HILARY MATHESON
EDUCATION REPORTER
Hilary Matheson covers education for the Daily Inter Lake. Her reporting focuses on schools, students, and the policies that shape public education across Northwest Montana. Matheson regularly reports on school boards, district decisions and issues affecting teachers and families. Her work examines how funding, enrollment and state policy influence local school systems. She helps readers understand how education decisions affect students and communities throughout the region.
IMPACT: Hilary’s work provides transparency and insight into the schools that serve thousands of local families.
Recent Stories
Community lights up for soldier son
Barbara Anderson of Kalispell has an early Christmas wish for her son: She wants a priceless memory of viewing Christmas lights with family to take with him as he prepares for his first deployment.
Love INC builds solid base in North Valley
Barbara Anderson of Kalispell has an early Christmas wish for her son: She wants a priceless memory of viewing Christmas lights with family to take with him as he prepares for his first deployment.
Bigfork youths partner up in new club
Project Unify
Through a new club, Bigfork Middle School is ramping up its efforts to create an inclusive environment for people with and without intellectual disabilities.
Speech events: posters, persuasion, preparation
Speech season kicked into high gear at the Western Regional tournament this weekend.
Jazz show tests out special space
Thursday’s Whitefish High School jazz band performance in the new multipurpose room of the Center for Applied Media Arts & Sciences wing was music to the ears of director Mark McCrady.
Governor pushes nutrition for young students
Gov. Steve Bullock sampled a breakfast cookie with Elrod Elementary School teacher Maggie Sherrill’s fourth-graders as part of Breakfast after the Bell, an initiative to fight childhood hunger throughout the state in partnership with No Kid Hungry Montana.
Schools study welding alternatives
District, college look for new location for high school program
The welding program for Flathead and Glacier high schools is looking for a new home.
Girls produce dozens of blankets for needy children
Girls from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kalispell finally saw the results of a year’s work making children’s blankets Thursday.
School board questions new rules
Kalispell Public Schools trustees will write a letter to the Office of Public Instruction opposing proposed rule changes regarding parental consent in implementing a student Individualized Education Plan.
'Gap' year yields career path for Flathead High School grad
When McKenna Wilson graduated from Flathead High School she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do and made a decision to seek out the answer abroad.
Flathead administrator wins honor from state association
Michele Paine is the recipient of the Montana Association of Secondary School Principals Assistant Principal of the Year Award for 2015-16.
Options narrowed for new schools
Kalispell Public Schools is homing in on how a new school — or schools — will be configured on a 25-acre property south of town on Airport Road.
Scout crafts bat houses for Glacier
Glacier National Park’s bats will have a new place to call home with a new mini-condo built for the nocturnal residents by Columbia Falls Boy Scout Todd Ervin.
Kalispell school officials craft gender guidelines
Kalispell Public Schools administrators have crafted a set of administrative guidelines for working with transgender and gender-nonconforming students.
Professor studies air and ice
Von Walden, 53, has come a long way from his school days in Creston. Recently, the Washington State University professor spent time aboard a ship frozen in the Arctic ice pack to conduct scientific research.
New campaign has goal of combating violence
Whitefish resident Brian Muldoon has had enough with social violence and is hoping to shift perspectives at least on a local scale through a fledgling project called the Campaign Against Violence.
Local author shares her method behind the monster madness
"Fact one: Monsters do exist.”
Flathead High students give back during service day
Orange-clad youths fan out across town
Depot Park and side streets of Kalispell were dotted with orange Thursday.
Mom, preemie prevail despite breast cancer diagnosis during pregnancy
'The fighting will of a mother to survive for her family'
Program aims to support youths
Montana SOARS works to build a sustainable system
Mental health has been the forefront of Ronda Stevens’ work at Kalispell Public Schools as the project director of Montana Support, Outreach and Access for the Resiliency of Students.
West Valley builds fitness trail
Design class project involves local, university students
Students track sounds, science
'We are Montana' visits local classrooms
Students in science teacher Ben Young’s class listened to the call of the wild Tuesday as University of Montana doctoral student Alexis Billings gave a presentation on animal sound identification.
Eureka school earns award
Eureka Middle School has earned its first National Blue Ribbon School award for exemplary work in closing the achievement gap among student groups.
Cafe sessions feature French focus
There was something different about the conversation among 25 Flathead and Glacier high school patrons at Colter Coffee Wednesday evening. Over the cacophony of multiple conversations one thing was clear: Everyone was speaking French.
Glacier grad named National AP Scholar
Among the 40 Glacier High School students to receive Advanced Placement Scholar Awards, one student was named a National Advanced Placement Scholar.
Local schools scoring well on ACT test
Most Flathead Valley high schools are doing better or comparable to the rest of the state in the percentage of 2015 graduates who are college-ready, according to ACT results.
Jazz ensemble makes a comeback
Jazz band is making an encore at Bigfork High School.
Glacier plans homecoming festivities
It’s time again for students and alumni to rally around the Glacier High School Wolfpack for homecoming Monday through Saturday.
Bigfork bond ballots head to voters
Voters will decide the fate of a $14 million bond request to build an addition and renovate Bigfork High School.
Whitefish plans new school greenhouse
Building a greenhouse that will become an outdoor laboratory for students and a hallmark of experiential learning at Whitefish High School is coming to fruition.
Shop class replaces old footbridge
Project restores crossing at waterfowl area
When wildlife biologist Beverly Skinner’s only option to cross an old irrigation canal within the Flathead Waterfowl Protection Area was a collapsed footbridge, she worked with Bigfork High School students to get it replaced.
Three schools celebrate homecoming
By HILARY MATHESON
School growth rate jumps to 3 percent
The challenges of rising enrollment and elementary overcrowding came to the forefront of a Kalispell Public Schools facility planning committee meeting last week.
Local scientist heads up research team — Makings of Mars
Makings of Mars
At 3:15 p.m. on Aug. 29, Whitefish resident Carmel Johnston began a year in relative isolation on a barren slope of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii.
Youths learn Border Patrol tactics
The Boy Scouts Grizzly Base Camp near Bigfork served as the backdrop to the inaugural U.S. Border Patrol Explorer Academy in the Flathead Valley.
Back to school with the governor
Columbia Falls visit focuses on career training
Thursday was an atypical first day of class for Columbia Falls High School when Gov. Steve Bullock stopped by on his Back to School Tour.
Mary Tepas to fill spot on Kalispell Public Schools Board of Trustees
Parent and Special Education advocate Mary Tepas has been selected to fill a vacancy on the Kalispell Public Schools Board of Trustees.
Whitefish's new superintendent talks strategy
New Whitefish School District Superintendent Heather Davis Schmidt could be described as a collaborative leader.
Flathead High students to build new house
Flathead High School students will raise the roof in new construction classes this school year.
Monday's the big day for many local schools
In addition to classes starting, most school districts that begin Monday also will serve hot lunch on opening day.
Many schools around the Flathead Valley launch a new school year on Monday:
Kalispell schools ready to roll
School is back in session next week for roughly 6,108 students in the Flathead Valley who will be attending Kalispell Public Schools.
Kalispell school budget pegged at $69 million
Kalispell Public Schools will operate on a $69 million budget for the 2015-16 school year.
U.S. 2 reopens, but fires still a threat
U.S. 2 along the southern edge of Glacier National Park reopened to traffic Saturday morning as did the BNSF Railway line through the Middle Fork Corridor.
Summer project: setting the stage
100-fold studio
This summer, 12 architecture students who came from as far away as Alabama and England set the stage for the Lakeside community to gather.
It's back-to-school time once again
Two districts begin classes in next week
It’s time again to gather supplies and pack backpacks because another school year is here, starting this week for some schools.
Canadians fighting Waterton Lake Fire
At the northern edge of Glacier National Park, a wildfire that started Friday afternoon near Goat Haunt is approximately 25 acres.
2,500-acre fire among 19 on Spotted Bear District
The Spotted Bear Ranger District remains the hot spot for fires on the Flathead National Forest, with eight new fires started by Friday’s lightning storms.
Lamb champ piles up the trophies
Twelve-year-old champion Bailey Lake knows how to put on a show with her Sussex Hampshire cross lambs: Blend into the background and let the lamb take center stage.
Fusaro named principal of the year
Flathead High School Principal Peter Fusaro was recently named Class AA Principal of the Year.
Explore Amtrak history this weekend
All aboard the Amtrak Exhibit Train!