Gov. Gianforte visits Sunnyside school in Havre

Gov. Greg Gianforte visited Sunnyside Intermediate School Thursday, where he met with educators and administrators, visited a few classrooms of students and answered some of their questions.

After being greeted by the student body Gianforte sat down with some Sunnyside teachers and discussed the TEACH Act, which incentivized school districts to raise starting teacher pay, which Havre Public Schools, as well many other schools, have done.

Two HPS school board members, Garrit Ophus and Cindy Erickson, attended and when Gianforte asked them why they decided to take advantage of the TEACH Act, they said it was a "no-brainer."

Later during the visit Gianforte said an interaction he had with a young rural Montana teacher was the motivator behind the TEACH Act.

He said the young man pulled him aside, tears in his eyes, and told him that he hadn't had three meals in a day for a year and if it weren't for the free food at school he wouldn't be eating much at all.

The group also briefly discussed teacher recruitment, which is still a big concern for HPS.

Gianforte said he's trying to draw Montanans, especially people who can be educators, who've left the state to come back home.

Bringing Montanans back to the state was something he discussed with students as well when he was asked about his own children and grandchildren who were no longer in the state.

"I like my kids, but I love my grandchildren, and I want to bring them back," he said.

Students asked Gianforte about a number of subjects including his past before becoming governor, what his favorite and least favorite parts of the job are and why he decided to run.

"I could have started that sixth business," he said, "But I decided to go into public service, because I didn't think Montana was living up to its full potential."

"It's the greatest honor of my life," he added. " ... I think the purpose of work is to serve other people and I've never had a greater opportunity to serve as many people."

Gianforte also talked about his desire to incentivize job creation within private industry and said they surpassed their first year goal of 10,000 new jobs over $50,000 by 30 percent based on early the data they've seen.

He also talked about his desire to help families stay together by addressing poverty through these new jobs and making sure the state continues to help people recover from addictions and address associated mental health concerns.

He also provided students advice regarding work, which is to not worry about things they can't control and not equate their value as people to the outcome of endeavors that they may not have been able to control.

"I can control my attitude, I can control how hard I work, I can't always control the outcome," he said. "And if you tie your sense of identity and self worth to the outcome of something you can't control you're going to be very disappointed."

After meeting with students he complimented educators and administrators for the great questions the students asked and thanked them for lending their skills to helping create the next generation of Montana leaders.

Gianforte also emphasized his belief that the only way to really understand what's going on in the state to to come to communities like Havre.

"The truth does not live in Helena, it's out here, in communities across the state," he said.

Gianforte's visit was part of a 56 county tour which included attending the grand opening of IND HEMP in Fort Benton, presenting the Spirit of Montana award to Chinook High School senior Halley Mitchell for her entrepreneurial spirit, returning the first Fort Belknap flag to fly over the Tribal Flag Plaza at the Montana State Capitol to the Fort Belknap Indian Community Tribal Council and hosting a roundtable discussion in Harlem with local teachers and school administrators on the TEACH Act.