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Board of Public Education approves MSDB personnel and travel, licensure cut scores, MSU special‑ed certificate, math correction, provisional charter accreditait
Summary
At its March 12 meeting the Montana Board of Public Education approved MSDB travel and personnel items, set qualifying scores on three licensure tests, authorized an MSU special‑education certificate, adopted corrections to math standards, granted provisional accreditation to six charter schools and approved a six‑year Cognia joint‑accreditation MOU.
The Montana Board of Public Education approved a package of administrative and policy actions at its meeting on March 12 in New Smyrna High School, moving a set of personnel, certification and accreditation items with voice votes and no recorded opposition.
Board members approved three motions put by the MSDB (Montana School for the Deaf and Blind) committee: the school's out‑of‑state travel requests, a personnel report listing multiple hires, resignations and one retirement, and the second reading of the MSDB 2025–26 school calendar. Board member (S7) introduced the travel and personnel motions; each was called, put to voice vote and declared "carried."
On licensure, the board's licensure committee set qualifying (cut) scores of 153 on three generated tests: social studies (test number 55 81), family and consumer sciences (51 23) and technology education (50 53). The motions were presented by the licensure committee chair (S13), seconded and approved by voice vote.
Montana State University representatives asked the board to approve a new special‑education undergraduate certificate intended to increase the state's supply of qualified special‑education teachers. Leslie Rogers and Dr. Lauren Davis (S15) described the program as an add‑on to students' existing elementary or secondary teaching degrees; a public commenter from MFPE (S16) said the union supported the program. The board voted to approve MSU's certificate program.
The board also approved a corrective notice of adoption to restore two lines inadvertently omitted from recently adopted mathematics standards. Marie Judish (S14) said the changes are not new standards but corrections essential for teaching algebraic methods and a statistics/data standard; the board authorized filing the corrected notice with the Secretary of State.
On accreditation, the board granted provisional accreditation status to six public charter schools — RISE Charter & Pathways (Corvallis), RISE Charter and Distance Learning Academy (Corvallis), Billings Early College School, Billings Opportunity School, Billings Multilingual Academy Middle School and Billings Multilingual Academy High School — accepting OPI's proposed timelines and oversight steps.
Finally, after extensive discussion about scope and term, the board approved a memorandum of understanding with Cognia to permit an optional joint‑accreditation pathway. Members added clarifying language tying Cognia recognition to the state's joint‑process provisions (section 3.1 of the MOU) and approved a six‑year term for the agreement before voting to adopt the MOU.
All actions recorded in the meeting transcript were carried by voice vote; the chair declared motions passed and no roll-call tallies were recorded in the public transcript. The board announced its next meeting for May 15–16 in Great Falls and adjourned.
