Havre school board discusses track resurfacing, program with Boys & Girls Club

The Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees met Tuesday evening and discussed a number of policy revisions, updates to student handbooks and a project to resurface the middle school’s track.

The subject of resurfacing Havre Middle School’s track was one discussed at a planning meeting last month, a project that will cost upwards of $400,000, but one the board seemed to agree was a priority project.

HPS superintendent Craig Mueller said he’s come up with a number of different models for how to pay for the project, some of which include requesting sponsorships and donations of money or even labor from the community.

Mueller said he thinks that might be a difficult ask given the economic situation many now find themselves in, but fundraising methods are ultimately up to the board in this case, and he’s also looking into grants as a funding source.

He said he wanted to get a feel from the board about whether or not they want to pursue the project, as prices for it will only go up as time goes on and the consensus appeared to be yes.

“I’d hate to lose our track meets and the surrounding communities that use our track,” Trustee Christin Hileman said.

This was a sentiment shared by board Vice Chair Tim Scheele, who led the meeting as Chair Curtis Smeby was absent.

Mueller said the project would have to go out to bid and he would get started working on that.

The board also voted on a number of things at the meeting including voting to proceed with an extended after-school program between Highland Park Early Primary School and the Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line to be held at the school.

Mueller said the district has been discussing this program with the club for two years now, and would involve the club providing after-school activities and services for up to 60 Highland Park students.

“I am excited about the opportunity that this could extend to our students,” he said.

He said the program will require the district to contribute $41,414 for the first year of the program, but after that, the Club will take on the costs of the program, which has a well-organized plan laid out.

Club Director Tim Brurud said there will certainly be more students interested in the program than they can take, so they’re open to recommendations from administrators and teachers if they feel there are specific students who need the program more than others.

The board voted to proceed with the program unanimously.

The board also voted to accept updated student handbooks for the coming year, which included a change in graduation standards.

Mueller said one class, Applied Technology, is being removed from the required courses at Havre High School and is being replaced with a Personal Finance class, which was a decision that was arrived at through a number of conversations with teachers and staff.

He said one of the big reasons for this change is because of changing social studies standards at the state level, which he said have been increasingly emphasizing a need for more financial literacy education, and it seems like changes that will almost certainly be implemented at this point will make a class like this necessary.

He said he realizes this change may have ripple effects, but given the situation he feels now is a good time to make that change.

Mueller said the requirement may also be filled by taking an Agricultural Business class once it becomes available.

Havre Middle School Assistant Principal Jeremiah Nitz, who will be Havre High School Assistant Principal next year, presented other changes made to the high school’s handbook including a procedure by which administration can, with parental consent, move a student into an online class or program that may help fill a required course they’ve failed early in the semester.

Nitz said there have been situations were a student, part way through a semester, wouldn’t be able to pass a class even if they did all the work perfectly from that point, and they would like to be able to start working on getting that requirement filled another way instead of just ignoring the student for the rest of the year.

He said they’re also going to try to be more proactive in combating tardiness and truancy and have updated handbook language to reflect that.

Language has also been updated for clarity in some places regarding behavioral policy including cell phone use.

At the middle school, he said, they’ve also been updating the dress code to address specific problems like spandex pants, exposed bellies and students wearing sunglasses.

Sunnyside Intermediate School Principal Pax Haslem said one of the changes made in their handbook is adding language that makes school checkouts mostly prohibited after 3 p.m.

Haslem said the closing hour of the school day is important, but almost one third of parents checking out their students during the day are between 3 and 3:15 p.m. which is becoming a major disruption with classrooms often getting multiple calls for checkous in just that 15-minute span of time.

He said they’re obviously not going to prevent a checkout if there is an emergency, and they are willing to work with parents on this, but for the most part they’re going to ask parents to wait if they come in wanting to check their child out after 3 p.m.

He said the new handbooks also include updates to sections about expectations for student behavior while guest teachers are present.

Haslem said detentions tend to double when there’s a guest teacher and they’d like to address that.

Another matter they’d like to address, he said, is that of bike safety. He said with more and more students riding bikes to school, a great thing in his opinion, there are still many students who don’t wear helmets and they’d like to encourage that in the handbook.

Haslem said they’re also shoring up language about vaping on district property being against state law, something many people, not just students, either don’t know or try to dispute.

The board unanimously accepted these updated handbooks, as well as those of Lincoln-McKinley Primary School and Highland Park, which had minimal changes made this year.

They also unanimously accepted a technology curriculum presented by Mueller for the coming school year.

He said this roadmap will help integrate technology into teaching at the school and help teachers address the needs of students who have varying levels of access to technology and skill using it.

The meeting ended with a round of applause for HPS Director of Special Education and Federal Projects Karla Geda and District Clerk Shanna Flores, who Mueller said will both be sorely missed when they leave the district.