Vote on four-day school week delayed

The decision of what the Havre Public Schools' calendar for the 2023-2024 school year will be has been delayed again after a contentious meeting Thursday evening.

At the beginning of the meeting HPS Interim-Superintendent Brad Moore, said he will continue to support the Havre Education Association's request to delay voting on this issue until after the election.

The issue of whether to move to a four-day school week with extended class periods has been discussed by the school board at length for two years, with opponents arguing in 2022 that the matter could wait another year and raising concerns over whether it would improve the school environment and the loss of a day a week to look after the community's children and provide them food.

Proponents, including the vast majority of Havre Public Schools teachers, have said a four-day schedule with longer class periods will improve information retention, reduce burnout for both students and staff and give them the time they need for class preparation and grading.

They have also argued that it will improve recruitment for the district which is already facing a massive shortage of teachers and would ensure that those already there and were considering leaving, would stay.

This year's proposed four-day schedule also includes Support Fridays, a 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. optional day twice a month which would not only allow students to get extra help, but provide the opportunity for a breakfast and lunch as well.

Earlier this year, the board was discussing four possible calendars, some provided by Havre Education Association as part of their negotiations with the board, and nearly everyone involved was under the impression that a vote would be taken on the matter at a meeting weeks ago.

However, the matter was not on the agenda and it was later explained that the four calendars the board had discussed at length had been discarded completely and without any notice to the HEA.

Board Chair Curtis Smeby said the calendars were thrown out so the board could look at more simplified options.

HEA President Jess Jones requested that the board delay voting on the matter due to this sudden and unannounced change of course, which she said has been incredibly frustrating for the teachers and their union.

At Thursday's meeting, Moore said he would of course honor any decision the board makes, but urged them to consider the HEAs request and understand his reasons for doing so.

"If I don't support the teachers, how can I expect them to perform at the levels I expect them to?" he asked.

Trustee Jacob Ingram made a motion to table the matter, a motion that, in line with Robert's Rules of Order, goes straight to a vote without debate, but the motion failed with him and Trustees Brittnee Loch and Tim Scheele voting yes but all others voting no.

Opponents to tabling the motion argued that there was a large crowd their tonight and sending everyone home without a chance to speak wasn't good for them.

Ingram then made a motion to postpone the vote, which would essentially do the same thing, but opened up discussion to the board and public prior to voting.

Trustee Garrit Ophus said he doesn't know if postponing the vote is the best idea, as this is an urgent matter which would ensure the district can continue operating properly.

Ophus also said people in the community are trying to make plans and delaying the matter is going to make things harder for them, a sentiment shared by Trustee Christin Hileman.

Trustee Lorraine Larson said she's heard over and over again about how important it is to get this done as part of the negotiating committee, and asked, if that is the case, why are they delaying?

Ingram said he appreciates that argument but given the way this decision has been handled and the lack of transparency, the HEA's request is a very reasonable one.

Trustee Tim Scheele said they've only recently gotten these new calendars, and they haven't put in much effort to inform the community about these calendars other than telling them to look at the website, which isn't sufficient in his mind.

Loch said she worries about what message it would send to the teachers if, after all this, they vote on a calendar.

The board then moved on to discuss the merits of each calendar.

Moore said in practically every conversation he's had on the subject there is a common denominator, a desire for change, and the first three of four calendars provide that.

"We can't continue to do the same thing and expect different results," he said.

The first of the new calendars, submitted for consideration by the HEA, is a four-day week schedule with 14 Support Fridays, in which students who need extra help can come in for assistance, throughout the year.

Class periods would be 57 minutes each, with classes running from 8 a.m. to 3:44 p.m. with Support Fridays running from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. while offering a breakfast and lunch to students who need it.

The second calendar, also proposed by HEA, is a hybrid schedule with a five-day week from August through February, but with Fridays off from March through May.

Class periods would be 55 minutes each with the day running from 8 a.m. to 3:29 p.m. and no support Fridays.

The third calendar is almost identical to the second, but with Fridays off from January through March, and the fourth is a traditional 5-day schedule.

Scheele said he doesn't like the third calendar at all, saying that switching to four days mid-semester then back again will only cause annoyance and burnout on the part of students, and having four-day weeks during the summer months is better for vacations anyway.

Beyond that, the surveys conducted last year among the community returned a 73 percent approval rating for a four-day week, and if they are going to argue that those numbers aren't good enough then they need to do a new survey, he added.

He said the first calendar, which offers a four day week plus Support Fridays every other week, only provides three or four fewer Fridays than calendars 2 and 3 as long as people want to attend.

Hileman disagreed, saying that teachers and students see the worst attendance during the darker winter months, so having four days then is more beneficial in her mind than option three.

She also expressed skepticism that these Support Fridays are as beneficial as proponents claim, saying when they did something similar during the pandemic they didn't see as much attendance as was ideal.

She said it seems like a good idea, but maybe only in theory.

"Are we trying to solve problems, or are we just interested in taking days off?... Is that really benefiting you the way that you were hoping?" she said.

Trustee Cindy Erickson said the four-day week will also cause problems for building administrators.

Smeby said this is obviously a difficult decision for everyone and he's heard that many in the community are scared to speak about this issue, which makes him sad.

He also asked everyone to be respectful as the matter is discussed and remember their responsibility to the state Constitution to provide everyone with education and help them reach their highest potential.

He said there was a forum last year with staff from schools that went to a four-day week including Wolf Point Schools.

He said Wolf Point has extremely low math proficiency scores and he doesn't think HPS should be emulating them.

Support for the four-day week by speakers from four schools at that forum was nearly universal.

Smeby also said the district will have a new superintendent soon, one who is good at engaging with families and communities and he should be a part of discussions like these.

He said he believes there are many ways to address the problems at the district and this is a matter that can be discussed next year.

Opponents of the four-day week said the same thing in 2022, which some teachers said at the time would happen again in 2023.

The matter was then opened up to public comment, and while a few were in opposition to the four-day week 13 people including teachers, parents and a Havre High School student spoke in favor of the first calendar. None spoke in favor of calendars 2 or 3.

Of the three people that seemed to oppose the four-day calendar, none stated explicitly which calendar they were for, but expressed serious concern or skepticism about anything other than the five-day calendar.

Among the proponents of the first calendar were a number of teachers who argued that Support Fridays are incredibly helpful for them and students, as their class sizes continue to increase.

Havre Middle School teacher Bethany Martin said her smallest class size has is 21 students and her largest was 45 and Support Fridays allow her to give students individual attention that a five-day calendar simply doesn't allow.

"In every single one of those classes, there are students that are being left behind because it is physically impossible for me to give them the attention that they need with those class sizes," she said.

She said she has worked in schools with four day weeks, and this problem did not exist in those districts.

Havre High teacher Mike Leinwand said the district is being tasked with helping at-risk students and people have been racking their brains trying to find the time to help students when the board has an obvious solution in front of them.

"Well, surely, I thought, the schools' board, that has been listening to these meetings going on and on about the calendar, will put two and two together," he said.

Regardless of his opinion on the calendar, he said, the fact that they are considering not honoring HEA's wishes after all this seriously concerns him.

"If you guys go tonight and just totally disregard the teachers," he said, "I fear what our group of teachers will feel like the next day."

This sentiment was echoed by Sunnyside Intermediate School teacher Carrie Gillen who, responding to Erickson's comments, said the matter is urgent, but, for the last few years, they don't have contracts done until summer anyway, so given the circumstances a delay is a reasonable ask.

"We bargained in good faith," she said. "We had good faith that the last four calendars would be voted on, that didn't happen, we were not consulted. When that got pushed back that was not our doing."

Gillen and others also said there is a misperception that this change is being done solely to give teachers more free time, but this is about students not teachers.

"I also just took a second job," she said. "I have a daughter in college and I lay awake at night going, 'How am I going to pay for this?' My husband is the rehab director at the hospital. He works 10-hour days. Time off is not in my future.This isn't about teachers and their time off, this is about students and how we can help students. And everyone here has said, what we're doing is not working. ... If anyone thinks that what we're doing is working, I invite you to get on the sub list."

Others brought up recruitment and retention, saying a four-day week is a huge draw for people and the current teachers have been begging for this change for so long that they are certain to lose more if they stay with a five-day week.

Incoming teacher Jessica Otto said she was born and raised in Havre, but if she had left she would have looked for a district with a four-day week.

Teachers and parents also said the four-day week would allow teachers more time for class preparation and grading, with more than one saying that teachers are forced to use what little off-time they have to do those things, or cut into class time.

A number of parents said their children benefit greatly from Support Fridays and even during COVID-19 they saw significant improvements.

Others also objected to Smeby saying at a meeting last year that the people who came to these meeting were primarily the privileged, not the underprivileged whom the four-day week would supposedly hurt.

Proponents said every time the issue is brought up in one of these meetings there is a strong majority in favor of change and a four-day week.

Indeed, the vast majority of speakers Thursday were in favor of the four-day week and Support Friday, but support was not universal.

Seemingly the most vehement opponent of the four-day week was National Alliance on Mental Illness Havre President Krystal Laufer, who said that an inconsistent calendar would worsen students' depression and anxiety and hurt students with autism, who require routines to cope with school.

"You guys can't do that to them," she said.

Laufer's comments were addressed later by Sunnyside special education teacher Christina Edmonds, who said she suspects a few students would struggle with the shift, but the one-on-one education those students would gain with Support Fridays makes the benefits far outweigh what should be a temporary struggle.

Business owner Jennifer Chase, who has children in the district, also expressed skepticism about the four-day week saying she's met teachers that don't like it and this issue should be thought of in terms of the whole community, which she said should be supporting teachers.

Another pointed to former Superintendent Craig Mueller, who died late last year, advocating that the school stick also a five-day week.

The speaker also said longer days will only worsen the behavior of students.

Teachers also addressed that, saying there is no evidence that a four-day week will inevitably lead to bad behavior, and it could just as easily improve behavior.

At the end of the meeting the board voted 5-3 to postpone the vote until after the election with Erickson, Smeby and Larson voting against.

The next meeting will be at 6 p.m. May 9 at Havre Middle School.