Education

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.

The district's more than 10,100 students will move to remote learning beginning Tuesday

Donors have reached a $1 million cap for a new incentive in Montana, matching dollar-for-dollar tax credits for contributions to public schools. The limit was reached within five minutes of the program launching this year.

A program providing mental health services to public school students is close to running out of temporary funding. State and public school officials are still working out a new funding structure to keep providing services.

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.

The heads of several Montana school districts have written a letter expressing “disappointment” and “no confidence” in state Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen.

Pandemic-related declines in public school enrollment are showing signs of reversing. Preliminary data released Tuesday by state education officials show public schools saw a 2.5 percent enrollment increase this fall over last.

UM Geography instructor Kelly Franklin is trying to move up to 12 scholars and an education program she developed out of Afghanistan. The lives of scholars have been upended after the Taliban took control of the country and injected itself into the education system.