|
The Great Falls Public Schools (also known as School District #1) is a public school district which covers the city limits of Great Falls, Montana, in the United States. As of March 2010, it was the second-largest school district in the state of Montana,〔(Cates, Kristen. "School District Second-Largest in State." ''Great Falls Tribune.'' March 29, 2010. )〕 and the third-largest employer in the city of Great Falls.〔 ==History== The city's public school system was established in 1886. That year, the city opened the Whittier Building (later known as Whittier Elementary School) and began holding ungraded educational instruction for all students there.〔(Bureau of Agriculture, Labor and Industry, p. 306. ) Accessed 2011-05-06.〕 Great Falls High School, the city's first high school, was founded in the fall of 1890 by the city of Great Falls after four teenage girls (newly arrived in the city) asked to receive a high school public education.〔(Superintendent of Public Instruction, p. 65. ) Accessed 2011-05-06.〕 "Junior High School", later known as Largent Elementary School, opened in 1918 and was the city's first junior high school.〔 The city's second high school, Charles M. Russell High School, was built in 1964 and opened in the fall of 1965.〔Robison, p. 82.〕 Skyline Elementary School opened in 1970, and as of 2015 was the last school building constructed in the school district.〔 The school district weathered a deeply divisive 15-day teachers' strike in 1975 in which class size and pay were the primary issues.〔Cummings, Judith. "About Education; Class Size Is a National Issue." ''New York Times.'' September 17, 1975.〕 A 29-day strike occurred in 1989.〔(Pomnichoswki, Ralph. "1980-1989: Decade Spelled End for Many Local Landmarks." ''Great Falls Tribune.'' June 28, 2009. ) Accessed 2011-07-31.〕 In the 1990s, the school system began devolving responsibility for school policy and operations to the local schools, and struggled with finding the right balance between centralization and decentralization.〔Yingst, p. 21.〕 In 1992, the school system was involved in an open records lawsuit that went all the way to the Montana Supreme Court. On September 10, 1990, the GFPS board of trustees met privately to discuss a report regarding collective bargaining negotiations with the Great Falls Education Association.〔''Great Falls Tribune Co. v. Great Falls Public Schools'', 255 Mont. 125, 841 P.2d 502 (1992) at 128.〕 The board rejected the report without discussion at its public session, at which time the local newspaper, the ''Great Falls Tribune'', sued—arguing the private meeting was a violation of the Article II, Section 9, of the Montana Constitution (a particularly strongly worded provision that gives citizens the right to observe deliberations and examine documents at public meetings).〔 GFPS attorneys argued that state law provided an exception in the case of collective bargaining negotiations. A state district court ruled in favor of the school district, but a state appellate court overturned that ruling and held the state law's collective bargaining exception to be unconstitutional. In 1992 in ''Great Falls Tribune Co. v. Great Falls Public Schools'', the Montana Supreme Court upheld the appellate court, concluding, "The collective bargaining strategy exception is an impermissible attempt by the Legislature to extend the grounds upon which a meeting may be closed."〔''Great Falls Tribune Co. v. Great Falls Public Schools'', 255 Mont. 125, 841 P.2d 502 (1992) at 131.〕 In 2012, the Great Falls Public Schools received a $10,000 "Graduation Matters" grant from the state Office of Public Instruction as part of a program to lower the city's dropout rate. The grant was the largest given to any school district by the state.〔"Past Week's Dropout News Shows City on Right Track." ''Great Falls Tribune.'' March 24, 2012.〕 Tammy Lacey took over as school district superintendent on July 1, 2013. Lacey, who has a Master of Arts degree in educational leadership, is a graduate of Charles M. Russell High School. She was formerly a first grade teacher at Valley View Elementary School in Great Falls; principal at Fairfield Elementary School in Fairfield, Montana; and Human Resources Director for GFPS from 2007 to 2013. Lacey was also the first teacher in the GFPS school district to be appointed a Teacher on Special Assignment—in which a gifted teacher is removed from the classroom in order to develop good-teaching materials, and train and coach teachers into becoming better educators. Lacey's salary was $136,000 ($ in dollars), and she was given a three-year contract. In January 2015, the GFPS school board extended Lacey's contract another three years. In May 2015, the GFPS school board began studying making major repairs and upgrades to all the school system buildings at a potential cost of more than $100 million.〔 To accommodate increasing enrollment, Paris Gibson Education Center and West Elementary School might be turned back into middle schools. Other projects include upgrading the HVAC and drinking water/sewer systems at both high schools, adding an all-purpose fieldhouse to C.M. Russel High School, and replacing Longfellow Elementary School. The board also said it would also consider closing some schools, and could potentially offer a bond issue to voter as early as the fall of 2015. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Great Falls Public Schools」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|