The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

The recent school board meeting held on April 20th had 35 guests present. Chairman Glen Terry reminding everyone, “School Board meetings are held in public but are not public meetings.” There was plenty of discussions, even by zoom, as everyone present could speak to anything on the agenda.

The report on the Building Maintenance Projects revealed that a small section of asphalt sidewalk would be removed. Also, the breaker box was placed in the high school in 1956 and needs updating. Insulation and heating bids have been received for the bus barn and were approved.

The Hopp-Illiad Bus route will be changing next year. Times will adjust, and Tom and Pat Matthews will be in touch with everyone next year.

Part of the guests present at the meeting was there to talk about the Big Sandy Pioneer Wrestling Program. Currently, there is a Cooperative with Fort Benton. There has been some discussion lately that Fort Benton would dissolve the Cooperative with Big Sandy to compete as a C School. The Cooperative must compete as a B school because you have to add the students of both schools. Fort Ben has not decided what they will be doing. Whether we continue with the wrestling program alone here in Big Sandy as a C school or join Havre as a Cooperative, wrestlers from Big Sandy would be considered Blue Ponies. The discussion was tabled till Fort Benton makes their decision.

However, the board decided to support the wrestling program by buying a new wrestling mat. The current ones are extremely old and unsanitary and unable to clean due to the cracks.

At FE Miley, there are still some flooring in the office and classrooms that have cracks. Because there is asbestos in the flooring, they will be replacing the flooring.

There is stimulus money available to purchase a new math curriculum called Envision. The teachers looked at three different math programs before deciding. It was purchased for Elementary K-8th grade.

There is also stimulus funds to purchase a new phone/intercom Bell system. Also, a Door system With a camera was tabled because the board members wanted to know the cost of labor.

The board hired a Certified math Teacher. Mrs. Brumwell is retiring and the hire of Mr. Bob Olson, from Loma. He has a Bachelor of Science in Math and currently tutors at Northern.

Heather Woolery was rehired, with a slight modification in her hours. She will be starting the school year two weeks earlier.

The following tenured teachers were rehired: Shelbi Darlington, Katie Hanson, Demrece Keller, Sherri Moore, Traci Rodewald, Amy Terry, Samantha Weaver, Calista Worrall, Melanie Schwarzbach, and Shersteen Cline.

After some discussion, both Tucker Taylor and Layne Taylor were hired for their 4th consecutive or tenure contract.

TJ Bond, Monika Winder, Kira Winter, Melissa Han, and Desmond Parker were rehired as non-tenured teachers.

Maryetta Engle reported that a 2015 Impala and a 2007 Suburban were purchased. They were under the budget approved by the board.