March 11, 2025 School Board Meeting - Supt. Summary
Greetings Cougar Families and Columbus Community,
I hope this finds you all well. In an effort to improve communication and transparency of the operations of the Columbus School District, I will be sending a school board meeting summary after the regular meeting. Please know that this is only a summary and not official minutes. If you are ever interested in viewing previous agendas and meeting minutes, you can find all of that on the school website https://www.columbuscougars.com
Please contact me with questions, comments, or concerns.
Sincerely,
Casey Klasna - Superintendent
The meetings went well last night. It was a long night, but a lot accomplished.
At 5pm MTSBA led our final policy review for the policy manual. The policy manual will be fully approved at the April meeting.
The school board meeting started at 7pm and went until a little after 9pm. The following is the summary:
Cade Schulze spoke in public comment about purchasing acoustic shells for the music program. The board will consider this at a future meeting.
Leigha Quinmby spoke in public comment regarding a beef program for our school to serve Montana beef at a very low cost. Leigha had colleagues from school nutrition on Zoom to field questions about the program.
Officer Zacahary spoke in public comment and introduced "Fella" a narcotics dog that will be with him at the school during the school day.
Mark Qualman from QuEst presented to the board about the bus barn project and the proper steps needed as defined in statute. The bus barn project will be located at the 40 acre site south of the hospital. The funds used to purchase this project will come out of metal mines and other sources and not the general fund.
Trustee Russ Dewell presented 1st reading of the Facility Naming Policy. The board approved the first reading of that policy 5-0.
Supt. Klasna led a discussion on the General Fund Levy and what steps have been taken so far to educate the community. The election is this spring.
Katrine Chandler was recommended to be added to the sub teacher list. Board approved 5-0.
FY26 contracts for all tenured teachers were recommended. Board approved 5-0.
FY26 contracts for all non-tenure teachers recommended. Board approved 5-0.
FY26 contracts were recommended for non-tenure teachers moving to tenure. Board approved 5-0.
School calendar "A" was recommended to be adopted for FY26. The committee met on several occasions to fine tune the calendar and to ensure we had the required minutes/hours to be in compliance with law. Board approved 5-0.
The preliminary budget data sheets were discussed that the district received from OPI. The data sheets are PRE-SESSION and do not account for the inflationary increases in HB15 nor does it account for the STARS ACT funding of the double quality educator payment. The PRE-SESSION data sheets show a significant drop in our school budgets. However, there is great optimism that the funding laws will be signed into law, which will increase our budgets.
Supt. Klasna explained that the general fund levy amounts are a best guess estimate at the time due to the legislative session not being over. Schools must approve an amount at the March school board meetings to meet the deadlines in the OPI election calendar. The amounts determined by Supt. Klasna was based on the OPI general fund worksheet that accounts for HB15 and the STARS Act. The OPI finance team built the spreadsheet for a tool for districts to budget. However, it is not official. The following amounts were approved to be on the ballot and could be a lower number when we receive the official budgets from OPI.
High School Levy - $156,572.09 (5.54mills)
Estimated impacts on residential:
- $100,000 Home - $7.48/year
- $300,000 Home - $22.44/year
- $600,000 Home - $44.88/year
Elementary Levy - $233,105.54 (7.84 mills)
Estimated impacts on residential:
- $100,000 Home - $10.58/year
- $300,000 Home - $31.75/year
- $600,000 Home - $63.48/year
Eighth grade girls were approved to be added to the high school softball team for this season. Coach Smith presented the reasons for 8th graders to play. The primary reason was the low number of HS girls going out and having enough girls to practice, etc. Absarokee and Park City were notified as they are part of the co-op. Eighth grade girls from their schools will have the opportunity as well and will follow the same process for approval. Board approved 4-1.
Two bids were presented to the board for new LED lights in the HS gym. House Electric was approved for the project at $42,000. The project will not be paid out of the general fund but rather the metal mines fund. The lights will provide efficiency and provide more light. That project will commence this summer. Board approved 5-0.
The board approved 5-0 to adopt the permissive levy resolution per the law. The resolution is to show any anticipated increases in the permissive levies for the next school year. They are not official and can be changed at the August budget meeting. It was recommended to levy 2 additional mills in the elementary transportation fund and 1 additional mill in the HS transportation fund. These additional mills were added to account for high fuel costs, repairs, etc. No increases are anticipated in adult education, tuition, or bus depreciation at this time. Board approved 5-0.
The teachers union found an error in the collective bargaining agreement regarding bereavement leave. It was presented to the board and discussed. The error was acknowledged and will be fixed. Board approved 5-0.
Supt. Klasna gave his report and discussed his recent trip to the NCE conference in New Orleans. A quick legislative update was given focusing on the HB252 STARS ACT and HB15. It was stated that negotiations for the certified union will be March 20th at 4pm.
The next school board meeting will be April 8th at 7pm.
