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The Big Sandy Education Foundation Board of Directors met earlier this winter to discuss ways to distribute some generous donations to enhance the educational opportunities for the students. After a great deal of discussion the Board decided to develop a grant program where teachers could apply to the Foundation for funding to enhance their programs. It was determined that grants would be awarded for exceptional projects or activities that are not part of the normal expenditures of the school...
For the fifth consecutive year Big Sandy schools will not have a trustee election. There were two trustee positions open this year, a one year term and a three year term. By the April 5, 2018 deadline there were two candidates file for the two positions so the election was officially cancelled. Jeri Roth will be the trustee for the 1 year term and Heather Pleninger will be the new trustee for the three year term. Both trustees will be sworn in at the May reorganization meeting where the board will also select their board chair and vice chair...
Too often we hear about the negative aspects of how public education has changed all the way from the federal level down to the one room school house. There is no debate that public education has changed. Some say those changes are not positive and feel we should go back to educating students like we did in the 50’s or the 80’s or at the turn of the century depending on what time frame you grew up in. Every change in public education can be debated on whether those changes are positive or negative and will continue to be debated from the fed...
Going into this past legislative session the state was facing a revenue shortfall. When there is a shortfall in revenue, cuts are made across the board to address the shortage. With public education being a large portion of the state’s budget it was likely that public education would see some cuts. When the session ended, Big Sandy School did not see a decrease in our budget as our budget stayed relatively the same, but how our budget was funded changed dramatically. In order to maintain the same general fund budget the state chose to take a p...
On April 11, 2017 at 7:00 PM the Big Sandy Board of Trustees will meet to make a final decision whether or not to run a special bond election for the purpose of building a new swimming pool. The potential of this project has been a joint effort between the Town of Big Sandy and Big Sandy schools. There have been many public meetings over the course of the past year soliciting input from the community and the time has come for the trustees to make a final decision. Below is the information on how a $2,300,000 bond would affect taxpayers in our...
On August 16, 2016, the Big Sandy Board of Trustees reviewed and approved the school budget for the upcoming school year. School budgets are driven by a complex funding formula with student enrollment being the biggest factor affecting budget change. The Montana Legislature has been beneficial to schools the past two sessions with inflationary adjustments in most areas of the budget, and those adjustments have helped out all schools. Similar to most businesses the school expenses rise each year. We hope to have steady to increasing enrollment...
There will be many new teachers this year at Big Sandy Schools as school gets underway. Most of our new staff are from the area or have ties to the area, which is a real plus. At FE Miley Katie Hanson, who student taught in 3rd grade last year, will be assuming the 1st grade teaching duties. Katie completed her elementary education degree at MSU-N this past spring. Katie is a graduate of Big Sandy High School, so we are excited that she chose to start her teaching career in her hometown. Calista Worrall will be taking over the 5th grade teachin...
The crisis of a teacher shortage in Montana continues to reach epidemic proportions, particularly in rural Montana. Just last week as I looked at OPI Teacher Placement site where most schools in Montana advertise open teaching positions, there were over 635 new job listings in the last 90 days. I think it is safe to say that there are not that many new graduates in our university system to fill those positions. Today we rarely get applicants for any teaching jobs in our rural schools. 10 years ago the perspective teachers came to us and...
The Big Sandy School Board of Trustees will be looking to appoint a new trustee at the upcoming May 17 board meeting. Since there were more positions up for election than people that filed for those positions the May 3, 2016 election was cancelled. In accordance to Montana law the trustees have 60 days to appoint a new trustee. The goal of the trustees is to be able to appoint the new trustee at the May 17th board meeting where the new board members are sworn in and the Chairperson and Vice-Chair are elected by the board. There are a few...
On Tuesday, March 22nd the Board of Trustees spent time at the regularly scheduled meeting reviewing the preliminary budget for the 2016-17 school year. Next year’s budget is unique as it marks the first year that Big Sandy Schools will be operating as one K-12 district instead of a separate high school and elementary district. This required change will help make the financial management of the district more efficient as we will only have to deal with one budget instead of two. Overall Big Sandy School’s general fund budget will go up sli...
Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau announced public high school juniors will no longer be required to take the annual Smarter Balanced assessment, and instead will take the ACT. “Montana is one of 13 states that provides the ACT to all juniors for free, it doesn’t make sense to ask juniors to take the ACT and the Smarter Balanced assessment,” Superintendent Juneau said. “The change will cut testing time for public high school students by two-thirds, and allow them to focus on preparing for college and career.” Testing time will...
Several years ago the concept of forming a Big Sandy Educational Foundation was discussed amongst educational officials at Big Sandy Schools. What is a foundation? A Foundation is s a legal categorization of nonprofit organizations that will typically either donate funds and support to other organizations, or provide the source of funding for its own charitable purposes. Through a time period of research and planning the actuality of starting an Education Foundation started to take form in the...
