January Update
AGED ADMIN
Happy New Year
January
5 – Chapter Report – Montana FFA Reporter, ffaau...@gmail.com
11-13 – Fusion Career Summit / Gold Conf. - Billings
20-21 – KMON – Great Falls
24 – Fergus Mechanics / MAAE Winter Meeting – Lewistown
February
1 – FFA Scholarships & Letters of Rec. Due – Montana FFA website
10 – Economic Impact Reports – Montana OPI – eric.t...@mt.gov
Perkins Reserve Grant FY26 Application
LEAs who have been in good standing with their local application funds for two years prior to the current application year. This includes adhering to grant application and reporting deadlines, submitting accurate data reports, appropriate fiscal supporting documents, adherence to all Perkins V and Civil Rights monitoring.
Districts are only eligible for a total of $5,000 in awards, must have completed the Perkins Grant Application for Fiscal year 26 and receive an allocation of less than $15,000.
Vision for Perkins Reserve Funding:
• Foster innovation through the identification and promotion of promising and proven career and technical education programs, practices, and strategies, which may include programs, practices, and strategies that prepare individuals for nontraditional fields; or
• To create career awareness, recruit students to a CTE Secondary Program of Study or promote the development, implementation, and adoption of programs of study or career pathways aligned with state-identified high-skill, high-wage, or in-demand occupations or industries in the middle grades.
Schools could use the funds to help:
• establish foundational elements for work-based learning
• improve transitions from middle grades into secondary CTE programs of study.
• establish innovative delivery methods for career exploration
• expose students to employability skills earlier
Advancing Agriculture Grant
The application process for Advancing Ag-Ed for the 2025-27 cycle is open. You can utilize the National Program Benchmarks or the MPQS assessment tool on MAgNet under grants. $2000 per Full Time Teacher (FTE).
The Council National Program Benchmarks Website
Free Lessons From Helena Ag
Bring Innovation Straight to Your Classroom
Connect classroom learning with modern agricultural innovation through our Innovation Never Stops classroom series. The Classroom Guide — created specifically for teachers, ag instructors and FFA leaders — contains hands-on activities, discussion prompts and practical insights that extend each video in the series into meaningful, real-world lessons.
Stay connected with Helena
Want updates about this series and future classroom resources?
Request a Classroom Visit
Bring Helena’s Innovation Never Stops series directly to your students. Invite a Helena representative to your classroom or FFA chapter to share field insights, lead hands-on demonstrations and highlight careers in agricultural innovation.
Innovation. Performance. Results. The HPG Difference.
FFA Updates
Tribal Agricultural Fellowship (TAF) Offers WLC
Scholarships
TAF is partnering with FFA to sponsor Native American high school students
to attend the Washington Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., during week
5 (July 6-11). If you have a student who is 15 years or older by the beginning
of WLC and of Native descent, encourage them to apply
[forms.monday.com]. The application deadline is Monday, Jan. 12.
2025-26 National FFA Scholarship Application -
Whether you are pursuing a trade school, vocational certificate or a
two-year or four-year degree, don’t miss your chance to apply for a National
FFA Scholarship to help with your next steps in education. If you are a senior
FFA member in high school or FFA Alumni in college, just one application is
required for multiple scholarship opportunities totaling nearly $2.5 million. Applications due Jan. 15. [ffa.org]
New Century Farmer Applications Open
Participant and facilitator applications are open through Feb. 15 for the 2026
New Century Farmer Conference [ffa.org] to be held July 18-22 in
Indianapolis. During this free hands-on conference, 18-24-year-old FFA alumni
will learn from each other and industry experts on topics that affect today’s
production agriculturists.
National Agriculture Challenge To Be Held This February - Friday, Feb. 20, 2026
Experience the excitement of the National Agriculture Challenge, [westernfarmshow.com] where students in agriculture put their skills to the test. Hosted during the Western Farm Show in Kansas City, Mo., Feb. 20, 2026, this dynamic competition brings together FFA members from across the nation to demonstrate their expertise in areas such as ag mechanics, machinery operation and industry knowledge. Register [westernfarmshow.com] today!
NAAE Updates: For Every Age and Every Stage
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Teacher Resources:
1) theAET Help Reminder that you need to have all of your records up to date by Feb 10th for the Economic Impact Report due to OPI to be a chapter in good standing.