Big Sky Students & Families-

This week we have a very exciting event happening at Big Sky! We are hosting Special Olympics Area games Wednesday and we have 7 athletes competing!!! The Opening Ceremony begins at 8:30am and we hope that students and parents can stop out at some point to cheer on our athletes! 

There are a few days left to take advantage of our Frankly pilot to help increase engagement with your child-you can either use the QR on the infographic or click the word FRANKLY in the text and use the code MCPS2025. 

Another reminder we have lots happening in these next few weeks before summer…be sure to check out the End of Year Events page to see updates and future events!

Have a great week Big Sky!

 Jennifer Courtney

Principal, jccourtney@mcpsmt.org

Big Sky Students & Parents-

It’s hard to believe there are only 8 weeks left in the school year! We have a lot of exciting events coming up, be sure to check out the End of Year Events page to see updates and future events! Here are this week’s updates:

• Attached you will find an invitation to join a pilot program for parents called Frankly.  Frankly is a family engagement program designed to help parents engage with their teenagers. It offers a range of tools and resources to support trauma-informed family engagement, with the goal of boosting attendance, improving student behavior, and reducing family stress. Essentially, Frankly aims to strengthen the partnership between schools, families, and communities to support student learning and well-being. 
• Our goal is to have families try the pilot through the 31st of April and then we will ask for some feedback if you felt this was a helpful tool to use with your child.  

• Attached is the QR to try it out! 

MONTANA'S 2025 SERVICE ACADEMY DAYS-Representatives from all five service academies (Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Merchant Marines, and Air Force), ROTC, and the Montana National Guard will be available to provide information about the application and nomination process on Thursday, April 24th, from 3:00-6:00 pm in the American Legion Post 27 in Missoula. For more information please contact kristin_kuiken@daines.senate.gov

• Reminder- there is no school on Friday May 23rd due to Big Sky’s track hosting the State C State Track meet.  Directions for the day will be posted in your teachers Google Classrooms.

Have a great week Big Sky! Take care of yourselves and others, and please be sure to let me know if you need anything.

Jennifer Courtney

Principal, jccourtney@mcpsmt.org

Big Sky Students & Families-

What a beautiful Prom hosted by your amazing Prom Committee! It’s always so great to see our students outside the walls of the school, all dressed up having a fun time! Here are this week’s updates:

Congratulations to our 2025 - 2026 Student Gov elected leaders!

Student Body Presidents: Averi Larson & Cierra Maloney

Senior Class Presidents: Kade Dunning & Cole Silberstein

Junior Class Presidents: Lauren Donovan & Rex Rhodes

Sophomore Class Presidents: Skadi'Jun Smith & Sophie Larson

A special thanks to all of the candidates for your hard work and willingness to put yourself out there! If you think you might want to be involved in Student Gov, or even run for office next year, you need to be involved! See any of these leaders, or Mrs. Keffeler if you have questions! 

ALL STUDENTS-please make sure you are bringing your charged Chromebook to school each day. We are seeing more and more requests for chargers from the library and many of those are not being returned in a timely manner. 

Be sure to keep checking back to the End of Year Events calendar for updates! 

Have a great week Big Sky! Go Eagles!

Jennifer Courtney

Principal, jccourtney@mcpsmt.org

Big Sky Students & Families-

One more week until our amazing Prom! If you haven’t gotten your tickets please be sure to do so from the Attendance Office this week.  Here are additional updates:

• It's time to vote for next year's Student Government officers! You only get ONE vote, so make it count! Remember, this should be about who YOU think will best represent your needs. The students you elect as officers will be your voice for the year! Voting will be open from Thursday 4/3 at 10:45am until Monday 4/7 at 4:00pm Here are the links: 

Student Body

Senior Class

Junior Class

Sophomore Class

• Check out the upcoming opportunities for our Native students to bead their graduation caps in the attachment!
• Student drivers, the daycare across the street has reached out concerned that students are driving through their parking lots, often at high rates of speed.  Please note that it is private property and is not available for use to cut through. 

• MCPS is now offering N-O-T for students who would like support (or whose parents want them to have support) for nicotine/tobacco/vaping cessation.  Please see the attached information and let me know if you have any questions.  

Have a great week Big Sky, please reach out if you need anything or have questions! Go Eagles!

Jennifer Courtney

Principal, jccourtney@mcpsmt.org

Big Sky Students & Families-

We have officially kicked off spring athletics and activities! Be sure to check out the End of Year events document.  This has listed many of the other events to wrap up the school year.  This is a working calendar, so be sure to bookmark the page and check back for updates and additions.

Don’t forget, Wednesday April 9th is ACT day for the 11th graders.  No school for 9th, 10th, and 12th graders-be sure to check Google Classroom as your teachers will be posting assignments for that day.

No school Friday April 11th, that is a staff professional development day! 

PROM is Saturday April 12th and the Fairgrounds, be sure to get your tickets this week in the Commons during lunch! 

We will be having our Winter Sports Celebration Assembly on Thursday during Advisory, we will also be welcoming our Special Olympics Athletes as their area games are coming up on Wednesday April 30th in the Big Sky stadium.  We would love to have you come out and cheer them on! 

Be sure to come out and see Drowsy Chaperone this upcoming weekend, it’s going to be an amazing show! 

Have a great week Big Sky-Seniors & Parents be sure to check the email I sent last week regarding important senior items!

Jennifer Courtney

Principal, jccourtney@mcpsmt.org

Big Sky Students & Families-

I hope this week’s updates finds you rested after spring break and ready to finish the spring semester strong! There are only 12 weeks left in this school year and it’s time for our seniors to get excited about graduation! Here are this week’s updates:

SENIORS:

• If you have received an award or scholarship please take a moment to fill out this link-Scholarship Reporting Link, this is how we know which students & families to invite to the Senior Awards Breakfast!  
• Seniors-we want your voice in helping to choose your graduation speaker, please take a moment to fill this link out-Graduation Speaker Options

Updates for all students:

• Sign ups for the 3rd annual Big Sky High School Future You: College and Career Speaker Summit on March 25th. Use this link for more information: Future You Information
• Want to help with Prom 2025? We are looking for help with purchasing decorations. Here is the Amazon wish list our student Prom Committee has put together. Anything you can help with is great! Prom Wish List
• Wednesday April 9th-ACT for the juniors.  This will be a remote day for 9th, 10th and 12th graders.  
• Friday April 11th-No School, District Music Festival and Staff professional development 

Have a great week back Big Sky! Please reach out if you need anything! 

Jennifer Courtney

Principal, jccourtney@mcpsmt.org

Big Sky Students & Families-

One more week until spring break! While we are still wrapping up our Girls Basketball season (Go EAGLES!) It's time to check out all of the spring activities happening-Calendar of Events.

Here are additional updates:

• Sign ups for the 3rd annual Big Sky High School Future You: College and Career Speaker Summit on March 25th. Use this link for more information: Future You Information
• March 17th-March 21st-Spring Break
• Wednesday April 9th-ACT for the juniors.  This will be a remote day for 9th, 10th and 12th graders.  
• Friday April 11th-No School, District Music Festival and Staff professional development 

Have a great week Big Sky! See you all after Spring break!! 

Jennifer Courtney

Principal, jccourtney@mcpsmt.org

Big Sky Students & Families-

Congratulations to our Big Sky Swim team on their amazing showing at the 2025 State Swim meet! Senior Aiden McKenzie took 4th in the 100 Fly and 5th in the Boys 50 Yard Freestyle, Big Sky girls took 3rd in the 200 Freestyle Relay and 5th in the Girls 400 Yard Freestyle Relay. Our boys Team event took 11th in the Boys 200 Yard Medley Relay.  Overall our girls took 8th and our boys took 9th in the state tournament.  

Over the past 2 weekends the Speech & Debate team has competed at the state tournament and national qualifier. At State in Bozeman last week Adalyn Maxwell placed 5th in the LD debate and Laila Podlipny placed 5th in the OO speech event.  This past weekend Speech & Debate competed in the NSDA national qualifying competition in Whitefish. 

Spring sports season is almost here! The required parent & athlete sports meeting on Monday March 3rd at 6pm in the Big Sky Theater.  If this is the first sport for your child this year, you need to make sure you have an updated physical. 

SENIORS!!!!

Graduation is right around the corner! Stay tuned for a senior only message in the next couple of weeks related to caps & gowns, the Senior Awards Breakfast and other end of year events.  A few important dates to have on your calendar:

• Graduation, Saturday June 7th 12pm, Adams Center
• Practice, Friday June 6th 11am, Adams Center
• Senior Awards breakfast, Thursday June 5th 9-11am (invitations will be sent 2 weeks ahead for seniors that have received scholarships or awards)
• Seniors last day of school-Wednesday June 4th! 

Have a great week Big Sky! Please reach out if you need anything.

Jennifer Courtney

Principal, jccourtney@mcpsmt.org

Big Sky Students & Families-

What a great wrap up this weekend to the Big Sky Wrestling season! We had 6 wrestlers place in the top including: Quincy King-3rd, Tanner Davis-4th, Lizzy Henkins-4th, Chuck Gehl-6th, Lucia Schalper-2nd and Hattie Morrow-1st! We are so proud of the 22 wrestlers that earned a bid to the state meet.

Swim and Speech & Debate will be highlighted in next week’s update (scores for swim were not available at the time of this message).  It’s hard to believe we will be wrapping up Basketball in the next month and it’s time for spring sports!

If you plan to play Softball, Baseball, Tennis or Track & Field, be sure to get those physicals complete if this is your first sport of the year. The spring sports meeting will be March 3rd at 6pm. 

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL OPPORTUNITIES! 

This Tuesday evening, 2/18 we'll host an informational meeting for the International Club's trip to Germany & Switzerland next summer (June of 2026). If your student is interested in joining the trip, come join us in room 31 at 6 pm. You can email Mrs. Cook (jcook@mcpsmt.org) or Mrs. Keffeler (elkeffeler@mcpsmt.org) with questions.

If you'd like to get a handle on all the different international trips Big Sky is putting together, who runs them, when and how they are scheduled, and how to plan for them -- we'll host an informational session at lunch during International Week. Students who want to travel with the school but aren't sure where or when are strongly encouraged to attend: we'll be in room 92 at lunch on Thursday 2/20.

SENIORS!!!!

Graduation is right around the corner! Stay tuned for a senior only message in the next couple of weeks related to caps & gowns, the Senior Awards Breakfast and other end of year events.  Please take a moment to review the Eagle Medallion criteria.  This is the highest honor a senior can receive, to see if you may qualify please read over the criteria, and selection process.  A few important dates to have on your calendar:

• Graduation, Saturday June 7th 12pm, Adams Center
• Practice, Friday June 6th 11am, Adams Center
• Senior Awards breakfast, Thursday June 5th 9-11am (invitations will be sent 2 weeks ahead for seniors that have received scholarships or awards)
• Seniors last day of school-Wednesday June 4th! 

Have a great week Big Sky! Please reach out if you have any questions or need anything.

Jennifer Courtney

Principal, jccourtney@mcpsmt.org

Big Sky Students & Families-

We are now a plus one in the Big Sky family now that Gertie is home!!! What an incredible win, and you each deserve to celebrate, this is a huge showing of our positive culture, our commitment to our school and in my heart just another demonstration of how amazing you all are! 

Enjoy some of the pictures of our win attached to this email!!!

Also, to celebrate that Gertie's home, we are hosting a semi-formal dance on March 8th!  

We also want to celebrate that we have 22 wrestlers who have won a bid to the AA State Wrestling Tournament next weekend in Billings.  We will be sending them off on Wednesday morning! 

Oh and I almost forgot, you don’t have school tomorrow, Monday 2/10!! Teachers have a professional development day, so enjoy a restful day.  Also no school on Monday 2/17 for President’s Day. 

Lastly, please take a moment to help our Biomedical Students wrap up their research papers, if you have a few moments, click on the link below and read through and select as many surveys as you would like to or are able to complete-Biomedical Surveys 

Have a great week Big Sky, each of you deserves to be acknowledged for your contributions to making our school community a better place, enjoy the victories! Please reach out if you need anything.

Jennifer Courtney

Principal, jccourtney@mcpsmt.org