First Pony Pride Award goes to Jeremiah Nitz

Havre High School Assistant Principal Jeremiah Nitz, now in his 24th year of service to the district, is the first recipient of the Pony Pride Award, a new monthly honoring of a school district employee for their work improving the lives of students.

This award was implemented by the district's new superintendent, Brian Gum, who said he wants to consistently recognize the people in the district doing exceptional work, and, even though he's only been at the district a short time, there was already an obvious pick for the first award.

"In 25 years (in education), I can say that he is one of the best I've ever seen at connecting with kids," Gum said.

The award was announced at the last regular meeting of the Havre Public School Board of Trustees and Nitz said he had no idea that they were going to give him the award, and he wasn't expecting this kind of recognition.

"It's humbling, you know," he said. "We don't come in to work thinking we're going to win awards; we're here because we want to help kids."

He said he was happy that his work left such an impression and that he's been able to connect with the new superintendent who he hopes feels welcome to the community.

He said his family, as well as those of many other school employees, have made an effort to help Gum and his family settle in, and he hopes everyone who comes to the district or the community feels that way.

Nearly a quarter century of service

Nitz said he has been an educator at the district for more than 23 years and has worked in nearly every building at some point or another.

During his time attending Havre High, the very school he now helps lead with Principal Dustin Kraske, he said, he worked at a business repairing air conditioning units, making good money at the time.

He said the plan was to eventually become a part-owner of the business, and he never expected to be a teacher, but something he can't quite put his finger on caused him to change course.

"I couldn't tell you what happened," Nitz said. "But I was in the auditorium listening to a motivational speaker one day, and I just knew that's not where I was going,"

He said he started his career at Highland Park Early Primary School as a long-term substitute before becoming a full teacher.

After the district shifted from neighborhood schools to grade-level schools, Nitz said, he went to work in Sunnyside Intermediate School but eventually moved to Havre Middle School to teach science, which was, at the time, his long-term goal.

That position was where he was at his happiest, but eventually he wanted to try something else and became a technology specialist, handling the school's MacBooks and other technology before getting his administrator certificate.

Just as he never thought he would be a teacher, he said, he never thought he would become an administrator, but, just like before, he felt a calling that he had to answer.

He worked in Havre High School for a year, but wanted to get back to the middle school, which he enjoyed working in the most, however he returned to the high school as assistant principal last year.

Nitz said he probably wouldn't have made that move without then-Middle School Principal Dustin Kraske making the same move, since they've worked together for so many years and have been a good team all that while.

New position, new dynamics, similar challenges

Indeed, Nitz said, there are a lot of things he misses about Havre Middle School, including the staff he'd built relationships with, but there are unique aspects of the high school environment that he has come to appreciate.

He said the conversations he has with high school students tend to be more affective, with longer-reaching consequences on their lives and outlooks.

That's not to say the interactions with the previous grades weren't meaningful, he said, but they didn't necessarily have as much of a longterm impact as they do here.

Nitz said high school students also seem to have less difficulty finding out who and what they want to be, because the range of elective classes and extra curricular activities is so much wider than at previous grades, whether that's drama or agriculture or whatever it happens to be.

"It feels like it's easier, in high school, for kids to, kind of, find their people," he said.

However, he said, while this seemed to be a bigger problem at the middle school, there are still a lot of students who feel lost and don't know how important they are to the people around them.

Nitz said his number one goal at the district is to make sure every single student knows that they have a least one person who loves and supports them, and he is among them.

"I want these kids to know that I love them. Because what we see is that a lot of them don't know that (people love them), they don't have that," he said, choking up a little as he spoke.

He said this is an emotional issue for him, because he sees so many young students, even in the elementary level, who don't feel loved, who don't understand their importance and value to the people around them, and with that comes a feeling of hopelessness that stifles their potential.

He said students who feel this way rarely look past the current day, they don't aspire or dream, and a child who is in that situation is extremely difficult to help.

"We can't help a kid without hope," Nitz said.

He said there is a pervasive sense of isolation among some students even well after the COVID-19 pandemic and he thinks this isolated feeling is compounded by social media, which provides connection between many people, but connections that are often barely skin-deep.

He said he understands that the school can't fix all of these problems, and many will face challenges after they leave, but he wants to make sure they are doing all they can.

"We can't change every student's life," he said. "But we can damn well try."

Nitz said he is passionate to see the next generation of educators eventually take the reins from people like him, but these feelings of hopelessness make it hard for students to ever see education as a possibility for them, they can't visualize being on the other side of the desk, teaching and guiding others and having a profound impact on their lives.

He said being an educator is about the most influential position a person could ever hope to have professionally, when it comes to directly affecting people, and it is a profound thing to be.

Challenges persist, as does hope

Despite the challenges students face, Nitz said, there are great things going on.

He said behavior this school year has been amazing so far, and he believes that is a consequence of a school climate that he believes has improved significantly since he and Kraske came to the high school.

He said he's been meeting with juniors and their parents to make sure students are being prepared for the things they want to do, and the connections they've been able to forge with students so far has been going really well.

"There isn't a kid we don't know," he said.

Despite missing the middle school, as well as coaching, Nitz said, the transition to the high school has been an easy one, partially thanks to his previous experience in the high school, but also being able to work with Kraske.

He said losing then-Superintendent Craig Mueller, who died unexpectedly last year, was difficult, but his loss did reinforce the importance of caring for each other, and how much a person can affect the community for the better.

He said Mueller was only at the district for 10 years - Mueller started as Havre High principal then became assistant superintendent and then superintendent - and the impact he had is so obvious, with so many of his students talking about how far Mueller went for them, he wonders what Mueller could have done with more time.

He said he wants to be able to look back and see the effects of his career and see a new generation pick up the torch.

Nitz also said he wanted to thank his wife, Mandy Nitz, an English and education teacher at Havre High School, for supporting him, adding that nothing he does would be possible without the support of someone who truly understands him and what it's like to work in the schools.