State Superintendent Elsie Arntzen said Thursday the state could see 1,000 teacher vacancies going into the upcoming school year — or roughly one in 10 positions.

“A thousand new teachers or teachers will be requested within our 928 schools across our state, our 402 school districts,” Arntzen said during the Montana Board of Public Education meeting.

Teacher pay has been an ongoing challenge in Montana, especially for rookies, and the dearth of teachers this year mirrors the shortage last school year.

At the meeting, board members discussed teacher recruitment, retention as well as potential adjustments to licensure requirements as they related to the vacancies.

Despite boosts to their wages in recent years, Montana pays the lowest average starting salary for teachers in the country at $33,568, according to an April from the National Education Association.

The idea to change license requirements has been controversial, and educators have said Montana must maintain quality. At the meeting Thursday, however, Arntzen said a potential change in licensure standards should not be seen as diluting teacher quality, but as giving school districts more flexibility.

Some of the proposed changes include recognizing licenses for nationally board-certified teachers and increasing access for expired licensees to reenter the classroom, according to an Office of Public Instruction press .

“This is enhancing to make sure that we hand districts the ability to be able to hire,” Arntzen said.

OPI spokesperson Brian O’Leary said in an email to the Daily Montanan the number of new licenses in 2022-2023 was the lowest in five years, at 1,207. The number of licenses in the state that were renewed, upgraded and added endorsements was the second lowest in the last five years.

“Many businesses are struggling to fill positions throughout our great state, and schools are no exception,” O’Leary said.

Crystal Andrews, director of accreditation, educator preparation programs, and licensure for the state, is slated to lead a discussion on potential revisions to licensure standards Friday, according to the state board’s agenda.

At the meeting, Arntzen talked about another strategy intended to help fill vacancies. In the Teacher Residency Program through the state’s universities, students spend their fourth year of study in the classroom with a teacher mentor, with a requirement the new teacher stays in the community.

Board Vice Chairperson Susie Hedalen, who works as a superintendent in Townsend, said later in the meeting her school hired one of the residents through that program to become a full-time teacher.

“It was a lot of work for the mentoring teacher, the student teacher and the principal,” she said. “They put a lot of time and effort into it, (and) we have a great new teacher next year.”

O’Leary said OPI doesn’t hold data on all of the public school teacher vacancies in the state, but its Jobs for Teachers webpage lists 1,089 openings for teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals and counselors as of Thursday.

Teaching positions make up 950 of the positions posted, O’Leary said, adding OPI can’t guarantee the listings don’t include duplicate postings, for example. He said school districts are also not required to post their job listings on the site.

The number of vacancies this time of year is consistent with last year, with O’Leary saying near the end of July 2022 there were more than 1,100 job postings on the OPI Jobs for Teachers page. The NEA reported there being more than 10,800 teaching jobs in the state.

Other efforts OPI is making include hosting job fairs to connect teachers and school districts, with the next one on Aug. 4 online. The department is also touting the expansion of the TEACH Act to increase new teacher pay and loan assistance for teachers at “impacted schools,” alternative or rural education settings.

Board member Jane Lee Hamman said she thought teacher retention should be a high priority for the next legislative session.

“We can start to think about some of the plans for structural changes and additions for the next session, because I think that’s going to be critical,” she said.

Angela McLean, in the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education, said licensure and making sure educators in all fields get to where they are needed in the state is critical.

“It’s not just enough to just make sure that we have a teacher that will stay in the more urban parts of Montana. We want to get them to some of these rural communities where they have long been needed the most,” she said.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com. Follow Daily Montanan on and .

When Jennifer Huppert’s fifth-grade class at Boulder Elementary in Billings received a manila envelope in the mail, she thought it was probably another piece of junk mail sent in an official looking wrapper with a Washington, D.C., return address.

Huppert is constantly getting all sorts of offers, gimmicks and programs that arrive on her desk that look similar.

Just as Huppert was about to toss it, she noticed it said “Vice President of the United States, Washington, D.C.”

Still suspicious, she opened the package to see that it contained a letter to the students, and it was hand signed by Kamala Harris, the vice president of the United States.

The letter came to congratulate Huppert for her students’ participation in a program to learn more about Space Force, which included an online video conference with members of the nascent military branch who are stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls.

The program was designed for one class in each of the 50 states and Puerto Rico to raise awareness about careers in math, science, space and the military. From those conversations, students learned more about the day-to-day operations of Space Force.

The program dovetailed well with what Huppert’s students were learning about from the stars, the planets, night sky, and yearly seasonal planet rotation.

Students in Huppert’s class were particularly fascinated by the topic of space junk – obsolete, broken or used objects – that stay in orbit, but can cause collisions or disrupt current operational satellites. The students are also doing calculations about how hard or easy it would be to walk and jump on other planets in the solar system, given the gravity and composition of each planet.

“My dad was in the Air Force and what he did there is now part of the Space Force,” said student Parker Foley.

Huppert said it was a terrific program that helped have conversations about how lessons in class tie into real life, and connect with other lessons. For example, they recently went to the Billings Symphony to hear part of Gustav Holst’s “Planets.” They also got to hear the orchestra perform the themes to “Star Wars” and “2001, a Space Odyessy.”

Student Reed Shulund was able to tie what he learned from the program into what he’s seen recently on the news.

“You need to know how to launch a rocket into space without blowing it up,” Shulund said, “like Space X.”

Foley said he better understood the recent Northern Lights after learning more about space and the Space Force too.

The students also said it gave them a chance to see there is more to a military career than combat.

“It’s not all ‘Top Gun’ and ‘Maverick’,” Huppert said. “It gives them a different opportunity to see that Armed Forces in a different way. One of the Space Force officers was from Missoula. And they need people with strong backgrounds in math and science, too.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com. Follow Daily Montanan on and .

The Montana House advanced a bill Wednesday that seeks to open up public school employees if they show or provide children with materials deemed to be obscene.

, sponsored by Lindsay Republican Bob Phalen, passed its second reading in a , with 13 Republicans voting against it along with all Democrats. It is scheduled for its final House reading Thursday.

Phalen, as he did , told the chamber that he believes , like pornography, should be banned in schools just like it cannot be shown on billboards or openly in gas stations.

was to remove liability for public library and museum officials.

Phalen and others who voted for the bill said on the floor they believe the bill is about protecting children from obscene material in schools, while the measure’s opponents said it was a disguised effort to get books regarding the LGBTQ community out of children’s hands and to strip local control away from school boards that already vet what materials are in their libraries.

“I recognize that tomorrow on social media you’re going to read that those opposing House Bill 234 are pornographers and worse than that. You all know that it’s true; that’s how social media is,” said Rep. David Bedey, R-Hamilton, who voted against the bill. “So be it; I myself cannot in good conscience support a bill that is ineffective, that’s opposing conservative principles, and is a targeted attack on school employees.”

Rep. SJ Howell, a Missoula Democrat who is nonbinary, called the measure “a big overstep” when citizens can already petition school boards to investigate and potentially remove any materials a parent says could be obscene material.

Howell pointed to a book that has been the center of the discussion since the bill was first heard in committee, “Gender Queer: A memoir,” of which Democrats gave copies to each lawmaker in the chamber. Phalen had distributed pictures he said were obscene.

Howell said there was value in books like it for people of all ages because they could read materials that reflect their experience and perspective.

Rep. Brad Barker, R-Roberts, who voted against the bill, said he was concerned it would lead to “an unreasonable amount of liability” for schools, employees and trustees as they already face attacks from the public on what is being taught. He said he felt the process already in place to screen materials was strong enough – a point also made by some Democrats.

Rep. Eric Matthews, D-Bozeman, said putting teachers and school librarians in a place where they could potentially face criminal charges for following a board’s directives and recommendations was “a big problem.”

Rep. Bill Mercer, R-Billings, said he was possibly the only prosecutor in Montana who had ever prosecuted an obscenity case. He told the House how prosecuting an obscenity case would work – that a prosecutor would have to believe material is obscene, as would a 12-member jury. He voted in favor of the measure.

Several Republicans argued that claims local control would be taken away were not true and did not go as far as opponents claimed.

Rep. Naarah Hastings, R-Billings, in what she said was her first speech on the House floor, said she had seen local control fail and that the measure would hold school boards accountable.

She and others pointed to Billings School Board trustees “Gender Queer” and another book some parents had objected to as reasons they believed local control was not working.

“I want to trust the schools and the school boards, but to be perfectly frank with you, I think it’s time for them to prove that,” Hastings said.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com. Follow Daily Montanan on and .

Montana State University officials are violating a student’s right to free speech after she questioned her sorority’s “insistence” members identify themselves with preferred pronouns, alleges a lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court of Montana.

The lawsuit also alleges campus officials are infringing on the student’s rights with a no-contact order — one without an end date or due process — after she was allegedly victimized by a fellow sorority member who is LGBTQ.

The student and plaintiff, Daria Danley, is suing Commissioner of Higher Education Clayton Christian, MSU President Waded Cruzado, and Kyleen Breslin, director of MSU’s Office of Institutional Equity.

“Plaintiff Danley’s protests against the harassment inflicted upon her by an LGBTQ student as well as her objections to ‘preferred pronouns’ constitute speech protected by the First Amendment,” as well as the Montana Constitution, the lawsuit said.

Danley had told a sorority leader she was being stalked by the other sorority member, the lawsuit said. Danley did not file a police report, her lawyer said.

The Greek chapter characterized the concerns she raised to the sorority leader about the alleged stalking and pronouns as “hate speech,” and the sorority and campus punished her, the complaint said.

However, in sanctioning Danley, the lawsuit said MSU officials are illegally silencing speech “that might be deemed offensive to LGBTQ students.”

That’s despite a duty to ensure policies don’t discriminate based on political ideas.

“Defendants Christian and Cruzado breached this duty by allowing a discriminatory policy at MSU that tolerates offensive speech made by LGBTQ students while punishing similarly situated non-LGBTQ students who engage in protected speech deemed offensive to LGBTQ students,” the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit said a similar alleged violation of free speech by MSU cost the institution a $120,000 settlement.

In that 2017 case, student Erik Powell alleged a free speech violation after he was suspended for being critical of a transgender student to a professor in a private meeting, the complaint said.

“MSU’s vindictiveness toward student criticism of the LGBTQ community is not new,” the complaint said. “ … In settling the Powell lawsuit, MSU was required to expunge the plaintiff’s record of disciplinary marks and pay him.”

Bozeman lawyer Matthew Monforton represented Powell and is representing Danley.

In a brief phone call Friday, Monforton criticized the flagship’s Title IX office. Those offices generally oversee discrimination allegations.

“MSU’s woke Title IX office is punishing victims because they object to preferred pronouns in speech that LGBTQ students found offensive,” Monforton said.

MSU did not respond Friday to an email requesting comment, and neither did a spokesperson for the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education.

The lawsuit outlines the events that led up to the court filing:

Danley has been enrolled full-time at MSU since 2020 and joined the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority, which has since dissolved its Bozeman chapter, the lawsuit said.

The fellow sorority member “routinely made inappropriate sexual comments in the presence of other AGD members,” and she repeatedly asked Danley to accompany her to her apartment despite Danley’s rejections, the lawsuit alleges.

“Another member of the chapter warned Plaintiff Danley never to be alone with (the sorority member), as that member had observed (her) attempting to take advantage of women when they were intoxicated,” the lawsuit said.

The fellow sorority member is not a defendant in the lawsuit and the Daily Montanan is not naming her in this story.

The complaint also said the alleged stalker “repeatedly ogled” Danley, making her “extremely uncomfortable.”

After she alleged stalking and complained about the use of pronouns, MSU punished her for “hate speech” and imposed a no-contact order against her, which meant she couldn’t go to any sorority events or even enter a building where her alleged harasser was present, the lawsuit said.

Then, MSU officials charged her with “discrimination” in a “sham administrative complaint,” one it later dismissed, the lawsuit said. At MSU’s suggestion, the sorority evicted her, the complaint said.

Danley applied to the sorority’s national headquarters for reinstatement, and her request was granted, the complaint said.

Still, MSU won’t rescind the no-contact order, the lawsuit said.

It said Danley doesn’t want to be part of her specific sorority chapter because she “just happened to get into a bad chapter,” but she does want to participate as an alumna member in activities other alumnae continue to organize.

“I still care greatly for Alpha Gamma Delta as a whole, and I know it does so much good for women,” Danley said in the lawsuit.

But she can’t do so because of the no-contact order “of unlimited duration,” the lawsuit said.

“MSU has rejected repeated requests by the victim to rescind the order and has never explained why the order remains necessary or elaborated on why it was imposed in the first place,” the lawsuit said. “Nor has MSU ever given the victim a hearing to challenge the order.”

In the complaint, Danley alleges the defendants are violating her free speech rights, which prohibit “government officials from subjecting citizens to retaliatory actions in response to protected speech.”

“Danley’s protests against the harassment inflicted upon her by an LGBTQ student as well as her objections to ‘preferred pronouns’ constitute speech protected by the First Amendment,” the lawsuit said.

It also said the order violates her freedom of association, and MSU has provided her no opportunity to be heard, therefore violating her right to due process.

“A person has a protected liberty interest in his or her good name, reputation, honor and integrity, of which he or she cannot be deprived without due process,” the lawsuit said.

It alleges violations of the Montana Constitution as well.

Danley requests a judgment the no-contact order violates her First Amendment rights and that the defendants clear her name in their records.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com. Follow Daily Montanan on and .

Gov. Greg Gianforte urged the Board of Regents to ban the social media app TikTok within the Montana University System citing security risks in a on Tuesday.

This follows Gianforte’s to Chief Information Officer Kevin Gilbertson last month that the app would be from state devices, for state business, and while connected to the state network.

“The ability of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to spy on Americans using TikTok is well documented. Using or even downloading TikTok poses a massive security threat,” Gianforte wrote in the letter Tuesday. “Given the risk use of TikTok poses to our public universities and our students, I request the Board of Regents support efforts by the Commissioner of Higher Education to prevent the use of TikTok by the Montana University System (MUS) and its campuses and while connected to the MUS network.”

In the letter, the governor cited recent testimony from Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Christopher Wray who warned the app is controlled by “a government that doesn’t share our values, and that has a mission that’s very much at odds with what’s in the best interests of the United States.”

A spokesperson for the Montana University System did not respond to a request for comment.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com. Follow Daily Montanan on and .