Sign up for the free Helena This Week newsletter and stay in the loop on Helena city government, public school meetings, business news and upcoming entertainment and events. Sign up 04/27/2025 School district discusses challenges in PEAK program report A Johns Hopkins consultant identified disparities in access to the Helena Public Schools’ gifted-and-talented program after analyzing it over the past several months, according to the district’s teaching and learning committee. Dr. Jonathan Plucker, a professor and the Master of Science in Education Policy program director at Johns Hopkins University, was hired by the school district to review its gifted-and-talented program, or PEAK.  His findings, which will officially be presented at a May school board meeting, cover the program’s strengths, challenges and areas for growth, including equity disparities, according to PEAK program coordinator, Justine Alberts. “The  biggest purpose of the evaluation that was requested was to review services and to make sure we’re hitting the mark, or see what’s working,” Alberts said during a teaching and learning committee meeting last Wednesday.  While a portion of Plucker’s review of the gifted-and-talented program reflected that the curriculum itself delivers rigorous material that’s impactful for students, it also showed how some may be at a disadvantage. “ So some of the equity pieces that are conveyed in the report, as we see nationally, this isn’t unique to Helena, that there are some socio-economic disparities that we need to take a peek at,” Alberts said, although she did not disclose exactly what those disparities are during the meeting.  Alberts said that the district has recently implemented a pilot assessment, the Naglieri General Ability Test, in some classrooms to identify students who may qualify for PEAK, rather than the current assessment the program uses. “ We are exploring the Naglieri assessment, which was built to remove any sort of bias for students, language barriers, anything in terms of background knowledge,” Alberts said. The information collected from the new test will be used to determine which students are eligible for the gifted program, Alberts added. School Board Trustee Jenny Murnane-Butcher, who also sits on the teaching and learning committee, asked if Plucker’s report showed any gender discrimination in the program’s identification and enrollment, a concern some parents have raised about PEAK. Plucker had “no findings” that the program discriminates between boys and girls, Alberts said.  Former HPSD elementary school teacher and parent Gabriel Furshong told Montana Free Press that he appreciates that district staff have publicly acknowledged that the PEAK program has had disparities and looks forward to learning more about the report when it is made public.  “This has been a long-standing problem, and I applaud the district for making a commitment to eliminate this bias,” Furshong told MTFP in an email. “It’s my understanding that Dr. Plucker’s report contains recommendations to achieve this goal and also to prevent future disparities in access to advanced learning programs between boys and girls, which are common in programs that claim to serve ‘gifted’ and ‘talented’ students nationwide.”  Plucker’s report won’t be made public until after the next school board meeting Tuesday, May 12, a spokesperson for the school district said.  Photo Op  Wet snow covers sidewalks and the hillside at Constitution Park in downtown Helena, where children sled, on April 23, 2026. Credit: Mara Silvers/MTFP 5 Things to Know in Helena  The Helena Police Department, in partnership with the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Office, will apply for a $43,568 grant to help fund a full-time detective in the county attorney’s office and will serve as a liaison between the sheriff’s office and the police department, according to city documents.  The city commission approved a revised lease agreement between the city and Grandstreet Theatre during a meeting last week. The new lease will allow the theater to proceed with several improvements for the building, including relocating the box office, upgrading the HVAC system and installing a new lighting system.  Last week, the city commission also approved a $755,676 bid from Pavement Maintenance Services Inc. for several chip-and-seal projects. The project includes asphalt maintenance for nearly 13 miles of roads spread across different locations in the city. The projects received only one other bid of $759,085, about $3,400 more than the winning company’s bid.  After losing its rural designation, St. Peter’s Health will no longer qualify for a $700,000 grant that primarily funds the hospital’s forensic nursing program. According to a report by KTVH last week, the hospital won’t be eligible to reapply for the federal grant from the Office of Violence Against Women. The program serves between 60 and 70 patients a year.       Carroll College will provide each incoming first-year undergraduate student with a MacBook laptop at the beginning of the 2026 fall semester through the “Saints Smart Start” initiative, made possible by a major donation. Donors Ryan McCauley, a Helena native, and Shelly Goldberg gifted the college new laptops for the initiative, which focuses on supporting first-year, full-time students by ensuring they have access to the resources they need, according to a Carroll press release.     Glad You Asked  I recently reported on three proposed levies requested by Helena Public Schools, which will appear on the May 5 ballot. Helena This Week reader Leo Schuman emailed me to ask about the two technology levies, which, if approved, would fund the district’s tech infrastructure, including software licensing. Schuman wanted to know specifically how much the school district spends on licensing and whether there was a line-item list reflecting those details. I reached out to the district regarding Schuman’s inquiry, and its director of technology education, Gary Myers, responded that the district’s spending on licensing varies a bit from year to year and that it sometimes purchases licenses in two- to three-year cycles. This school year, the district spent about $600,000 on licensing, and next year, Myers said, it anticipates spending $650,000. In a year when the district would need to pay for all its licensing, the costs could reach $850,000.  The bulk of these costs is attributed to the school’s student information system, internet filter and firewall, district email system, switches, wireless access points, controllers, and safety and security tools, Myers said. Additionally, he recommended that those interested watch an informational video regarding the technology levies. Public Notice  A portion of Sixth Avenue will be closed from April 28 to April 30 for asphalt maintenance, according to a city press release. The work will be done on Sixth Avenue between North Lamborn and Oakes streets, and construction will take place from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with through traffic and on-street parking prohibited. The project is weather-dependent and will be postponed if it rains.  Might Be Fun  The Early Childhood Collaborative of the Greater Helena Area and the Helena Village Collective will host a family storytelling night at the Myrna Loy Friday, May 8. The event will feature parents from the community who will share their personal stories of the challenges they experienced while raising a family. Tickets are $5, and doors open at 6:30 p.m. Visit Myrna Loy’s website for additional details.  The post ‘Disparities’ reported in gifted, talented program appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less