Havre school district continues strategic planning sessions

Havre Public Schools held another strategic planning meeting Monday night, the third in a series of meetings meant to evaluate and update the school's short- and long-term plans, goals and direction.

The meeting, delayed from its previous date due to the association limiting travel because of the COVID-19 surge, was led by Montana School Boards Association General Counsel Debra Silk. It focused on determining the areas the school district needs to work on in order to become the district it wants to be and develop strategies for how to do that.

District administrators, trustees and staff attended the meeting and were split into groups to discuss what they think the schools need to do.

The first part of the meeting focused on refining what the attendees want to see for the district in the next 10 to 15 years.

Superintendent Craig Mueller's group said the big ongoing issues they identified are increasing the graduation rate and doing a better job of keeping up with student progress and where the school can improve on addressing them on an individual level.

"We need to do a better job of monitoring and recognizing where we're falling short earlier on and providing support and help that are necessary," Mueller said.

He said they also need to make sure students are college-ready while not pressuring them into going to college.

He said said the school needs to look into what they are doing to make students ready for higher education and identify the areas in which they need to improve, as well as find ways to help students deal with the financial aspects of college.

Mueller's group also talked about staffing issues at the school and what they can do to make the district more attractive.

"We want to be a place where teachers want to be," he said.

Director of Special Education Karla Geda's group talked more about refining the scope of their plans to improve the district's support of dual credit opportunities and alternative diplomas.

Board of Trustees Chair Curtis Smeby asked if it was possible for students to take care of all their general education requirements through dual credits by the time they leave high school, and Silk said that is very doable.

She said getting students well on their way to an associate degree by the time they graduate from high school is within reach as well.

Havre Middle School Assistant Principal Jeremiah Nitz' group talked about paths the schools could set up for students to set them up for post-high school education, whether that's college or vocational training.

Nitz said the school can work to identify where students want to go in early high school and get them started.

Silk mentioned that the school can give students credit for jobs they work on the side that are relevant to their chosen path as well.

Nitz said the group also talked about building a better community within the school for teachers and staff as well and making people feel like they're more than just employees.

The groups then moved on to talking about three- to five-year goals, with Geda's group talking a lot about social and emotional learning and improving the school-based mental health support for students, which will hopefully go a long way toward improving their graduation rate.

Everyone present also agreed that facility improvement and staff recruitment and retention must also be a big focus of the school in the next three to five years.

Silk said the groups seem to have coalesced around thread main areas of improvement the school needs to work on broadly, those being staff, students and facilities.

"That's the three-legged stool," she said.

The groups then did one more round of discussion on strategies and areas of improvement for the next one to two years.

On the facilities side of things, Havre Public Schools Facilities and Transportation Director Scott Filius talked about getting the school's digital controls up and running so they can use equipment to its fullest potential.

"We need to be better stewards of the machinery we have," Filius said.

As for the students, Geda said she wants to see the school establish and improve relationships with facilities around the area like the Northern Agricultural Research Center, and, more broadly, increase student engagement in school, not just in terms of the hours they spend in class, but how they use those hours.

She also talked about hiring councilors for every grade level and providing tele-therapy services.

The groups also talked about improving attendance, and the possibility of establishing an abbreviated bus route later in the day for students who couldn't make it to the first bus.

Mueller said he's heard of schools implementing a 10 a.m. route where a bus will stop at a few spots around town to pick up students.

The concern was raised that this would encourage tardiness, but Sunnyside Intermediate School Principal Pax Haslem said there is already a tardiness problem, and providing this service will prevent a tardy turning into an absence in a lot of cases.

As for staffing, Highland Park Principal Mark Irvin talked about providing monetary incentives, whether that's increased base pay, signing bonuses, loan forgiveness, benefits packages or other things that may help take the burden off of potential new teachers and staff.

Silk said those are things that would help but, no one goes into public education for the money, and there are also intangibles that potential teachers value.

She said at another meeting like this she facilitated, a young teacher said the reason she chose to come to the district was because of the relationship she had developed with their principal throughout the interview process.

She said the principal not only had long conversations with her about the environment she would be working in, but was honest when talking about other districts where she would probably make more money.

That honesty made her join a caring and compassionate district, Silk said.

Mueller said the district can also look to its own students for potential future teachers through the Teacher of Promise program ,which seeks to inform high school students about the merits of a teaching education and helps them get on track to becoming teachers themselves in the future.

Smeby suggested setting up a listening tour with school teachers and staff to hear their concerns and improve the environment for them as well.

Silk said she thinks the group probably needs one more meeting to put everything they've talked about together to review it, but they have made a lot of progress of these three meetings.