School board agrees to sell Mat Corner Building

Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees unanimously voted Tuesday night to accept an $85,000 offer for the Mat Corner property and expressed sorrow over the departure of Business Manager/Clerk Mike Arnold.

School Superintendent Andy Carlson said he didn’t know anything about the buyer of the Mat Corner except the name, H.R. Archery LLC.

The Mat Corner, located at 2nd Street and 2nd Avenue, had been used by the Havre High School wrestling program until new facilities were built at the high school.

Arnold, who has held the Havre position for six years, has accepted an offer for the chief financial officer position in the Billings school district and will leave at the end of June.

Arnold said the position was a result of networking and a combination of him seeking the job and the district seeking him out.

Arnold said he is taking the job because it is a good opportunity at the state’s largest school district.

He said the decision was very difficult to make. He will miss the school district and the people he enjoyed working with so much.

Carlson said Arnold is very deserving of his new position, and he and everyone in the district will miss him.

“We’re losing a pretty good guy. It’s going to impact how we do business,” he told the trustees during the meeting.

Carlson said the trustees will be replacing Arnold.

After the trustees meeting, Arnold touched on what has made Havre schools “above average.”

The classroom size and amount of teachers are ideal for students to get the attention they need.

The teachers are equipped and very caring, he said.

Arnold said another thing that makes Havre schools so good is the industrial arts classes it maintains, classes such as auto shop, wood construction, welding and family consumer sciences.

If it weren’t for some of the classes, some students would drop out of school, he added.