School district to decide on company for bathroom renovations next week

Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees held its planning meeting Thursday night at the Robbins School Administration Building and appear to be close to finalizing plans for Havre High School's bathroom renovations.

Havre Public Schools Superintendent Andy Carlson said that he opened the bidding for the renovation project Wednesday. Four companies put in bids for the project and provided an additional estimate for updated the light fixtures in the bathrooms to LEDs, Carlson added.

Carlson said "nothing has been determined" at this point and that a decision on which company to go with would likely be made next week.

He added that funding for the project would come out of the multi-district funding that is available.

When asked about the possibility of updating the high school's science classrooms, Carlson said the district did not receive estimates on the project. He added that he has not ruled out the possibility of breaking updating the science rooms into phases.

"We wanted to make sure that we got this part of the project done first," Carlson said.

Carlson had originally projected a cost of $1.3 million for the bathroom renovation, but bids for the project ranged between $500,000 and $700,000.

Carlson also asked the board for ideas regarding student learning goals. He asked what options they would like to see available for students and what the greatest factor is in students not completing high school.

Some of the suggestions for factors in students not being able to complete their high school diploma were the students' home life and the school's high requirements.

Carlson said Havre High requires 22.5 credits to graduate while the state only requires 20.

The board discussed whether Havre should offer a special diploma for students who complete the 22.5 credits and award a standard diploma for those students who complete the state-required 20.

Multiple board members said that while going to college is highly emphasized at Havre High and other high schools, it may not be an option for most students. Various solutions were proposed in the form of offering some classes for careers in the technical or agricultural fields.

The board also discussed having to be careful to not have the appearance of favoring students who are doing well and then singling out those students who are struggling due to other circumstances.

Assistant Superintendent Craig Mueller read a statement from a student essay about why they felt they were struggling in high school. In the essay, the student wrote about how in elementary and junior high school he was a good student. Then, the student wrote, he got sick in high school and had to miss some days and now feels the school is threatening to not give him credit for his classes.

Carlson asked if there were any thoughts on altering the school schedule to a block schedule. Discussion focused on some schools that have tried to teach just one subject a day to those students who are struggling.

District Special Education Director Karla Geda said her two sons had participated in a similar program, but that one really liked it and "thrived in that environment" while the other son said it didn't work for him.

Carlson said all these ideas are for the betterment of the students and the main goal is to help graduate as many students as possible.