Five candidates vie for Havre school board seats

In two weeks, five candidates hope to be elected to fill the two positions on the Havre Public Schools Boar of Trustees. Elections will be held May 3, though many voters have already received balots in the mail. The candidates are Wayne Bolken, Keisha Fegan, Shaylee Lewis, Theresa Miller and Norman Proctor.

Wayne Bolken

Bolken is a retired history and special education teacher. He has a master’s degree in education with an emphasis on learning disabilities from the former Montana State University-Billings.

Bolken has taught in Havre schools for more than 30 years. Although he has taught in elementary, middle and high schools, a bulk of his teaching, Bolken said, has been at Havre Middle School with 20 of them in special education.

Bolken said his background will be advantageous in bringing a different perspective.

One of Bolken’s greatest concerns is recruiting more qualified teachers to Havre schools.

Bolken supports the elementary fund mill levy that is on the ballot.

“People funded our education when we were going through the system — we need to keep that funding going for future generations,” he said. “Havre does a great job with technology. You never want to get behind.”

Keisha Fegan

At 28, Fegan has been alive less time than Bolken has taught. She sais she hopes her age is not an impediment to being elected.

Fegan came to Havre from Coer d’ Alene, Idaho, seven years ago to be near her parents. Her parents later moved away, but she has since married a Havre man and made his family her family.

Fegan has a 5-year-old who will be in school soon and she wants to play a role in influencing her education.

While Havre schools do a good job, Fegan said her exposure to the “big city” leads her to believe she can suggest ways to do some things even better.

Fegan said she thinks school curriculum should prepare students to navigate through life after school.

“I feel school should prepare us for adulthood too — I feel that’s something that’s overlooked,” she said, before mentioning that she has known people in their mid-20s who don’t know how to balance a checkbook.

Fegan said she agrees with and would have voted for elementary mill levy, adding that lementary schools are the foundation of a student’s educational career. Elementary students need all the advantages they can get, she said.

Shaylee Lewis

Lewis is a Havre native who left Havre for college and came back. Lewis has an administrative degree from Montana State University in Bozeman and a master’s degree in education from Grand Canyon University. She taught at Havre High School for 12 years.

These days, Lewis works with her husband in the family business, Lewis Heating and A/C. The Lewises have a son who will be entering kindergarten, another who will be in third grade, which compounds her interest for local education.

“That’s the biggest reason I’m running — I’d like to see our schools continue in the direction they are, making sure all our kids are educated to the fullest extent that we can in our community, making sure we are passing mill levies, that we are supporting our future,” Lewis said.

Lewis emphasized the importance of the role of teachers in education.

“While that’s not the job of the school board, it is important we do our part when it comes to budgets to make sure our teachers are paid well. Retaining staff is important — we need to retain people here to teach our youth in the future. Are we making those gains for our students academically? Are they being challenged academically? Is there technology in the classrooms? Are we supporting that? How are we supporting that?” Lewis said.

Theresa Miller

Miller has been in Havre 18 years and has served on the school board for the last four.

She works in a lab as a histotechnologist at Northern Montana Hospital, where she is receiving on-the-job training.

Miller has two children at Havre Middle School and started volunteering at the schools when they were in elementary school.

“It seems like a good way to serve,” she said.

She saisd she is interested in seeing how the Every Students Succeeds Act program, the ESSA, is going to impact students.

She said she also would like to see how the facilities in Havre public schools will look like in the future — “We’ve done some upgrades in Highland Park, Sunnyside and some things to the high school — so what are we going to do with those kids at Lincoln McKinley? How is improving those facilities going to look like?”

Miller said she voted for elementary mill levy because it is needed for schools to stay competitive. She is not only the mother of two students, but she is also a homeowner, she said. But the levy will help Havre schools be in a position to recruit and retain teachers, she said.

Miller added that keeping students current with available technology and preparing them for the job market of the future is very important for her.

Norman Proctor

Proctor moved with his family, four children included, to Havre in 1992. A former rancher, he earned two-year degree in water quality and environmental health.

Proctor has served on the school board for the last 12 years. All four of his children graduated from Havre High School.

If re-elected, Proctor said, he would like to see continual “refurbishing” of Havre public school facilities.

“We spent the last few years making real improvements to Highland Park … the addition and rebuilding of the park and lot at the middle school, the addition of the basketball park at Highland Park. I’d like to continue on and try to get something going for Lincoln-McKinley,” he said

Proctor was one of two trustees who voted against the elementary general fund levy. He said the decision was not because he has any qualms with students getting the best education the city can offer.

“I’m worried about people with fixed incomes and adding, though it is a small amount on to their taxes, another add-on,” he said. “I was just a little concerned. The consensus among people who I’ve talked to, is that from the state’s reevaluation of our property, we all took a pretty good jump in taxes … I’m not against teachers or against the school — I’m absolutely for everything for our kids.