Superintendent's Message

Superintendent Arntzen met with Genie Zeeck, Instructional Coordinator, to discuss how the Youth Risk Behavior Survey supports student health and well-being.

Bravo to the great effort of our innovative assessment team: MAST. Montana is leading the nation that has this meaningful through-year assessment

Calendar

Please be aware of the upcoming meetings:

Many of our talented OPI staff will be involved in presenting the great work the OPI does in putting Montana students first.

• October 16: Land Board
• October 17: Education Advocates
• October 18: In the Know - Krystal Smith - Residency Program
• October 20: Compass submissions due
• October 26: In the Know - Amber Lyman - Montana Marinara
• October 27: Compass sent out
• November 1: MACIE

In the Know are learning sessions presented by OPI staff. All start times are at noon. In person: the meeting will be held in the Lewis & Clark Conference Room: 1227 #106. Virtual: Zoom information is as follows: In the Know - Zoom Link Meeting ID: 851 1792 1375 Password: 074298. Dial by Telephone: 1 646 558 8656.

Amber Lyman will be hosting the School Nutrition - Montana Marinara on October 26, 2023.

If you have any events to add to the calendar, please contact Brian O'Leary 

Wishing you a 'Happy Birthday' this week

Paul Taylor, Amanda Domino, Brian O'Leary, Marry Heller, Myles Laird, Stephanie Swigart, Karla Beagles, and Kaitlin Trutzel

DOA SITSD Scheduled Maintenance Saturday and Sunday October 14-15, 2023

State ITSD will be conducting maintenance activities on Saturday and Sunday. You may experience intermittent outages. As a courtesy to State Network Users, please be aware that during the monthly maintenance window unexpected service interruptions may happen. Therefore, all users are encouraged to conduct critical computing activities outside of the scheduled maintenance window. **Agencies are encouraged to test their applications at the completion of DOA-SITSD Scheduled Maintenance Weekend. SITSD makes every effort to ensure the network and hosted services are online and available but may not have specific knowledge of or access to agency applications to ensure they are functioning properly. If you wish to coordinate for specific testing following maintenance weekend or if you have any questions or concerns, please call the SITSD Service Desk at 444-2000.**

SITSD provides an estimated down time for all scheduled maintenance that will impact services. However, there are always risks associated with maintenance activity.

Attached is a document with all scheduled maintenance.

2023 Fall OPI Employee Work Survey

The brief survey below is designed to assess why some employees choose to telework, why others have remained/returned to working in the office, and how these choices impact OPI operations moving forward.   The results will be used to assess the agency’s future needs for office space, and provide insight about our telework and office environment. Your responses will be anonymous and will help agency leadership ensure you have the resources and support you need. The survey will close at 5:00 PM on October 20th. For questions, please contact Randa Renenger at randa.renenger@mt.gov or 406-444-4407. This survey will be repeated in six months so we can again assess the success of telework. Thanks for your feedback! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSegNswDCl2MZMg9x1Qi8_yBL6qRVBaF1Fk0xrOKpY4dBvevJQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Israel

On Tuesday, Superintendent Arntzen met with Rabbi Bruk in Bozeman to discuss the Jewish State, the Holocaust, and what we can do moving forward. Please watch this message from the Rabbi.

IT At A Glance

Good news teleworkers! There is another option for accessing Microsoft 365 when the VPN is not working. Type portal.office.com in the search bar of your favorite browser. It will prompt you for your cp# and network password to log in. After your credentials have been accepted you will be required to enter the RSA token. Then you will have access to Microsoft 365: Word, Teams, Outlook, OneNote and so on.

Telework Update

As of October 12, 2023, OPI has 121 teleworkers across the state. Teleworkers by unit: Personal Staff 2 Legal 2 Human Resources 1 Finance 4 Centralized Services 1 School Finance 3 IT 3 Data & Technology Reporting 4 Information Technology 7 SLDS 2 Teams 2 Data Governance 2 Operations 2 Student Support 1 Special Education 21 Coordinated School Health 7 School Nutrition 8 Traffic Education 2 Teaching & Learning 6 Assessment 4 Career & Technical Adult Ed 10 Curriculum Instruction 2 Federal Programs 1 School Improvement 4 Tribal Student Achievement 2 Indian Education for All 2 Indian Student Achievement 1 Accreditation and Education Licensure 5 Education Innovation 10

We See You, We Appreciate You, We Thank You

Congratulations to all the Governor’s award winners from Data & IT! Thank you for the enthusiasm and encouragement to all our users at OPI and in the field. Their work shows from the responses from the field and their appreciation!

OPI Openings

Early Literacy Coordinator Early Literacy Research Analyst English Learner Specialist Federal Grants Coordinator Lawyer Professional Learning Manager                                                   Special Education Parent Liaison                                                   Special Populations Assessment Specialist

OPI's Halloween Costume Contest and Trick-Or-Treating

Photograph your costume and email to OPIPersonel@mt.gov by November 1st, 2022. Winners will be announced in the weekly newsletter! The prize of each category is bragging rights! Categories include: Funniest Costume Scariest Costume Most Original Costume Best Homemade Costume

OPI Halloween Trick-Or-Treat October 31st: We have two opportunities for Family Friendly Trick-or-Treating:

• OPI's Trick-Or-Treat at 1227 and 1300: Elsie invites staff to bring their young family members to dress in costumes and visit OPI buildings from 12pm-5pm. Please plan on making your workspace family friendly during those times. 
• Governor's Trick-Or-Treat at the Capitol: The Superintendent will join the Governor, Secretary of State, and Commissioner of Securities and Insurance in handing out treats to our children on the south side of the Capitol from 4pm-6pm. If you would like to volunteer and help staff our table in support of our children, please contact OPI Human Resources at OPIPersonnel@mt.gov. The OPI will be handing out hot dogs and our table will have a Frankenstein theme.

Flu Shot Information

Open Enrollment

Save The Date!

2024 Open Enrollment will be October 18 - November 4, 2023

Open Enrollment is coming soon. It’s your annual opportunity to review current benefit elections and make changes such as:

• Update Coverage Elections for Medical and Dental Benefits
• Add/Change Life Insurance
• Add/Waive Long Term Disability
• Add/Remove Dependent Coverage
• Elect or Re-Elect Vision Hardware Plan
• Elect or Re-Elect Flexible Spending Accounts
• Self Report Tobacco Use
• You need to annually self-attest your, and if applicable your covered spouse domestic partner's, nicotine use to avoid the $30 per month Tobacco Surcharge. This is separate from the Live Life Well nicotine attestation.

After Open Enrollment ends, you cannot change your benefit elections for 2024, unless you experience an eligible life event, like a change in your marital status, a new baby or child in the family, or the loss of other healthcare coverage.

For more information click here.

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant"

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Questions? Contact: 

Brian O'Leary,  Communications Director

Dustin Scott, Communications Associate

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.