PAID ADVERTISEMENT April 24, 2019 Helena Flats Community: My name is Kevin Fritz and I am the current School Board Chairman of Helena Flats School. I grew up in this community, graduated from Helena Flats, watched 2 of my daughters graduate from Helena Flats, and still have 1 remaining. I've served on the Board for 11 years and have witnessed a lot of really great things at our school over the years. Unfortunately, there are grow ing pains and other consistent struggles we have with the school. We have had a total number of students top 250 a couple times and currently sit at 242 students today with a total of 17 teachers. The state requires us to hire at least a .5 Principal once we are over 250 students or have 18 teachers. We have also struggled with maintaining a school superintendent on a consistent basis. This makes it very difficult to implement new programs and ensure our curriculum is meeting or exceeding the standards set by the state On May 8th Helena Flats School is asking for you to vote on a levy request. This request can look confusing the way the school is required to present it to the public. I am writing to clarify and be transparent about what the Levy election will do. The school is asking the taxpayers to decrease the number of mills we use to collect money for the tuition fund and increase the number of mills we use to collect for the general fund. This change will have a net impact of $1-$3 annual increase on the taxpayer. By moving the money to the gener al fund, it allows the school district to hire a half-time Principal with teaching duties. This allows us to be prepared for growth but also enables us to focus on improving the curriculum in the classrooms by expanding science, technol- ogy, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to all grade levels. The Principal will work directly with teaching staff to improve teaching methods, work with younger teachers in a mentor program, and address student discipline. Over the next few years, we will be losing 4-5 seasoned teachers to retirement, creating opportunities for new teachers who we want o be successful starting out with mentorships, and providing feedback with active evaluations. The Principal will lead programs to introduce more STEM activities into our current elective classes and measure our success in our core classes that we are meeting or exceeding standards for each grade level The Superintendent would then be freed up to do more long term planning. focus on parent involvement, teacher evaluations, staff evaluations, budgets, and student achievement. We are growing and it has become obvious we need stability in the ad ministration of our school if we are going to be successful in improving the academic standards we want to accomplish. The new position provides stabili- ty and continuity going forward and it addresses the state requirements for accreditation. If you have further questions, please reach out to the school Superin tendent, Andy Maheras. He can be reached at the school 257-2301 or email supt@helenaflats.org Thank you for your consideration Kevin Fritz Helena Flats School Board Chairman Paid for by Helena Flats School No.15, 1000 Helena Flats Rd, Kalispell, MT 59901 PAID ADVERTISEMENT April 24, 2019 Helena Flats Community: My name is Kevin Fritz and I am the current School Board Chairman of Helena Flats School. I grew up in this community, graduated from Helena Flats, watched 2 of my daughters graduate from Helena Flats, and still have 1 remaining. I've served on the Board for 11 years and have witnessed a lot of really great things at our school over the years. Unfortunately, there are grow ing pains and other consistent struggles we have with the school. We have had a total number of students top 250 a couple times and currently sit at 242 students today with a total of 17 teachers. The state requires us to hire at least a .5 Principal once we are over 250 students or have 18 teachers. We have also struggled with maintaining a school superintendent on a consistent basis. This makes it very difficult to implement new programs and ensure our curriculum is meeting or exceeding the standards set by the state On May 8th Helena Flats School is asking for you to vote on a levy request. This request can look confusing the way the school is required to present it to the public. I am writing to clarify and be transparent about what the Levy election will do. The school is asking the taxpayers to decrease the number of mills we use to collect money for the tuition fund and increase the number of mills we use to collect for the general fund. This change will have a net impact of $1-$3 annual increase on the taxpayer. By moving the money to the gener al fund, it allows the school district to hire a half-time Principal with teaching duties. This allows us to be prepared for growth but also enables us to focus on improving the curriculum in the classrooms by expanding science, technol- ogy, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to all grade levels. The Principal will work directly with teaching staff to improve teaching methods, work with younger teachers in a mentor program, and address student discipline. Over the next few years, we will be losing 4-5 seasoned teachers to retirement, creating opportunities for new teachers who we want o be successful starting out with mentorships, and providing feedback with active evaluations. The Principal will lead programs to introduce more STEM activities into our current elective classes and measure our success in our core classes that we are meeting or exceeding standards for each grade level The Superintendent would then be freed up to do more long term planning. focus on parent involvement, teacher evaluations, staff evaluations, budgets, and student achievement. We are growing and it has become obvious we need stability in the ad ministration of our school if we are going to be successful in improving the academic standards we want to accomplish. The new position provides stabili- ty and continuity going forward and it addresses the state requirements for accreditation. If you have further questions, please reach out to the school Superin tendent, Andy Maheras. He can be reached at the school 257-2301 or email supt@helenaflats.org Thank you for your consideration Kevin Fritz Helena Flats School Board Chairman Paid for by Helena Flats School No.15, 1000 Helena Flats Rd, Kalispell, MT 59901