Forum held for Havre School Board candidates

Five candidates for three open seats on the Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees participated in a forum held by the Havre Education Association Wednesday evening, where they answered a series of questions about themselves and what they believe they can bring to the board.

Ballots for the election have been mailed out and the election itself is May 2.

Trustees Curtis Smeby and Tim Scheele's seats on the board are on the ballot this year, and both are running for reelection, but Cindy Erickson, whose seat is also on the ballot this year will not be running again.

Also among this year's candidates are Tyler Gibson, Kevin Johnson and Tim Brurud.

Gibson said he's lived in Havre on and off for 20 years and has two children in the district with a third on the way, and he wants to be more involved with the district for their sake.

Johnson, a former professor at Montana State University-Northern and a bus driver for the district, said he was planning to run in the last election, but would have needed to give up his position as a bus driver, which didn't feel right given the severity of the driver shortage at the time.

He said he has a grandchild in the district who he's seen shuffled into different classes due to a lack of teachers, which he wants to address.

He said he has experience serving on boards and thinks he has much to contribute.

Brurud said he's had four children in the district as some point and has experience as a high school teacher as well as experience on boards, so he thinks he'll be a good addition.

Scheele said he's been on the board for nine years and has a child in every school building at the moment as well as a teaching degree.

He said there are a lot of ongoing projects and programs in the district that he would like to see through, particularly the schools' work-study opportunities.

Smeby, a professor at Northern, said he's been on the board for 15 years and a lot has changed over the last three.

He said he's proud of the district's accomplishments, especially its recent effort to get paid student paraprofessionals in the classrooms, something he said Havre is the only school system in the state doing at the moment.

Educational goals and teacher retention

One of the first questions candidates were asked was what their educational goals are for the district in the coming years, and most mentioned school staffing, closing the educational gap left by the pandemic or both.

Johnson said he considers filling teaching positions an educational goal because a school can't do what it needs to do without a robust staff.

He said the board needs to work together to find solutions to these issues and listen to teachers, many of whom left last year due to burnout exacerbated in part by decisions made by the board.

He said Interim Superintendent Brad Moore has done an amazing job hiring great people for the district, but they still don't have the staffing level they need.

Gibson agreed that the board needs to listen to teachers especially when it comes to the matter of the school's calendar and the condition of buildings.

He said if teachers aren't allowed to perform at their peak, neither will their students.

"We've all had a bad manager, and that just results in bad performance and bad outcomes," he said.

He said he wants to focus on bolstering workforce training and getting more substitute teachers as well.

Brurud said his primary concern is getting students back to pre-pandemic level academic performance, all the way from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade.

He said he also wants to see an increase in support for social and emotional learning.

He said the pandemic put a lot of students and families under significant stress, but students need to be prepared to enter the world of work.

Scheele echoed Brurud's sentiments, saying he also wants to get back to pre-pandemic academic performance.

He said teachers are doing the best they can to make that happen, but to truly solve the problem the district needs complete buy-in from the community.

He also said the board needs to retain students whom they are losing to dropouts and other districts, but they also need to retain teachers in order to do that.

Scheele said he's also personally interested in further improving their agriculture education, so students have practical knowledge they can take home.

Smeby said his educational goals align with those laid out in the Montana Constitution which he read directly from during the forum, saying the state's goal is to help all children reach their fullest potential.

He also said the Constitution requires that the school system help preserve the unique cultural identity of Native American students.

He said he thinks the district does a good job at this, but there is always room for improvement.

Smeby also said they need to advocate on the state and federal level to get the education system the resources it requires.

He said Montana is well below the median when it comes to public education funding per student, $216 million below statewide.

To equal Wyoming, he said, would require an investment of $776 million, and to equal Massachusetts, the gold standard among the states, would take $1.2 billion.

Even Arkansas, he said, which isn't necessarily thought of as an economic powerhouse, just guaranteed $60,000 a year salaries for starting pay for teachers, and while that may be a long way off for Montana, they need to fight for things like that.

Candidates were also asked about their ideas specifically for the retention and recruitment of teachers, with many echoing Smeby's sentiments regarding teacher pay.

"Starting pay is just too low," said Brurud.

He said there are some things on the state and federal level that the board just can't control but there are things they can do to find and keep people, not just at the district but in the community.

Scheele said the best way to retain teachers is to listen to them.

He said the last few years have really changed the dynamics of how educators do their jobs and they need help dealing with that, but they are professionals and for the most part they already have the answers, the board just needs to act on them.

He lamented the situation with teacher pay nationally, saying the district is actually pretty competitive with comparable counties in the state, but that doesn't mean the pay is good.

"Until our country starts to value educators for what they really are and they quit cutting our education budget, I don't know how we're going to pay any more," he said.

However, Scheele said, even if they can only do so much about pay, there are other things they can do to improve a teacher's quality of life, like implementing a more flexible schedule.

He also said they can use the community to keep people here and attract new ones.

Havre is not necessarily thought of as a destination, but a landing spot, he said, but when people are given enough reason to stick around for a while they see what a great community it is and if they can just get them to stay for a little bit, they can convince a lot of them to stay.

Gibson agreed, saying Havre is a great community and there are a lot of things that can be done to make it and the district more attractive to people.

He also said they should be working to make sure the condition of HPS' buildings is as good as possible, as that will have a positive impact on teachers and students.

Smeby said the problem isn't just with retaining teachers, but bus drivers and other staff as well, and the situation is dire.

"We can't wait, we need to do something," he said.

He said the Havre Public School Education Foundation has a number of great ideas in the works and the Teachers of Promise Pathways Program is priming students for training in education post-high school.

"The next crop of teachers is in Havre High School right now," he said.

Smeby also talked about engaging families beyond parent teacher conferences and doing more to support them.

Johnson said he thinks all the candidates there have expressed great ideas, but he thinks the district needs to tailor its recruitment efforts specifically toward Gen Z.

He said there are still Millennials looking for jobs in teaching, but most are established in careers at this point, and Gen Z should be the focus right now.

He said the age spread of the state's teacher base is pretty top-heavy at the moment and if the board talks to the right people he's confident they can figure out a way to get the next generation on board, whether that means signing bonuses or debt relief.

District/community relations and conflict of interest

Candidates were also asked for their thoughts on what the relationship should be between the board and various groups, specifically building administration, parents and the community at large.

Smeby said all three need a board that acts intentionally, listens to staff and acts on the facts.

He said everyone involved in the district, from teachers to parents are doing the best they can and its the board's job to remove barriers between them and what they want to achieve.

He said the board needs to do more to listen to parents and the community.

Gibson expressed similar sentiments, saying the board needs to do everything it can to help staff succeed.

They are on the frontline and know what they're doing, he said, and when they come to the board with an issue the board needs to listen.

As for administration, he said, the board should be doing all it can to facilitate a building's ability to provide help to the students that need it the most.

Johnson said board members should get to know the people working in the district and work to really understand their jobs.

He said the board shouldn't just work to address the district's shortcomings, but also acknowledge its successes, and when there is a problem, facilitate problem solving between the relevant parties.

Scheele followed up these thoughts, saying that even if the board can't solve a particular problem, they should be able to point to the people or institutions that can, and help them do what they need to do to solve the issue.

He said the staff of the district understand their classrooms and they will be the biggest contributors to meaningful discussions about how to address the various issues at the district.

He said the board also needs to be cognizant and watch for how the board's policies affect classrooms and follow up on those effects when necessary.

Brurud said the job of a board member is to be a supporter of the staff, an advocate for the public to whom the district belongs, and a partner to the administration.

The candidates were also asked about any potential conflicts of interest they have that would affect their ability to represent the interests of the community on the board.

Brurud said he feels that some people perceive that he has a conflict of interest since he holds a position at the Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line, which works very closely with the district, but said because it's a non-profit and the entities have no financial entanglements there is no real conflict.

Johnson said, if elected, he would need to give up his position as a bus driver, but after that he has no conflicts.

Scheele said he has relatives working in the district, but there are already rules that prevent any kind of inappropriate behavior in that regard, and as long as those policies are in place there should be no issue.

Smeby said he wears a lot of hats at the local and state level but none of them constitute any conflict of interests.

He then went on to talk about the stresses of being a teacher in the modern day, saying a lot of teachers have targets on their backs in certain parts of the country, which is particularly concerning given the U.S.' ongoing school shooter crisis.

Gibson said he had no conflicts of interest.

Candidates on the five-day school week

The issue that saw the most disagreement between candidates was on the matter of the district's upcoming year's calendar, with teachers pushing for the district to adopt a four-day school week with extended hours each day and support for students on certain Fridays.

Gibson said teachers have worked hard to make this a feasible option and he believes it will benefit the community as a whole, so he is fully in favor of adopting a four-day week.

He said he's worked four 10-hour days a week for years and it has been a huge benefit to him and his family and he believes it can work.

Johnson said the community has expressed strong support for the idea, with more than 70 percent of responses to a poll last year being in favor of the change, and the decision not to adopt a four-day week despite that support drove a lot of teachers away, which they cannot afford.

He also criticized the handling of the matter this year by the board's chair, saying the matter was not included on the agenda at a meeting earlier this week despite practically everyone expecting a decision to be made then.

He said he believes the board as a whole hasn't been given the opportunity to sufficiently address the issue.

Brurud was the only candidate to explicitly state his opposition to the four-day week.

He said he was on the committee that researched the matter last year and said he knows of significant negative consequences to educational performance and the community.

He said he's not opposed to some kind of hybrid schedule, maybe with half days on Friday so they wouldn't have to eliminate a meal for students.

Scheele said he was also on the committee dealing with the matter last year and he is fully in support of the four-day week.

He said support for a four-day or hybrid schedule is not universal, but there is a clear majority among practically every population they surveyed including teachers, staff, community and students themselves.

He said he personally likes the four-day model with twice a month Support Fridays for students that need extra help which he said have been very successful when the school has tried them.

Scheele said Havreites are increasingly working non-traditional hours instead of the normal 8-5 schedule and this change will allow many of them to spend more time with their families.

Whatever they decide to do, he said, the five-day schedule isn't working and the model of switching from four-day to five-day every week like they did during the pandemic is even worse, with practically everyone he's talked to asking him to support anything else.

"Our teachers were not happy, and in the end they were right," he said.

Smeby said he had a lot of thoughts on the four-day week, but much of his answer pertained to unrelated issues like talking about the incoming superintendent.

When he did reach the subject of the calendar he was non-committal saying he thinks Support Fridays are great, but the most vulnerable students remain the least likely to attend.

He also said there are some schools that went to four-day weeks but switched back when it didn't work out.

He also said he didn't think the school lost nearly as many teachers because of their decision last year as Johnson suggests, saying he expects they only lost a few.

Smeby said the matter would be addressed at the next board meeting.

The candidates thanked everyone for attending and encouraged everyone to vote.