Edward O'Brien

Great Falls Public Schools was the largest school system in Montana this week to announce the plan to close its doors when it didn’t have enough staff to cover classes. MTPR's Edward O'Brien spoke with a parent and a teacher from Great Falls about the challenges of remote learning.

Montana’s seasonal firefighters are getting a pay bump. State officials hope the roughly 12% immediate raise, which brings minimum base pay to $15.50, will help recruit and retain more wildland firefighters.

Snow continues hammering parts of Montana and more blustery weather is on the way. National Weather Service Great Falls has issued a blizzard warning Friday for the Rocky Mountain Front because of anticipated strong winds and poor visibility from blowing snow. Avalanche experts across the region are urging caution.

Steady moderate-to-heavy snowfall is likely just in time to complicate Thursday morning’s commute. “We are looking at the valleys getting anywhere from 3 to 12 inches of snow,” Meteorologist Trent Smith says.

The Biden administration has selected former Democratic state lawmaker and congressional candidate Kathleen Williams to lead a rural U.S Department of Agriculture program in Montana.

Mountain snowpack is starting to make significant gains in several of Montana’s otherwise parched river basins.

The first Arctic storm of the season is moving into the Northern Rockies, and it's bringing pockets of intense snow and bitter cold.

Montana’s largest public employees union helped launch a petition Wednesday condemning the state’s chief of public instruction. It’s the latest volley in a growing controversy over Elsie Arntzen’s leadership.

Montana’s school superintendent faces criticism from administrators of the state’s largest public school districts who say they’re ‘disappointed’ in her leadership. They signed a letter last week detailing what they say is a chronic lack of administrative support from Arntzen’s Office of Public Instruction. They also complain her partisan politics undermine the work of local educators.

The superintendents of all eight of Montana’s AA school districts wrote a letter last week expressing “disappointment” and “no confidence” in Montana’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen. Missoula School Superintendent Rob Watson says frustrations with OPI have intensified over the past three months.