School board hears update from Sunnyside school

In addition to recognizing students for athletic excellence, the Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees heard an area report at their monthly meeting Tuesday from Sunnyside Intermediate Principal Pax Haslem on the ongoing challenges his school faces, the progress they've made, and the successes they've had.

While Haslem did detail some ongoing issues at Sunnyside, the overall message of the report was positive, with enrollment going up, especially in the third grade class.

He said they're hiring more teachers to try to keep class sizes from getting too big, but they are still larger than ideal, which has led to some behavioral problems that they are working to address with their counselors and community organizations.

However, he said, the school's staff has been outstanding and, considering the current labor market, the school is actually doing pretty well in terms of staffing.

As for attendance, he said, the majority of the absences are coming from 10 percent of the student population, so overall the school isn't seeing much of an issue, and they are working with the parents and guardians of that 10 percent to try to address that problem.

He also said that, while 17 students have three or more failing grades this year, they are working with those students and their families, and there are many more on the honor roll in every grade.

Overall, academically, Haslem said, the last few years have been a setback, but they've made considerable progress to close the gap and they are getting back on track.

He also talked about progress the school has made toward goals they set at the suggestion of then-Superintendent Craig Mueller.

Mueller died unexpectedly Oct. 22.

The first of the goals was that 80 percent of all fourth-grade students would be able to attain a 394 or better on the DIBELS composite score, which evaluates literacy skills.

In fall of 2021 the school was at 68 percent, in winter of 2022 they were at 74 percent, and in spring of this year they were just shy of the goal at 79 percent.

However, another goal was to have 30 percent or more students be proficient on the Smarter Balance state math assessment, and this year the school saw a decrease in the percentage of students meeting that standard, going from 33 percent of fourth graders in 2021 to 28 percent in 2022, and 19 percent of fifth graders in 2021 to 12 percent in 2022.

The goal he was most invested in, however, Haslem said, was to reintroduce a love of reading to the elementary students, something he feels has been lost over the past few years.

He said the school has been setting aside time for reading and adding incentives for students and classrooms.

Haslem said the goal they've set is for each classroom to read a million words each trimester and some have already reached that goal.

He said he thinks these efforts are having a clear effect and considers the program to be a huge success so far.

He also talked about the district's Gifted and Talented Program, which many students at Sunnyside are enrolled in.

Activities students in the program can engage in include coding, reading groups, STEM projects, and advanced placement.

In addition, Haslem said, they have also reached the point where the school has one Chromebook for every student and they've also been making improvements to the school's more traditional infrastructure.

He said they've added a new storage shed, replaced windows, insulated the old wing of the building, replaced or fixed boiler pistons, reprogramed air flow, and fixed leaks, though, he noted a new one appeared after writing the report, so that should maybe be considered ongoing.

As for ongoing needs, they still have a few windows to fix and additional lockers to install.

He said they are also looking to reorganize their drop off and pick up system, create a new access gate to the softball field and install more water bottle fill stations, but those are on their wishlist, not ongoing projects.

Haslem also spoke about the Indian Education for All Program and its new Director Jessica Kennedy-Stiffarm, who he said was a fantastic hire that he wanted to thank the board for.

He said Kennedy-Stiffarm has brought a tremendous amount of enthusiasm to the program and the district as a whole has seen tons of events set up related to Native American history and culture.

He said these events have been incredibly successful and he wants to thank Kennedy-Stiffarm and all the IEFA coordinators for their work getting all of this up and running.

He said the district has representation from 27 tribes in their student population, collectively making up almost 23 percent of the student body, and as a member of the Navajo Tribe himself, he's incredibly proud of how Sunnyside and the district has been doing lately.

During the meeting, the board also recognized a number of students for outstanding performance in athletic activities, including Devin Kovacich and Maggie Daniels for All-State Band and Scott Woods, Kate Hemmer and Jayden Zilkoski for All-State Choir.

Havre High School Activities Director Mark Irvin said it's incredibly difficult to make decisions about awards like these, considering the high-level of skill demonstrated by the groups as a whole.

He said it was particularly difficult to choose for the choir which, as part of its competition, recorded auditions of five separate tracks and had to learn seven pieces of incredibly challenging music.

The board also recognized Shea Reber for All-State Golf, who Irvin said he is incredibly pleased with, not just for being an All-State athlete, but for being an All-State academic as well.

Kale VanCampen and Jacob Herring were also recognized, for All-State Football.

Irvin said the two, both on defense, lead the team to their first playoff game in many years and are great athletic representatives of the school.

Caleb Tomac was recognized for All-State Cross Country, with Irivin saying they ran an incredible race at state in miserable conditions.

As for All-State Volleyball, Avery Carlson, Molly Huse and Yelena Miller were recognized for an incredibly successful season.

Irvin said the team didn't quite reach the goal they set but they have no reason to hang their heads after another incredible and hard fought run this year.

Havre High volleyball came back from an early loss at the state tournament to make it to the finals match, but lost to Billings Central and ended up second.

At the meeting the board also approved a raft of language updates to policies, bringing them in line with state standards.

Interim-Superintendent Brad Moore said this is the last batch of policy changes for a while, but more are sure to come once the upcoming legislative session is over.

Board Chair Curtis Smeby said now that the Legislature has a supermajority there will likely be a lot for the board to deal with in that regard.

Smeby said he's been told by the Montana School Boards Association director that there will likely be a lot of legislation regarding charter schools and he encouraged everyone to keep up with developments through MTSBA's bill tracker on their website.

The board also approved an upcoming trip for Havre High School students to Washington, D.C., and New York City, added Chemistry 1 as a course eligible for dual credit consideration and approved early graduates, all by unanimous vote.

Havre High School Principal Dustin Kraske also presented about a new option for HiSET exams through the Montana Office of Public Instruction.

Kraske said, under normal circumstances, students have to drop out of high school before preparing for the HiSET Exam, which replaced the general education degree a few years ago.

He said under this new option, students can stay enrolled so they can take the classes they are interested in while preparing to take the exam, which he thinks is a great option for students who know they want to opt for the HiSET instead of finishing high school.

He said the school is working with District 4 Human Resources and Development Council on potentially setting up the option, but there are still a lot of unknowns about the particulars of how it would work.

He and Moore said they are still researching how other schools handle the option, as they all do things a little differently, but they need approval from the board to fill out an application to implement the option to get some more information.

Kraske said even if the board approves the application they can still decide later whether they want to actually use the option or not, and OPI could tell them that they don't have the resources so a vote in favor of the application is not a 100 percent commitment to implementing it.

The board then voted unanimously to approve the application.

At the meeting the board also discussed progress on their search for a new permanent superintendent after the unexpected death of Mueller.

Moore said a stakeholder survey about what people in the community want to see in a superintendent will be up on the district's website Dec. 15 through Jan. 12, after which applicants will be screened in preparation for interviews in February.

Moore and the board also briefly discussed the recent successes of the district's student paraprofessionals.

The district recently implemented a program allowing older Havre High School students to act as paraprofessionals in the elementary schools, which Moore said has been incredibly successful.

"I hear nothing but positive things," he said.

Havre High English teacher Mandy Nitz said the program has been an amazing opportunity for students, and Smeby agreed.

During the public comments section the board heard from Shantrice Allen who expressed her hope that the district would recognize Black History Month in the coming year and that the proclamation would be signed before the start of the month this year.