Latest news with #D-Helena
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill would fund school meals for families who can't pay
School lunch illustration by Getty Images. Rep. Melissa Romano still remembers a fourth grader who started acting out in her classroom about a decade ago. At the time, Romano, D-Helena, said her school district used to have teachers put slips of paper in students' mailboxes that served as their lunch bills. One day, the little boy showed her a bunch of the slips crumpled at the bottom of his backpack, and he started crying — 'for fourth grade boys to cry, that takes quite a bit,' Romano said. 'He said, 'I want to go home. I can't be here in school because my parents can't pay these bills,'' Romano recalled. The boy had two other siblings, the bill had reached $343, and Romano walked to the school office to pay it before the family got sent to collections — a practice in her district at the time. This week, Romano told the House Education Committee the situation inspired her interest in nutrition for children. She said House Bill 551 would fill an important gap, ensuring children have enough to eat at school. Some children qualify for free meals at school. Others qualify for discounts, so breakfast and lunch cost them around 30 cents or 40 cents each, Romano said. But even with the discount, Romano said families still struggle to pay those bills, and it means children skip meals and go hungry. HB 551 would cover the cost of those meals with an estimated $600,000 a year, Romano said. In Montana, she said, one in six children live in a food insecure household. No one testified against the bill, but Romano said she has presented similar legislation before, and it hasn't been adopted. Proponents of the bill said undernourished children don't learn, and Kim Popham, with the Montana Federation of Public Employees, said the legislation would support another interest of committee members. 'In this committee, many of you often bring up the fact that our test scores are low, but let me remind you that if students don't have enough to eat, they cannot learn,' Popham said. Supporters also said in some districts, school administrators have to double as collections agents, and the phone calls about unpaid bills destroy the trust between schools and families. Tobin Novasio, superintendent of Hardin Public Schools, said he was one of the children Romano talked about, who skipped meals as a child. 'Oftentimes, I would tell my teachers I was going home for lunch but would just walk around the neighborhood, not eat,' Novasio said. With help in part from great teachers and role models — he pointed to a committee member, long-time educator Rep. Lee Deming, R-Laurel, as one — Novasio said he escaped poverty. However, he knows when families get a $40 or $50 bill for meals, it can be 'a huge amount.' Novasio said he doesn't want school administrators to have to call families and blur the line of the school's role — schools should support families, not be the enemy. 'I don't ever want any student under my care to have that type of feeling of anxiety or to go without a meal,' Novasio said. Popham, with the Montana Federation of Public Employees, said she left the classroom just a couple of years ago as a biology teacher, and her students often referred to her as a 'science geek.' Once a month, on payday, she would buy healthy snacks at Costco because she knew students needed them, and she told the committee the science behind her approach. Organs need energy, energy comes from food, the brain is an organ, and it consumes about 20% of the energy humans take in, Popham said — and growing children need a lot more of that energy. Representatives from the Montana Quality Education Coalition, American Heart Association in Montana, the Blackfeet Nation, Fort Belknap Indian Community, Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy's Reservation, the Helena School District, and the Bigfork Food Bank were among proponents of the bill. In response to a question from Rep. Jamie Isaly, D-Livingston, about whether the unpaid meal accounts push schools into the red, Doug Reisig, with the Montana Quality Education Coalition, said yes. Reisig said some philanthropic people will volunteer to pay outstanding bills, and school districts do 'creative things' to try to collect the money. 'Turning to collections is probably the last straw,' Reisig said. 'I've had to do that as well, and you don't ever want to have to do that, but you try to make sure that when you end the year, that your food service program is not in arrears.' A former superintendent from Culbertson said that his district had ended up $10,000 or $15,000 in the hole because of unpaid meal accounts. Rep. Sherry Essmann, R-Billings, wanted to know the actual cost of a school meal, and Rep. Mark Thane, D-Missoula, a former superintendent, said elementary school lunch cost $3.00 in Missoula in 2025, and it cost $3.25 in middle and high schools. In response to questions from Essmann, Romano said the $600,000 annual price is an estimate, one she said she believes is on the high end, and any leftover dollars would return to the general fund. A handout from the Montana Food Bank Network said 21,000 students currently qualify for a reduced price meal in Montana, and the bill would make those meals free — which Rep. Pete Elverum, D-Helena, calculated meant that for about $28.50 per student, HB 551 would feed 21,000 children breakfast and lunch for an entire year The committee did not take immediate action on the bill. However, Romano said the $300 for that fourth grader she once taught was insurmountable, and removing that burden for the family was life changing. 'I think that this bill is far beyond an act of compassion,' Romano said. 'I think that it's really a commitment to ensuring that every child in Montana has the opportunity to reach their full potential.'
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senate swaps counsel for ethics investigation; Ethics Committee lays out rules
Photo illustration by Getty Images. Senate President Matt Regier is changing lawyers after Senate Democrats objected to his pick as outside counsel to help in an ethics investigation into Hamilton Sen. Jason Ellsworth. Earlier this week Regier announced he'd hired Matthew Monforton, a Bozeman-based lawyer, to work for himself and the GOP majority leadership and take on a 'prosecutorial' role in the ethics committee. However, Senate Democrats expressed reservations about Monforton's role with the committee due to his contract naming Regier as the client, his history of partisanship, and recent social media posts disparaging Ellsworth. Sen. Laura Smith, D-Helena, a former prosecutor, told the Senate Ethics Committee on Wednesday she was not comfortable working with Monforton, and wasn't sure they even needed outside counsel. 'Our citizens need to see an ethics process that's fair,' Smith said, saying any outside counsel should guide the committee by being 'unbiased, diligent and fair.' Smith suggested they use in-house attorneys, or find someone mutually agreeable to all members of the committee. On Thursday morning, Regier sent out an email to reporters indicating he is in the process of hiring a new attorney, Adam Duerk from Missoula, a highly qualified attorney 'without any of the political history' that Monforton had. 'Senator Ellsworth has his own outside legal counsel. I believe very strongly that it's important for the Senate to also have legal counsel in this matter,' Regier said in his email. 'There is no reason at this point for further objections or delays to the Senate Ethics Committee's important work. The people of Montana expect the Legislature to investigate and resolve allegations of impropriety in a timely manner, and it's time for the Ethics Committee to proceed accordingly.' Reached by phone on Thursday morning, Duerk said he would not comment on a matter pending before the Senate. Monforton, who attended the organizational meeting of the Ethics Committee Wednesday afternoon, told the Daily Montanan that based on what he heard, he believes 'Democrats are heavily invested in Ellsworth and don't want a prosecutor advocating for anything more than a slap on the wrist.' At the start of the 69th Legislature, Senate Democrats, Ellsworth and eight other Republicans joined in a vote to change Senate rules related to committees, opposing Regier and GOP leadership. A spokesperson for Senate Democrats said they are more optimistic about Duerk, appreciate the good-faith effort by Regier to address their concerns, and hope to meet with Duerk before fully endorsing his work with the Ethics Committee. At its organizational meeting Wednesday, the Senate Ethics Committee discussed its rules and schedule for the investigation into Sen. Ellsworth. The bipartisan Senate committee, comprising two Republicans and two Democrats, will hold hearings in February to determine whether actions Ellsworth took to enter a $170,100 no-bid contract with a business associate last year violated the state's code of ethics, or any legislative or state laws. Members of the committee emphasized that their role is to be an independent fact-finding body, which will ultimately make a report and recommendation to the full Senate chamber to vote on 'whether good cause is shown to expel or punish' Ellsworth. 'We want to get to the facts of the case. We want to do it expeditiously,' Senate Majority Leader Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, said. 'We don't want to drag this out forever.' Under the rules adopted by the committee, Ellsworth will have four days after an initial meeting on Feb. 3 to provide a written response to the allegations of misconduct against him, and a list of witnesses, documents and records that pertain to the investigation. The committee will then conduct hearings Ellsworth tried to speak during the committee's meeting, but was overruled by chair Sen. Forrest Mandeville, R-Columbus. The contract Ellsworth signed tasked his associate to analyze a series of judicial reform bills and their implementation after the session, but was flagged by legislative staff and senate leadership for skirting normal procurement rules. A recent report form the Legislative Audit Division concluded Ellsworth abused his powers as then-Senate president, and wasted government resources. The next meeting of the Senate Ethics Committee will be on Feb. 3 at 11 a.m. in the old Supreme Court chambers.
