Hi-Line Living: Big Sandy: Small town, small school

Montana is a big state filled with many small towns, many of which have their own small schools.

Big Sandy is one such town, though it wasn't always as small.

Going back to the '70s, Big Sandy High School was a class B school - high school enrollment alone was at least 120. However, enrollment has more than halved since and the Big Sandy Pioneers attend a class C school. The entire district has 170 students, 91 in high school and middle school and 70 in kindergarten to sixth grade, district superintendent Brad Moore said.

Like many farming towns in north-central Montana, the arrival of large machinery and its resultant ballooning of farms has quashed the number of families and the need for large families and workers. The farms have become exponentially larger, families smaller and fewer, and the the size of entire towns have followed, Big Sandy included.

Many Big Sandy teachers have been teaching long enough to see the changes in slow motion.

Larry and Christine Brumwell are in their 40th year teaching at Big Sandy School. They both started fresh out of college. Chris, as she's called, teaches math, and Larry teaches physical education. Larry spent the first 37 years as a special education teacher. He said he is enjoying being a PE teacher.

Contrary to what might seem logical, Chris said, a teacher's responsibilities do not get lighter as student population gets smaller.

"I have many more duties now. When I came, I did four different things. I was teaching a science class twice a day - so it was the same preparation for that class - and then I had three other classes. So I had four preparations during the day," she said. "And now, the teachers have six preparations to do during the day, and so it's harder. And class sizes are smaller, but you still have just as much planning to do."

Students have changed, the Brumwells said. Technology, although unrelated to enrollment, has compounded the challenges of teaching.

"They love technology and sometimes they use technology when they shouldn't," Chris said. "I'm not a believer of cellphones in the classroom, but it is allowed in the school here. It's a big distraction."

Administrative Assistant of 34 years Sherri Heppner will retire at the end of the year. She, too, believes technology may not be doing students any favors.

"Technology is a wonderful thing, but I think the distractions of the cellphone in school and in the classroom has just been awful," Heppner said.

Heppner said students have changed overall, in ways that are probably not limited to Big Sandy.

"There are some things that you just witness over the years that you just go, 'Wow, that wouldn't have happened 20 years ago.' I'm not saying it's just Big Sandy," Heppner said, adding that more young people today have a sense of entitlement that wasn't as prevalent many years ago.

But it's not all bad. Heppner listed the Brumwells as an example of the good things in the district, as well as a recent change - the four-day workweek.

The Brumwells agree with Heppner that the four-day workweek - which was implemented three years ago - has been good for the district.

"Two biggest things that we were looking at was recruitment for teachers and attendance - and our staff attendance has increased dramatically," Moore said.

The year before the four-day workweek, Moore said, there were about 360 teacher absentees in the district. That number has dramatically dropped.

"Last year we had 160," he said. "And when you have teachers in front of the class, you're going to be more successful."

Another reason for the four-day workweek is that it gives students a chance to participate in activities without missing school.

"A lot of those things happen Fridays. We had many kids missing school Fridays to be in the activities, so now they don't miss," Chris said.

Jessica Roth and Sophia Reichelt are seniors at Big Sandy High School. They have both lived in Big Sandy all their lives. Jessica is the student body president and Sophia is part of the student council. Jessica is also on the volleyball team and part of the national honor society. Sophia plays basketball as well as the saxophone in band and sings alto in the choir. They are also both part of nonschool activities.

Although class starts at 8 a.m., Jessica said,

she gets to school about 7:30 a.m. She walks around to see what teachers and students are doing. After school she goes to volleyball practice at 6 p.m.

The amount of attention students receive from teachers as a result of having a small classroom is an advantage, Jessica said. The community closeness, a result of lack of anonymity, can also be an advantage. Going to a small school in a town of 600 people, everybody sees each other in school and out of school, the girls said.

"It's like a family unit," Sophia said.

That family unit, however, can sometimes be a result of convenience more than choice.

"Sometimes you're friends with a lot of people because you're around them all the time, but not necessarily because you have a lot of similar interests," Jessica said.

Both girls said they plan on going to college. Sophia wants to attend University of Montana and learn to be a schoolteacher. She said she'd like to live and teach in Oregon afterward.

Jessica is a little uncertain. She said she wants to be a veterinarian, but is not sure if she'll go to school in the university towns of Bozeman or Missoula. And although she said she considers herself social and would like to live in a larger town with greater social opportunities, she would also miss the family ranch and its accompanying lifestyle. She is conflicted.

Jessica and Sophia agreed that Pioneer Pride is wanting.

"It's hard sometime to engage in sports because we've been losing quite a bit," Jessica said.

Attempts to beef up school pride have been, and continue to be, made, Sophia said, by way of events like pep rallies and sportsmanship awards, but it's still difficult.

"The problem with a small school is it's hard to have passion for sports because there's no tryouts," Jessica said.

When he's not teaching seventh and eight-grade math, Colby Cline is the athletic director and has been so for the last three years. Sports brings a community together, Cline said. It gives a community identity, and that's especially true in north-central Montana.

"I've taught at a lot of different schools and the farming-ranch communities really support the athletics," he said.

As with other areas, low enrollment has negatively impacted sports as well.

"You can make some big improvements when you have numbers," Cline said. "You have practice partners, you have teams you can be proactive against. But if you're playing six-man football and you only have 10 kids dressed out, you don't have enough to practice a full scrimmage against, so you don't get a true feel of what gameplay is like."

At noon, Moore hopped behind the steering wheel of one of two district school buses to drive high school students to the elementary building for lunch. All district students eat in the elementary school building cafeteria. Moore, who was the superintendent at Richey schools, is used to being in charge of a small district and the plethora of duties it requires.

"The smaller you get the more you have to do," he said. "I drove the volleyball bus Saturday, this week I'll drive the bus for a field trip. I also have a boiler's license."

Moore has been a certified boiler operator since his days in Richey. He is also the technology coordinator, another thing he picked up during his years in Richey, he said.

No one knows what will happen to Big Sandy Schools. For the last few years, enrollment has held steady and the four-day workweek has helped with teacher recruitment.

Native son and local organic farmer U.S. Sen. Jon Tester graduated Big Sandy High School in 1974. He was later on the school board and taught music at Big Sandy since.

"When schools get this small, it becomes a problem," Tester said.

While there are talks at the state level to consolidate small school districts, Tester said, that would be very problematic to do with Big Sandy. Fort Benton is too far and combining with Box Elder may pose cultural problems, he said.

The hope is growth, he said. If Big Sandy grows, Big Sandy Schools grow. Tester cited local entrepreneur and fellow organic farmer Bob Quinn as an example of what Big Sandy needs - more entrepreneurs and job providers.

"We got to figure out ways to get people to move back," he said.