Havre High School gets more college classes

Not only have the Havre public schools district recently learned it has the third-most high school students earning college credit, but it has more than doubled the available dual-credit courses.

Schools superintendent Andy Carlson heard this week from Regent Paul Tuss, who came across the dual- credit figure in his discussions with the rest of the Board of Regents.

During the spring 2012 semester, Havre Public Schools had 57 students earning college credit in at least one of the three classes offered: College writing, college algebra, or trigonometry and complex numbers.

"All of the largest high schools in the state are behind Havre, except Helena High School and Great Falls High School, " Tuss said this morning. "I thought it was significant. As we look to issues related to college affordability, related to student readiness for college, time-to-degree, and in a particular case here in northern Montana, if you look at the partnership between Havre public schools and Montana State University-Northern, it's all good. "

That number is bound to rise soon, as the Havre public school's Board of Trustees added four more college credit classes to the Havre High School curriculum, right before the enrollment for next semester opens up next week.

The board first considered adding the classes — stagecraft, speech, introduction to psychology and introduction to sociology — at the regular board meeting on Oct. 9.

During that meeting, trustees Norm Proctor and Mark Magelssen suggested that the board table the vote until they figured out if it would be legal for Trustee Curtis Smeby to teach the sociology course while sitting on the board.

Proctor recalled a time when another trustee had wanted to substitute teach, but couldn't receive any money from the schools while also serving on the board.

At their meeting on Tuesday night, Carlson told the board what he had heard from the Montana School Board Association.

"As long as a trustee is not being paid by us and we are not in supervision of him, then we are not in conflict of interest, " Carlson said.

Because the students have to pay for the classes themselves and Smeby would just being doing his job as a Northern professor, there is no problem

"It was a good answer, " Proctor said. "It was a straight out legalese-type thing from the Montana School Board Association that satisfied all my questions. "

The four new classes were approved unanimously.