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New members sworn in, absence policy, health ed plan accepted
Havre school board members Curtis Smeby, from left, and Timothy Scheele are sworn in by Hill County School Superintendent Diane McLean at Tuesday's school board meeting. Also sworn in was Cindy Erickson. Smeby and Erickson were re-elected in the May 6 election, while Scheele was chosen to succeed Darlene Bricker, who retired from the board.
The newest member of the Havre Public School District Board of Trustees, Timothy Scheele, was inducted into the board Tuesday.
Curtis Smeby and Cindy Erickson were also sworn in to their positions again on the board at the special 12:15 p.m. Tuesday meeting.
At the 6:30 p.m. school board meeting, Scheele took his seat among the other members to begin his first meeting. The board took a vote on who was to be the new chair of the board after Darlene Bricker decided not to seek re-election to the board.
Board member Ed Hill nominated Eileen Couch, and the board voted unanimously to install her in the chair's position. Harvey Capellen was re-elected as vice chair.
The board voted unanimously to raise the prices of the high school student handbooks students are required to buy at the beginning of each year from $4 to $6 to pay for updating the book.
The next item on the agenda was to accept changes to the handbook, which most notably included changes to the absence policy.
The board voted to change the policy from allowing seven unexcused absences a semester to five. Kipp Lewis, Havre High vice principal, who was presenting the item to the board, said this change was made in order to stave the influx of student absences.
"We have seen a significant amount of absences," Lewis said. " ... When students aren't in school, they're not getting an education."
Smeby asked if the students who have been the biggest offenders of missing school have lower grades. Lewis did not have the information, but said at a cursory look, some of the students' grades were low and some were fine.
The board passed the changes, with board member Ed Hill voting against the changes.
After the meeting, Hill said he is aware that the situation of students missing school is getting out of hand, but he is not sure the absence policy is the way to remedy it.
"It was addressed that it's not affecting a lot of the students' grades," Hill said. "I don't think this gets to the root of the issue."
Among the other items the school board voted on and passed were a consideration of a health enhancement curriculum, which board member Norman Proctor voted against after expressing concern about the sex education portion of the curriculum.
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