SAM Board of Directors
SAM Carol Phillips
President
Julie Hornby
President Elect
Sara Novak
Past President
MASSP Rhiannon Beery
President
Jason Slater
President Elect
Matt Lewis
Vice President
Sheri Heavrin
Past President
MAEMSP
Mark Goyette
President
Kelly Kinsey
President Elect
Travis Niemeyer
Vice President
Julie Hornby
Past President
Ted Miller
Ben Lambert
SAM Representatives
MASS
Joel Graves
President
Dan Grabowska
President Elect
Dale Olinger Past President Hannah Nieskens
Federal Relations
MCASE
Taylor Salmi
President
MACSS
Katrina Chaney
President
META
Paul Kozlowitz
President
SAM Office
Dr. Rob Watson
Executive Director
Kim Scofield
Director of Professional Learning & Member Services
Marcus Meyer
Director of Operations, Membership & Finances |
| SAM Executive Director Message
A Closer Look at HB 153: What School Leaders Need to Know About the 2025-26 School Funding Interim Commission (AKA Decennial Study)
Montana’s 2025 Legislature passed House Bill 153, launching a process that will shape how we fund public education for the next decade. The law not only updates the structure and responsibilities of the School Funding Interim Commission, but it also creates a new Innovation and Excellence in Education Working Group to develop forward-thinking recommendations for improving our education system. As a school leader in Montana, here’s what you need to know about how this process will unfold—and how your voice and expertise will be vital.
What Is the School Funding Interim Commission? Mandated by state law every 10 years, the School Funding Interim Commission (AKA Decennial Study) is charged with reviewing and recommending updates to Montana’s K–12 public school funding formula. The goal is to ensure funding remains equitable, transparent, and aligned with the state’s constitutional guarantee of a “basic system of free, quality public elementary and secondary schools.” This Commission’s work is directly tied to Montana Code Annotated 20-9-309, which defines “quality education” as one that prepares students for college, careers, citizenship, and life—including proficiency in academic and technical subjects, civic responsibility, personal development, and lifelong learning.
Who Serves on the Commission? Appointments to the Commission must be made by May 1, 2025. The Commission includes: - 12 legislators (6 from the House, 6 from the Senate, with balanced party representation),
- 4 public members appointed by legislative leadership with bipartisan input, and
- 4 state officials or their designees: the Governor, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Chair of the Board of Public Education, and Chair of the Board of Regents.
Introducing the Innovation and Excellence in Education Working Group Before the Commission begins its funding formula study, it must establish an Innovation and Excellence in Education Working Group. This group will take a deep look at high-performing education systems—both domestic and international—and craft recommendations and objectives to raise Montana’s student performance to meet or exceed those benchmarks. The working group must include teachers, administrators, trustees, and parent advocacy groups, ensuring the perspectives of education professionals and communities are centered in the process. Its responsibilities include: - Conducting a benchmarking or gap analysis,
- Adapting best practices to Montana’s context,
- Identifying student performance goals, and
- Publishing an implementation plan with cost analysis by January 30, 2026.
Key Goals of the 2025–2026 Commission and Working Group HB 153 outlines several objectives for a new or updated school funding formula: - Reflect student needs and district characteristics,
- Use predictable and stable revenue sources,
- Fund schools based on current-year enrollment,
- Prioritize classroom instruction and reduce administrative costs,
- Avoid property tax spikes due to reappraisal cycles,
- Encourage innovation and reward student achievement and growth over seat time.
How will we stay Informed and Engaged? The Commission and Working Group will hold public meetings, offer opportunities for comment and testimony, and publish regular updates and reports. Final reports will be submitted to the 2027 Legislature with potential draft legislation. SAM will also host a special spot on our website for ‘Decennial Study’ updates.
Final Word for School Leaders This process is more than a funding review—it’s a chance to redefine how Montana supports student success statewide. As education leaders, your experience and insight will be essential to building a system that meets today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities. We encourage every school administrator to stay connected, participate when opportunities arise, and bring your community’s voice to the table.
Dr. Rob Watson SAM Executive Director |
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My Turn by Lisa Blevins, MACSS President
Hello all, I am Lisa Blevins, Rosebud County Superintendent of Schools. I have been privileged to serve Rosebud County in this position for a little over six years. Prior to being elected, I was a classroom teacher for 32 years.
In the first week of March 2025, I was sworn in as President of Montana Association of County School Superintendents (MACSS).
I am looking forward to serving our organization in my new capacity for the next year.
I come from three generations of educators. My dad was the first of the Kohlers to not only graduate from High School but also College. He received his degree in education from Moorhead State College, Moorhead, Minnesota, in 1958. At which point my grandpa Joe asked him if he was finally done with schooling.
Dad wasn’t done yet. He earned his degree in school administration a few years later.
Twenty plus years after that, my brother Paul and I chose education for our careers. Now I have a niece and nephew who are taking on the family tradition in North Dakota. My nephew Ryan followed his Grandpa by being a Social Studies teacher and a coach just like him.
As educators, we all touch our students' lives in ways we don’t even realize until years down the road. Empathy, encouragement, and a sense of security are just a few things we provide our young charges.
My dad passed away in 2007. At his funeral, I met a man who graduated from Solen High School in 1968. My dad had been his teacher and coach. He told me, if it wasn't for “Mr. Kohler”, he would never have graduated High School.
We are all here to serve our students and families to help provide them with the best possible education we can. And even though our roles in education change, our responsibilities remain the same.
I followed my dad down the education path. Now I am following our past Presidents of MACSS, as leader of our group.
It’s my turn. I hope I can fill the shoes of all who came before me.
Lisa Blevins MACSS President |
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2025 SAM Administrators Institute Room Blocks are Open
Are you planning to attend the 2025 SAM Administrators Institute? Mark your calendar for July 28-30 at the Delta Colonial in Helena! There will be some highly engaging pre-conference sessions on the morning of July 28, so be sure to plan accordingly. The main conference starts on July 28 at noon.
Registration will be opening soon, but you can get in on the room block rates now. - Delta Colonial (Conference Hotel), $169, "SAM AI" room block
- Great Northern, $190, https://www.bestwestern.com/en_US/book/hotel-rooms.27075.html?groupId=9Z3SJ4X0
- DoubleTree downtown, $179, https://www.hilton.com/en/book/reservation/deeplink/?ctyhocn=HLNDNDT&groupCode=CDTSAM&arrivaldate=2025-07-27&departuredate=2025-07-31&cid=OM,WW,HILTONLINK,EN,DirectLink&fromId=HILTONLINKDIRECT
Stay tuned—more event details and registration information will be coming soon! |
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Registration is Open for the 2025 DaRud Golf Tournament
Planning is underway for the 2025 DaRud Cup, tentatively scheduled for June 11 at Bill Roberts Golf Course in Helena! The cost to participate this year is $100 per person or $400 per team, which includes greens fees, cart rental, lunch, and a drink ticket. To move forward, we need at least 48 participants registered by Friday, May 23.
If you're interested in joining us, please complete the DaRud Cup Registration Form by May 23, 2025: (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfB7C9QIVnow6_E3E17aqsAAoXMA9B10PHUhWNhX3LAw-8ExQ/viewform)
We hope you’ll be part of this fun event! |
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2025-26 SAM Membership Drive Launches Soon
The SAM Membership Drive will begin next week for the 2025-26 membership year! As the "key contact" for a district, district clerks/business managers will receive an email that will include information for completing membership renewals for their district's MASS, MASSP, MAEMSP, MCASE, and META members. Please work with your district clerk/business manager to be sure your district's membership is correct. Members not linked to a school district will receive an email that will include a link to their membership renewal form. We encourage you to renew your membership early so you can start the next fiscal year with the full benefits of your membership in place and without a chance of it lapsing. Contact the SAM Office with any questions you may have. |
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| The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and its Montana state affiliate chapter, Montana Educational Technologists Association (META) are pleased to continue to support the work of current and aspiring superintendents and district leadership teams in leading all aspects of digital learning transformations.
CoSN Annual Conference
The CoSN 2025 Annual Conference: Human Leadership in a World of AI, that wrapped up on April 2 in Seattle,
Washington, had the largest number of attendees (over 1300) of any CoSN Annual Conference. Highlights of the
conference events can be viewed on the CoSN You Tube Channel at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJt-
FOY1UYCDZbDIpUigkrAK4yfTC0ecT&si=CuebPAwSjT6jgax-.
The CoSN 2026 Annual Conference is scheduled to take place on April 13-15, 2026, at the Sheraton Grand Chicago
Riverwalk in Chicago, Illinois.
CoSN/AASA EmpowerED Superintendent Free Leadership Resources
CoSN and AASA-The School Superintendents Association joined together several years ago to create The EmpowerED
Superintendents Initiative to support superintendents and other school leaders in leading technology innovations within their school districts. Listed below are two examples of multiple free resources that are readily available on the CoSN EmpowerED Superintendents website (https://www.cosn.org/superintendents/).
The EmpowerED Superintendents Toolkit provides a variety of resources which can be downloaded individually at the EmpowerED Superintendents Toolkit website (https://www.cosn.org/tools-and-resources/resource/empowered-superintendent-toolkit/). Among the free resources included in this toolkit are separate Self-Assessments for Superintendents, District Leadership Teams and Chief Technology Officers.
Critical Focus Areas: Issue One-Pagers – The “One-Pager” documents cover a variety of of edtech topics that are written to help superintendents and school leaders effectively communicate with their stakeholders on a wide range of critical educational technology topics. Three examples of the twelve One-Pager titles accessible on the https://www.cosn.org/superintendents/ web page
include:
Artificial Intelligence & Generative AI
The Importance of Cybersecurity
Leadership for Digital Learning
EmpowerED Superintendent edLeader Panel Broadcasts
CoSN, AASA, and edWeb.net co-host an online edLeader Panel broadcast series, sponsored by ClassLink, to help
superintendents, school leaders and educators connect and collaborate. Season 7 of the EmpowerED Superintendent
edLeader Panel Broadcast series concluded with the March 10, 2025, edLeader Panel broadcast on the topic of Leading Digital Learning: Communication Strategies for K-12 Education Leaders. The featured superintendent panel on the March 10, 2025, broadcast included Dr. Mark Benigni, Superintendent, Meriden Public Schools, Connecticut, Dr. Melanie Kay-Wyatt, Superintendent, Alexandria City Public Schools, Virginia and Dr. Nick Polyak, Superintendent, Leyden High School District 212, Illinois.
Free access to the recordings, podcast versions and articles for the March 10 broadcast as well as multiple other
broadcasts in this series is readily available at https://home.edweb.net/supers/.
CoSN Membership: If you, your school or district would like more information about joining CoSN or getting more involved with CoSN, please contact membership@cosn.org. |
Welcome SAM's New Business Partners! |
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| Curriculum Associates
Curriculum Associates is committed to improving outcomes for all students, we focus on equipping districts and teachers with tools to be more effective and efficient. This includes our award winning i-Ready Math and Reading adaptive diagnostics and personalized learning, i-Ready Classroom Mathematics Core, Magnetic Reading and our newest addition core reading program Magnetic Literacy. We combine this with our service and implementation models to provide districts with meaningful impact and efficacy with their programs. Educators are at the core of everything we do. That’s why our goal is to empower districts with tools, resources, and research so you can help every learner grow to their personal best. For more than 50 years, we’ve worked with districts to develop educational solutions that put insightful data into their hands, help tailor instruction to each learner’s needs, and save teachers time with evidence-based solutions proven to work.
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| Audio Enhancement
Solutions to Empower Learning: Audio Enhancement innovates to create more effective schools through improving technology and the learning environment. Our solutions have been helping schools manage the challenges seen commonly in education, as well as obstacles brought by the pandemic.
Audio Enhancement's solutions are designed to be able to work together or on their own—classroom audio provides clear instruction through masks; classroom video enhances digital content to facilitate effective remote and blended learning; school-wide communication allows for instant flexible scheduling to accommodate staggered schedules; and school safety provides quick communication with office staff to communicate urgent situations.
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Thank you to SAM's Business Partners! Please take time to visit their websites (links found here)
Montana Big Sky Sponsors |
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Montana Mountain Sponsors |
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