Good day,                                                                                                                  1/30/26 

Every quarter brings new challenges and successes. It is a great thing to see our new students rise to the challenge of being in a new school environment, around new classmates and staff, and adjust to the PAL way of school life. From a success standpoint, I appreciate that our current student body is welcoming of their new classmates and our staff have quickly identified several strategies that will help our new students. All in all, PAL students and staff have been tremendous at navigating our school year to this point and the start of semester two, block 7, is no different! 

You’ll find at the end of the newsletter an invitation to a community meeting hosted by SMA, HHS and PAL about the new building process. I’m happy to share that the architect firm has been actively involved with staff and student planning and will continue to gather feedback from the community. In fact, this week, they set up a small booth in the commons and had snacks for our students and engaged in conversations about what layouts our students liked and disliked as well as opportunities to look at several mock images of what PAL could look like in a few short years. It’s an exciting process and we are thankful our kids are part of the planning experience also. 

We will have two noteworthy events next week. On Wednesday, the Montana Electricians Union will come by the building to talk about career opportunities in their field to our students. Hopefully some of our students will consider shadowing a member of the organization for a senior project or a career as an electrician! Then, Friday the 6th, our archery students will be in Great Falls for a state competition. We are excited to see how they perform and represent PAL at the event. The class has been a highpoint of the block so far.  

Have a good weekend, 

Matt Carey 

mcarey1@helenaschools.org 

406-324-1632 

F/R Application – Free and reduced priced school meals application 

My MealTime – check lunch balances, deposit money 

HHS + PAL Community Meeting 

• Date: Wednesday, February 19 

• Location: HHS Cafeteria: Helena High School
  1300 Billings Avenue
  Helena, Montana 59601 

• Time: 5:30-7:00 pm 

• Information: You’re Invited! Come see designs and floor plans for the reimagined Helena High School campus, featuring a new Helena High School, new PAL, and District Athletics facilities. Open to the entire community. Presentation followed by Q&A.