Havre schools moving to four days in class

During Tuesday night's Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees meeting, the Phase 3A re-opening plan for Havre Public Schools recommended by Interim Superintendent Craig Mueller was passed by the board unanimously.

The decision will move kindergarten through grade five students to four days of in-person learning Jan. 19 and grades six through 12 students to four-day, in-person learning Jan. 25.

Face coverings will be required for all staff and students and meals will continue to be free to all students including the grab and go meals on Fridays. 

The interim superintendent's administration team will be charged with the decision to temporarily restrict in-person learning if an outbreak were to occur in a specific building. 

Justification for Mueller's recommendation was the opportunity for school district staff members to be vaccinated this week, the ability to address areas of greatest concern should the number of cases rise in a particular building, relatively low positivity rates - he said the community matrix is close to the targeted goal -and the overall health of HPS staff and ability to continue teaching students in the face-to-face format. 

Also included is the work of building administrators in preparing for the return of more students to the learning environment, transportation adjustments, student op-out option still being made available for families that need it and the required face coverings by staff and students in all buildings.

Mueller said the district only has one positive COVID-19 case and no current staff cases. The one case in the district did cause an entire elementary school B group to quarantine, however, this did not cause any staffing issues in the school.

Transportation will be adjusted to accommodate for the transportation of both A and B group students, he said. 

Right now, there are 234 remote learning students and Mueller expects at least another 30 students to move to online instruction.

Mueller added that, if the district can maintain schedule 3A, they will consider moving to a regular five day in-person learning schedule.

Other items discussed at the meeting

Trustee Ed Hill's resignation was accepted by the board and the board will now begin looking for a replacement. 

Hill was elected to the state House of Representatives in November.

The 500 Chromebooks that have been delayed are expected to be delivered as early as Friday, however the end of the month is more likely. 

Montana High School Association's virtual meeting is set for Jan. 17 and 18. At this meeting adding baseball as a school sport will be discussed as well as the budget for 2021 and realignment of the conference. Realignment would mean that Havre could move to Central A.

"I would like to see us stay in the east if possible, but I don't think that's very likely that it's going to stay west and east when it's all said and done. The biggest part to me that I think needs to get switched from the proposal is to get rid of the west always having more teams than the east and the central. I would like to see it even across the board," said Havre High School Vice Principal and Activities Director Brian Kessler.

Havre Public Schools is planning community education classes that could begin as early as next month now that in-person learning has increased.

No members of the public provided comment at the meeting.

There is a special board meeting scheduled for Jan. 26 at 12:15 p.m. at the Robins Administration. The next regular board meeting is Feb. 9 at 6:30 p.m. at Havre Middle School.