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Montana Public Education News Summaries
Billings Public Schools continue operations with winter protocols
With temperatures in the negative this week in the Magic City, Billings Public Schools are continuing their operations under the current conditions with winter protocols put in place.
“We have to think of the entire community. If we closed today on such short notice, we still have parents that have to report to work. That would mean parents may be forced to leave their kids home alone, or have to find last minute childcare that they can't get.”
“A lot of our students need food through our backpack lunch programs. And with a long weekend coming up, some of those kids may not have any food over the weekend unless that food is provided for them.”
KULR: Billings Public Schools continue operations with winter protocols
Missoula Co. Public Schools discuss potential cuts
Missoula County Public Schools are facing budget cuts and on Thursday, the Budget and Levy Committee got together to decide on what they will cut in the worst case scenario.
It’s not a unique story in the state. Missoula County Public Schools are faced with a budget deficit due to declining enrollment, the loss OF ‘ESSER’ funds and rising costs.
But the time has come for the school district to consider what can be cut. The Budget and Levy Committee gathered to whittle down the options.
Plan A is assuming that no levies are passed and the district has to make up the loss with cutting positions and programs.
Plan B is assuming that operational levies pass in May, giving the district more money, requiring less cuts.
The third, Plan C is assuming that the recently proposed safety levies pass. These would provide a new funding source for the district as well as provide new safety measures for the schools.
NBC Montana: Missoula Co. Public Schools discuss potential cuts
Bozeman School Board denies request to remove novel from Gallatin High curriculum
The Bozeman School District Board of Trustees voted unanimously to reject a request to remove a book from Gallatin High School classrooms Monday night.
The book, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” by Sherman Alexie, is a part of the 9th grade English curriculum at the school.
Higgs’ husband, Bryant Higgs, read a statement on his wife’s behalf, which included a reading from a scene in the book where the character talks about masturbation. Higgs argued that that the book promotes hate against her religion.
If parents don’t want their children to read certain books, they can request alternative assignments, said Janice Benham, who retired from teaching English for the district’s Bridger Alternative Program about 10 years ago.
Higgs also previously submitted a request to remove the novel “The Marrow Thieves,” by Cherie Dimaline from the curriculum. Her challenge was based on grounds similar to her concerns with Alexie’s book. The board denied her appeal in February 2023.
In an interview after the meeting, Superintendent Casey Bertram said Higgs’ two requests are the only two book challenges in the past four years.
Bertram gave an update about a recent change that will allow parents who live outside the district to apply to send their children to Bozeman schools.
Since the district announced its application process on Dec. 28, it has received 58 applications from out-of-district parents, Bertram said during the meeting.
The board also voted to approve a $313,600 increase to its high school general fund, following school funding changes made by Montana House Bill 36, passed in 2023.
Under the changes in HB 36, the Office of Public Instruction will contact districts directly to tell them how much of a funding increase they’re eligible for, making the process simpler, Waterman said. The $313,600 increase was the amount identified by the state.
Bozeman Chronicle: Bozeman School Board denies request to remove novel from Gallatin High curriculum
Belgrade School District's bond sparks concern for tax fatigue in community
The Belgrade School District board passed a $60.5 million bond Monday night that will pay for a new elementary school and renovate the current middle school.
But one board member is concerned about what will happen if voters don't approve the measure on May 7.
Hall believes the school district needs to do a better job of educating the public of why the city needs a new school while two other Belgrade schools are sitting vacant.
NBC Montana: Belgrade School District's bond sparks concern for tax fatigue in community
Kalispell Public Schools levies on tap for May election
The vote was unanimous to hold an elementary technology levy and an 8-1 vote to run a high school general fund levy.
In the last levy election held in October, voters rejected four safety and technology levy requests for the elementary district and high school district. A levy of any type hasn’t passed in the high school district, which includes voters in 13 outlying partner school districts, since 2007.
[Trustee Lloyd Bondy] also agreed the district should get into the routine of asking for incremental levy amounts versus larger amounts on an “as-needed basis,” which has been the district’s past philosophy and previous administrators and trustees have tried to move away from.
While trustees speculated why the people have rejected levies — longtime Trustee Jack Fallon, who provided some brief insight into past levy discussions, provided a few reasons.
“One, they don’t trust the government, which they consider us to be government. Second, they don’t want their taxes to be raised. Period. It’s that simple,” Fallon said. “The third reason would be that they don’t believe that their children’s education is any better than it was when they were in school themselves. Then you have the large part of the taxpayers that have no children.”
“There’s a disconnect between what the community that's the funding mechanism for schools, which is the reality that levies need to be requested every year to keep schools fully funded,” [Assistant Superintendent Matt Jensen] added. “It's not, ‘We passed the levy now we're done.’ Every year that request diminishes and you have to re-ask every year to be fully funded. That major point around levies I think is lost on most people,” Jensen said.
Factoring into budget discussions or potential cuts will be any pay raises. It is a contract negotiation year for the Kalispell Education Association, whose members include certified staff — mainly teachers — in addition to custodians and maintenance/grounds employees. The union contracts expire June 30.
Daily Inter Lake: Kalispell Public Schools levies on tap for May election
Helena school board postpones levy vote
Earlier Tuesday, during the school district’s budget committee meeting, superintendent Rex Weltz said that there would be five possible levies put up for election in May.
These levies would revolve around safety and security as well as technology levies supplying the district with more security measures within schools and updating the technology within schools that students and staff use.
An operational levy could also be put on the ballot for the elementary district, but not the high school district.
This was changed later during the full board meeting when the district representative from the business services and payroll department Janelle Mickelson noticed that the district could present an operational levy for the high school district after the district knows if its charter school applications are approved.
The board plans to revisit the levies in February, since the district should know if the applications are approved or denied in mid to late January.
Helena schools consider array of cuts, including closures, to offset budget shortfall
Helena Public Schools will consider an array of options, including the closing of schools, to help cope with the maintenance backlog throughout the district, the schools’ superintendent said.
Because the district cannot afford to update every building’s needs at the same time, it hired SMA Architecture and Design to help develop a plan that will frame the options the district can take to approach the budget shortfall, including the possible closure of some buildings.
Friends of Neighborhood Schools, a recently formed nonprofit group of Helena elementary school parents, said in a press release this week that closing schools would be a short-sighted approach. It says the draft of the plan emphasizes closing neighborhood schools, namely Hawthorne and Broadwater elementary schools.
Last year, voters passed building reserve levies, approving $1.75 million per year for K-8 districts and $750,000 per year for the high school buildings. The levies will expire in 2033, according to an email from Ogden.
The district has already taken another avenue to save funds and add revenue. School trustees earlier this month approved leasing the building that previously housed the Ray Bjork Learning Center, which was closed last March, to St. Peters Health for the next 20 years. The lease will generate around $225,000 annually for the district, according to Weltz. St. Peters plans to renovate the space into a daycare for the hospital.
GFPS approves pay increase for paraeducators
At the beginning of this school year, the district’s special education department struggled to attract and retain paraprofessionals.
But the salary increase means a reduction in the total possible number of paraeducators the district can hire and the district will have to determine the best way to work with available resources, Diekhans said.
Of the filled positions, 122 are funded through federal programs, four instructional paraprofessionals are funded by the district’s tax revenues, and 14 elementary student advocate paraprofessionals are funded through ESSER funds, which are education COVID relief funds.
The district has one elementary student advocate and eight paraprofessionals on the federal funding side of the budget, according to the district.
The board voted to approve a 75 cent per hour wage increase for paraprofessionals for the 93 days from Jan. 22 through June 30.
That increase is an estimated cost to the district of $79,758.
‘Imperfect progress’: City, county embrace JEDI challenges
When Missoula County and the city of Missoula adopted Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion bylaws in December, the decision came after much mental wrangling on the part of many elected officials.
The problem JEDI seeks to address, according to the city’s JEDI Specialist Alex Lawson, is underrepresentation of traditionally marginalized identities in Missoula’s civic life. Lawson cited sobering statistics, like Missoula County Public Schools data that demonstrates 10% of enrolled students are Native, yet that group makes up 27% of those who do not graduate.
People who are Native account for less than 2% of Missoula’s overall population, Lawson went on, but they make up 14% of the local incarcerated population. Additionally, 25% of the local unhoused population is Native, Lawson said.
Missoulian: ‘Imperfect progress’: City, county embrace JEDI challenges
news/education.txt · Last modified: 2024/01/14 20:14 by lmuszkie