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Jensen to Become Kalispell Superintendent
Kalispell Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Matt Jensen will lead the district as superintendent beginning next school year.
Trustee Jack Fallon noted that AA division school districts in Montana typically hire external superintendent candidates. Hiring Jensen, Fallon said, would make him the second consecutive internal superintendent hire for the Kalispell Public Schools after the district in 2020 hired Hill, who was formerly the Glacier High School principal.
The school board voted to hire Jensen on a three-year contract at a starting salary of $175,000. The average salary for a superintendent of a AA division school district in Montana is $180,564.
Instructional coaches may be removed from schools
Instructional coaches are sprinkled throughout East Helena and Helena public schools giving teachers extra help, but the districts run the risk of losing these positions at the end of September when a state grant expires.
There are 15 instructional coaches throughout the Helena district, one pre-k grant funded, three elementary grant funded, one middle school grant funded, two high school grant funded, one K-5 math coach elementary and secondary school emergency relief funded and seven full-time Title 1 and 2 funded.
The position is funded through a competitive state Office of Public Instruction grant, the Montana Comprehensive Literacy State Development Program known as the “literacy grant,” which was awarded in 2019 and runs out at the end of September.
The Helena district is reliant on the levies passing in May, Davidson said, otherwise the “reality” is the district will lose positions and programs.
If instructional coaches are removed from the districts, Davidson said the hole left will be huge because of the assistance coaches offer to teachers.
If the district loses people it loses the ability to have individualized teaching instruction, according to Davidson.
Helena IR: Instructional coaches may be removed from schools
Helena music teacher's assault case is dismissed
A Helena teacher's case was dismissed Monday by Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Kathy Seeley after she said insufficient evidence was provided to prove he committed assault on a minor.
Carson Christman Yahvah, a former Four Georgians Elementary music teacher, was found not guilty during his bench trial with Seeley.
This was Yahvah's second court case regarding assault charges.
On Nov. 8, 2023, he was found not guilty on two charges of assaulting a third grade student at Four Georgians Elementary School.
Yahvah was suspended at the time for his actions. Helena Public Schools officials said in November Yahvah was on leave without pay “pending resolution of all legal matters.”
Montana schools submit for reimbursement for lead testing in school drinking water
In an effort to guarantee safe drinking water to students throughout Montana, the Office of Public Instruction recently allocated new funds to cover the costs of testing water for lead.
According to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, 71 percent of schools that have already been tested exceeded the amount of lead that can safely be in the water.
Schools with unsafe lead levels will be refunded for the costs of upgrading their water systems.
The reimbursement program is first come first serve with the maximum amount of funding for each school capped at $50,000, but that amount may be adjusted in the future based on need.
Mary Sheehy Moe: HB 393 — A mad, mad, mad, mad bill
When President Gerald Ford signed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1975, he didn’t conceal his reservations: “Unfortunately, this bill promises more than the federal government can deliver.”
The feds promised to cover up to 40% of the costs of providing free, appropriate public education to every child with a disability. Their lips to God’s ears. In 1990, the feds assumed 11.49% of Montana’s IDEA costs. The state shouldered the lion’s share, (81.66%), leaving local districts with the remaining 7.09%.
Over time, the lion became a lamb. By 2022, our state’s share of total special education funding had shrunk to 26.55%. The feds ponied up 21.23%. That left local districts with a whopping 52.22% of the cost. And those costs had more than quadrupled, increasing from $40.9 million in 1990 to $168.4 million by 2022.
You wonder why your school board comes back year after year with mill levy requests? Part of the reason is that state and federal laws require public schools to meet widely varying and sometimes wildly expensive special education needs, costs notwithstanding. To meet their legal (and moral) obligation to these students without levy requests, local schools must raid the general fund, designed to meet the needs of all students.
When voters say NO to a mill levy request (and with the local impacts of the last legislative session, such requests have a snowball’s chance in hell), school districts have no choice but to cut classes that aren’t required and overcrowd classes that are. Who loses? Every. Single. Kid.
Given this history, last session’s HB 393, establishing “special education savings accounts” that divert state and local funds to parents who decline publicly provided special education for their child, is truly unconscionable.
Missoulian: Mary Sheehy Moe: HB 393 — A mad, mad, mad, mad bill
news.txt · Last modified: 2024/01/04 05:22 by lmuszkie