The Great Falls Public Schools board voted during their June 23 meeting to allow driver’s education to continue being held on Saturdays.
The district has been scheduling drives with students on Saturdays, but needs annual board approval.
Driver’s education classes are voluntary, do not bear high school credit and are outside the minimum aggregate hours of instruction, according to GFPS.
Jodi Hicks, who supervises driver’s ed, told the board that classes are offered from 3:30-5:30 p.m. during the school year, but the required number of driving hours for students would extend too late into the night, so they were asking to continue scheduling drives on Saturdays.
She said instructors have done more than 500 drives on Saturdays since each student has to complete 12 hours of supervised driving and with 30 kids per class, it takes time.
Lance Boyd, assistant superintendent, said that they have limited driver’s ed instructors which limits GFPS’ ability to offer class slots.
In Montana, instructors must have a driver’s education endorsement from the state and fewer people pursue that requirement, he said.
Luke Diekhans, GFPS’ director of business operations, said that the instructor training program is only offered in person in one location in the state, now Miles City, which also limits the number of instructors.
The next high school driver’s ed classes start in September. Registration runs Aug. 17-19.
More information on GFPS driver’s education is here.
