Trustee panel rejects teacher’s grievance over media-arts curriculum review

The Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees on July 15 rejected a Level 4 grievance filed by Hellgate High School teacher Beth Cole that alleged the district failed to conduct required teacher-led curriculum reviews before removing an AV/media-arts pathway.

Beth Cole, who identified herself as a Hellgate teacher with 20 years in the district, told trustees she filed the grievance under board policy and said the administration had not conducted “robust teacher led curriculum reviews.” Cole said the eliminated media-arts pathway had generated student interest: she told the board the AV pathway garnered 281 student requests in 2024–25 while a newly proposed social-media production course had 68 requests during the same period. Cole said independent-study numbers can make course-enrollment figures misleading and argued removing the AV pathway could forfeit Perkins grant funding tied to CTE pathways and miss local industry growth tied to recent film production incentives.

Administration presenters told the board they had consulted department staff, department chairs and building principals in reviewing course enrollments. Ms. Calva (administration representative) and Ms. Shattuck (administrator who investigated at Level 2) said principals and department chairs review master schedules annually, consider graduation requirements and student requests, and that low enrollments in several AV courses made the existing pathway unsustainable. Administration cited examples from 2023–24 and 2024–25 where class-start and drop figures left courses with very small enrollments.

Principal Miller at Hellgate and the Sentinel and Big Sky administrative teams reviewed scheduling and course demand, administration said, and a new pilot course titled “Social Media Design and Production” was being created over the summer with three sections and about 120 students signed up districtwide, the administration told trustees. Administration also noted OPI (Montana Office of Public Instruction) guidance on CTE pathway changes and said OPI had advised waiting for updated pathway rules before completing a full curriculum review.

Trustees debated whether policy 2120 (curriculum review) and policy 2311 (pilot-course process) had been followed. Several trustees said the grievance raised useful questions about policy wording and implementation, but the board’s majority concluded the procedure did not violate district policy because the course was being introduced as a one-year pilot allowed under policy 2311. Trustee Wake moved to reject the grievance; Trustee Mercer seconded. The board voted unanimously to reject the complaint.

Trustees asked administration to review and clarify curriculum-review policy language and noted the board’s role in approving significant curriculum changes when they come forward. The administration said it will begin the curriculum review cycle this year and will present final course-adoption materials to the board if the pilot becomes a permanent offering.