Havre school board candidates speak at forum

Candidates for two seats on the Havre Public School Board of Trustees spoke at a Havre Education Association forum Monday night about their backgrounds and candidacy for two open seats, talking about the issues they see at the school system and what needs to be done to fix them.

Candidates were asked the same series of questions, but some went into much more detail than other.

Ballots for the election will go out Wednesday and election will take place May 3.

Among the candidates is incumbent Garrit Ophus who has served on the board for the last 13 months, but the field was also filled with newcomers in Jason Castillion, Tyler Gibson, Shanetrice Allen, Erin Jensen, Myranda Hencz and Christin Hileman.

Ophus

Ophus is the father of three students in the district and said he wants the opportunity to continue the work he started on the board when he was first elected.

He said the position has been a learning experience but an enjoyable one.

He said, with school going back to more-or-less normal after two years of the pandemic, he wants to start looking at ways to improve the school by integrating new technologies into the learning environment and help students prepare for whatever comes after high school, whether that's college or a trade.

Ophus said he wants to help teachers and administration, especially when it comes to retention and recruitment of educators, a big topic for most of the candidates.

He said he wants to look into ways to bring people with a history in Havre back to the area and get them involved in the school system to see if they can help solve this issue.

He also briefly talked about the district's ongoing efforts to develop long-term plans for where they want to be in the coming years.

"This year we've gone through our planning meetings, looking at where we want to be as a district in five, 10, 15 years, what is that going to look like? What is that going to take?" he said.

Hileman

Christin Hileman was another candidate who spoke about retention and recruitment, saying she wants to find a way to help improve the mental health of the teachers.

Hileman has been a Havre resident for 14 years and has two children of her own in the district. She said she's worked in the for-profit and non-profit sectors having earned degrees in finance and business administration, including a master's degree in the latter.

She said she worked for Bear Paw Development Corp. and is now a consultant who helps write grants for federal funding to help the community.

"In order to build really strong communities, we have to start with the schools, and that has driven my interest in serving this board," she said.

She said the nation is facing a near-crisis-level shortage of educators and she thinks there are programs that can help the school, such as Montana State University's Montana Rural Teacher Project, which she said might help get some more educators into HPS and places like it.

Hileman said she also wants to look into creating a satellite program with Montana State University-Northern that may help as well.

She also talked about funding for the district, which she said is another issue that needs addressing.

She said the district's revenue and spending per student are both well below the median in Montana and addressing that will have a positive cascading effect through the school, giving teachers the resources they need to deal with educational and behavioral issues.

Hileman also talked about the district's recent declining graduation rate, another topic many candidates talked about, and suggested the board look into programs like Advancement Via Individual Determination that may be able to address the issue.

However, she said, the cause of graduation rate declines needs to be investigated throughly so the issue can be addressed effectively.

Allen

Shanetrice Allen, a mother of two HPS students, said she has experience tutoring and was certified to teach sixth-through-12th grade science. She said she was an active Parent Teacher Association member in Texas before moving to Havre in 2019, a move that she said has been a wonderful experience despite her initial reservations about adapting to a new community.

One of her big concerns was parental engagement with the school system, which she thinks needs to be a lot higher.

"The way people show up for football Friday night, is the way that we should show up for school board meetings," she said.

She said parents and teachers need to be willing to work together, and if parents can coordinate with teachers to make sure their children are doing what they need to do to get the most out of their education they can lessen the stress on teachers, which is clearly a big issue at the district, and one that needs a long-term solution.

Allen also talked about some diversity issues she sees at the school, specifically citing an incident last year involving a student coming to school with a costume that many saw as racially offensive.

She said it was clear the staff didn't know how to handle that issue, and the incident and its aftermath alienated many students and parents, and she thinks improvements need to be made to address things like that.

Allen also said she thinks the concept of "see something, say something" within school needs to be expanded to include not just bad things, but good things, encouraging students and teachers by recognizing them for their accomplishments and efforts, especially when they go above and beyond.

She also talked about making sure students understand that college isn't the only option for them post-high school, saying she thinks Havre Public Schools needs to go back to the old days of job fairs.

Hencz

Myranda Hencz also emphasized the importance of non-college alternatives for students graduating high school.

Hencz, a 20-year employee of Hill County Electric Cooperative who grew up south of Malta and has two students in the district, said college isn't for everyone and suggested that more students need to go into other areas, especially considering how expensive college has become.

"Nobody knows trades anymore," she said.

One of her biggest issues was the apparent lack of direction so many students have by the time they're in high school, which she said sets them up for failure.

Hencz said the school needs to implement programs that help students find a direction for their post-high school lives much earlier.

She said teacher recruitment and retention are also a big deal and she thinks trustees need to observe what is going on in schools directly to get an idea of what teachers and students need, particularly after two difficult years of the pandemic.

Jensen

Erin Jensen, a mother with three children in the district, also talked about the difficulties teachers face during this time, and said there seems to be a significant lack of respect and trust between the school's administration, the teachers and the board, which she would like to change.

"You can't put our student's first if you put our teachers last, and it seems to me and several other people in the community that our teachers are not being heard," Jensen said.

She said she's talked to educators first hand, and there are clearly problems that need solving, or soon the district won't have anyone left.

"I've spoken with several teachers, current teachers, past teachers from this district about why they left and why they'll never come back, what our problems are," she said.

She also talked about the dropout rate which she said is deeply concerning, saying her own junior is having trouble staying engaged despite the fact that they can clearly handle the subject matter.

Jensen said the schools need to be open to change to solve this problem, as it seems unlikely that doing the same thing they've always done will solve the school's problems.

She said she believes she can bring an open and unbiased mind to the board, and will listen to all parties.

Gibson

Tyler Gibson, a Northern graduate who said his mother was a teacher back in Nevada where he grew up, also talked a lot about the situation teachers find themselves in, not just in Havre, but everywhere.

"I think teachers are ignored quite a bit, at least from what I was told as a kid," Gibson said.

He said he wants to improve communication between the administration, teachers and the public, and make sure that controversies and problems are handled with grace. He added that whether he's elected or not, whoever does end up on the board needs to be supported.

He also said he wants to make sure students, teachers and their performance is evaluated holistically, without allowing them to be boiled down just to test scores.

Castillion

Jason Castillion, another Northern graduate and parent of two who has live in Havre for most of the past 18 years, said a lot of people have a lot if different perspectives that need to be listened to.

Castillion said he hasn't been following the recent happenings of the board as closely as many others, but his management experience tells him that there is rarely one side to any story.

When asked about what his educationsal goas for the district are, he said he didn't have any specific educational goals, but he fears the "tradition of excellence," the motto of the district, that he grew up with is not as ingrained in students as it used to be and he wants to make sure students are still engaged and excited to come to school after the chaos of the pandemic.

Candidates asked about the four-day week

The final question posed to candidates at Monday's forum was about their opinions regarding the prospect of a four-day week at HPS, and opinions varied significantly.

Ophus echoed some of the sentiments he expressed a the last meeting of the board of trustees where the four-day week was rejected for the upcoming school year, saying the proposal isn't dead in the water forever, but many questions remain unanswered and the school needs more time.

Hileman shared Ophus's concerns, saying she thinks there are ways to make everyone happy, and she thinks the idea has merit, but more work needs to be done, especially for students that are food insecure, and teachers who clearly need help.

"Somewhere down the line we, were sold or bought into the idea that these two things are mutually exclusive ... that we need to choose between our teachers and our hungry kids, and I don't think that's true," she said.

Jensen said she was on the fence about the issue initially, until it became clear how much work the calendar committee put into their research on the subject.

She said if this is the best option for students and staff she will gladly support it, and if it doesn't work out, they can always go back, but they'll never know the good it might do if they don't try it.

Gibson said it would take a lot of work to implement, but he believes the teachers and the community are up to the task and they need to trust that their professionals know what they are doing.

However, the proposal drew criticism from other candidates.

Allen said change is a part of life, but the time for the four-day week is not now. She said there are students for whom school is a refuge and taking away a day of that could be a problem.

Hencz said she worries for children who are too old for day care but not old enough to be out of school for so long while their parents are working.

She also criticized the forums that were held regarding the four-day week, with representatives from Montana schools who had made the shift, most of whom were very positive about their the four-day week.

"I felt like I was listening to a car salesman," she said.