St. Ignatius Superintendent Jason Sargent said he’s excited about everything as the year starts off positively, thanks to the culture they have, “great teachers, great kids, great community and great parents.” 

For St. Ignatius, enrollment remains steady at 200 in the elementary school, 180 in the middle school, and 142 in the high school, a slight decrease from last year’s numbers, according to Sargent. 

A couple of improvements have been made at the middle school, including a new roof and green space that was funded and completed through community support. According to previous Leader reporting, this green space project included a new artificial-turf volleyball court, a natural sod area with trees, a new ADA sidewalk, and new fences with additional lighting and cameras. 

Mission Lawn and Landscape coordinated the project, made major contributions and donated hours of labor. The $250,000  project also received multiple donations of funds, labor or materials from businesses within the valley. 

Sarget added that two elementary classrooms also received new cabinets, which is a typical replacement they try to do each year in elementary. 

He also said the entire district has added the E3 Safety Platform by Emergent-3, a digital emergency response and panic button app designed to better connect school staff, administration and first responders during a crisis. Sargent said the app will improve communication during a lockdown and help them better understand where an emergency is occurring. 

This year, the district hired a new head of maintenance, an elementary and middle school Title I teacher, one third-grade teacher, one first-grade elementary teacher and two paraprofessionals. New staff also includes an athletic director, Justin Evans, who started during last school year. 

Currently, the district is still seeking a Salish teacher. Sargent said they had no applicants this fall but hope to hire a teacher for this class by the spring semester. He noted that this is a popular class and an important cultural component for students. 

Sargent said they are seeing academic improvements, which have been the school’s biggest focus since the COVID-19 pandemic affected students' in-person attendance. 

ACT scores have improved by two points from last year and are just one point below the state average, which is their goal. Sargent added that their Benchmarks of Quality — an evaluation tool that measures how a school implements the Multi-Tiered System of Support under the Montana Office of Public Instruction — is evaluated by an outside evaluator each year, and that the score has increased each year. 

Sargent added that their positive systems interventions were also evaluated by an outside evaluator, and they earned gold last year. This year, they are aiming for platinum. He said their federal report card was also positive and moving in the right direction, with their goal of reaching the state level as well. 

The district hasn’t added any new programs, but Sargent said their high school aviation class draws strong student interest. Some of their first high school graduates with these certificates graduated this May. The high school girls' flag football club has also returned to the district this year, with Sargent serving as their coach. 

Sargent said the school board has also recently approved the district's annual and five-year plans. These plans cover everything from academics to facilities, and he is excited about achieving those goals not only annually but over the next five years. 

“I think we do a great job with our data, our short-term planning, our long-term planning and the opportunities to reach goals,” he said. “What gets measured gets done.”