Havre school board discusses eighth graders in high school sports

In a lengthy meeting Tuesday evening, the Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees discussed the possibility of allowing eighth graders to participate in certain sports, as well as approving contracts, establishing new committees and hearing an update on the district's technology department.

The board has discussed the possibility of letting eighth graders participate in high school sports before and no action has been taken on the matter yet, but a decision will need to be made at next month's meeting, as some sports will start soon after.

HPS Interim Superintendent Brad Moore said because the school doesn't have a stated policy one way or the other the board must take action on the matter.

The proposal's primary proponent was Havre High School Wrestling Coach Beau LaSalle who said a lot of schools they compete with allow eighth graders, and when they are up against those schools they just can't compete with them in scoring points.

"I don't necessarily want to coach uphill every year," LaSalle said.

He said, because he can't recruit eighth grade students, there are two weight classes for which he has no competitors and, as a new lowest weight class is being created soon, that number will likely become three.

He said it's unfair that local eighth graders aren't allowed to compete when other districts allow them to and this would even the playing field for his team.

LaSalle said he's heard concerns about whether eighth graders are mature enough to participate in high school sports, but making those determinations is part of a coach's job and he can tell when students are or are not ready.

He said the shift toward allowing eighth grade students to participate in high school sports is sweeping across the state and will continue to do so, and not doing the same will only hamstring their programs.

Students that are able to be coached longer will also do better as they reach junior and senior year, he said, so their future competitors will be at a disadvantage a few years down the line, going up against opponents with more experience and development.

Havre Transportation Director and former head wrestling coach Scott Filius said he feels the same, looking back on his own experiences.

"I honestly believe, if you let (Guy) Melby from Sidney have eighth graders, I would have to turn over five or six of my state titles," Filius said. "Because I couldn't compete if you give him five years and I get four, that's that much of an uphill climb."

LaSalle also said now that they have a four-day week schedule it will be easier than ever to implement this change.

Members of the board said they had concerns about this potential change, including Trustee Jacob Ingram who said he recently went to a basketball game only to see junior and senior students on the bench while some eighth graders were on the court, a scenario he said is very concerning.

Trustee Christian Hileman echoed his sentiments saying they should be developing high school athletes, not sidelining them to win competitions.

LaSalle said if a team has an eighth grade student that is a better fit for a position during competition the team is going to use them for it regardless of what year of school they're in, that's just the nature of competition.

Hileman also said the other sports at the district don't seem to be having a participation problem and she worries that even if they only approve eighth grade participation in select sports it will set a bad precedent.

Trustee Kevin Johnson said in his experience as a bus driver to athletics events it didn't seem like younger students were interested in joining teams where their older peers were so likely to outperform them and wondered how many eighth graders are actually interested in participating in high school sports.

Board members asked to hear from Havre High School Principal and girls basketball coach Dustin Kraske on the matter.

Kraske said he has worries about the potential change, but his opinion is colored by the specific situation his own sports teams are in, and LaSalle's concerns about his own team are absolutely valid.

He said he worries that this change might increase competition between coaches for students, which he's not really happy about, and that it might disrupt the balance of participation between middle and high school basketball.

After some discussion, members of the board said they wanted to hear from other people including Havre High School Activities Director Mark Irvin, who was not at Tuesday's meeting.

Ingram asked everyone present to encourage people in the public to weigh in on the issue.

The board tabled the matter until their next meeting.

The board also approved a revamped Emergency Management Plan, which Moore said Havre High School Vice Principal Jeremiah Nitz put a tremendous amount of work into.

Nitz said the plan includes new protocols on evaluating safety conditions in schools as well as a step-by-step guide on how to deal with emergency situations, including the possibility of a school shooter.

He said this new plan gets away from the old model of turning the lights off and huddling in a corner, which only guarantees a shooter can kill more children with fewer bullets.

He said they have different training for different age groups, but the plan includes recommendations on how to escape classrooms as safely as possible and how to block, evade or fight back against a shooter.

He said they made these lessons in a way that shouldn't make them scary for children to learn about.

Nitz said this revamped plan took hundreds of hours to complete, but nothing is ever perfect, so it's a document that should be revisited and updated every year.

The board approved the adoption of this new plan.

The board also approved the adoption of updated student handbooks for every school.

While some handbooks saw little change beyond the adjustments necessary to accommodate the district's new schedule in the coming year, a few did feature notable changes.

Highland Park will be trying out a new method of addressing students who repeatedly misbehave by having them spend time with the school's principal and see if they can't work together to improve the students' behavior.

Havre Middle School is enhancing its student behavior tracking and adjusting its consequences of vaping, as well as banning energy drinks and certain kinds of athletic shorts for violating the dress code.

Middle School Principal Curt Leeds said their consideration of the school's dress code included the input of parents, teachers and students who looked at the dress codes of other schools as well as local businesses.

Hileman praised this, saying that students need to understand what their future employers will expect of them, so including the standards of local businesses in this discussion is a good idea.

She also asked each of the school administrators presenting these handbooks if the coming year's four-day week schedule will result in any lost instructional hours.

Highland Park will lose 21 total hours of instructional time while Sunnyside Intermediate School will stay exactly the same as last year.

Leeds said the middle school hasn't settled on their schedule just yet, but they will actually be gaining instructional hours regardless of which model they use.

Kraske said they still have details to iron out in their schedule so he can't really give an answer at this point, but those details will be determined over a series of meetings between now and early August.

The board also approved the creation of three new committees, a Health Insurance Committee, a School Climate Committee and a Havre Public Schools Education Foundation Committee.

Moore said the first of these will help manage the district's participation in a new statewide health insurance trust for public school employees.

The trust needs at least 12,000 employees and 150 school districts across the state to participate in order for it to work, but Moore said there is a chance that the bill that created the trust may get vetoed regardless, so that committee may end up needing to be dissolved.

He said the School Climate Committee would be specifically to ensure the district maintains a healthy and safe learning experience and address recent concerns raised during board conversations.

Ingram said he agrees that the creation of this committee is important.

The third committee would be to improve communication and cooperation between the board and the Havre Public Schools Education Foundation, which has seen its role in the district expand significantly in recent years, prompting the need for the two entities to work more closely.

Foundation President Kyle Leeds said they are working on a lot of big projects, including turning the 2025 Havre High School Fossil Festival into an all-class reunion that hopes to draw 3,000 alumni.

Leeds said this is a big undertaking, and they will need support from the board to make it happen.

The board also approved the district's contract with the Havre Education Association, including a small salary increase.

Trustees also approved a raise of $10 per day for substitute teachers as well as smaller increases for substitute bus drivers, food service workers, custodial staff and others.

Moore said the district is still short on substitutes and this should help the district be a bit more competitive in attracting potential subs.

Hileman asked what kind of effect this raise would have on the school's budget.

Moore said it's hard to tell since the use of substitutes varies significantly year to year.

During the meeting the board also heard from Havre Public Schools Senior Systems Administrator Aaron Hanson, who gave an update on the district's technology and his department.

Hanson said his department handles maintaining and improving the district's technology including all its computers, chromebooks, cameras, TVs and thousands of accounts.

He said his department had a number of major projects this year including significantly improving the school's bandwidth, uniting school accounts for the sake of efficiency and they are working on replacing door fobs.

He said they've also been upgrading district computer labs, getting new TV monitors and installing new control panels.

As for their normal yearly activities, he said, they are often having to repair two to three chromebooks per day as well as a lot of requests for password resets, though those have gone down since they started combining faculty and students' various accounts.

Hanson said they also recently conducted a test on staff by sending out a fake phishing email to see how many people clicked the link.

This year, he said, half as many people clicked on it as the previous year, and that combined with the fact that they've seen a noticeable increase in people reporting phishing emails indicates to him that district staff are now much more cognizant of the potential threat.

As for the coming year, he said, their staff needs new computers and they want to address some blind spots in the schools' camera systems.

Hanson said they are also thinking about the possibility of providing staff more customizable devices for work, but that does come with a significant price tag.

As for their biggest challenges in the coming year, he said, at this point it's probably their budget.

He said hardware and software providers are continuing to move practically everything to subscription-based payment models where the customer no longer own anything, but continuously rents it, which is a massive drain on the department's resources.

He said they spent nearly half their budget just paying for their firewall, web protection and email protection software.

This, combined with the arbitrary expiration of devices and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds becoming unavailable in the near future, means the department is in a difficult position money-wise.

Hanson said the news isn't all bad, however, as there are still quite a few grant programs out there that have allowed them to make their recent upgrades and can help them pay for things in the future.

However, he said, the district has to take a serious look at making a staggered retirement plan for their chromebooks, as they do not want to be in a situation where they have to buy hundreds of replacements all at once.

During public comments, Kyle Leeds spoke about a recent grant the foundation received to construct a greenhouse at Havre High School for agriculture students.

He said the district had the money to construct the building but not to pay for all the equipment to fill the structure and make it a functioning greenhouse but the Montana Farmers Union Foundation recently gave them a $5,000 grant to pay for it and MFU itself gave them another $2,500 meaning the building is now fully funded.

Leeds said Havre High School teacher and FFA Chapter advisor Saralyn Standley deserves a lot of credit for making all of this happen and encouraged everyone interested in the project to talk to her about it.

"We're excited," he said.