Letter to the Editor - This letter is directed to the Board of Trustees of Havre Public Schools.

My son and others need to get back to school. They have already lost more days than I would care to think about that can never be made up. I know my son will graduate just fine. In fact, my belief is that every student in the HPS system will pass. How can they not. I don’t think anybody will decide to fail a single student and in that respect you have failed so many.

At the last board meeting (Highland Park Early Primary School Principal Mark) Irvin  … (said) they were having some successes with some of the students and some were excelling with this new approach but not all. You can put all the lipstick you want on a pig and it is still a pig! 

… Mr. Mueller reported that they were looking at maybe entering to Phase 3, four- or five-days-per-week, sometime in the later part of January. He had concerns about the upcoming holidays and the spread of COVID. What happens if he has concerns in January? Are we just going to keep putting off opening schools to students? The time to enter … (four-days-per-week) is now, not two weeks from now, not two months from now.

… The vast majority of Class A Schools are open for in person learning four to five days per week. Why not Havre?

… Apparently (the school board knows) what is best for their family and also what is best for my family. Maybe I’m just not smart enough to understand how serious the dangers of COVID are to the school population (latest CDC estimate fatality rates for COVID-19: 0-to-19 years 1-in-33,333; 20-29 years 1-in-5,000; and 50-69 years 1-in-200).

… What is your criteria to vote to let my son and others attend school for in class learning? Is it what Kim Larson decides or what Dr. Harada recommends? Do we have to have everyone vaccinated or does the pandemic have to end?

… To the parents of students and students, I ask of you, if you want school to open for full time in school learning, please show up in person at the next board meeting if you can. There is a big difference in 200 people attending virtually or in person.

… If you remember, before school opened this past year … the overwhelming majority vote was for full reopening. 

… I ask you parents how many more days of education are we willing to let them take from our students that they will never get back?

Please show up and support our students!

Scott Chagnon

Havre

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Editor’s note: This letter has been edited for length.