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East Helena K-12 School District board meeting, date not confirmed yet

2 h 11 min · 2 public speakers

This board doesn’t post agenda times. Click a board member to jump to where they first speak; we list only members whose voice our check named. Video length 2 h 11 min.

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What happened

What happened at this meeting

East Helena board hears update on 4-day school week community survey 49:23

  • The board approved the consent action items and approved Policies 3231, 5322, 5323 and 5324 on second reading. ~43:07
  • A district staff member updated the board on the Calendar Committee's work on a 4-day school week and said a community survey had 975 responses as of that afternoon. 49:46
  • The staff member said the committee would review the responses and could bring a recommendation to pursue a 4-day week, or to stop discussions, to the board in November or December. 53:50

Until Nov 4, lines where a board member takes a side don't name the member. Why →

Item by item (15)
  1. Opening and agenda 0:00
    • The meeting opened with 4 trustees present and 2 attending remotely, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. 0:00
    • The presiding officer said comments on the Calendar Committee report on the 4-day school week would be taken under unfinished business item number 3. 1:03
  2. Student report 1:31
    • The student representative reported the girls flag football team placed second at state and the choir would hold its fall concert the next day. 1:31
    • The student representative also said there would be no school Thursday and Friday. 1:31
  3. Administrator reports 3:18
    • A staff member said math scores would be more telling at the mid-year benchmark assessment and said results would be shared in February. 6:05
    • Another staff member reported a grant was approved for $36,000 this year and parent-teacher conferences had 98% attendance. 7:03
    • A high school staff member reported 60 referrals, said 5 students accounted for all suspensions and said 96% of students had zero write-ups for the month. 12:25
  4. Transportation Infrastructure Committee report 14:41
    • A staff member said the committee discussed building a parking lot on about 50 feet of the east end of the Eastgate playground field because of a lack of employee parking at the bus barn. 15:23
    • The staff member said the district was down to 2 spare route buses instead of the typical 3 and would likely bring options back to the board later this winter. 18:23
    • The staff member said a bus check-in software package and bus barn insulation would be revisited later in the school year depending on diesel prices. 20:14
  5. Professional development committee report 21:34
    • A staff member said the committee followed up on August and September trainings and discussed planning for next year. 22:12
  6. Advocacy and association report 22:44
    • The presiding officer reported attending an advocacy workshop that included meetings with Montana's delegation or their staff members. 22:44
    • The presiding officer said the federal government promised to pay 40% of costs for educating students with disabilities and is at about 12%, and said attendees also sought continued support for E-Rate. 23:48
    • The presiding officer said the Montana Rural Education Association raised concerns about a push for forced consolidation of schools. 27:22
  7. Strategic planning and future needs 29:13
    • One board member said the board should make a structured plan and asked how the board could reconnect with and educate the community. 37:21
    • A staff member said dates in November were being considered for a meeting with the board, and one board member said that meeting would be a good place to start the discussion. 39:03
  8. Consent action items 40:08
    • The consent items included minutes of the September 14th board meeting and the September 24th Transportation Infrastructure Committee meeting, warrants, personnel actions and student enrollment approvals. 42:17
    • The motion to approve the consent action items carried. 43:07
  9. Health plan billing question 43:11
    • Tristan Ulmer asked whether the district could track spending with Bridged Health Alliance compared with prior spending. 43:15
    • A staff member said spending was less and said a stop-loss premium covering claims above $75,000 is now billed together with the monthly bill. 43:26
  10. Conference travel information 45:41
    • A staff member said attending trustees would receive hotel information and described the conference schedule, with the first general session Thursday at 9. 45:48
  11. Second reading of policies 47:18
    • A speaker noted a crossed-out word remained in Policy 3231. 48:15
    • A motion was made to accept Policies 3231, 5322, 5323 and 5324 on second reading. 48:32
    • The motion carried. ~49:02
  12. Calendar Committee 4-day week update 49:23
    • A staff member said blocks are at 94 minutes now and would need added minutes, probably about a 2-hour block. 1:02:11
    • One board member said they would ask contacts in southern Idaho about staffing and raised concern about students potentially losing 20% of their meals during the week. 1:13:06
    • A speaker at public comment said the 4-day school week concept is better on paper than in practice and cited risks to quality of education, burdens on parents and costs. 1:15:31
  13. Board committee functions 1:19:01
    • The presiding officer asked whether committees should review contracts and whether to establish an extracurricular committee. 1:19:01
    • One board member said forming another committee would add a time commitment compared with sending contracts to existing committees. 1:25:34
    • One board member said having the full board review contracts was kind of a waste of time, and another board member said the policy committee members review contracts in their jobs. 1:27:05
  14. Montana Tech agreements 1:33:34
    • A staff member said the memo of understanding and student data privacy agreement cover a free program that exposes students to post-secondary options, and said the grant was renewed for another 5 years. 1:34:06
    • The presiding officer called for a motion to approve the agreements, and a motion and second were made. 1:37:48
  15. Board team building and self-evaluation 1:38:27
    • The board discussed chapter 3 of a book it is studying, and a staff member said a retreat would have to be posted as a work session open to the public. 1:40:46
    • The presiding officer said a self-evaluation survey would go to the board, principals and union leadership, with results to be discussed in November. 2:09:23
    • The presiding officer said the next meeting would be November 9th at 5:30 at East Valley Middle School. 2:10:52

Written by software from the meeting's transcript and checked sentence by sentence against it.

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Other meetings of this board

Video: posted by the district as “October 12th, 2026 -- School Board Meeting”