with Sam working closely with you know the county uh Transportation team this particular that particular event I think was tricky because it was a Sunday nighter um county road crews hadn't been out um kind of comes overnight and waking up Monday morning um you know dangerous for people to kind of dig out and try to get to school um
071you know maybe the US same argument could have been made for today because we are coming off over weekend it was a President's Day but I think there's there were more people on Monday kind of out about plowing uh and tackling things I didn't see why reports of school closures in the area on February 3rd their order um was everyone in the Tri County Area everybody was shut down so those become kind of you know in all honesty when everybody's kind of having the same decision it's like okay it's probably you know a reasonable call um at this moment in time so um you know the the risk that you run when you do have a snow day is that anytime snow starts falling a lot of questions from many people about is it it's
072been very it's been very hard on my marriage too because my wife is constantly like what are you thinking now I told that to the staff as well but well I think the bigger on a more serious note like every day is essentially optional for everybody right that if you feel like you can't get down the road there's no reason you know to put yourself to put your family um In Harm's Way at any at any rate so try to just spread that word you know we'll get the kids caught up and if we have a teacher in the same boat like we'll get us up and we'll get all that stuff covered but as winter kind of rolls on I think people do get a little bit more experience and you know we'll get
073through it so uh we did have some extra hours built in so there's no action uh required at the at the board level um so we'll be fine nothing to make up at this moment in time do you have to report that to the state you know as far some kind of a report you do well we report it to the county superintendent oh and then they go there is a spot on the op website they have a brand one do we have anything left in the bank yeah yeah and you know from what I could tell we probably have them for two more days okay I will always vote for the snow day I've never matured past that like childhood like it's like Christmas morning there's no school where I went to school there
074was never a snow it was like a town it was like red L you like all these kids lived in town always get it's Montana tough up grow up grow up Amanda day grow up superintendent said last night on the news this is Montana He um yeah I think we'll be I think we'll be good it appears that you know later this week might be getting little ni um they go play in the mud um we talked about this already but just want to make sure we're spreading the word April 11th Kindergarten Roundup U Mr Richard um mentioned that Miss SP thank you um to what you guys do the kids walk out with some flag and we've got some T-shirts and some cinch bags and all that stuff and get them ramped up um
075for for school so looking forward to that Master calendar um I included the agenda from our meeting um with the master calendar committee um we met uh on February 11th to kind of begin conversation in preparation for a March um uh agenda item um so we'll have that here for for the trustees at March we did it in March last year um got together those folks were all there um except for Don I think Don had something come her schedule and she wasn't able to make it um but we reviewed the 24 25 calendar looked at some things we also sent out a survey to to the teachers to get feedback um on that pretty like there wasn't a lot of criticism over this year's calendar um so the feedback actually came back pretty good
076we reviewed that um and then a couple things that we talked about it seems like a lot of districts are moving to this Labor Day to Memorial Day calendar um and extending their Days by you know a couple minutes here a couple minutes there um in orderorder to to kind of stay within those bounds um we looked at Shepherds who had done that was pretty positively received up there uh School District who is making that change this year um ultimately I think what we decided was because there's such positive reception to the semester for Middle School in high school and well really high school ending before Christmas break that if you then you can do finals and get a kind of cleaned up and then the kids aren't having to you know worry about study
077and then when they come back if we're running finals on January 18th or 19th it becomes this really big review phase like so they're reviewing instead of in you know instead of instructing new material um so you you end reviewing which is maybe not necessarily the best use of that time as opposed if you it's finished you come back in January and you're just ready to go if we and feel free anybody who was at this meeting to to chime in um if you start after Labor Day it really forces you to probably move the end of the semester back into January it's just too short you have a big kind of discrepancy maybe 20 days longer sem second semester than first so there was some good conversation about that that we' had and we
078really kind of like our schedule we did make some modifications and Mar has put together another draft based upon kind of option a option b um and some of the steps that were there so anybody else want to chime in on on that okay oh I thought it was a good meeting I agree with what you said you I think the semester ending the semester before Christmas and things we need to do that I think that that's pretty on the other thing that that I like is the fact that we're not trying to cut our calendar down to exactly the minute that's required for our state I want our school to go above and beyond and I think we do and so I want to make sure that there's there's enough minutes and enough days
079for snow days if we need them but if we don't it's okay to teach our kids a little bit longer especially when I think all the activities that they're going for and everything else and I like that so I'm glad that that the committee didn't say well let's just shorten it as much as we can until It just fits so I appreciate that okay so that'll be up um for um a votes in March uh Master 612 class schedule those meetings have uh begun I think we've had three uh now um de since December we've been kind of getting together looking at some pieces looking at some class siiz stuff um when it comes to that that master schedule um you know making sure all those requirements are there but also kind of looking at
080some of our electives uh to make sure that we got the numbers to provide those and you know so obviously there's some prediction to this um but we like to begin having this conversation early um and then we we like to get the schedule set here in January and then reconvene in August uh when you know all when everything changes when all the pieces have finally landed um I I think back to poor Miss Richard and how many different assignments I had for her fourth grade and you know just as as things evolve they do but you do need to get together to have these conversations um I think the big thing that we've got to really contend with right now we talked about this um this fifth grade class this year that has 19
081students as they move to become sixth graders next year and if that number stays at 19 it becomes really it becomes difficult in my mind to split them into two groups which is really how our master schedule is built that we need half of sixth grade going to PE and then the other half is going to art or something like that you know half is over here in science while the other app is in map uh having those two groups is um really critical but that that number you know doesn't necessarily justify that so we have Mr Turk build a couple of different schedules one that keeps them kind of together one that would separate them because in August you know here we go we get six seven kids enroll um here at the last
082minute and then we do have to split them uh up into into two groups so we're having those conversations um anything to add Mr herandez or Mr Richard on on the schedule please no it's a little like a lot of them who get who who goes where you'll tell us more in August yeah um but that's happening um and I think there's good good ideas and good momentum um Mr Z also sent out to teachers hey what what elect are you interested in you know what do you want to keep what might you want to give it of so good conversations happening uh related to that facilities Master planning um and the maintenance log so maintenance log is included um we'll continue to meet and work with um Steve on that to to develop that
083it's obviously taken on a little bit of a different form um you know as goes when people kind of come in and come out um so that's all there I told the the folks copy this morning that the maintenance report next month will be two words snow removal that's really all they've been doing um you know in addition to keeping the front kind of clear stuff you don't see uh that our teachers would see is all the emergency exits you know need to be kind of shuffled out uh as well so in case you needed to get out for example Miss o doors she's got like an emergency exit there that it was you know I saw the footprints um but apparently was quite the scene when Mr Wayne was coming from the greenhouse over
084the the piles behind the school there are four and a half five feet deep um so I think it was quite the show as he was kind of getting through that to shovel them out but a lot of that stuff up in the building you know a lot of folks don't see but they're super busy um so if you see them you know let them know that you're appreciate that trusty Ste same thing do a lot look good um that's well yeah I thought their their reports were fine just a little bit more succinct than before but I thought they still can enough detail what's going on um the door code I thought I saw on one of them all the door codes are wiped now is that right yeah so is there still the
085keypad on the gym door yes will that stay there or will that it stays there just because it's a part of that lock but it's been it's been disabled okay you know I think there's one master code that still exists like with maintenance yeah okay so like no new codes would be no new codes no and we've actually run into issues where you teachers will come in and request hey for this particular reason we just try to draw a hard line um on not getting out any any those yeah I remember we talked about that like during I think handbooks and stuff um and switching over to fob that was the thing yes I think to be in physical possession of the fob in order to gain entry in my mind is the safest way
086uh to to do it something that just popped in my mind and maybe you already clarified this in the past but the fire department do they have a fob or how they have I you know I don't think I've given the fire department any fobs and that is all my list of things to do so the um Sheriff's Office the old Keys we had gotten all those um to you guys um for the old key BS but I don't think he gave me a couple new ones a handful administered and our local guys and supervisors have them okay so Bob has a school one and then couple of our town guys have fire department has an don't have to I I heard that this might be a little off topic but I was at a
087active shooter active threat response training in pal spell um at the school up there and they were talking about keys and access and the school resource officer up there said it kind of what just said I won't need a key because if there's an issue my patrol par patrol cars going be parked in the lobby um oh that's nice and and when we posted trainings I I've heard talk about that as well like keep a hitch you know put the receiver on your pickup in case you need to access we're not going to you know waste time over key yeah fire alarm different story yeah yeah so no they do not um we have not distributed those First Responders yeah I don't um Ken and maybe I'll lead into this and you can think while
088I'm talking um but we did have a facilities committee meeting that went I thought went really well um it was just we build it as a committee meeting was a little different format than what we've typically done with me getting up and you know presenting out um we had good participation Brady Gibbons from Higher Ground fencing he's doing some Contracting work now it sounds like um uh John Patterson uh grandparent here in the district was uh was in attendance uh Kyler asash um and just talking about the the master plan trying to keep it kind of on the Forefront but there was also some kind of good alternate ideas brought up you know is the scope of this project maybe too big is it you know um maybe not what we need right at this
089moment you know in light of you know potentially flat enrollments um we can continue to absorb and operate you know probably for if the enrollment stay is at you know around 300 you know we'll probably be okay um but good discussions about you know potentially some private fundraising uh to help move a project forward um then just as well as some like alternate ideas um I don't know you want to add in there no I think it I think we kind of decided that the amount of money that was there is we're not ready for that and I see sometimes I see the signs like got down the down the road past the pathway of the Bible to sale something is that going to be a big subdivision I think that that we need to
090make sure that we don't lag too far behind and go crap we're in trouble so but I don't think we're ready to jump into anything either um you know I mean Kyle had some good fundraising ideas he and he would be willing to take that on to where we could raise a lot of funds to help with some of it that he felt if we if we got a Tech Lab in um he could fill it with stuff but not an issue I I truly believe he can um so there's there's some some ideas there that's not just a bond in my mind I don't think we can fund raise all of it but I do think if we fund raised the big chunk the bond would not be quite as big if we did
091it um and I guess at the committee but came up the next day and just walked around and looked at Kyle and I did and just started drawing pictures and I shared with you that the one at one time the plan said is maybe to add a little bit out on the shop here so we looked at that in that little alop where you go into the doors just to me could be wasted space which is a big hole so we drew it up where you could put a Tech Lab in four classrooms an office for supervision at the beginning have a bigger Lobby a place for possibly um uh FCS right there just some some ideas that could take place our Architects want a lot of money to do that I don't think we're
092ready to put that money out there now but I think it's still something that we need to continue to talk about and look at I thought of the idea today that that if it's all right I might contact uh Montana State University architecture dep do you have some students that that need a senior project do you have somebody that could look at it draw a floor plan outside pictures you know it's all on the computer anymore do some some drawings that could be used for a fundraiser or for ideas that they could use as a project for them maybe save us some money I think if we ever decided to go forward you still have to get an architect engineer you really have to go through that whole process before a bond goes up but
093if we could get some ideas on paper that are more than my graph paper and my pencil which I thought were really good were good they were good but anyway those are some ideas I think that we can't move forward but I I want to move forward slowly and still bring it up when we have facility and just keep talking and so the contract that you see the adjustments to the contract with u collaborative design um I think that the action that that I felt came out of that committee was to just hey touch face with the Architects talk about you know this Standalone or to fill this poll or something like that so I talked through kind of the ideas that we'd have and like of course oh yeah absolutely um you know we
094can draw that and and they called it um Austin called it just okay so you just need a fundraising document or something like that um and apparently the fundraising document is $10,000 uh so that's I didn't feel comfortable signing off on that at this moment in time um because who knows maybe Ken snap can draw you know get the job done was paper so um but I I do think that you know we're still shovel ready if we needed to be you know zero if 0% interest money came out was falling out of the sky we'd be teed up and I think ready to go with the current master plan um but making sure that it's reasonable for for our taxpayers I think is also important you know the the the modular is obviously kind
095of feeling a need for us at this moment in time it's not ideal you know by by any means and especially um as you think about some of those long-term strategic plan staff retention um morale you know for for those folks that are kindur of going in and now like that's a hard hard deal you know especially now um in in light of that so they're serving a need that I think we have I I don't want us to get too comfortable you know having that is that space we'll work to get as we as we have a a new fifth grade ad this year um as always the things remain to be seen if um if Miss vus is Kinder one is at 14 you know this year and that stays at 14 right
096then you know we've gained ourselves you know a classroom but Mr Richard's research from last year was pretty spot on in we app S8 to N8 to nine come in after that so now you put eight or nine on top of 14 now you have two um again so we'll begin to see some of those things you know shake out so it's a little bit of a puzzle um making sure that we're have space uh one thing I just wanted to throw out there for the facilities committee do you think the district's more in a position that we should focus a little bit harder on the facility commity focus a little harder on possibly acquiring another piece of ground that was next next year been discussion but maybe that's something we need to Target a
097little a little bit harder yeah remember when we first started meeting with the Architects and like what was your wish list thing that was my number one plan so maybe that's that's actually what you're on yeah and we actually we actually just discuss that because that would be a extremely the dialogue is open with that gentleman um so I've had a couple of phone calls with him we've shared some text messages and what I think what we're probably talking about is the only space that's available um you know north of the the bus bar there um but there's there's an opportunity you know um nothing's given away i opport y I think so and I I it's it's not going to get any cheaper you know than it is today on that it just I
098think is really depending on what the appe is on his end to carve something out but I I would encourage you guys to think about lease opportunities you know rental space and you're take yourself quite a bit of parking and then you can do a lot but the parking is is deteriorating daily daily around here so just give give it ath so I I think just continue to have those conversations um I think that all that work is is good work uh policy committee is their transportation committee um so s reported out on that um probably don't need to go into too much detail on that um budget committee that's also kind of been discussed with all the election stff I think we're good there um I don't remember this from last year but Don
099asked if we put the 2025 annual mtsba membership survey just to include it um that's for you all if you guys want to just every individual trustee can go on and take that survey it's not something that we fill out collectively um it appears to me long yeah started it then I was like yeah um it is optional you can put your name in there not number one but you don't have to um I you know in all honesty I think mtsba is really responsive to the survey data that they get and I really do think it helps to drive their legislative platforms and they're out there advocating like they are they are Frontline um in Helena right now yeah they're testifying they're at this hearing they're at this the updates that they give if
100you're looking at those are are well done um you can track them and they're part of that coalition there's a number of outfits that are you know kind of working on some same issues I appreciate their daily updates about what's going on yeah there's just so much to try to weed through it's kind of nice to get their kind of synopsis of what happened that day so that's there uh enrollment update so we're flat on enrollment uh from January to February um I saw an email come through from this Brookings that we're going to get four um new students who are anticipating enrollment here in March so whether or not that's before the next board meeting or not they're kind of spread out amongst variety of grade levels um we'll get a couple students back
101from Arizona who are you know wintering District district in District industry yeah um so you know I I I kind of talked about this at coffee I kind of think we'll be neutral um you know by the end of the year that we'll be back at 3 you know right right in app um when when it's all set down imployment opportunities um are listed out there so we got CTE um position posted um that's just a part of that process of you know looking at what kind of candidates are out there had pretty good luck with like Miss Stratton offering the the Health Sciences class uh Mr Mah offering a computer science principles and really kind of just fill a unique um Niche for for some of those students to the enhanced and advanced opportunities
102but we don't need a full-time you know AP Computer Science feature they just not a need that we have but if we get the right person that wants to be in know do a period here a couple periods here can talked this morning you know about this class four lure the people are people that are working out in in the professional Fields um can qualify for the you know a lot of times these are people that just want to get involved they don't want to you know have their biger full or don't need that you know at this moment in time so that's mainly just to kind of get get the interest and see what's out there um our counselor position is posted and we've posted that as broadly as we can too in order
103to kind of like expand the applicant pool K5 612 pay2 um and then if when applicants come in we can have those conversations about work people you know my best fit into the system um again we're anticipating a fifth grade need for an elementary feature um at this moment in time trying to you know just get the applicant P up um and as deep as possible still looking for that ybgr travel driver if anybody's interested in that um also looking for an aid which would alleviate some pressure during the building um would be interested in entertaining custodial night custodian um our new custodian has started she doing a great job um you know so that's a nice ad kitchen assistance for next year bus cameras will come off I just sent that email to Y
104that ybgr traveling um are there certain requirements not for the aid background check you know obviously this would be like a Pera you know all same requirements for a par the driver yeah the driver does come with requirements and does that have to be school pluss no so what we're trying to do here is take this off of a bus um and Rod has been driving it and he's doing a good job but it's a lot of driving yeah um and this week like we had to cancel the route tomorrow because we got tournaments and you know this and that going on that when we're down drivers we end up having to cancel this so what we want to do is if the driver were there we can put them into the Expedition which is
105our typee school bus uh vehicle um they don't need a CDL but they do need to have a do physical um M the CPR on first aid um certified so Sam has done all the work to you know make sure that that's above board um you know again for the right person it's a split shift it's super complicated but some people you know but not to have that c that's that's a big yeah and it's about the same pay as of sharting drivers 20 bucks an hour um wasn't there some issue with like reimbursement for the route like a bus versus a vehicle I think there was a little bit of a misunderstanding over the summer on on that we don't get reimbursement OPI does not reimburse sum anyway yeah at all period but like
106is there like a larger reimbursement if you're taking a yellow bus versus a vehicle like a the so the routes are based off of the number of seats on the bus not well the number of seats on the bus and the number of Riders on the bus so when I do the spreadsheet when I do the budget it has each vehicle listed the number of seats available and the number of eligible Riders is how the reimbursement regardless of if they ride every single day if they're eligible Riders they are including that reimbursement so it would be slightly smaller but there would be some reimbursement you know I don't know how that works on the county level with the routes um red L used to run it and I'm not sure um I don't Jill is
107the one who does all the reimbursements of the yeah we have have to cons yeah but like if we're not getting like wondered what the issue was CU I remember there being some kind of there was something like you got more money reimbursement by taking the bus which I agree because of the number of riders capacity and wear on thats yeah I for it's aot we have camera the Expedition has a camera yeah we already got a dash camera in there because we did run it um for the summer for a period of time it was incumbent having that would that would that have to have school bus magnetic signs I think you got to put the you have a back you have a backup deeper it's got back got a backup deeper and then
108you put the school bus signs and they can be magnetic yeah and then put those on and it's a bus you take them off and it's activities yeah and I think we do have the the magnetics I know Roberts uses theirs all the time they have this on and we passed a brand new like brand new Expedition and it had the school bus magnets on it and my kids were like why don't we have school buses like that well Sam thinks if he didn't mention that in his report but I think he says if we had three Expeditions we get a lot of things done okay um policy 2510 update so we did talk about we will talk about the rural Behavioral Health Institute that was the screening suicide screening for all students that they're
109offering I have been kind of tracking them those seats are um being kind of sucked up by a lot of districts that I I would almost venture to say about time we get there they won't have any slots left for their ability to stream kits this year um but we'll talk about it in policy um I didn't get the sense there was a strong uh push to do that at this moment unless we have further discussion so we'll go back to policy what we did do and Mr Richard mentioned it um and I was also going to shout out Mr duel he kind of put us in contact with the QPR folks um who came in did the training um for our staff on last Friday so well it sounds like and I don't remember
110if we talked about this last meeting or not but it sounds like like that's really where um more like the most progress or like better results are seen is with the training of the staff versus the screening of the students nobody and now that our staff is equipped with kind of those that that training nobody knows our kids better than our teachers right who see them every single day um and are just so ke and so I'm super thankful of the observations that they made there's not a lot of stuff that um you know with iats um and just general conversation um that got eyes on I think that's likely to have the best results it's probably not foolproof it's not perfect um you know but I think it did a good job winter testing
111um so the overview so what you're looking at right now is just the the update from I ready and remember that this is just the K5 world who does a winter uh testing um our Maps testing is just done in the fall as well as in the spring so we'll have that that later but again there's an overview um of what the data looks like what it should look like um but we're starting to see some things um if you're looking at just the total percentage at grade level or better you know we're starting to see what we want looking at big trends or people moving over um to to beginning at grade level um and in kindergarten you're seeing some improvements um you know same thing with reading and math uh in in first
112grade uh second grade we're seeing the growth uh as well uh third grade with substantial uh substantial improvements in Reading um and then also you know the gains in in that as well so we're looking at all of those um we did um you know on the surface goild backwards a little bit when it comes to fifth grade reading so um we'll continue to keep an eye um on that but MTH made improvements and then um science is there so that's one way to look at it and that's what's this document is linked up on the website um and updates live as soon as Mr Richard puts all that data in and there's just another way to look at it within you know I Ready's own diagnostic situation so I think the data is one
113thing but um really what's more important is what um Mr Richard and what the teachers are doing um with the data at that point in time so um I think fourth and fifth grade and I've updated the board to some extent on this but fourth and fifth grade doing a good job of working into some um mixed grade level um instruction during what we're calling the tit which we're calling the J flex period of time um in which you know we'll see fourth and fifth graders um going to get the instruction because they've got that three teacher team that's right at their level um with that OPP to have JX Mr no the fourth and fifth grade team just um started um in the Target interventions based off of the level of the combined fourth
114and fifth graders I think we start r that month or two ago and so they're shuffling them all around and just G them the extra support but they need to get them bumped over it's a it's a it's an effort that we've been working towards uh for for quite a while but when you're working with different teachers in different grade levels the logistical piece um is is hard absolutely and the lack of relationships um that was the big thing we ran into thinking of shuffling our our younger students who don't know um teacher a from teacher B um and just the logistics alone of getting kids from point A to point B efficiently but with fourth and fifth grade already shuffling around and knowing all those teachers it's been pretty seamless yeah we had and
115I think we're working towards this and there's discussion about it but yeah having this as a K5 model in which a kindergarten might be able to go and get like second grade instruction but it's it's complicated uh to to make that make that happen and they're used to losing more ground behaviors and not understanding the norms and expectations but I think we're the model in fourth and fifth grade is super sound so hopefully we see some of those test scores come up so is that are you doing that in math and reading okay and every day yes okay that's good it's cool um superintendent schedule so um was out of the building last week um Wednesday and Thursday as well as Friday um was out in Arizona um I understand why people do that now
116so was down there with my folks and my kids so um back in Action uh nothing to report um that's immediately upcoming correspondent a nice letter from the millin family um just appreciative of all the the support um so I thought that was nice so that's included for everybody's review um there's also a letter from that came in last month but it was um yeah for the board pack was available from uh M Jenny Alexander suggested topics for the next regular agenda we have to set permissive Levy amounts you want to speak about that a little bit so we don't we don't This is complicated um we don't set ly mounts until budget but because of a Senate bill um back in 2017 we are required to publish in the newspaper our estimates of any
117permissive levies going up down um estimated Mills estimated dollar amounts for those um that has to be publish in the newspaper by March 31st um they are estimates because one we're working off of um this year's um taxable value um and we're also working off of obviously um budget data that is not complete um actual numbers will be at the August budget adoption but anyway so we we we just kind of sit down and estimate you know obviously we're going to have um a big drop in our um fund 129 29 because our transformational learning is going away um we may have a little bit of an uptick in our tuition based on our ybgr students um and potentially out of District students um so that's just an opportunity for us to kind of estimate
118what that's going to be um based on that and a lot of times you see districts put them up like at allll yeah if we don't these really trivial amounts yeah because if we don't if we don't publish this or if we don't put anything in that grid we are not allowed to make any changes to our place that's why this is a pretty B final piece that has to be published so that could be something that could be budget committee as well um if the board wants to move forward with general fund um election Levy amounts uh that would be something that we would do set those accept the actual number um in March I'm with I'm with uh Jason that I think the more that we can spread that word um not only
119amongst the board but um you know with the public as well so they can be kind of involved in that process I think we'll have a better idea of what direction we should go um so do spread the word on that Todd family scholarship um you were on that last year want speak about that um okay so yeah no me and Kathy and Kelly BR at last last year um and we set so I've been on it for two years now we set a topic uh for applicants um to write like a short essay about and then last year I think last year we had kind of a scoring system a better scoring system than we did the year before um first year I was on it we only got a couple applicants but last
120year we got a number of them um so um we we put that topic out there uh for the seniors uh we get the essays for those that want to apply and then we kind of uh independently review um and then get together and kind of talk about our review we haven't done um inperson interviews I think we set that as optional um but I don't know that we had while I've been doing this I don't know that we had one that was so close that um we really felt like we needed to do the interview but um it's been um it's been really cool actually like to be on that um committee and to read these um essays that the kids put together they do a really great job and I've been really impressed
121um so anybody else that do you read them without names are they Anonymous when you read them well no they have names on them but like for me like I really don't know the high schoolers so I honestly like it's pretty for me and yeah Kelly too sometimes you know anybody say you pick it because of that person's name yeah you know so maybe maybe that would be something to just take the name off I think it's just an idea yeah am I remembering right do they like list like their after school like what they want to do after the graduation probably has yeah I think there is like a few questions like that in there that would be more ident identifiable so and it is interesting to see they want to do and stuff
122so and some of them I know that first year what they wanted to do um for Education After High School kind of tied into the essay too so okay um but yeah like I said for me it was on anous anyways so for Kelly yeah Me Maybe Kathy too so and I think the obligations we have to have trust that what was there was when we re received that um donation from the Todd family um the only specification that it was to go to a student who's pursuing post high school education of some kind um and then we just as a board kind of decided how how that process work they not I forget how much is it $1,000 $1,000 um I think we have three more years or four more years left that's been
123enjoyable while I've while I've last I would encourage other and I think that Mr nandz can give a a brief in general about scholarships because I think that season is upon us some of the deadlines have passed but a couple of new um changes have been made to streamline this process yeah so there's the there's a doc a link on the website for scholarships um Mr Price's he can access that and update that kind of as information comes in um I think it's worked really well because he has all those seniors um first and second period so that information is going to them in real time um Lions Club is coming in tomorrow morning actually to talk to them about that scholarship um at 8:30 which is why we move the assembly but um I
124think it's done good we're just we're also in the same mode of kind of hammering out that Community scholarship because that one is a committee and so we'll get together on that um I think great yeah so I guess since it's here or no that's for next meeting so for next meeting would we decide like who wants to be on that committee okay okay in addition to that we will um distribute the board clerk evaluation will you bring a copy for everybody pleas for that uh the 2526 academic calendar will be brought forth um as an action item um and then March is also the month where we'll do certified teacher renewals as well as inals and so we'll tackle those in March regular meeing is schedu for March 18 budget committee has already set
125its date um I reached out out to the Activities Committee um today to begin working on um I think the first step in filling our open uh activities director position um and because of kind of the unique nature that we have of that you know the supervision piece as well as the administration piece uh what I think a good first step to do is to get that Community together to riew the job description um see if that still fits what's missing what's out there um so see if it can be put to one or if we want to two um as well as in addition to that work maybe identifying what's the profile of um the characteristics attributes skills um you know that be looking for with that position that's a big higher um so
126I think we'll probably get that done next week with the job description as well as devel profile of what we want to look like so those are the two committees that are out there any from facilities that we need now yeah I think we should schedule another meeting you know can like you talk about just keeping it yeah I don't know when out there we want to spread it out or when yeah I think it'd be a good idea to have yeah maybe there's some other things about facilities just what we have now and I think making sure that we're not at the same time that we're looking whatever 10 15 years down road but making sure there all obviously be immediate issues um we talked about it a lot and some of people saw
127that Terry's boiler um the boiler and Terry going out into the tun of almost $200,000 uh yeah um are major issues um that are unplanned unforeseen you have to compend with you have choice you have a time frame that would work for that without just I hate to just stick them all on top of each other too that well it was nice how we did it before of the last one where we were able to get some different people from the community in um which which all committees are open to the community and I wish we had more Community meet people come but I would like to do that again at some point I don't know date wise I'm retired I don't do anything Budget on 11 on and are we going to do policy
128on the 11th as well oh yeah so four o' for policy is hour half what time Amanda 4 March 11th at 4 you know I just I just typed policy in and it pops up gives me a time it's just already there trans when were you doing your activities we're trying to get that going it's not have well yeah I was just thinking like it might be nice to do something like in March you want to try to do it before the board meeting should be waiting I don't think it I don't think it has to be maybe that last week in March sometime what was that March don't care I don't know what day works best I have nothing that last week of March last week of March 2 yeah like a Tuesday Tuesday
129night I think the S o'clock for facilities if you're going for like public I think it that's late for me but it's okay I was able to would you rather do it no I was able to par 6:30 6:30 okay 6:30 on the 25th got it all right anything else right meeting a j nice job this was the worst part to read that there is so many words