Havre Public Schools offers free breakfast and lunch for K-5 students

Havre Public Schools announced it will be offering free breakfast and lunch to K-5 students for the 2022-2023 school year through the Montana Office of Public Instruction’s Community Eligibility Provision.

The Community Eligibility Provision is a non-pricing meal option that allows greater access to food and nutrition for students in areas with a large ratio of low-income households.

To qualify for this option a school or school district must have 40 percent of students identified as low-income compared to the enrolled student body, and if that condition is met the school or district can have a large percentage of the cost for its meals reimbursed by the federal government.

If the percentage is 62.5 percent or over, then 100 percent of the cost is reimbursed by the federal government.

HPS Superintendent Craig Muller said in an email earlier this week that students will still be required to follow the lunch protocols for recording numbers in the lunch accounts however.

HPS Assistant Superintendent Brad Moore said the district doesn’t have any control over the factors that led to them qualifying for this option, but the fact that they can now offer free meals to the district’s youngest students is good.

“Any time we can provide more for kids,” he said.

Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees held a special meeting Tuesday and accepted requests from a couple of 19-year-old students to return for another year of school to graduate.

Superintendent Craig Mueller said this is the first such request the district has gotten in some time, and it speaks to the success of this past summer’s credit recovery program that students are willing to come back to earn their diplomas.

Havre High School Principal Dustin Kraske said he is working with the students on a plan that will allow them both to earn the necessary credits to graduate in one semester.

The request drew some concerns from Trustee Christin Hileman, who said she wants to make sure the school isn’t “footing the bill” for students who weren’t diligent enough to graduate during the four years.

Hileman added that she doesn’t want the school to create a fifth year for students that aren’t doing their work.

She asked if the students and school had done everything they could to make sure they graduated

Kraske said, based on his short time at the high school, since he’d only started as principal in June of this year, the answer on both fronts is probably no.

He said he doesn’t know what their high school experience was like but the students’ performance during the summer program indicates that they are committed to doing what’s necessary to graduate, and their request, if granted, will be handled according to the district’s policies.

He said the school would be paying for this, but many of the services provided are being paid for anyway, and that cost won’t rise because two more students are making use of them.

Board Chair Curtis Smeby said he understands Hileman’s concern, but said the school isn’t fully in control of the circumstances and environment students often find themselves in, and he believes they are doing the best they can.

Kraske said this may be a service they need to make use of again in the future, but different students have different needs.

Trustee Cindy Erickson said in her time on the board she’s only seen a handful of students that requested to come back.

After the discussion the request was approved unanimously.

During the meeting the board also approved final budgets for the elementary and high school districts, which Mueller said are largely unchanged from the preliminary budgets, save an increase in fuel costs.

The board also approved three students participating the the district’s Work-based Learning Program to serve as paraprofessionals and bus garage workers in the district in the coming year.

Mueller said these new additions are a testament to the program and the counselors and administrators who support it.

The board also approved a wage increase for food service and clerical substitutes from $10.50 per hour to $11 per hour so the district can stay competitive with the rest of town.

Trustee Lorraine Larson said she wanted to thank Mueller and the district’s administrators for all the work they put into this year’s Welcome Back to School event.

“I know you worked really really hard, and we appreciate that,” Larson said.

Hileman said the addresses given by students were particularly special, a sentiment fellow board members seemed to agree with.

Mueller said he’s proud of the students who participated and many of them gave really great speeches.