The Great Falls Public Schools board voted during their Aug. 5 meeting to add boys baseball in the spring of 2026, with several contingencies.

The board voted to approve adding baseball, contingent on a committee being formed under the guidance of GFPS administration; consideration of four factors of betterment of students and baseball in Great Falls, interest and support, financial viability and sustainability, and feasibility; a report being submitted to the board for review by June 1, 2025; and that the startup and operating costs for the first three years would be privately funded. The plan must also outline how Title 9 requirements will be met.

Question of adding high school baseball on GFPS boad’s Aug. 5 agenda

The board discussed adding baseball for about an hour during their Aug. 5 meeting, after having also discussed the proposal during a June board meeting when they referred the matter to the board budget committee meeting, which met in July, but didn’t make a specific recommendation to the full board.

Amie Thompson, school board member, said that she had expected a recommendation from the budget committee, and asked the committee members to give the other board members a sense of their thinking.

Mark Finnicum, board budget committee chair, said that he wanted to get feedback from the baseball committee based on available information and that the “overall budget really does not look very good.”

Kim Skornogoski, board vice chair who ran the meeting in the absence of board chair Gordon Johnson, redirected the question to Mike Henneberg, athletic director, and asked if he felt that he’d addressed the feasibility issues outside of budget matters outside of his control.

GFPS officials discuss finances, feasibility of baseball

Henneberg said he’d presented facts, pros and cons, as he was asked to do.

“Probably what’s most important for me is to get some form of direction,” he told the board, so that he could work toward solutions either way. “When things are in limbo is extremely difficult to get solid answers.”

Skornogiski asked the roughly two dozen members of the baseball committee who attended the meeting if they had a sense of what a reasonable timeline would be to privately raise funds to support the start up and first three years of high school boys baseball.

Zac Griffin, a baseball supporter, said that starting in the spring of 2026 made the most sense to him so that GFPS and the baseball community had time to work together to start the program and raise funds.

GFPS continuing discussion of adding high school baseball

“We can’t just get you the money right now and then hope you guys approve it,” Griffin said. “If you guys can give us the date, or proposed date, we can get to work getting the money.”

Thompson asked for clarity on the funding since “to me, worse than not having baseball would be having baseball for three years and then having to cut it.”

She asked if the private baseball community was talking about startup costs and operations for three years and then some kind of endowment to keep it going longerm.

Griffin responded, “I’d assume once it’s in your budget, it’s in your budget,” but that there are booster groups already helping raise funds for high school sports.

GFPS discussing whether to add high school baseball, no vote scheduled yet

Finnicum said the loose plan was to privately fund high school baseball for three years, which is the plan in Missoula and Billings, then have the program be budget neutral.

He said they could look at developing a larger pot of money as an endowment for future athletic expansion into emerging sports such as flag football, hockey and about a dozen more on the horizon.

Finnicum said that hadn’t really been part of their discussions so far, but was something for the board to consider.

Marlee Sunchild, school board member, asked who was setting the goals and whether there was a business plan coming beyond cookie dough sales for fundraising.

GFPS board approves addition of high school baseball program

“This is a big thing, she said.

Lance Boyd, assistant superintendent, said that if the board decided to move forward with adding high school baseball, he’d work closely with Henneberg to develop a committee that will facilitation implementation.

The committee, with district staff, could develop clear benchmarks and dates by which things must be accomplished, such as hitting fundraising levels before advertising for baseball coach positions or purchasing equipment.

Boyd said the baseball program would be managed and owned by GFPS, regardless of whether the early years are funded privately.

GFPS considering adding baseball as sanctioned high school sport

Sunchild asked what happens if those benchmarks aren’t met, to which Boyd said staff would come back to the board with that information to review the feasibility of adding the sport.

Boyd said the board will also have to adopt policies on using community funding to support emerging sports.

Superintendent Heather Hoyer said those policies are already being developed as every AA district in the state is looking how to deal with emerging sports that they’re being asked to add.

Bill Bronson made the motion to approve adding baseball with contingencies and said he’d come to the meeting with the intention of waiting to make a decision until the next budget cycle was more clear, which was somewhat consistent with Griffin’s estimation that they could fundraise to start in the spring of 2026.

GFPS budget committee recommends no levy this year

He said that the board appreciates the comments from the baseball community and their civility in offering suggestions and ideas, but that those public comments hadn’t addressed the realities of GFPS’ financial position.

Bronson said that if things don’t change at the Legislative level in the next session, the district is facing multi-million dollar shortfalls in each of the next few budget years.

The costs of education are rising, he said, and “we don’t have the resources to meet them. When faced with those kind of deficits, we’re already looking at having to make programmatic cuts,” which will most likely include personnel cuts.

So it’s challenging, Bronson said, to consider adding new programs when faced with those financial pressures.

He said the 2025 Legislature is poised to look at changes in school funding, which could relieve some pressure on the AA districts, but until they know more, “it would not be prudent to be starting new programs right now.”

Bronson said that despite some public comments saying Title 9 wouldn’t be an issue, “as an attorney, I’m here to tell  you that it’s an issue. It’s a serious issue.”

He said that if a plan comes back to the board next year that isn’t compliant with Title 9 or the Ridgeway settlement, then anything proposed would be subject to a legal challenge.

Several members of the local baseball community spoke during the Aug. 5 meeting, reiterating their comments from previous meetings about their belief they could raise the necessary funds.

Skornogoski said she joined the school board with the hope of being able to say yes often to improvements for students, but has often had to say no due to budget strain.

She said the district can’t afford to pay staff more or increase art teachers and “our budget is not getting any better. So, I’m honestly really torl no this decision.”