Havre school board seats new members

In a series of four back-to-back meetings the Havre Public School Board of Trustees bid farewell to two longtime members after recognizing students for athletic achievements,

In the first meeting, the board canvassed the results of the election, with Interim Superintendent Brad Moore saying provisional ballots have been counted and they will not affect the results of the election.

The unofficial election results, released last week, saw Kevin Johnson and Tyler Gibson win two of three open seats along with Tim Scheele who ran for reelection.

Tim Brurud and longtime Board Chair Curtis Smeby, who ran for reelection, lost.

Longtime member Cindy Erickson did not run for reelection.

Moore said the election saw about 30 percent turnout, which is around normal for school board elections.

Moore along with HPS teacher and Havre Education Association representative Erika Brekhus thanked the outgoing members for their time and effort, volunteering for a difficult job.

Moore presented Erickson and Smeby with commemorative plaques for their 14 and 15 years of service to the district, respectively.

Smeby thanked everyone for the opportunity to be on the board.

"Thank you, it's been a pleasure," he said. " ... It's been a good experience."

But before their departure they did have one last regular meeting before the new members came in.

The board voted to remove a series of emergency policies having to do with COVID-19 in accordance with state policy and as recommended by the Montana School Boards Association.

They also approved a new Spanish curriculum and approved use of a program to recruit and onboard - help finish certification and so on - new counselors.

Moore said they've had incredible success using the program, which helps professionals train for their endorsements, to alleviate the district's math teacher shortage and he believes it can be applied to counselors as well.

He said counselors are always in short supply and the district needs more to help their students.

"We never have enough," he said.

The board also ratified the district's two-year contract with their paraprofessionals, a process that Moore said went smoothly this year.

Board members thanked everyone for their work, with Trustee Christin Hileman saying it is going to help them recruit and retain staff.

The board also honored a number of student athletes for their performance in this year's season of winter sports with Havre High School Activities Director Mark Irvin calling students to receive awards for outstanding achievement.

Among those honored were All-State wrestlers Kale VanCampen, Aubree Erickson, Tristan Stygles, Reinhard Bold, Clara Laird, Aliyah Stiffarm and Matt Lemer.

Irvin said they are a great group of students that are academically talented and very involved in the district.

He also honored All-State swimmers Carson Sandstrom, Conner McKay, Mackenzie Dean, Kyla Burchard, Hailey Gingery, Koby Preputin, Blake Taylor, Elizabeth Carroll, Liliana Smith, Ainsley Courtnage and Micah Cammon, who he said have once again performed with excellence, which he expects will be the case next year as well.

He said they are excellent representatives of the district to the rest of the state.

Irvin also honored members of the Havre High School girls basketball team, which won its third state championship in a row and its fifth in six years, as they continue to dominate the state.

The All-State members of that team are Yelena Miller, Avery Carlson, Ariana Gary and Amaya Jarvis.

Before ending the meeting, Smeby said he wanted to give a brief legislative update.

He said both of the Legislature's charter school bills, HB 562 and HB549 passed and are awaiting signature from the governor.

HB 562 authorizes the creation of "community choice schools" under the jurisdiction of a new, autonomous, statewide commission attached to the Montana Board of Public Education.

Under the bill, parents and community groups can seek approval for such a school directly from the new commission or from an authorized local school board.

Choice schools would be subject to the same federal laws as K-12 public schools, but governed at the state level by their own set of curricular, licensing and academic reporting regulations.

The other bill, House Bill 549, seeks to place state oversight of charter schools directly in the hands of the Board of Public Education. Public charter schools would be governed by the same laws and administrative rules applied to public schools, and be under the local jurisdiction of either an existing elected school board or a locally elected charter school board under this law.

HB 549 more or less codifies what is already in Montana law, as the state already permits the creation of charter schools provided they have the same accreditation standards as public schools. Bridger Academy in Bozeman is an existing charter school.

Smeby said these bills may create complications for the district.

He also said HB 332 passed, creating a state-wide health insurance trust for public school employees, but it needs at least 12,000 employees and 150 school districts across the state to participate in order for it to work.

After this meeting the new board members were seated and the group elected new officers.

Scheele was elected as chair unanimously and Hileman was similarly elected vice-chair.

Trustee Jacob Ingram nominated fellow trustee Brittneé Loch for vice chair, but she said she must respectfully decline.

They also unanimously voted to keep Chris Wendland in his position as district clerk, with Ingram saying he's been a consistently great asset to the district.

They also appointed their various members to committees and approved schedules for the next year's regular and special meetings as well as their activities calendar.

Moore said that. at some point, he would like to have a conversation about whether the board's special meetings are even necessary but that decision is obviously up to the board.

Typically these meetings are short and deal only with personnel issues which rarely prompt much discussion.

Scheele said he thinks they are valuable and he wants to make sure everyone knows that they do notice these meetings and everything they are going to talk about there in local media, so they are public functions people can attend if they want.

Moore said they will take care of the rest of the usual committee appointments in short order, but he does think the board needs to form two new committees.

He said one should be formed to assist their representative on the Havre Education Foundation Board as well as a new committee to help the school deal with the implications of HB 332.

The board also adopted an updated code of ethics policy.

Toward the end of the meeting Ingram also said he was wondering if any progress had been made setting up some training in Robert's Rules of Order for the board.

He said the board seems to have had some issues on that front recently and he thinks it might be worth it to get some training.

Moore said he's sent in a request for training and is waiting to hear back.