• Category 2

    Selected in 2023

  • Grades: k - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 8,500
    Student Enrollment: 247
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 1%
    White/Caucasian: 93.3%
    Hispanic: 1.2%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.5%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 3%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:22
    % Reduced Lunch: 76%
    % ELL Learners: 1%
    Founded: 1979
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Silas Counts
  • CONTACT:
    1015 Milwaukee Street
    Miles City, MT 59301
    406-234-4310
    scounts@milescity.k12.mt.us
Garfield Elementary School
Miles City, MT
We all help each other out and look out for each other.
1. Tell us about your school’s success.
Garfield Elementary School in Miles City Montana has had success with keeping classroom ratios at 20 to 1 up until this year. Our success also stems from our new curriculum. Those programs include Super Kids K-2, and Reading Side by Side 3rd-5th along with Eureka for math and TCI for Science. This allows us to be up to date with our Curriculum in the district. We have a strong district leading A-Team that meets weekly to discuss students in each grade level and discuss interventions that we can us to help the students be successful. Every week we meet to monitor and discuss those interventions and make adjustments. From 3rd through 5th grade Garfield has a very strong well established lead teacher at that grade level. Last but definitely not least is the great support from our community. We have a 98% parent teacher conference attendance rate. Our family learning nights also have amazing attendance. We have community and parent support all year round which we are grateful for.
2. Talk about the greatest contributing factor(s) that promoted positive change in your school.
Garfield Elementary has so many great contributing factors that we had to narrow the focus. Being Title 1 school wide with certified staff is huge. We are always looking for ways to increase Math and Reading and our staff goes the extra mile to get there. We have also used Reading Counts as an incentive to get kids to read. We have a weekly word count report in our announcements that we hype up. We also have a wall of fame in our Library of every student who has completed and tested on a book series. With the ESSER dollars we were able to purchase new curriculum in math, science, reading and grammar. We also use 8 keys of success. They are Integrity, Commitment, Failure Leads to Success, Ownership, Speak With Good Purpose, Flexibility, This Is It, and Balance. We celebrate a student a month from each classroom that exhibits the "Key of the Month". During that assembly we also do teacher of the month awards supported by a local business. We do class awards called golden awards as well.
3. How has ESEA funding supported the school's success?
Garfield Elementary has utilized the funding to help with staffing some programs. We have also used it to help us get to 1 to 1 in technology for our school. The funds help us obtain programs that are Orton Gillingham based that we use for our reading, grammar, and Language along side our base curriculum. Along with those curriculum supplies we have added the needed manipulatives to help model those skills and strategies. Some of the funds have helped support our sensory needs and items including our sensory hallway.
4. What professional development activities were used to improve teaching and learning?
Garfield has had several trainings that have assisted in our growth over the years. Our curriculum trainings have been very valuable and help us hit the ground running. We have been part of several MTSS trainings. This has led down the directions of trying to use the components that have immediate impact for us. We are still developing and tweaking it. We have trauma informed trainings that help us meet the kids needs.
5. Talk about the cultural shift leading up to your school's success.
The cultural shift when we started approaching more things in a team approach. We call it our A-Team and we meet weekly to solve problems of our students. It is kind of a PLC, MTSS and a couple other things mixed together to do what is best for our students. We try to make sure everyone's voice is heard. Another change was the focus towards academics rather than behavior. One of the biggest factors is preaching family and getting everyone to buy into that notion. We all help each other out and look out for each other.
6. How has community involvement strengthened your success?
We have very strong community involvement with our school. We have partnered with MCC college in athletes reading with our kids. We have family learning nights and Family FUN nights that have been sponsored by members of our community and attended very well. The BLM and Fish Wildlife and Parks have been great about bringing outdoor activities to our students. Our regional Montana extension office also bring different activities to our students to help broaden their horizons.
Stats
  • Category 2

    Selected in 2023

  • Grades: k - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 8,500
    Student Enrollment: 247
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 1%
    White/Caucasian: 93.3%
    Hispanic: 1.2%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.5%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 3%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:22
    % Reduced Lunch: 76%
    % ELL Learners: 1%
    Founded: 1979
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Silas Counts
  • CONTACT:
    1015 Milwaukee Street
    Miles City, MT 59301
    406-234-4310
    scounts@milescity.k12.mt.us