Montana's 50-year school promise

Morning. It is a cool, clearing 61 today after the weekend's rain, with the sun back by Tuesday. Today's lead is a decades-old promise about teaching Native history in Montana schools, the court settlement about to give it real enforcement, and your own school board meeting tonight to match. Then MSU opens a $53 million building, the Cats stay unbeaten, and a piece of Hebgen goes off-limits. Coffee up.

A class-action lawsuit filed in 2021 argued the state had never truly delivered on Indian Education for All, the mandate written into the 1972 constitution and spelled out in a 1999 law that requires every K-12 school to teach the history and culture of Montana's tribes. Court filings showed that as recently as 2019-2020, only about 10% of districts could show the money was spent the way it was meant to be, with some of it going to unrelated books and salaries.

A proposed settlement changes the accountability. The Office of Public Instruction, one of the defendants, agreed to fold Indian Education for All into how schools get accredited and monitored, review the spending of at least seven schools a year, publish a list of districts that fall short, and let the state pull back funding for noncompliance. The five plaintiff tribes get a formal, ongoing say in the curriculum. The money at stake is not new: the state has put up about $3.5 million a year for this since 2007. What is new is somebody counting whether it lands.

"The delegates of the 1972 constitution made a promise that Indigenous identity and culture would be part of public education, and for over 50 years, that promise has been largely unmet," said Alex Rate, legal director of the ACLU of Montana. A judge has given the deal preliminary approval; it needs final sign-off after a public notice period, and then every district in the state, Bozeman's included, will have to show its work.

District 7 trustees hold their regular board meeting at 5:45 in the Willson Board Room on West Main, their second-Monday sit-down, and the full agenda packet is already posted. It is the local end of the story above. Whatever the state settlement finalizes, boards like this one are the ones that will have to demonstrate their Indian Education for All work under the new accreditation rules. If you want to see what your district is actually up to before it votes on anything, the packet is where to start.

One night later, the City Commission returns to City Hall Tuesday (Sept. 15) at 6 p.m. for the housing-heavy agenda we walked through Friday, from the affordability workplan to a water rule for new development. Public comment is still open on both.

• MSU cut the ribbon on its biggest new building in years. Gianforte Hall opened Thursday (Sept. 10), a $53 million, 58,000-square-foot home for film, photography, computing, and robotics, and the campus's first mass timber building. Fifty million came from the Gianforte Family Foundation. "We wanted to make sure that every kid from Montana that wanted to study computer science or engineering didn't have to leave the state to get a state-of-the-art education," Gov. Greg Gianforte said.

• The Bobcats are still not losing. Montana State beat Nevada 20-7 on Saturday (Sept. 12) to run its win streak to 17 games and its record to 3-0, and the top-ranked defending FCS champs host Central Connecticut State next Saturday (Sept. 19) at 1 p.m. at Bobcat Stadium. Wear blue, park early.

• Your ballot is closer than you think. Montana mails ballots Oct. 9 for the November midterms, and about 83% of Montanans vote by mail, says Gallatin County election administrator Eric Semerad. A fight over a March federal order limiting mailed ballots, which the Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow, is still unresolved, so check your registration at voterportal.mt.gov now rather than in the mailbox rush.

• A chunk of Hebgen Reservoir is off-limits to swimmers and boaters. The Gallatin City-County Health Department has closed the Corey Springs and Rainbow Point areas after harmful algal blooms, and downgraded the Yellowstone Holiday area to a warning. The blooms produce toxins that can sicken people and pets, so if you are hauling a boat or a dog out there this fall, check current conditions before you launch.

A cool, clearing 61 today after Sunday night's rain, then the sun takes back over: bright and 72 Tuesday, 70 Wednesday. Fall showed up for the weekend and left a note. Enjoy the reset.

Watch neighbors improvise dinner at Chopped at the library, the free cooking throwdown at the Bozeman Public Library's Kitchen Table, listed 5 to 6:30 p.m.

Tuesday (Sept. 15): Or go nerdy at MSU After Hours, a talk on simulating the world with computer models, listed 6:15 p.m. ($25).

Tuesday (Sept. 15): Then stay out for Doom Gong at the Filling Station, listed 8 p.m. ($15, 21+).

Wednesday (Sept. 16): Bozeman Music Night brings Marcedes Carroll and Doc Elliot to Bridger Brewing, listed 5:30 to 8 p.m., free.

Wednesday (Sept. 16): Or catch In Conversation: Cooking Legacies at the Rialto, a talk on food and community, listed 7 p.m. ($12, free for students).

The Gallatin is running low and clear the way it does in September, about 360 cfs near Gallatin Gateway as of early this morning, with the Logan gauge near 350 and the East Gallatin around 51. The fly shops are calling it a proper fall setup: spruce moths at first light, hoppers midday, small nymphs in between, with Blue Winged Olives still a couple weeks out. The cooler, wetter turn should keep water temps friendly, so fish the warm middle of the day and let the mornings wake up slow.

West-side drivers, help is (slowly) coming to one of the valley's most-cursed turns. The city's street report has crews adding left-turn lanes in every direction and a new signal at Oak and Ferguson, the kind of unglamorous fix a growing town lives and dies by. Budget an extra minute through there while it happens.