001Okay, we'll call the meeting to order and we'll begin with the pledgece to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> We're going to start with our consent agenda. Any questions on the previous meetings minutes? The warrants? I do have one question on warrants. Is our plowing like per time or time? >> Is that like all of the whole season? >> The whole season. >> That was okay. Well, no, he does it per time and he charges us as he does it. He does the plowing, but he also does um sanding and he also does sweeping. So, this last time I think he did the sweeping and plowing. >> There should be a plow and
002a sweep. >> This was This is probably maybe two or three. I can pull the bill. Probably two or three. I can pull your >> instances. >> Yes. >> Oh, I thought you were saying per instance. >> Oh, no, no, no. Like if he has five per month, then that'll be the month. >> I got you. Okay. >> I was going to suggest that that was okay. That was my question. >> We do have um transportation contracts and I think we have a few JV approvals. I've been trying to put the descriptions on and then transportation contracts for next year. Then we have some out of district agreements. Uh that'll that's not in the consent. So that's an action item. Looks like they're going from Kyla to other. >> No, not this one. >> No.
003>> All right. I'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda. I will make a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Second. >> All in favor? I. Any oppose? >> Moving on to reports and recognitions. Student report. >> Make sure you introduce yourself. I am Teley part of the student leadership team and I was at one of these meetings. >> My name's Riley. I'm in sixth grade and this is my second. >> Okay. To start off, we're going to talk about cross country. We have 22 participants and every meet is on Tuesday. Uh we had a middle school dance on Friday this night and we had about 35 participants come and that's pretty cool. >> Yeah, we so seventh eighth grade have a NHD state project. We have some eighth graders and we have
004some seventh graders. It's at Boseman, Montana on April 25th and we have two seventh graders and seven eighth graders attending. Um, our talent show is coming up. Uh, tryyous are on sorry May 15th. Um, and I don't know. >> So, track and field day, it is May 29th and the seventh graders, they're eighth grade is going to be on their history trip and seventh graders going to be doing concessions and they're going to be like taking a like certain groups of kids to a certain spot for track and field. >> This is also sixth grade last year participating in track and field. That's all. >> Miss is going to talk to us about a a workshop she was able to attend. >> Yes. So, I'm excited to share a little bit. First off, I want
005to say thank you. Um, I've been wanting to go to, um, it's called MASCA, but it's the Montana School Counselor Association conference. Um, they hold them every year in Billings. If you don't know, Billings is like a seven-hour drive, so I've never been able to go. So, they actually moved it to Bosezeman this year, which is where I went to college. And so, I was really excited to get to go and got the approval from the school to be able to go to this conference. Um, it's a 3-day intensive workshop. You get to meet all the school counselors across the state of Montana. we get to celebrate the school counselor of the year award. Um it was incredible to sit in a room. We have all these little breakout sessions and I got to sit
006in a room with just K8 counselors because we are unique and we are very much a rural school. And so it was just very validating to sit in a room with other counselors that they're the only counselor in the building and we run our programs on our own and you know it was just really great to sit there and get to network and get to talk to different people from all over the state of Montana. We had some amazing keynote speakers that were flew in um from all over the United States. Um one she's from Washington DC and she won counselor of the year for 2025. And so it was cool to hear her speak about just the the challenges that we're facing in schools and how we can kind of fill our cup and
007find our purpose again. And so since it was in Bosezeman, the theme this year was called find your headwaters where your purpose begins. And so it was a lot about like that ripple effect of how do we help our students, especially those students that might be doing really really great at school, but maybe we're missing something that's going on in here. And so it was just a great kind of refresh. You know, I just renewed my license and so we have to do it every five years. And so it was really nice to kind of sit back down back to my roots, get I got to see some old professors and some old people I went to the college with. And so that was really great to just catch up and see everybody. Um, like
008I said, it was three days, so it's a lot of information. By far, this I'm just going to show you. You don't have to read it. I highlighted the ones that really stuck out to me through this conference. Breakfast started at 6:45 in the morning and we went all the way till 5:30 at night and then at 5:30 they're like, "We're doing bingo." And I'm like, so it was a lot, but it was absolutely incredible to socialize and get to meet everybody. Um, one that I really that I'm excited to bring back to Kyla school because I know as educators we also get to share professional develop developments with teachers. And so one that I wanted to share this bug is hanging out. Um, is it's like very much likes me right now. Um, it's
009a trauma-informed education and I thought that was a really great PD that I could bring back my staff um to kind of educate my teachers. School counselors are very don't re recreate the wheel. We share resources and so it was great to get a ton of resources. So my computer is just like packed of a lot of stuff right now. So it's been digesting everything that I've gotten since that time. And so I'm excited to start sharing with my teachers some of the workshops that I got to sit through and take. And then I was really focused this year on data. I love numbers. I love crunching data. And so I actually was able to sit through about four hours of workshops on just datadriven school counselor. How do we get our program to show
010that it's working? So I was excited to really tease into that over the summer break. Um is kind of going to be thinking about what am I going to do for my program so I can really start showing my data um for what's working and what's not working. And so I was really appreciative to go. Um next year they're having it in view but so I think they're getting the hint that they need to move it around and not just keep it as billings. And so we also had 25 um sponsors that were there from just different community organizations. So that was really great to get to to meet and get to see them and just network with all of them. So through all of it, I was excited. I got like 10 CUS. So
011in the education world, one CU is like one hour of a workshop. So it's a lot. Um but I was really excited for it. And so that's kind of my spiel. Um I'm going to keep I have a little story. I don't know if I want to bore anybody with my story. Can I tell my quick story? Okay. Okay. So, since I said the theme this year was find your headwaters where your purpose met, our opening keynote speaker, she had a really cool story that I kind of wanted to share with you guys because it just relates a lot to I think what educators and counselors are running into. So, um, this story is a really classic used in education and it's about the difference between reactive and proactive care. And a lot of times
012as school counselors, we're very much reactive, right? Putting out the fire. How do we get there? How do we get to that crisis? Um, and this was a little bit more focused on how do we be proactive, right? Like how do we catch it before the fire, right? Catch that. And so this little quick story I have is called the village of the great river. And if you haven't heard it, it's like one of my favorite kind of cool little stories. And so this story is about there's a small village and they're sitting at the village and all of a sudden they see a small child in the river crying for help and they're like, "Oh no, we have to help this child." So we dive in and the village is pulling out kids out
013of the river. Just pulling out kids out of the river. And finally, somebody in part of the village goes, I'm gonna walk upstream and figure out why these kids are falling into the river. And so, because this village was spending so much effort and they were so exhausted pulling these kids out of the river, pulling them out. How do we save them? We're saving so many lives. But then it took one person to be like, hm, why are they falling into the river? So, they go upstream and they realize on their route to school, the bridge had collapsed. So instead of pulling kids out of the river, they picked up a hammer and some 2x4s and they rebuilt the bridge so that kids could have a safe way to get across. And when I think
014about school counselors, I think about that analogy. Sometimes we jump into the river and we just want to save safe save and sometimes we forget to just walk upstream and see if that bridge needs to be repaired. So that's my little short story. But thank you guys. I really appreciate it to be able to go do this and to be able to share it with you guys. And I was telling some of my middle school kids today, I'm just excited to come back and get to share on some of these cool new things that I learned. So, yeah, I'm excited. Makes me fired up. >> Thank you. >> Our guest comment section. >> Uh, members of the public are encouraged to comment during this time regarding items not listed on the agenda. The chair will
015seek public comments on agenda items as they open. By law, the board cannot take action on matters discussed during the public comment portion of the meeting, but may include a matter raised during this time on a future agenda. The board would like to remind everyone to avoid commenting on private personnel matters, private student matters, and pending legal matters. Have any public comments? Hi. >> Yeah. As a community member, >> you have to say your name. >> Oh, sorry. Name is Wes Chins. And as a community member, I just wanted to say how great I think my wife did being on this board for nine years, watching every Thursday her sit there through what I couldn't stand listening to a board training of people just going on and on and late nights doing the CVAs and
016policies and revisions and stuff that was way over my head and filled with initials. I thought it was great watching the dedication. So, not just as your husband, but as a community member. I thought the dedication was great and good luck to the us and all the stuff that she did. It was a lot. Good job. Finish strong. Thank you. >> Is there a second? specifically says we can't take an act. >> Anyone else? >> All right, we're going to move on to our action items. You guys are amazing. Um, action item A, consideration of students going to Kyla. Can I close this session, please? >> So, at this time, because we're going to be discussing private student matters, we're going to close the meeting and we will reopen shortly. >> Hey, we're going to
017reopen the meeting at 3:50. >> If I can get a motion to accept the out of district agreements discussed. motion to accept. >> I will second it. >> All in favor? I. Any opposed? >> We are moving on to next school year's um CBA certified bargaining agreement with the teachers. Christina and I were your negotiating committee. We sat down with um Josh and Autumn. thought negotiations were went really well. Had great discussions, a lot of good um understanding on both sides. Really just appreciated the time and effort and yeah, thought it was great. >> Yeah, I thought it was really nice. >> Yeah, worked well as a team. Um I think the CBA has been distributed to all the staff. Yes. Everybody's had a chance to read it over. Oh, there it is. just any
018questions from the board regarding the certified bargaining agreement? >> No. >> I'll take a motion to approve the 2627 CDA. >> I'll make a motion to approve the 2627 CDA. >> I will second that. All in favor? >> Any opposed? getting behind in my signing chair. And then looks like we have the 26 27 certified contracts that have been updated because the CDA is updated and they were from all the recommendations of principal. We went over the >> We went over the recommendations to um renew last board meeting. These contracts have now just been updated because um we finished our negotiations. So I would take a motion for the 2627 certified contract. I will make a motion to approve the 2627 certified contracts. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? >>
019We're going to move on to the 2627 elementary classroom combo. Liz, would you like to take that? >> Sure. So, we had tabled this from our last meeting. This was a um kind of like a needs base plus amb revenue like out of the box thinking for our school since we decided to not hire a fourth middle school teacher at 6. Um so just some numbers have changed a little bit since last month after we dug in with OPI. Um, so that one additional FTE would cost around $50,000 from the general fund, but instead of only needing eight A and B increase, we would need 15. So in order to open a new class, for whatever reason, OPI would only give about 3,300 per new A&B for a new classroom student versus the 6,200 we
020originally thought. Um 15 new A and B would be a really steep climb. Um then that's just a break even point. Um we do have our kindergarten um registration assessment welcome day is Friday. We have 10 in district kids on this list and one potential out of district. Um so that classroom is under our normal for a registration. Um, and one other point I just wanted to make. Um, I don't know that we actually talked about the I mean kind of minimal fees because we would be able to come up with stuff from other surplus, but there are classroom startup costs. Um, again, it would be really, really nice to have one avenue in the K12 grade band somewhere to be able to separate kids, have small classes, um, and really dig into all of
021that. With our current data, I don't know that that's something that I can support recommending any longer, though. Um, so my recommendation would be to not move forward with a one, two, or K1 combo class for the 26 27 school year. >> And how are you feeling about um next year's first and second grade? >> We're we would have probably three we're probably going to have some kinders that are not um going to meet our strategic plan that would not be invited back next year. And that would be maybe two. And then we have that other one from previous years on a weight list. So potentially two on a wait list to fill that 15 that we know of. And we previously talked there's 78 in district kids going to other schools or being homeschooled
022in the Kyla area. We the county superintendent doesn't have any data on what grade they are. So they could all be in middle school um for all we know. >> So your recommendation to the board at this time would be to not >> I'm a little bummed. I was kind of looking forward to to it. >> Yeah. >> In some ways. Um, but it sounds like the numbers are quite a bit less than what we had originally thought. >> I think if our kindergarten registration was packed, um, we would have gotten some more out of districts. >> Yeah, I think that it could be a easier conversation or maybe a harder conversation, but So, we're looking at our first grade going into second next year. The max is 20 and we have 19. I know
023of two who are leaving. I have two that are probably coming in that are in district. Um, so that's where if >> you guys can also opt to change the strategic plan. So those are all the cruxes of where we're at. >> Yeah, >> we kind of struggled with finding wording for the admin could have some discretion. >> We were trying to lock it in some tight. >> Yeah, that was, you know, first year I would say rough draft. You can always try to keep it more vague and open allowing some flexibility, >> right? >> And that's where we um I numbers are numbers really, >> right? >> We're a small school. We appreciate the small school feel and small classrooms. I think um there's too small of classrooms. >> Um as a one who
024was one of seven all the way through sixth grade, I was that's too small. Um, but there are classes of 12 that feel like 27 and there are classes of, you know, 19 who are on point and feel like 10. So that's I have a hard time. The numbers make it easy for talking purposes, but it's hard when they're not numbers and they're humans. >> Yes. >> And humans trying to There's great humans and then some get together and kind of lose their minds a little bit too. So, it's just some classes are just quirky turkeys and I don't know. I think we should look at that with maybe our kinder in mind and we can do that moving forward. >> Right. So, >> um board comfortable not doing the combo class for next year?
025>> Doesn't mean we never do it. It's just not >> doesn't look like the numbers up. Okay. >> All right. Um I think to make sure that we're on record, we may motion to not do it for the 26 27th school year rather than make a motion to not approve the combo class for 26 27. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? Any opposed? Principal contract Okay. Again, um Christina and I were able to sit down with Liz who had a list of demands a mile long. It took us six meetings. when we got there. >> I think we had one very good meeting, open dialogue. Um, we are doing a two-year contract and not much has changed from previous year. Do you want to say anything about your contract? >> Not until you vote.
026>> No. negotiations. We would recommend voting for the admin contract. >> Yeah. >> Any other just questions or Nope. >> I can motion, right? >> I will motion the 2627 principles contract to approve it. >> I will second that. All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? >> Any comments? >> Thank you. >> It's great being back. I really do love this job. I'm gonna sign this one before she changes her run over make sign. Sorry, I just want to make sure we got that one lock. Okay, the 2627 business manager click contract. Again, we sat down. We had just hours of negotiations were super simple this year. Everybody was just reasonable and understanding and we are only doing a one-year contract, which maybe we should have done like a five, but we'll accept a one-year
027contract. I think legally one. >> Really? I have two positions. So, I have a business manager position and then I have a clerk. The clerk has to be appointed every year. >> So technically it's maybe the business manager. We We'll figure it out. We'll talk to people. >> Any questions on the business manager clerk contract? >> I'm going to motion to approve the 2627 business manager clerk contract. >> I will second that. All in favor? Any oppose? Again? Make sure we have the 2627 classified rehire, nonrehire. Um, I am recommending the board consider rehiring Judy Andrews at a point8 secretary, Carrie Hancock at a 1.0 0 head cook. Mindy Thomas at a 1.0 cook. Um Kaylee Thomas as a 1.0 parah. Tammy as a 6 parah professional. Tana nicely as a 1.0 parah. Emily Weedner
028as a 1.0 parah. Jackie Rodriguez as a five custodian. And Alvin Jim Row as a.5 custodian. So, the only left off that list have retired or resigned and you've been previously notified. Just so you have a full big picture of our classified questions, concerns, comments. >> Um, I will motion I'm gonna have fun with this meeting. I will motion to accept listed 2627 class 5. >> One second. >> All in favor? I any opposed? >> Okay, we are going to discuss the 26 27 classified pay matrix. Um, we're talking specifically about the years of experience that you can start on. >> You want to talk about this? >> Sure. So, we've already condensed it from three columns to two. We're kind of doing this in chunks. Um, and we'll likely have something in addition to
029bring to you again. But for now, um, the most alignment that we can have, the better between our certified and classified. Um, having certified be able to come in at seven years, it would make sense to be able to let classified come in at seven just straight across the board. If I have a custodian who has 35 years of experience, we should be able to honor as much as possible or paras or like. So, >> does this affect anyone for the next school year? >> There used to be a line five and five and then the teachers negotiated seven that the classified was never addressed. So, this is just a line. Any thoughts from the board? Um, I will take a motion to bring the classified P major years of experience to start at seven
030years. I will make a motion to approve starting the classified P matrix at seven years. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> Any oppos? We're going to move on to the 26 27 school year calendar. Maybe this. Nope. Not that one. Hold. Please. I just eat cupcakes where you got to prove yourself to approve yourself. >> It's really >> You didn't used to do that. >> Really exciting. >> But you'll get there. >> You just got to go through all the steps. >> So, can I ask a question? Sorry. Never know when I can talk. Um, are you not retiring, man? >> Okay. Well, I'm glad. Sorry for you. >> Never return. >> Can you invite again? >> Why isn't on here? >> Would anyone like me to pass cupcakes around? Yes. >> Kimber,
031>> you were asking. >> She's She's got her headphones on. So for the recording, we're just pausing for some technical difficulty. That is cute. >> I only Are you ready? got the technical issue figured out. So, we're going to talk about next year's school calendar. >> Um, we had kind of narrowed it down to the two options of 40 or 5e. Um, the community very clearly wanted full days instead of more half days, as did staff. And then separately each group were asked Fridays or Mondays or Wednesdays. 0% wanted Wednesdays. Um and then staff wanted Mondays and community wanted Fridays. Um we did talk about it as a staff at our early out last week, no two weeks ago. Um, and totally fine doing Fridays and aligning with the community. It's just they were asked
032their preference, not standing firm with heels in the ground. And we would rather we were comforted in knowing you would be able to take some of those Fridays off if it was some important event. Um, and they'll also know what all of those would be prior to next school year for planning. So that's what we're going to do on our full day May 22nd for a couple hours is actually dig into what PD we want next year and make those days super meaningful. Um that so I guess to not pit you guys between two really amazing groups of people and have to choose um staff would love to just go with Fridays instead of Mondays and there are some Mondays just so you all know um and those are the holidays so not PPD face.
033>> I took the time after the table this last meeting to talk to the community members I know that have kids and everything and it just kind of reiterated what the the form the risk outlets where I don't know if there was overlap. There probably was, but they're they're pretty adamantly for the Friday >> instead of just based on the people I talked to. Um, and it sounds like is okay with that, too. So, it's it's never fun to be bad guy. >> I'm happy with that. Yeah, I was struggling having to try and make that decision. Um, Mondays are incredibly hard for me to take off of work. Um, and so just knowing that probably why parents chose Fridays, but also wanting to honor the steps that makes it way easier. Well, I'm hearing
034the board. We're going to motion to accept calendar 4D which is the Friday's. >> Y >> I will make a motion to approve the 2026 calendar uh 2027 for the calendar. >> All in favor? 20 to 20. >> Um, so this is the NDA management discussion analysis that comes before the audit and we'll have to strike it because I just got the financials this morning. >> Okay, great. So, I would take a motion to start. >> I'll make a motion, Mr. >> All in favor. Any votes? 2627 MSSA agreement. This is our yearly Montana Small School Alliance agreement. It helps with curriculum, library curriculum. Um, this is how we have a notendorsed library media specialist in that role as well. Um, but they also offer a lot of pretty amazing professional development and curriculum leadership.
035So, tomorrow, Mr. Conover, uh, Miss Iverson, Miss Benson, and Miss Mikum and I, one from each grade band and title are all going to all of our math standards are changing. Um, not necessarily what is being taught, but what grade that it's being taught in. Um, so we had one rep from each grade band. So on the 20 or on the 8th probably, we'll actually have them report back to their grade bands and talk so we can realign our standards and make sure our curriculum company is held accountable for meeting those changes as well. Um, but those are hard to lead and find time to do um with all the other hats everybody wears here. So, what was on that one? What was the national rural education that we're opting out of? Um, so they
036offer advice, legal advice, um, um, things that we already get for free through CA. This is a totally different organization. And then we also have what's called a small rural schools association that they want a fee too and we already pay for basically everything. >> We also opted out of the counseling option because we have her. >> I would take a motion to approve the 2627 MSSA agreement. I'll make a motion to approve the 2627 MSS8. >> I have a second that. All in favor? >> Any opposed? >> 26 27 after school program fees. >> We're going to need to address increasing after school program. We'll talk about it more down we have a budget item. Um but the continues to be a loss of revenue um just increased costs. Um, so I don't know
037if we want to do it now or wait till maybe July or when the fiscal year is done, you can actually see. Um, we're going to, like I said, we'll talk about it later, but um, it's just a continual loss. And so need to be brought up unless the general fund wants to kick in even more than proposed to help support the program. The amounts that are circled on here, that's what we are currently charging. >> We're going to have another um budget meeting. >> I'd like to see more final numbers to see what the loss truly is today. >> Yeah. >> Before we decide on what to increase to. I gladly have the fiscal year. >> I remember it was either last year or the year before we increased it >> and we didn't
038increase it quite the amount that you had requested. Um but it's I think we met if I remember correctly and it sounds like we need to go a step higher. Um but we can we can wait to see what the final budget is to make sure that we're then in line. >> Yeah. And by then, because I've got numbers all the way through February when I balanced with the treasurer and you'll just have a few more months to to look at it. >> Was that last year that we increased or was it the year before? Do you remember? >> I think it was last year. >> I think I think it was last year. >> It was last year because that was one of the first things I did was read this form. >> Okay.
039the I mean there's a lot of considerations the budget committee needs to talk about with the afterchool program before we choose to increase or not in my opinion. >> Yes. At this time I take a motion to table the uh 2627 after school program fees. >> I will make a motion to table the 2627 after school fees. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? to our information items. Um, we did not have any follow-up discussion items from the previous meeting. The think tank Thursday, there was one. They're not happening every Thursday. There was just the one. And um, MTSBA is just heavily in the throws of the school funding interim commission. They are putting together information. They were given an opportunity to speak. Um there's a pretty good article I think
040in the beginning if I remember that was worth reading at the minute kind of explaining what they're proposing and why they're proposing it. Um and that's just that's been their heavy lift right now. So they're not talking about anything else. >> We have a budget update. >> Okay. Um, so we had a budget meeting and we're going to have another one next week. Um, so we're moving forward. We've got some new factors coming in. We'll talk about um some factors at the budget meeting next week. We'll talk about our current year budget year end monies. Um, and then we'll also talk about budgeting for next year. There might be some things that need to be included in those. So as soon as we have that budget meeting and Amanda is a part of that one
041yet so we're looking at the after school program and the food program in your board packet page 50 and checking with other districts on the uh a lot of most don't have an after school program but with their school food program the majority do have to begin their general fund to help support it. We're fortunate right now we're only doing benefits at a general fund. A lot of them are doing 68% salaries which is a lot higher. So um there's just some things we deliver us on to our principal report. Right. Let's talk about kit. All right. Um, spring event. So, our student leadership team did a great job talking about some things coming up, and I've already talked about some of these. We do have kindergarten registration/intro screening that used to be called kindergarten
042roundup, and we're trying to figure out a catchy name for it. Um, we're not there yet, but that's sort of where we're at. Um, Miss Iverson, Miss Jinx, Miss Barrett, and myself met yesterday morning, and we have a fun little plan to meet all of our kinders. We're all going to have a station and meet everybody um and just see where our kids are. It's almost we're almost 56 of the way through the year. So, next Friday is our trimester 3 midterm. Um crazy. And then just some things for you to note that I would love for you to attend. Um May 1st is our fundraiser dinner auction for the eighth grade history trip. Always a good time to see how much the desserts go for. Um, shocking your first one if you have not
043been. Um, and Amy, I hope you're bringing your no bake cookies. May 15th is the actual talent show, not tryyouts in the gym. Um, so always a good time to see our kids doing things they love. And then lots of um we might rename this next year to K8 spring concertalent show. So classes have started jumping on board with doing a class talent show entry um that I hope parents know about. So that'll go out in Cougar Tracks. But um it's not just a talent show anymore, which is great. On May 21st, it's the Thursday before our Friday of full teacher PIR. Um we're actually going to do an end of year fish fry and student showcase. So this is an event that might turn into a PTA event or may not may just stay
044in the realm of certain people wanting to do these things, but it is going to be like a Thursday fest feel. Um, so there's going to be a live musician here. He's seeing if his actual whole band will come. Um, which is going to be pretty neat. Um, and then 150 lbs of pollock fish are being donated to the school. Carrie and Mindy are going to make potatoes. And then the teachers, um, some of them are getting pretty excited at our early out about just having like a giant student showcase in the gym. Like each teacher would have a table they and their kids get to pick what they would put up and parents can come in. Um it's bring your own cooler of school appropriate things and your camp chair and listen to some
045music. Look at what your kids have done. Hopefully in the future it would turn into more of like a workbased learning and middle school electives brag session slash student showcase. Um, but it would also be neat to have some of our kind of a bridge to what our high school district is doing with work-based learning. So, just starting to open the eyes on it's not you don't have to go to college, like here's someone from the community who's a plumber and here's what we do. Um, but whoever is donating the fish does already have a video created for how they catch them, how they fillet them in 3 seconds. It's crazy. Um, and then just kind of people talking about what it's like to be on a boat in Alaska. Um, so just I think
046we have a lot of community members that would love to showcase what they do. It's also hooked on fishing day for fourth grade. So, um, Chance and Kirk, hopefully you're listening and you will call me back and, um, show up to also present because I think we talk about it in our individual classes, but getting our kids pumped up for the next year or what's to come and parents like I don't know that all of our families know fourth grade goes fishing three times a year and has three presentations by these cool people that donate their time to schools. Um, so it's easy to see how things like this can spiral into really big events. So this year we're starting a little bit smaller and if it takes some people show up. Um, but also
047just kind of an end of year let's all come together and no agenda, no kids to watch, like kids just dance and be kids and let's all hang out cuz I think we're missing a bit of that culture vibe feel especially with like the background check stuff that's new. So, um, that's pretty great. May 22nd is turning into a pretty great day. Um, teachers are all going to be out in other schools. They can either choose someone in their grade band they wanted to go observe that they've met or seen at a conference and feels like a masterful teacher. I want I would love to know how they did that. I want to go see it in action. yada yada or um I have a few contacts that are getting back to me that have
048some pretty awesome exemplars more down the personalized competency based education or PCB route. So more of like let's all not move at the exact same speed. Like how do we give these kids some agency and voice and choice and if you're done you move on. If you are not done you might have a special session in a different setting. Um or we can just build it in and it make it a little bit more normalized that everyone's doing what they need to be doing at their own pace. Um that's really hard to get your mind around. So everyone sitting in this room with the exception of a couple of us that went to Monasuri probably can't picture how that would even work and until you can see it um it's really hard to see yourself
049doing it. So that's kind of the hour like the idea of three of these hours being dedicated to you going out and seeing what others are already doing and then when you're there the chances of that person being like I'll just share this drive folder with you and you can have it all. >> Um so and then a contact for hey I got this doc we didn't really talk about it how do you use this? Um, and then everyone who did an evaluation with me this year also knows we're going to move away from just teachers being like the gatekeeper of where students are at. It should be the students responsibility to be able to tell everybody where they're at and it's our responsibility to make sure they know that information. But um we had
050talked about like I can statements that are aligned to our state standards and having kids check off when they're done. So some middle school teachers I've seen uh have these rubrics already made and the kids while we're moving at our own pace go through and check off where they're at and when they're done. So I mean this is like that's kind of where we would be at next year. for this year. We need to see next year we need to plan and kind of dabble without fear of failure. Um we're all going to fail at this one big time hard at first and it's not actually going to be a failure. It's just so different. But we have to figure out a way to not pigeon hole our kids. And I mean No Child Left
051Behind did leave some of the advanced and middle kids behind. So, we have to address that as a nation or we're all going to be I'll stop. Okay, moving on to a conference where we learned about the book ends of the bell curve. Um, so the Montana Council for Exceptional Children, um, is a conference that was also in Bosezeman and Miss Iverson and Miss Vicky and I attended that as our GT coordinator and our title support staff. Um, and we did get a lot of exceptional children toolbox expansion. So, um, I'll probably just do a whole presentation on GT to start next school year, but we have gifted and talented. We have twice exceptional kids. So, we have some students who would qualify as gifted and talented who might have some sort of learning disability
052on top of that. Um, but what does that actually mean? Smart children are not all gifted and talented. Um, and this conference kind of solidified that. We have some really wicked smart kids at this school. Does not mean that we have a massive amount of GT kids. So, um I think for 4 hours of the five it took us to get back home. Amy had her laptop out and her feet up on my dashboard and we revised the entire gifted and talented plan that we're hopefully going to have a committee for invite some parents to. um and then that committee can bring it to the full board. But we did hammer out what our actual screening process looks like and it makes my HR heart very happy. We have standard operating procedures that go with
053that now with actual benchmarks. So not this kid feels gifted. We have these things in place. You need to meet three of the five of them and then we'll do the co gap. um also an SOP for staff referrals and parent referrals. Um and then I think the last part so we are pretty heavy into our schedule. Everyone by May 22nd as a staff member is going to know their schedule for next school year. So you have the calendar you've just approved. They will know exactly what they're teaching, when they're teaching it, and we'll have the entire summer to figure this out. They will also know that by the time they leave and go observe other teachers. Um, the only thing we have not necessarily figured out K5 is when we would be doing some
054kind of what I need time or win time in the schedule. All of them have science and social studies at the end of the school day. So, some of us that visited Doris Mountain last year, which is KPS's PCBE conference, talked about turning that once a week or twice a week into a win time where kids might be going to see Carrie for this gap to be filled and they might be going to see Autumn for this extension in this area. But we have data to support why we're putting the kids there and everyone is moving. But we need to figure that out. And part of that is GT. Um it will be amazing to have Miss Iverson back full-time as our title teacher. Um fantastic job in kindergarten. I know your heart's in title.
055Um and our school will greatly benefit from having a 1.0 title staff member again. So if you remember the data we shared before, all of that was with the 0.5 and we're already just kicking it. I'll stop again. Okay. Um, C, community eligibility provision from the OPI website is how Calisville public schools, some other schools in the valley are getting free lunches and breakfast for all students. So, Sharon, Judy, myself, Carrie, Mindy, we had a really amazing food service audit from OPI this year. Um, and this was one of our asks, like we really need to know and understand why we don't qualify for that. We have a lot of students on free and reduced lunch. So, that's kind of the misconception. That's the main um why we don't well, we actually do qualify now,
056but um the way you qualify for this is by direct certified families. So, not our families that are filling out free and reduced forms and qualifying people on SNAP, Medicaid, etc. are those numbers are what qualify you for this program you need. So, in the past, you needed to be 40% to qualify and they bumped that down to 25%. We um are at 25.1%. So, we do qualify for this program. sounds super great until you find out that the reimbursement rate is also reflected of your percentage of qualification. So, this is something that the budget committee will need to talk about, but we would eat about $30,000 as a district annually if we were to provide this service and that's probably a minimum. Um, so we qualify but we don't have high enough. So the
057higher this percentage number, the more our percentage of reimbursement would be. It sounds like once you qualify, you just get it and then when you dig in, that's not the actual case. So um just wanted to update you on that. The budget committee can bring more info um later. And then I'm really turning into a facilities director. If I had more time in my day, I would pretty much love this. I not being facitious, but I'm walking around other places now. I'm like, "Oh, that ceiling tile needs to be replaced." Like at the summit yesterday, I'm like, "Oh, they labeled this for a water pipe. That's really smart." Like I never looked at ceilings and all that before, but we're in it this year with our long range facilities planning. Um, we did have Mcken
058Street, so that's who helped run our bond uh in the past. That failed, just for the record. Um, and we as part of their services that we've already paid for through that process, um they were going to be able to come out and help deliver some sort of alternate plan like you didn't get it, what are we going to do now plan. Um so they did come out. One of the major things we talked about was actually just closing in that courtyard area, making another classroom and including two more bathrooms. um also making a secure vestibule and a buzz and door at the office. So we have one giant building um for K8s instead of an office. The proposal that we got back was a proposal for additional services to the tune of about $50,000.
059So, um, the long range facilities planning and safety team committee, uh, decided in lie of bringing that to the board just yet, we want to actually get a bunch of bids and figure out like how much would it actually cost to just do the vestibule with a contractor um to just close in the walkway and have it still be a secured building to replace all of the double doors at this school that need to be replaced etc. And compare that to do you want to spend $50,000 on a plan? Do you want which would include probably passing a bond? Do you want to at least have a comparison of all of the things that could fix at this school and make us a little bit of progress ticking it off on our long range facilities
060planning plan document. Um, we're still getting bids back. It one of the bonuses of having someone like McKinstry is they would be your general contractor and they already have people that are their contacts. We are so small. Um, one of the things the safety committee has talked about is next year coming out with some community. So, I'm glad you guys are all here. Yay. Um, messaging in lie of coming out for a bond. We are asking for your help. If you are a contractor or you know one, I need their number and I need a bid from that human being. And you guys need to rally. We're not asking you for money right now. We're asking for your time and your support. So, I need you to get me the name of someone who will
061provide me a bid for eight double doors at this school. That seems like a big job to me. And all these people are like, "That's tiny. We don't even bid those." Um, so that would need to be the give and take of someone with all the other hats that I have being able to make this feasible or it's just going to get pushed down the road. Um, so that said, getting bids does take a lot of time. It is pretty difficult, but I think the word is starting to get out that we do need like I need an asphalter. I need a concrete guy. I need all these things. Um, and so those things are going to start getting blasted out before our committee meeting where we hopefully take all those bids back and then
062can present you with actual numbers, not what if the committee thinks it's a $1, $2, $3 or $4 cost, like have an actual number there. Um, and then my final facilities update is just a huge shout out to our brand new custodial team. They are both halftime and have the freedom outside of student hours to work whenever they want. They are choosing to work together and tag team everything. And I have not seen the school be this clean in a very long time. Um, so this is a proactive bunch. They're asking for additional work. So, hey Liz, I already cleaned off the top of all the lockers. Are you okay if I clean off the little rivets in the front of the lockers and wipe them all down? Yeah, please do. Um, so just shout
063out to Jackie and Jim. We really appreciate them. >> Um, next board meeting is May 13:30. >> No. Nope. >> Oh, we're not. We're done. We're done with boarding. I got you. >> Apologies. Sorry. >> Look at us. >> So, your second Wednesday is May 13th at 3:30 in the afternoon. >> Yep. >> I'll take a motion to adjurnn. I will make a motion to adjourn. >> I'll second. All >> in favor? I >> Thanks, Amanda. Are we still at lunch?