news:education
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Montana Public Education News Summaries
Great Falls School Board election to go forward with all mail-in ballots
The Great Falls School board election in May will go forward as a mail-in ballot election after back and forth with the Cascade County Commission about whether to conduct a hybrid-poll election.
Great Falls Schools Superintendent Tom Moore told the Daily Montanan after Monday’s meeting on cost estimates he asked why they were meeting the next day, and when commissioners told him it was to discuss the contract, Moore said the contract was finalized already and requested a mail-in ballot, as had been discussed in previous meetings.
Moore said he asked if there was any more discussion needed, and a consensus was reached that the meeting wasn’t necessary and the county would move forward with a mail-in ballot as was outlined in the contract.
Daily Montanan: Great Falls School Board election to go forward with all mail-in ballots
Billings Public School establishes Parent Advisory Safety Committee to offer solutions for student safety concerns
As safety continues to challenge students and the Billings community, School District Two (SD2) Superintendent Erwin Garcia hosted an area community meeting on Wednesday at Billings West High with members of their newly formed Parent Advisory Safety Committee to talk about safety-related topics.
SD2 established this committee in August of 2023 with over a dozen parents and community members after seeing a growing number of safety concerns for students, especially centered around firearm safety.
As safety continues to dominate public discussion, Billings Public School will be putting a safety levy on voters' ballots this spring and Young says showing community’s support towards the levy will be crucial for the overall wellbeing of the Yellowstone County.
Billings Public School District an "outlier" after school calendar change
Students in Billings Public Schools will have an extra long summer this year, with big changes to the calendar about to take effect. The district's board of trustees voted to bump back the start of the school year in December.
Starting next school year, James will have to make some adjustments, as the 2024 school year will start after Labor Day and end on June 13.
New district superintendent Erwin Garcia said the change is overdue, citing a lack of air conditioning in two high schools as one of the primary motivations for the change.
“Just attending school in the summertime, I noticed classrooms can be 90 degrees, 95 degrees, almost 100 degrees,” Garcia said.
KTVQ: Billings Public School District an "outlier" after school calendar change
National School Choice Week draws supporters to rally in Billings
Proponents of charter schools held a rally Friday in Billings hoping to increase opportunities for students and expressed concern about their kids' education.
It's National School Choice Week, and the group, which included area students, rallied on the Yellowstone County courthouse lawn.
But new options are emerging. Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen also spoke at the rally. Just as month Montana's Board of Public Education approved applications for 19 new charter schools across the state, including three in Billings.
“It doesn't matter if it's a brick public school, or a private school, or a Christian school or your kitchen table,” said Arntzen, a Republican. “It's about learning.”
KTVQ: National School Choice Week draws supporters to rally in Billings
How Bozeman schools work to keep students safe
Bozeman Public Schools officials say they are always adapting their safety plans — and learning from incidents like these — in order to improve.
Just two weeks earlier, a special education paraprofessional at Whittier Elementary School was arrested on Jan. 3 for allegedly sending nude photos of himself to a Vermont investigator who was posing as a 14-year-old girl.
The staff member was placed on unpaid administrative leave after his arrest and the community was assured that allegations in the case did not seem to involve any Bozeman schools students, Bertram said in a Jan. 4 press release.
The staffer had went through the standard background check process that all district employees must pass before working with students.
“In the event of a safety emergency, you can’t communicate enough,” King said in the Jan. 25 interview. “You know, parents want to know, they want information and it’s hard to keep up.”
The district partners with the Bozeman Police Department to station school resource officers in school buildings, King said during the board meeting. There are four officers split between 12 buildings and Sgt. Scott McCormick oversees them.
“Part of what the SROs do, they do go into the classroom, they have classes that they teach starting in elementary school all the way through high school on different safety issues, different legal things,” McCormick said. “Overall, we’re there to prevent crime and I think just building that relationship with, you know, from administrators, to teachers, to students and parents, have an open line of communication with them helps reduce the amount of incidents we have in the district.”
Staff do have issues with people leaving doors propped open to let others in, he said. Some states, such as Texas, have passed laws requiring regular audits of school campuses, including ensuring all doors are closed and locked.
In May, the district passed a tax levy to help pay for ongoing safety costs, Waterman said. The levies brought in about $2.3 million for school safety measures so far.
Bozeman Chronicle: How Bozeman schools work to keep students safe
State Approves Two Kalispell Charter Schools
The Kalispell Public Schools (KPS) will move forward with the creation of two in-district charter schools after the Montana Board of Public Education last week approved two of the district’s four charter proposals.
The board green-lighted Kalispell Rising Wolf Charter and Flathead PACE Academy Charter, two high school charter programs that will be located within Glacier High School and Flathead High School, respectively.
PACE Academy students will spend part of the school day taking their core classes in a flexible format through in-person instruction, Google Classroom and instructional videos. The other part of the day will consist of internships and career preparation activities.
At Rising Wolf Charter, students will take one class for three hours per day over the course of 24 days, rather than taking seven or eight classes every day for the entire academic year.
The Board of Public Education denied approval of two additional charter school proposals submitted by KPS: the Kalispell Community Partnerships Charter and Rocky Mountain Academy.
Flathead Beacon: State Approves Two Kalispell Charter Schools
Lawsuit challenges education bill for students with disabilities as unconstitutional
A bill proposed to help children with disabilities actually represents a “staggering” loss of funding to public schools in the form of a “blank check,” would be a hit to rural districts, and unconstitutionally routes state money to private institutions “at the discretion of private individuals,” according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The nonprofit MQEC is one of the largest education advocacy organizations in the state, representing more than 100 school districts, six educational organizations, and educators in urban and rural areas.
“While HB 393 provides no assurance that students with disabilities will receive the services and education they need, it assuredly provides that public schools will have fewer resources to serve their students, with and without disabilities,” the lawsuit said.
That’s because the cost of public education remains the same — the power bill for a classroom wouldn’t change, for instance — so school districts have to make up the difference, the lawsuit said. In other words, the payouts “compromise the economies of scale” that allow schools to provide a quality education, the firm said.
Daily Montanan: Lawsuit challenges education bill for students with disabilities as unconstitutional
New special education accounts draw legal challenge
Disability Rights Montana and the Montana Quality Education Coalition, two organizations that advocate for public school students, filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the constitutionality of a new state law that grants parents of students with special needs direct access to state education funding.
HB 393 emerged as a key victory for in-state and national school choice advocates last session. The law allows students with disabilities defined in the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to participate in an education savings account program that enables their parents to obtain reimbursements from the state for tutoring, educational therapy, online programs and other private services. To fund the accounts, HB 393 directs districts to return state dollars associated with participating students to the Office of Public Instruction.
During the 2023 session, legislative staff reported that 21,127 students statewide would qualify for the program, equating to a transfer of roughly $140 million into savings accounts if all eligible students chose to participate. Supporters of the bill argued that actual participation rates are likely to be much lower.
The plaintiffs are now presenting in court a key criticism raised by HB 393’s opponents last year: that the education savings accounts pull money directly from local school district general funds without reducing the overall costs of special education services for students who opt to remain in public schools.
Montana Free Press: New special education accounts draw legal challenge
Billings school board votes 5-4 to keep contested book on shelves
Billings School District 2 trustees voted 5-4 Monday, after much deliberation, to keep the book “Assassination Classroom” by Yusui Matsui on its high school library shelves.
Public commenters and audience members sat for five hours to hear the deliberation. An array of testimonials were heard from parents, librarians, educators, and students, religious leaders and concerned taxpayers.
“This was a retired social studies teacher's dream,” stated Board Chair Scott McCulloch when concluding public comment. “I wish this were the template for these discussions that are occurring across this country. You talked to each other without vitriol.”
The topic of book banning, or book removal, from SD2 libraries is not a new one. Two years ago, a parent of a Billings student challenged two controversial LGBTQ+-themed books banned in other school districts across the country. The titles of concern then were “Lawn Boy,” an autobiographical novel by Jonathan Evision and a graphic style memoir by Maia Kobabe called “Gender Queer.” Procedures concerning the possible removal of those titles were carried out similarly, per district policy. The SD2 board then, voted unanimously to keep the books on the shelves of high school libraries.
Billings Gazette: Billings school board votes 5-4 to keep contested book on shelves
Billings school board votes to support closure of Washington Elementary
After hearing from a red-clad crowd at the Billings school board meeting Monday evening, the trustees decided to support the plan to close Washington Elementary and convert the building into a charter school for high school students focusing on early college and technology classes next year.
“I didn’t come to Billings to close schools, but we have to balance the budget,” Superintendent Erwin Garcia said. “Why can’t we look for a win-win situation?”
Earlier this month, Garcia announced a plan to help reduce the deficit by moving Washington students next fall to Miles Avenue, Broadwater and Newman elementary schools and reassigning teachers and support staff to other positions within the district.
At a meeting with parents and community members on Jan. 2, he outlined a proposal to convert the building at 1044 Cook Avenue into what he’s calling the Washington Innovation Center. It could house two new charter schools, one aimed at providing college credits to high school students and the other offering intensive classes for those pursuing technology careers.
Many parents who spoke against the proposal to close Washington said they liked the small class sizes, their kids liked their teachers and the staff, and they feared moving students to another school could create challenges for transportation and childcare.
With enrollment steadily declining during the past several years, Washington now has 208 students and is operating at 77% capacity. Garcia said the annual cost of educating one Washington student is $9,429 versus an average of around $5,000 at other Billings elementary schools.
The elementary school district is running on a $3.5 million budget deficit. Using Washington for high school classes would allow SD2 to move $1.5 million from the high school district budget into the elementary district, helping to reduce the shortfall, Garcia said.
Billings Gazette: Billings school board votes to support closure of Washington Elementary
news/education.txt · Last modified: 2024/01/14 20:14 by lmuszkie