May President's Report

As the school year comes to a close, Andrew McDonald reflects on a year of growth, gratitude, and forward momentum across Billings Catholic Schools.

In this episode, Andrew shares key updates from the President’s Report, including progress in long-range planning, a strategic investment in the Central Catholic campus with the potential acquisition of property across the street, and continued commitment to excellence in teaching and learning. He also looks ahead to the launch of a major campaign to renovate science labs and strengthen student opportunities for the future.

Beyond system-level updates, this episode highlights the incredible work happening across all BCS campuses, from remarkable early literacy gains at the Early Childhood Center to strong academic growth, faith formation, and student achievement at Saint Francis and Billings Central Catholic High School.

You’ll also hear about behind-the-scenes investments in technology, facilities, and financial sustainability that support the daily life and long-term strength of the system.

As always, this episode is rooted in gratitude: for students, staff, families, and all who make the mission of Billings Catholic Schools possible!

Transcript

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Welcome to Rooted in Rising, a short podcast where we highlight the people, programs, and moments that make Billings Catholic schools special. Each episode, we'll spend just a few minutes sharing one story from across our system, something worth noticing, worth celebrating, and worth building on. I'm Andrew McDonald, and I'm glad you're here. Welcome back to Rooted in Rising, the podcast of Billings Catholic Schools, where we share the stories, the people, and the mission that continue to define who we are. I'm Andrew McDonald, president of Billings Catholic Schools. This is one of those different episodes. This is actually really where the podcast was born, is out of the president's report. And trying to get this information in front of folks in several different ways. We always share the full president's report via email with our community. It's also posted on our website. So if you have questions, if you'd like more information, please take a look at those things. But this is just a really quick recap where I hit some of the highlights, talk about some of those things, and give it a little bit more of a personal touch. So as we come to the close of another school year, this is always an important time for us to reflect on where we've been, celebrate the good things, what's happening across our schools, and look ahead to what is next. This time of year always should invite gratitude. We should have gratitude for our students who continue to grow in faith, character, and confidence, gratitude for our teachers and staff who live out our mission every day, and gratitude for you, our families who entrust us with what matters most. This year has been one of meaningful progress across the system, especially through our master planning work. We've completed the assess phase and we're firmly in the explore phase right now where priorities are really coming into focus and decisions are starting to take shape. One of those priorities is our central Catholic campus. As we look to the future, it's really clear that this campus is going to remain our home for the foreseeable future, and we're called to care for it well. One of the most immediate needs that have been identified through this master planning work is parking and accessibility. So I'm excited to share that we are under contract to purchase Steve's car lot directly across the street from Central. This is a significant and strategic step forward because it allows us to create a centralized, well-lit student parking area, which improves safety and reduces congestion in the surrounding neighborhood. In partnership with the BCS Foundation, the space also creates opportunities to enhance the campus experience and establish a more cohesive and welcoming presence in our downtown setting while giving the foundation a permanent home. At the same time, we're continuing to invest directly in our classrooms. Through the Innovation and Excellence grant program, five teachers have already benefited. Three are pursuing advanced degrees, one is completing a certificate program, and another is leading improvements to classroom environments. These are the kind of investments that truly impact student learning. We're super excited about the benefits of that teacher Innovation and Excellence program that was begun last year at Mayfair. And we're really excited about kicking off a $1.8 million capital campaign to renovate our science labs at Central with this year's Mayfair. This project is really about ensuring our students have access to modern high-quality learning spaces that prepare them for the future. We had a great start at Mayfair, but the work is far from over, and we're excited about some of the next steps for that one. We're also excited about strong momentum heading into next year. We're thrilled to welcome Suzanne Vyra as our new director of education. Phenomenal hire, great for this position. She brings more than 20 years of experience and will help strengthen curriculum, instruction, and assessment across our system. We're also in a strong position with staffing, with nearly all of our positions filled, but we are continuing to seek a Spanish teacher at Central. So if you know anyone, please have them reach out. And one of the most encouraging signs, more than 45 staff members have already registered for summer professional development. That commitment to growth says a lot about who our educators are. Couldn't be more proud to work alongside them and to attend some of these summer trainings with them. I also want to take a few minutes now to highlight what's happening across our schools. So at Early Childhood Education Center, we're seeing remarkable growth in foundational learning. Students increase letter recognition and phonemic awareness from 26% at the beginning of the year to 87% by spring. That kind of growth is transformational at such a critical stage. So well done to ECE and all of the teachers over there for that hard work. Students have also engaged in hands-on learning experiences from field trips to celebrating May crowning, while strong family engagement continues through programs and transition events like our end of year programs. At St. Francis, our mission of faith, family spirit, and academic excellence is clearly visible. Students celebrated sacraments, including First Communion, Reconciliation, and Confirmation, and had the special second grade school mass as well. They were recognized for character through peace awards and supported by strong family engagement during Teacher Appreciation Week. Academically, students continue to show growth on spring map assessments, completed by or complemented by enrichment opportunities in music and literacy. At Central, we see a full expression of student life. Students are engaged in meaningful service, including partnerships with Eagle Mount, community cleanup efforts. They exceled in academics and extracurriculars from first place finishes in business competitions to superior ratings in music to multiple state-level journalism awards. So congratulations to all of those students and those teachers that sponsored those clubs. We also congratulate the class of 2026 as they now move into becoming alumni of Billings Catholic Schools. We are proud of who they are and who they are becoming. Alongside what's happening in those classrooms, there is important work happening behind the scenes. Our technology department is advancing several major initiatives, including transitioning fully into our new email system. So we'll have that at bcsmt.org instead of the BillingsCatholic Schools.org behind all of our email addresses makes it a lot easier, simpler for folks to get a hold of us. We're strengthening cybersecurity and network protections, upgrading student internet safety tools and preparing to refresh over 1,100 student iPads this summer. That is an incredible amount of work collecting all of the iPads that are out there, getting those all turned over, and then bringing in 1,100 new ones, making sure that those are ready to go when students come back to school. So big push this summer for the IT department. Facilities work is continuing across campuses as well with infrastructure improvements at Central. Solar energy production at St. Francis is already generating over 1,100 kilowatt hours and reducing our carbon output. We've done roofing improvements at ECE, and we've got upcoming playground enhancements planned as well. All of these projects reflect a long-term commitment to safe, sustainable, and high-quality environments. Our financial position on the budget side remains stable. Our budgets aligned with expectations. Looking at next year, it's been recommended for approval, while audit preparation and financial systems are still in really good shape. Enrollment trends show encouraging growth, particularly at the younger grades. We talked about this a little bit last time on the president's report. We've got stability in the middle school. And then there is some enrollment dip at the high school as well. So there will be some enrollment challenges there that we're going to continue to address. For the podcast, a couple exciting things. This summer we're especially excited to share a new series on this podcast. I've titled it Faith on the Frontier. And it's a four-part exploration of the history of Catholic education in eastern Montana and the legacy that continues to shape who we are today. I think you'll really enjoy it. I would really encourage you to tune in. If it's something that you like, please share it with other folks. I don't think this one is limited just to BCS. There's there's some great stuff for everybody. Ultimately, though, none of this work happens without you. You as parents, supporters, folks that are invested in our school. Your support, the trust that you have for us and your partnership really make our mission possible. So as we look ahead to these summer months, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for everything that you do. Thank you for believing in our system. Thank you believe for believing in supporting Catholic education. Thank you. I hope that your summer is safe, restful, and renewing. I look forward to all that lies ahead for Billings Catholics. Thanks for listening.