Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the District Operations topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Superintendent Hill reports safe-gun-storage campaign, facility tours and mixed enrollment shifts
Summary
Superintendent Hill told trustees the district has expanded a safe gun storage campaign, scheduled community facility tours of underused schools, and reported mixed enrollment changes with elementary and high school declines offset by middle-school growth and rising English-learning enrollment.
Superintendent Hill updated the Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees on an array of district initiatives, including a safe gun storage campaign, planned building tours for community input on underused facilities, and recent enrollment trends.
Hill said the district's safe-gun-storage campaign — timed in part to Suicide Prevention Month — provides trigger locks and cable locks at all middle and high schools. Parents may obtain two trigger locks and up to five cable locks if needed, Hill said, and the program has drawn local media attention. "We're trying to do our part to make sure that we are limiting access to deadly means for our students in crisis," Hill said.
The superintendent also announced next-week building tours for community members at Whittier, the former administration building, Cold Springs, Emma Dickinson, Prescott and Mount Jumbo. The tours are intended to solicit community input on possible future uses for underused or underutilized facilities, Hill said.
On enrollment, Hill reported mixed shifts compared with the same week last year: the district is down 123 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, up 57 students in grades six through eight, and down 101 students in high school. Hill highlighted English-learner (EL) enrollment growth as a stabilizing factor: the district is serving more than 200 EL students this year compared with a cap of about 150 last year. "We're over 200, with room to grow," Hill said.
Hill also reported home-school registration figures drawn from county data for students who live within the district's residence zone: roughly 120 K–8 home-schooled students (about 13 per grade) and about 160 high-school home-schooled students (about 15 per grade), figures Hill said were not large enough to fully explain enrollment declines.
Hill closed the update with the district's intent to continue placing students where space allows and to share tour invitations and additional details with the community.
