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 April 7, 2023.

For previous editions of the Navigator click here.

68th Legislative Session

Day 45

Enjoy your well deserved transmittal break! We look forward to working with all of you on your return from a well deserved mini vacation!

Thank you to the House and Senate Sergeant-at-arms staff, including Ray Todd, for all the work they have done during the first part of the session. More importantly an appreciation for the work to be done in the second half! 

68^th Legislative Transmittal Packet

It has been an honor working with all of you during my tenure as Montana’s Superintendent of Public Instruction. As the legislature prepares for transmittal, I have compiled informational updates on major activities from the Office of Public Instruction (OPI), Land Board Commission, and education-related legislation. Please click on the picture below for the full transmittal packet.

Calendar of Events

Community Events: Superintendent Elsie Arntzen is hosting five more community events on education during the legislature’s transmittal break. The theme of these events is Bridging the Communication Between Schools and Families. The events will take place in Miles City, Sidney, Havre, Lewistown, and Butte between March 6 and 8, 2023, and are open to parents, school leaders, and legislators. Invitations have been placed on your desks and emails have been sent.

The event times and locations are:

• Miles City: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM on Monday, March 6, 2023, at Miles City Community College in the Community Room (106), 2715 Dickinson Street Miles City, MT (Please park in lot 3 and use door E).
• Sidney: 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM on Monday, March 6, 2023, at Sidney Middle School in the gymnasium, 415 S Central Avenue, Sidney, MT
• Havre: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM on Tuesday, March 7, 2023, at Montana State University-Northern in the Student Union Ballroom, 300 13th Street West, Havre, MT
• Lewistown: 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM on Tuesday, March 7, 2023, at Lewistown Junior High in the gymnasium, 914 West Main St, Lewistown, MT
• Butte: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, at Montana Tech in the Copper Lounge of the Student Union Building, 1300 West Park Street, Butte, MT

The events will begin with a meet and greet followed by legislators sharing their goals for education during the upcoming session. Each event will close with an opportunity for parents and school leaders to ask questions of the legislators.

In December 2022 the Superintendent hosted the first round of the Bridging the Communication Between Schools and Families events in Kalispell, Stevensville, Billings, and Great Falls. The location of all events has been based on the Montana Association of School Superintendents (MASS) membership regions.

Important Upcoming Dates:

March 22, 2023, Capitol Rotunda, 12:00 PM: Celebrating Women's History. Thank you to all our women legislators who participated in our Women Leadership in Government video production.

March is Women's History Month. As a way to celebrate the great women in our state's government I have invited the women serving in our 68th legislative session to record their stories. These recording will be part of our Celebrating Women in Government Rotunda event on March 22. Thank you to the Representatives and Senators that have taken part in this production!

March 28, 2023, Capitol Rotunda, 12:00 PM: Recognition of Unified Champions- Special Olympics Day: Special Olympics Unified Sports® brings together children and adult athletes with and without intellectual disabilities to train, strive for goals, and compete on the same team. On a yearly basis, there are hundreds of competitors participating as Unified Sports® partners with Special Olympics Montana. The sports are a physical workouts that build friendship, character, leadership, and social inclusion. Current Special Olympics Montana sports offering unified competition include basketball, bowling, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, athletics (track and field), bocce, soccer, golf,  cycling, and swimming.

April 12, 2023, Capitol Rotunda, 12:00 PM: MT Ready Day: The OPI’s Montana Ready initiative is focused on imparting tangible skills on students, beginning in middle school, that will help them succeed in careers or college immediately after high school. Join The Office of Public Instruction and the MT Ready initiative to help create a College and Career ready future for Montana's students!

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 03/3/2023, there are 309 Total Requested Education Bill Drafts and 104 Introduced Bills. These requested bills fit into the following categories:

There are 1413 Introduced Bills and 4622 total Requested Bill Drafts as of 03/3/23.

BASE Aid Legislation

Thank you Governor Gianforte for signing our number one priority legislation, a promise is a promise, on March 2 at Smith Elementary in Helena, HB 15 – Implement K-12 Inflation. These tax dollars fund our public schools for the next biennium with nearly $2 billion. The Kindergarten students in Mrs. Hasselbach's classroom reflect our future with this promise!

Montana Congressional Delegation's Formal Address

Montana's 68th Legislative Session Tribal Education Caucus

Please join us for the Tribal Education Caucus: Capitol Room 350 every Thursday from 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM.

Join us March 9, 2023, at 4:00 PM for our next Tribal Education Caucus with Matt Bell, OPI's American Indian Youth Development Coordinator discussing Infusing Curriculum Into Culture.

Please click here to watch and read passed meetings and materials

Montana's 68th Legislative Education Caucus

Please join us for the Education Caucus: Capitol Room 335 every other Tuesday  7:00 AM-8:00 AM for coffee and hot apple fritters

Join us on March 14, 2023, at 7:00 AM for our next Education Caucus with Senator Salomon discussing his bill, SB 373, Provide for alternative teacher credentialing.

Please click here to see previous meeting materials and handouts

OPI Updates

December 2022 Press Releases

• Superintendent Arntzen Announces Participation in Automatic Enrollment Through Medicaid for Free and Reduced-Price School Meals
• Superintendent Arntzen Celebrates Indian Education for All
• Superintendent Arntzen Welcomes New Montana Assessment Director
• Superintendent Arntzen Opens Spring Student Enrollment Count
• Superintendent Arntzen Moves to Online Testing for the ACT with Writing
• Superintendent Arntzen to Host Second Round of Conversations with Community Members, School Leaders, and Legislators
• Superintendent Arntzen Hosts Dr. Yong Zhao for Teacher Leader and Executive Leadership Academies in Great Falls
• Superintendent Arntzen is Expanding Innovation in Education through Work Based Learning Career Coaches
• Superintendent Arntzen Grateful that Montana Legislature Delivers School Funding Promise

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

Join us in Celebrating

Celebrating Indian Education for All and the 2023 Montana Proud Poster Series

Superintendent Arntzen hosted a celebration of Indian Education for All on February 13, 2023, in the Rotunda. During this event, the 2023 Montana Proud Poster Series was unveiled. These posters will be sent to all Montana school districts.

 Please watch the celebration here.

 For more information please click here.

Sponsors Sought! 2023 Summer Food Service Program Sponsors and Sites Open for Members of Your Community

To read the SFSP Newsletter please click here.

5th Virtual Teacher Job Fair for Teacher Retention and Recruitment

Please click on the picture to register for the 5th OPI sponsored Virtual Job Fair March 8-10, 2023

Innovations for Montana Students

1. MAST Pilot Program
2. Math and World Languages Content Standards
3. Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief Funds
4. Revised and New Accreditation Standards Workshop
5. Teacher Residency Demonstration Project

Montana Alternative Student Testing (MAST) Pilot Program

The third testing window of the MAST program will be open from March 6-17, 2023. On February 22, 2023, the MAST team held a feedback session with teachers and test administrators to discuss the second testing window that occurred during January. The second testing window had over 5,000 students participating and completing testlets.

During the 2023-2024 school year, OPI is expanding the pilot program to grades 3-8 and will be recruiting more districts to participate in the full pilot program.

TEACHERS NEEDED FOR PAID OPPORTUNITIES!

The OPI is seeking 3-8 grade Math and English Language Arts teachers to participate in:

• a review of testlet items during a virtual meeting on March 28-29, 2023
• an item writing workshop on June 12-16, 2023. This workshop will be in person and will focus on developing testlet questions for the MAST pilot program. The location is TBD in Montana.

For more information on these workshops please contact Sam Walsh, Project Manager, at samantha.walsh@mt.gov.

For more information on MAST, please contact Krystal Smith, Education Innovation Manager, at krystal.smith@mt.gov, or (406) 249.0758.

Math and World Languages Content Standards Revisions

OPI is in the research phase on Math and World Languages Content Standards and will be transitioning out of this phase over the next month. Math: Currently, the OPI Math Content Standards Team is in the process of reviewing applications for the Math Task Force with two teams of reviewers made up of members of major stakeholder organizations, respondents to the Mathematics Standards Review Interest Survey, and internal reviewers.

Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief Funds – ESSER

The ESSER Data Collection and Annual Report process is anticipated to begin at the beginning of March. The process will include:  District review of previously submitted data (excel),  District input data (excel), and  District portal submission of excel file (google form). As a reminder, ESSER II must be expended by September 30, 2023, and ESSER III must be expended by September 30, 2024. Each month school board trustees are sent a monthly allocation report for ESSER funds. These reports can be found here. The state-wide ESSER allocation through February 28, 2023, is:

For more information on ESSER please click here or contact Wendi Fawns at wendi.fawns@mt.gov.

Revised and New Accreditation Standards Workshop

The March 9-10 Board of Public Education meeting will include the summary overview of proposed processes for accreditation. The accreditation cycle will be adjusted to ensure student performance data is available for populating the integrated strategic action plan for which accountability is increased.  You will note the proposed change in weights from 50/50 assurance and student performance to 20/5/75 weight. 20% assurance standards, 5% integrated strategic action plan and 75% student performance measures using multiple measures of achievement.  The OPI is seeking interested folks to consult on guidance documents over the next 45 days. If you are interested in participating on development of guidance documents, please email Crystal Andrews, the new accreditation director.  The OPI is holding a hybrid session on the Graduate Profile on Friday, April 14, 2023, from 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. in Billings. Districts are encouraged to bring teams to this vital professional development opportunity. There is limited space so be sure to REGISTER EARLY for this interactive, learning and working session.  The OPI will be providing daily working sessions for District on their Integrated Strategic Action Plan at the Summer Institute, June 19-23, 2023, at the Montana State University Campus. Registration is free for Montana Educators. For more information visit the OPI website or contact Crystal Andrews at crystal.andrews@mt.gov, or (406) 444.

Teacher Residency Demonstration Project Update

The recruitment of residents and matching to districts that have committed to having a resident is underway today. The OPI has recruited over 20 districts to-date and continues working to get 40 districts involved in the next cycle of the Residency. 8 of the 11 districts from the initial project have signed up to have residents again. Two of the districts will participate in the 2024-25 school year, but due to leadership changes could not commit this year. Two meetings have been held with OCHE’s interim deputy commissioner, Joe Thiel and Angela McLean on the residency and registered teacher apprenticeships. They would like to be more involved and support how they can aid with the EPPs and the needed changes to ensure workforce redesign efforts are successful. There will be a work session on the registered teacher apprenticeship application on March 1st. Billings, Northern, Western, Tom Moore and Angela McLean are willing to participate. We are also working to have David Donaldson, the individual that developed the TN model to aid us. Glen Disque, from Department of Labor will also be available for technical questions. The goal is to have the application available for our legal and superintendent review by March 10, 2023. For more information please click here or contact Deputy Sharyl Allen at Sharyl.Allen@mt.gov or (406) 444.5658.

Questions? Contact: 

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

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.