The OPI is providing this newsletter every month for an update on current events and ongoing education-related issues in Montana. The next Navigator will be sent to you on December 1, 2022.

For previous editions of the Navigator click here.

Calendar of Events

Countdown to the 68th Legislative Session

60 days From November 3rd until the legislative session begins!!

Important Upcoming Dates

Montana Executive Leadership Academy: November 3-4, 2022, Virtual Montana Teacher Leader Academy: November 4-5, 2022, Virtual General Election: November 8, 2022 Becoming Leading Voices for Youth Wellness: November 8-11, 2022, Seeley MT

MARA: November 10, 2022, Financial Modernization and Risk Analysis Study – Capitol Room 102 Veterans Day: November 11, 2022 Click the link to watch a testimonial video supporting Veteran’s OPI distributed to schools OPI Law Conference: November 10, 2022, see flyer below Caucus meetings: November 16-19, 2022. Brawl of the Wild Tailgate at OPI: November 16 in the parking lot of 1227 11th Ave. Please come and join us while you are here for Caucus to enjoy hamburgers and hotdogs while showing your support for the Cats or Griz! The 121st Brawl of the Wild will be held on November 19, 2022, in Bozeman Thanksgiving: November 24, 2022 Christmas: December 25, 2022 New Year’s: January 1, 2023 Celebrating Parents as the First Teachers: January 2, 2022, Capitol Rotunda Swearing in Ceremony: January 2, 2023, OPI greeting Legislators with current Montana school information Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Panel: January 2, Capitol Room 303 Tribal Education Caucus: Capitol Room 350 every Thursday beginning in January Education Caucus: Capitol Room 335 every other Tuesday beginning in January Indian Education For All: February 14, 2023, Capitol Rotunda Celebrating Women’s History: March 22, 2023, Capitol Rotunda MT Ready Day: April 12, 2023, Capitol Rotunda

68th Legislature - 2023 Session Calendar – Draft Schedule

Click here to view the Legislative Calendar.

Legislation

Montana Legislature Bill Search Results for Education

Click the image to link to the list of Schools and Education Bills.

As of 11/3/2022, there are 65 Requested Education Bill Drafts. These requested bills fit into the following categories:

There are 970 total Requested Bill Drafts as of 11/3/22.

OPI Priority Legislation

A Promise is a Promise: Base Aid requirements to fund Public Schools Teacher Dollars Working for Teachers: Teacher Licensing fees supporting the teacher licensing system Updating Audiology Equipment: one-time-only funding 4. Student Mental Health: Amending mental health tuition payments to allow tuition for any residential mental health

Further OPI Legislation

Family

1. Immunity for use of a legal name
2. Montana Interstate Children’s Compact Commission Permanent Position
3. Identify violation of sexuality instruction statute as a gross neglect of duty
4. Empower families through local grievance process
5. Digital pre-K learning

Teacher

1. Consolidate licenses to three types: teacher, administrator, and specialist
2. Require current contact information for licensees and applicants, and allow service of process via mail
3. Expand Teach Act
4. Move to 8 years in teacher retirement with sunset
5. Continue Teacher Residency program

Flexibility

1. State-tribal education compact
2. OPI approval of textbook content
3. Access to telework employees
4. Apply open meeting laws to associations composed of public bodies
5. Return Perkins financial control to OPI
6. Expand choice for local schools
7. Flexible teacher retirement and reemployment
8. Career coaches

Elections

1. Move school elections to the primary election date

Summary of BASE Aid Increases

Pursuant to section §20-9-326, MCA, annual inflation-related adjustments are required for BASE while preparing and submitting the agency budget. Currently, these inflationary rates are set at 2.70% for FY2024 and 3.00% for FY2025.  This basic amount for school equity (BASE) is the largest state funding component for our public school systems and supports the school district’s general fund.  This present law adjustment not only includes growth associated with the statutorily required inflationary increase but also includes estimated increases associated with enrollment, adjustments for taxable valuation, and other non-levy revenue estimates.  Including costs associated with these “other” variables allows for ancillary formulaic funding needs beyond the inflationary requirement. The table below provides a general breakout of increases for the upcoming biennium.

Dollar amounts are shown in millions

For more information, please contact Paul Taylor, Budget Analyst, at ptaylor2@mt.gov or (406) 444-1257

Land Board

The acquisition by the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) of the Big Snowy Mountain Wildlife Management Area (WMA), in Golden Valley County, was successfully voted upon by the Montana State Board of Land Commissioners at its October meeting.  The WMA encompasses 5,677 acres of high-value wildlife habitat lands, providing tremendous public access opportunities to it, and the adjoining Forest Service and BLM properties. Senator Dan Bartel, SD15 Lewistown, joined with the Superintendent in successfully advocating for a multiple use covenant on this acquisition, which will provide for continued grazing through lease, cooperative agreement or other means that will allow for private party grazing of cattle in accord with an FWP grazing system. This acquisition will continue to benefit Golden Valley County with payment of taxes just as previously by its former owner, the Montana Children’s Home and Hospital (Shodair).

Celebrating Senator Joe Balyeat

Senator Joe Balyeat was a dedicated Montanan who loved to hunt and traverse Montana's beautiful outdoors. It was a pleasure to serve with him. Blessings to his family and friends.

OPI Updates

Montana Youth Vote

Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen and Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen are proud to announce the 2022 Montana Youth Vote election will be conducted Monday, October 31 to Friday, November 4. Secretary Jacobsen and Superintendent Arntzen encourage all Montana students in grades K-12 to participate in the election to gain practical experience in the democratic process. The 2022 Montana Youth Vote election will allow middle school and high school students to vote for candidates and ballot issues which will appear on the ballot in November’s General Election. Elementary students will vote for Montana’s two congressional races and a variety of other interests to younger children. For more information, teachers and students may visit https://civics.sosmt.gov. Results will be shared on Monday, November 7, in advance of the midterm General Election.

2022 Fall Montana School Law Conference

The School Law Conference will be held in person at the State Capitol in room 303. To watch a live stream, please click here.

If you are in Helena for the MARA (Financial Modernization and Risk Analysis Study) Committee, please join us in person.

October 2022 Press Releases

• Montana Crunch Time set for Wednesday, Oct. 19
• Superintendent Elsie Arntzen Announces MAST Pilot Participation
• Office of Public Instruction’s TeachMontana Team Receives Governor’s Award for Excellence in Performance
• Superintendent Elsie Arntzen Announces the 2022 Montana Special Education Advisory Panel
• Superintendent Arntzen Releases Montana’s “Nation’s Report Card” Scores
• Superintendent Elsie Arntzen and Attorney General Austin Knudsen Recognize Red Ribbon Week
• Superintendent Arntzen Emphasizes the Importance of Reading in Montana Public Schools
• Superintendent Arntzen Seeks Public Comment on Stronger Connections Grant for Safe and Healthy Students

For more information, please contact Brian O’Leary, Communications Director at Brian.O’Leary@mt.gov  or 406-444-355.

Flexibility in Employee Choice

The OPI offers flexibility in employee choice through remote telework available positions for Montana residents or those looking to move to the Big Sky State. Currently, we have 170 full-time regular employees with 81 of those teleworking, almost half of our staff is teleworking throughout Montana. The OPI has led the charge in revolutionizing government employment. These changes allowed the OPI to reduce our fiscal footprint by moving from four office buildings to two. This action will permit more budgeting resources to serve our schools and students in both general fund and federal tax dollars

OPI's New Program Manager of Standards, Instruction, and Professional Learning

Susan Catapano has worked as an educator for over 40 years, first as a high school vocational education teacher and most recently, as an Elementary Media Coordinator. She has also owned and operated early childhood centers. She spent the past 25 years working for state universities in Missouri, North Carolina, and Nebraska, as a teacher and administrator educator. She has worked globally as a Fulbright Scholar to the University of Belize in teacher education and continues to work with the Ministry of Education in Belize with teacher education. She enjoys working with preservice, beginning, and experienced teachers to learn about life in schools and what supports teachers and learners to be successful. She is a licensed educator in North Carolina in secondary Vocational Education, Middle Grades English Language Arts, Elementary K-6, Teaching Reading, and Media Coordinator. Susan has two daughters and lives in Missoula with her Corgi, Tedi. She loves to travel and visit her home in Belize as much as possible

Join us in Celebrating

TeachMontana Team Receives Governor’s Award for Excellence in Performance

Superintendent Elsie Arntzen is pleased to announce that the Office of Public Instruction’s Educator Licensing Team received the 2022 Governor’s Award for Excellence in Performance today. This award was presented to the licensing team for demonstrating strong exemplary cooperative work efforts that go above and beyond what is typically expected. The members of the team are:

• Crystal Andrews, Educator Licensure Program Manager
• Bekki Flanagan, Licensure Examiner
• Lorri Weiss, Licensure Examiner
• Virginia Sandin, Licensure Examiner

“I am so proud of the work that our licensing team has done this year,” said Superintendent Elsie Arntzen. “The new state of the art licensing system has streamlined licensing for all Montana teachers and administrators. Our licensing team has helped teachers focus more time on putting our Montana students first!”

The Educator Licensing Team has shown excellence in the state’s public image. They developed a new user-friendly educator licensing system, Teach Montana (TMT), that was launched on June 1^st, 2022. They have also provided prompt, courteous services.

The Governor’s Award for Excellence provides an opportunity to honor and recognize exceptional employees’ contributions to the Montana State Government. This year 308 state employees received this honor.

Montana Youth Challenge Academy

Superintendent Arntzen had the opportunity to speak to the Class 47 cadets of the Montana Youth Challenge Academy. My message was Show Up - for your education, your community, and your state. Thank you to Representative Welsh, Director Trent Gibson and Adjutant General Hronek for their continued support of this program and all of the cadets!

Worlds of Work Career Fair

Thank you to Central Montana Works! for hosting the first Worlds of Work, WOW, career fair. About 2,000 middle and high school students from Great Falls and the Golden Triangle participated to learn about future career possibilities and become #MTReady!

Forest Products Week

This week was forest products week. A big thank you to Mark's Lumber for hosting an open house to showcase the importance of our timber industry. This is a vital industry as timber sales from state trust lands help fund our Montana public schools!

Montana Youth Hunting Story Contest

Attention 10-17-year-old Montana hunters! Do you have an exciting hunting story? If so, put your writing skills to the test and submit your 2022 Montana Youth Hunting Story. For more details visit youthhunting.mt.gov.

Native American Heritage Month

November is Native American Heritage Month. Our Montana constitution says, “The state recognizes the distinct and unique cultural heritage of the American Indians and is committed in its educational goals to the preservation of their cultural integrity.” For more information, click here.

Happy Halloween from the Capitol

The Superintendent had a great time handing out hot dogs for Halloween at the Capitol. She enjoyed seeing all of the fun costumes.

2023 Paint the State

OPI is partnering with the Montana Meth Project, the worldwide leader in Meth prevention, to launch 2023 Paint the State. Paint the State is Montana’s largest public art contest with the goal to engage young Montanans in on-the-ground drug prevention outreach and inspire vibrant drug-free lives.

The first 250 educators to sign up will hold their spots to receive a $250 stipend from the Meth Project to be used toward art supplies for your student team entries.

The Meth Project will also be signing up educators at the Montana Educator Conference in Helena starting tomorrow at Booth #34.

Next week is Red Ribbon Week, an ideal time to be discussing the risks of drug use with our students and getting them excited about Paint the State. The contest is appropriate for classes and student groups across subjects and interests. Students who participate will be entered to win up to $3,000 in cash prizes from the Meth Project and its partners

Get inspired and sign up at PaintTheState.org.

State Superintendent’s Message

Please click here to view the Superintendent’s message on the Montana Alternative Student Testing (MAST) Pilot Program.

Innovations for Montana Students

1.   MAST Pilot Program

2.   Chapter 55-Rule Changes

3.   Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief Funds

4.   Title I Part C MEP Consortia Incentive Award & Ready 4L Family Engagement

5.   Youth Risk Behavior Survey

1.   Montana Alternative Student Testing (MAST) Pilot Program

The first of four testing windows for the MAST pilot program will be November 7-18. Each testing window includes three Math and two Reading testlets. The Math and Reading testlets are aligned with our Montana State Content Standards

The content coverage for the Grade 5 Math testlets are:

The content coverage for the Grade 7 Math testlets are:

The content coverage for both the Grade 5 and 7 Reading testlets are:

There were two different training sessions offered for professional development. The recorded sessions are available:

• Teacher and Student Experience
• How-To

There are 43 participating school districts across 29 counties:

For more information, please contact Deputy Sharyl Allen at sharyl.allen@mt.gov or (406) 444-5648.

2.   Chapter 55 – School Accreditation Rule Changes

After more than 30 years Montana's School Accreditation standards are changing to prioritize student learning. The Montana Administrative Procedure Act (MAPA) process for public comment  will close on November 4, 2022. For those on the Education Interim Budget Committee, please view the documents as the Economic Impact Statement will be reviewed during your December 7, 2022 meeting. To view a five-page summary of the rule changes, please click here.

 Board of Public Education Timeline on Proposed Chapter 55 Rules:

• Final public comment deadline November 4, 2022
• Draft Notice and Economic Impact Statement to Interim Committee Before Nov. 7, 2022
• Adoption notice to BPE for consideration/respond to comments Nov 17-18, 2022
• Interim Committee Meeting December 7, 2022
• BPE authorization to publish adoption notice, including comments and responses January 12-13, 2023
• Adoption notice to SOS for publication in MAR January, TBD 2023
• MAR publication of adoption notice January, TBD 2023
• Effective date of rules July 2023

*Written public comment can be sent to bpe@mt.gov.

For more information, please contact Dr. Julie Murgel, Chief Operating Officer at julie.murgel@mt.gov or (406) 444-3172.

3.   Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief Funds – ESSER

On September 29, 2022, the United States Department of Education sent a liquidation extension letter to the OPI. The letter states, “the Department is offering a liquidation extension request process for immediate use by grantees. This process ensures strong accountability for the use of funds and important safeguards for States and subgrantees. Under 2 CFR § 200.344(b), properly obligated funds must be liquidated within 120 calendar days (or by January 28, 2023, for CARES Act funds).

The Department has the authority to approve liquidation extension requests for properly obligated funds upon review of a written request made by a grantee on its own behalf or on behalf of its subgrantees. Final approval of a grantee’s written request will be based upon the specific facts and circumstances, in accordance with 2 CFR § 200.344(b). If approved under this process, grantees and subgrantees may have an extension to the liquidation period of up to 14 months beyond the 120 days already available to liquidate funds.”

Districts received a letter regarding the liquidation from OPI ESSER Director Wendi Fawns with an extension template.

The monthly Trustee Report that was sent to board chairs on October 17 can be found here.

For more information, please contact Wendi Fawns at wendi.fawns@mt.gov.

4.   Title I Part C MEP Consortia Incentive Award & Ready 4L Family Engagement

Montana Office of Public Instruction Title I Part C MEP has received a year three Consortia Incentive Grant (CIG) for participation in two formal Consortia Arrangements regarding parent engagement for eligible families in greater Yellowstone County and surrounding areas.  This year’s award will be implemented through the Huntley Project School Title I Part C MEP.  The $59,645 will fund continuation of work with families that was begun last year and will continue through 2022-23.     The overarching goals of both MPEC and I2MPACT are described below and have a heavy emphasis on family engagement. The grant award will cover costs associated with providing a multiplicity of services to improve parent participation through a wide variety of methods including access to an online network called Migrant Literacy/Math Net.  Huntley Project MEP Staff will provide a variety of outreach services to eligible migratory families guided by experts from throughout the nation.   The two CIGs are described below: Inspire and Innovate: Migratory Parent Coalition (I2MPACT) is a consortium of 8 states that is designed to support state MEPs to increase parent involvement through an expanded understanding of parent involvement and improved parent involvement activities. I2MPACT’s work will support member states’ parent involvement activities identified in the various states who participate.  The Migratory Parent Empowerment Consortium (MPEC) is a consortium of 9 states including Hawaii, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah (Lead State), and Virginia. MPEC is designed to strengthen the involvement of migratory parents in the education of their children, including supporting their children’s mathematics skills needed in order to be successful in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. In addition to the CIG award, the Title I Part C MEP at Huntley Project School District will continue to utilize the Ready 4K texting program to keep migratory parents informed of activities and services available to them.  The success of that program in Montana is highlighted in this link:  For more information about the program, please contact Angela Branz-Spall, Title I Part C MEP Director, 406-459-6368 or abranspall@mt.gov.

5.Youth Risk Behavior Survey

Exciting News! The Youth Risk Behavior Survey Registration is online! This exciting 17th year of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, (YRBS), is bringing a change to registration. We hope to take advantage of all our technology-savvy and connected superintendents, administrators, and lead staff out there during this process.

WHAT'S NEW:

• A NEW link on our YRBS Website will lead you to an online registration to fill out for the 2023 YRBS. Registration will be as easy as going online and filling out the form.
• ALL the forms and information are posted on the website for you to view and print off as you need. This will cut down on the mail coming to you and having to remember to mail the registration back to us.

As you know, the YRBS combines the data requirements for several state departments into this survey. We are fortunate to have continued support from state agencies, including the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, the Department of Crime Control, the Department of Motor Vehicles-Traffic Safety Program, and the Department of Justice to bring the survey to you and to continue providing this valuable information to the State of Montana.

The application should be live by November 1^st, 2022 at https://opi.mt.gov/Leadership/Data-Reporting/Youth-Risk-Behavior-Survey. Genie Zeeck, the YRBS coordinator for the Office of Public Instruction will also be sending out individual e-mails to school officials to notify them of important information.

A friendly reminder for all: the scheduled survey dates for the YRBS are February 20-24, 2023.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Genie Zeeck at 406-444-3178 or genie.zeeck@mt.gov.

Questions? Contact: 

Tara Boulanger, Legislative Liaison, (406) 444-2082

Brian O'Leary, Communications Director, (406) 444-3559

The OPI is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation, require an alternate format, or have questions concerning accessibility, contact the OPI ADA Coordinator, 406-444-3161, opiada@mt.gov, Relay Service: 711.