The Electric hosted a forum with the candidates for school board on April 14.

If you missed it, you can watch the video below.

Michael Nagel wasn’t able to attend and submitted his responded to the same questions in an email. Those responses are posted below the video.

There are four seats are up for election:

• Three seats that represent both elementary and secondary districts on the board for three years through  May 2025. Anyone interested in these positions must live within the Great Falls Public School District boundary. The positions are currently held by Mark Finnicum, Jeff Gray, and Gordon Johnson.
• One seat, a one-year position to fill out the remainder of Jan Cahill’s term. Nathan Reiff was appointed by the board to fill the vacancy until the next regular election.

More candidates file for May school board election

Jeff Gray, the current board chair, is not seeking re-election.

Four school board seats on May ballot, filing opens Dec. 9.

The following have filed for the one-year term:

• Bradley Anderson
• Russell Herring
• Scott Jablonski
• Caitlyn Nash (dropped out)
• Amie Thompson

The following have filed for the three-year term:

• Brian Cayko
• Mark Finnicum (incumbent)
• Gordon Johnson (incumbent)
• Rodney Meyers
• Michael Nagel
• Nathan Reiff (appointed in 2021 to fill vacancy)
• Paige Turoski

Caitlyn Nash emailed The Electric on April 6 to say that after the Great Falls Education Association released its candidate endorsements that afternoon that she had decided to suspend her campaign and support Russell Herring.

Name: Michael Nagel

Age:   37

Occupation: U.S. Dept Veterans Affairs – Great Falls

Q: Why you’re running for school board?

A: I am running for the GFPS School Board to ensure there is a well-balanced and conventional approach to our children’s education. As a father of 3 in the GFPS school system I am directly impacted by the education being provided to our youth. It has been said politics are downstream of culture, so I would like to take part in cultivating a healthy, accepting culture in our schools by overseeing fact-based curriculum representing wholesome, American family values.

Q: What do you think is your understanding of the school funding formula in Montana?

A: My understanding of the school funding formula is that resources are allocated on the needs of the children in each school to develop an adequate education, and there is the possibility that the district can have the capacity to generate local revenue, as they see necessary. Historically, the school district exceeds annual allocations. I think an in-depth look at the budget in terms of spending needs to be examined and evaluated. The community partnerships as mentioned before is a great opportunity to network for fundraising and partnership opportunities for donations and source revenue.

Q: How would you approach the budget in terms of balancing costs with available resources?

A: Balancing costs with available resources need to come directly from the principal of each school. They are directly involved with their needs. Every school’s needs are unique to the building the staff and the students, principals’ are an invaluable resource to allocate and balance funds for their school. When the request is made the board could then give resources as required vs throwing resources and depleting the budget without cause.  Also, I believe increased interschool trade of resources is another option. Inventory of equipment and resources annually would allow for easier tracking of expensive equipment and accessibility to provide it to a school in need.

Q: How would you interact with staff to learn about GFPS operations, education regulations and stay informed about items you are being asked to vote on?

A: As a father of 3 children in the GFPS I am involved closely with how the operations are run and am directly impacted. My wife has worked as a school nurse for GFPS for a couple years now and had worked at several different schools within the district. I would encourage parents to come to every school board meeting with their issues and complaints and be directly involved with their child’s education. Transparency is beneficial for all that are impacted by GFPS decisions.

Q: As a member of the Board of Trustees you are asked to represent the whole community, how do you represent those that are different, or that have different views than you do? 

A: Keeping an open mind is important to me. Allowing every individual, the time to state their opinion and facts is the right of every American. We live in this country and are free to state our opinions. I believe in diversity and debate. I have served this country for 19 years just so those who I don’t necessarily agree with have a right to express their views. Opinions of others allows me the privilege to look at my own perspective for possible change in my views. Allowing diversity and change into our culture is exactly what America is about, that is what makes America special.

Q: How would you communicate with the public to hear their concerns and keep them informed about GFPS operations?

A: As previously stated, the board should always be a safe space for parents to voice their concerns. In this day and age of technology, an online forum, or open platform might be a great way to allow the public to hear about the GFPS operations.

Q: What do you see as the role of parents in our school system and how would you foster parental involvement?   

A: The role of a parent is continuing education after the school hours. It has always been important to talk to my children about their day, how did the day go and tell me one thing that they learned. Parents have the right to be as involved as they want to be. Obviously, I would encourage every parent to be involved. However, I know that is not the case with every student and family in our district. I believe to set up student for success is to make best with the time they are in school. School is a safe place under the care of teachers who get so invested in the lives of their students. GFPS teachers are so amazing, they laugh, they cry and they truly love our children.  They watch our kids grow from year to year. I would encourage every parent to reach out to their child’s teacher. Ask for ways to help support their child’s school. There are numerous ways to start “close to home”. Whether it be volunteering in the classroom physically, donating classroom snacks and supplies, joining the PTA. There is ALWAYS a way parents can be more involved.

Q: Graduation and drop-out rates are always a concern. What ways would you propose to keep kids in school and engaged in their learning?              

A: Unfortunately, no matter what a parent, school, teacher, or Board does there will always be a percentage of non-graduating or drop out students. I believe it is important that the teachers, and counselor are closely watching for these borderline students and attempt to re-engage or find ways to attempt to keep them from dropping out. I also know there are resources within the district specifically that work with homeless children and families as well as for those at-risk children. I think the district can do a better job in allocating resources to the Student Service Coordination Department to help those vulnerable children.

Q: Explain why/why not local school districts should be responsible for selecting the textbooks and curriculum used in the district’s schools. 

A: I think I have described the importance to this as stated above. I believe the most important reason a board decides on the curriculum instead of per say the teachers for two reasons. One, that’s a lot of pressure to put onto the teachers already full plate. If curriculum was up to the teachers and parents had disagreements with it then the pressure falls directly on the teachers to “explain” to each concerned parent why they feel educating certain subjects are warrened. If a group or “governing body” voting on the curriculum this creates a middle man cushion if you will, to protect the teachers. Secondly, I believe with curriculum being agreed upon in a group then implemented in the schools ensures each school is being taught the same information and the same time. This negates one school teaching something another never does. It creates fair and even education to each school in the different residential areas of GF. Every child has the right to fair and equal education and I believe that is why development and implementation of curriculum is so important for our youth.

Q: On what basis should salaries of teachers be determined?

 A: I believe salaries of our teachers is very low. Our experienced teachers who have worked for many years in the district are still making wages relative to newly graduated teachers. I believe salary needs to be reflective of the importance of their positions. Teachers, as mentioned before are extremely important to the growth and development of our kids. They invest their time and their own money to support our kid’s educational journeys, I believe they need to be a top priority in the GFPS budget.