The Broadus School Board trustees met for their April monthly meeting on Monday evening. In attendance were Dawn Aye, Kristy Elgin, Waylon Billing, Amanda Zimmer, and Jay Schroeder, attending via phone call.

On the agenda were the attendance contracts were approved for 12 out of district students. In the past these contracts were approved once and then were good in perpetuity, but new rules from the state require the board to approve of out of district contracts each year.

Hirings for a large number of staff and coaches for the 2024-25 school year was next on the agenda.

The list of staff included certified staff (teachers), classified staff such as cooks, maintenance people, custodian, secretaries, aides, etc., as well as summer workers.

Coaches from fall sports, winter sports, and year around activities such as FFA were also hired. The spring sports coaches are not hired until June, when their seasons are complete. A number of vacancies on the coaching lists persist, including JH football, JH boys basketball, HS girls and boys basketball, concessions manager, and the hiring for the all-school play, as the board accepted the resignation of Brandi Billing from that position.

The board accepted a motion to hire for these positions, as well as two substitutes looking to fill roles at the school: Tyler Caldwell and Tammy Schoenbeck.

The Head Coaches hired include Brett Emmons for HS football, Monica Smith for HS volleyball, Ashley Emmons for Cross Country, Brooke Billing for JH volleyball, Stacy Hagedorn for JH Girls basketball, Frankie Schoonover for wrestling, Amy Minow for cheerleading, Lisa Lynch for instrumental & choir, Faith Dyrud for FFA, Kate Ruland for the annual, Libby Nisley for BPA, and Mike Richards as Activities Director. Assistant coaches were also hired for the applicable positions. These are all returning coaches.

The board considered and approved a 6th grade field trip to the planetarium and adventurarium in Gillette, which is planned for May 1.

Next on the agenda was approval of updates to the Montana School Boards Association board policies; this is a fairly regular update and the item changes are available for review at the school, and covers a wide range of subjects such as acceptance of risk forms, clarification of contract verbiage, and updating policies on requirements for districts to provide a location for breastfeeding employees and students to store expressed milk.

The final agenda item was approval of the collective bargaining agreement with the Broadus Education Association – the local teacher’s union. Salaries for the 2024-25 school year are set to increase by 3%, and 2% for the 2025-26 school year. Each of those years, the insurance contribution by the district will increase 6%.

The board will hold a special meeting on April 24th to discuss contract bids for planned large construction projects, such as the sewer project at the elementary and the high school boiler.