2023 a big year for education

Editor’s note: This version corrects that Republican Mike Lang of Malta is a senator, not representative.

2023 has been an eventful year for education on the Hi-Line, from a major paradigm shift at Havre Public Schools to a massive investment in Montana State University-Northern for a new recreation center, all as the state and nation faces an ongoing teacher shortage.

The Havre Daily News has covered a number of significant events in education this year. Here are the biggest.

Havre adopts four-day week

Likely the most impactful story to come out of education in the area is Havre Public School’s decision to move to a four-day week schedule, with extended class periods and extra help offered on many otherwise school-free Fridays.

So far, the model appears to be well received, having been implemented at the beginning of this school year.

At a recent meeting of the Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees, district principals reported on how teachers and students were adjusting, and their feedback appears to be very positive, with educators reporting a reduction in stress and burnout, an increase in their efficiency and high participation on the optional Support Fridays, as they are called, with between one-third and half of students participating at the highest.

Principals said that by adopting this new schedule teachers have been able to provide more individualize education to students that show up on Support Fridays, as well increase their Indian Education for All activities.

They said teachers have also had more time for trainings and professional development, and there has been an overall increase in student performance, with the students that show up for Support Friday’s making good use of the time.

Fewer students are missing school for Friday sports, they said, and there has been an overall boost in attendance, though some of that may be the COVID-19 pandemic receding over the year.

The change hasn’t been without some bumps in the road, however.

Some teachers have said they think some of the Support Fridays have been poorly scheduled, which they think can be addressed in the next year, and the shift hasn’t done much for students that are chronically absent.

Principals said that some of the teachers have told them that the students benefit greatly from the Support Fridays, but those students in the most need of extra help aren’t attending them.

The longer days also mean a missed day is a great loss of educational time. They can be a bit exhausting as well, though this issue came with the caveat that having a three-day weekend tends to balance that out by the time the next Monday rolls around.

So far the change seems to have been a welcome one despite some growing pains, but the road to this change was rather tumultuous.

Teachers had been pushing for the change in 2022, arguing that it would improve student performance, reduce stress and burnout for current teachers, and attract new teachers amid the ongoing teacher shortage in Montana and the U.S. broadly.

The Board of Trustees was split on the merits of the change, with opponents arguing that the new schedule would hurt students instead of help them and would create problems for parents who have trouble finding child care, as well as eliminate Friday meals for students with struggling families.

This year’s school board election ended up being a bit of a shakeup however, with multiple candidates who expressed support for the change winning seats, and the matter was indeed revisited after they were seated early this year, but not before a controversy about how the matter was being handled.

Early this year, before the election, the board discussed 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 in the next meeting.

However, the matter was not on the agenda for the next meeting 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, who lost his bid for reelection, said the calendars were thrown out so the board could look at more simplified options.

HEA then requested that the board delay voting on the matter due to this sudden and unannounced change of course, which the organization criticized heavily.

Eventually the board voted 5-3 to delay until more time could be taken to look at the new options and until after the upcoming school board election.

The meeting was contentious, with teachers maintaining their support for the new schedule and expressing their frustration with how the matter was being handled, and opponents criticizing those requesting the delay, arguing that it was an urgent matter that had to be resolved quickly.

After new members were seated and the issue was brought back up, and, after another tense meeting, the new incarnation of the board eventually decided in a split vote to adopt the four-day school week schedule.

However, the four-day week was not the only contentious issue talked about by the school board this year, as their decision to allow high school sports coaches to recruit eighth graders only came after a fair amount of argument, though it was somewhat less charged than the matter of the districts schedule.

HPS allows high school to recruit eighth graders for sports

The proposal to start allowing the recruitment of eighth graders was primarily championed by Havre High School wrestling leadership, with Coach Beau LaSalle saying 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.

He said, because he can’t recruit eighth grade students, there were two weight classes for which he has no competitors, so they just couldn’t keep up with comparable schools in terms of scoring points.

The decision to allow eighth graders to participate in high schools sports has become quite common in Montana and proponents of Havre following suit said they need to make a similar change to keep competing.

While members of the board were largely sympathetic to the problem the wrestling team, as well as others, faced, many raised concerns about high schoolers potentially getting passed over in favor of eighth graders as well as the worry that younger students may feel alienated on a team of older students.

Proponents largely responded by saying that coaches know what’s right for their teams and they would be cognizant of those issues when they make decisions, which seemed to satisfy many of the proposals initial critics.

In discussing the matter there was also a concern raised over potentially increasing competition between coaches for students, particularly between high school and middle school baseball, but Havre High School Principal and girls basketball coach Dustin Kraske, who brought up this concern, said that observation doesn’t mean the recruiting challenges faced by his fellow coaches aren’t worth addressing.

Later in the year the board decided to allow eighth graders to be recruited at the discretion of coaches and athletics leadership.

The board initially considered a stipulation that would restrict coaches from recruiting unless it was impossible to fill a slot with a high schooler, but ultimately withdrew that restriction, largely agreeing that coaches should be trusted to make decisions that are best for the team and students.

HPS gets a new superintendent

Earlier this year Brian Gum was hired as superintendent by the district’s Board of Trustees with nearly complete consensus regarding him being the best candidate for the district after the unexpected death of then-Superintendent Craig Mueller.

Mueller died at the age of 50 Oct. 22, 2022, just a year-and-a-half after taking over as the permanent superintendent.

Mueller originally came to Havre to take the position of Havre High School principal in July 2011 and took the position of assistant superintendent in June of 2015.

When Andy Carlson resigned, Mueller took over as interim superintendent in June 2020, just a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic.

Between Mueller’s death and Gum’s appointment, Assistant Superintendent Brad Moore was acting superintendent.

Gum has been an educator for 25 years, having returned to Montana 14 years ago to join the Stevensville Public School District, where he served as a principal at both the middle and high school levels, as well as activities director, curriculum director and coach at various times.

Before that he’d been a teacher, coach and principal at various schools in the southwestern and northwestern United States, having received his degree from University of Montana Western.

Gum arrived at a somewhat pivotal time for the district as the school board, after seating a number of new school board members and electing its first new chair in some 15 years, voted to transition to a four-day school week, a change that was supported almost universally by school staff and strongly by the community, based on polling.

Gum said there would certainly be adjustments made throughout the year as educators transition to the new model, but he thought the change has the potential to do a lot of good.

He said a big focus of this year would be making sure that educational intervention is being targeted at the students who need it the most, adding that they would also be starting a new advisor program which will provide more in-school mentorship and allow students to explore subjects they want.

But Havre Public Schools was hardly the only institution to have busy year, other were on the collegiate level and in other Golden Triangle schools.

Northern sees huge investment in facilities

Montana State University-Northern saw a substantial investment from the Montana Legislature during this year’s session, having received $25 million for their Aurora Complex as well as another $6.8 million for repairs and upgrades to existing buildings.

The Aurora Complex is the biggest of nine initiatives to boost student recruitment and retention that Northern Chancellor Greg Kegel and his colleagues at Northern have been working on for nearly a decade. They considered the Legislature’s bi-partisan support for the project a vote of confidence in what Northern represents to the state and its workforce.

Potential plans for the complex include a gym, a pool, a black box theater, a book store, a bowling alley, a coffee bar and many other ideas like meeting space, but much will depend on feasibility and cost.

The primary goal of this project, Kegel said, isn’t just to provide students a great facility, but to attract more students to the campus, which has been one of the biggest goals of his years as chancellor.

Kegel said no matter how things go in the design phases the one thing they really need is a large space that can be easily converted for community use for events.

He also said the inclusion of a gym will lessen the overwhelming demand for the Armory Gymnasium, where, he said, demand is so high that between the campus and the surrounding community it’s often hard for students to actually get a chance to use the gym as often as they should.

While securing funding for projects like this is often a struggle, the community has been very supportive of the project, but there just wasn’t enough money to fund such a big project, which made support from the Legislature incredibly valuable.

The outlook for the project getting support from the Legislature didn’t always look good, as Gov. Greg Gianforte initially rejected the idea of contributing state money to any new building projects on campuses, despite the complex being on top of the Montana University System Board of Regents building project priorities list.

However, Sen. Mike Lang, R-Malta, championed an amendment that would get the funding into House Bill 5, and all the local legislators got behind it.

The amendment got wide-spreads support from across the political spectrum and it was passed along with the rest of HB5 this year.

Included in that bill was another $6.8 million for building repair and updates, more than triple what Kegel typically requests and rarely gets.

The priority for this investment is Pershing Hall which has had issues with handicap accessibility, and has been in need of an upgrade generally for some time.

Other projects being funded are the Vande Bogart Library roof replacement, work on the Metals Technology Building roof, an upgrade of the Brockmann Center and Electronics Technology Buildings’ heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, and an upgrade to campus EMS building controls, as well as the operation and maintenance of the Health and Recreation Complex.

While Northern’s recent eight-figure investment was a big story this year, smaller investments at the local level have also been making a difference.

Box Elder Schools tackles teacher shortage

Box Elder Schools is continuing its push to install more affordable teacher housing, in part to address the ongoing teacher shortage being faced by the state and the nation, and in a place that faces a number of unique challenges, a housing shortage among them.

Box Elder Schools Superintendent Jeremy MacDonald said they’ve lost a number of potential teachers during and before his tenure when they were unable to find suitable housing in the area. This year they are installing two new units to house staff who might otherwise face a difficult commute from Havre or further away.

Schools in Native American communities often face unique challenges including wide-spread generational trauma and centuries of economic marginalization that can make recruitment difficult, but MacDonald has said there are plenty of people interested and qualified to teach in places like Box Elder, and they want to make sure they can.

Box Elder’s goal is to install 20 units total which will house half their certified staff, and the money collected from the $250-per-month goes to fund that project.

Between the shift to a four-day week in Havre and the installation of affordable housing in Box Elder, institutions are taking steps to address the ongoing teacher shortage, and similar changes in other schools around the state seem to be having a positive effect.

However, the shortage remains and many Montana schools are still suffering from a lack of educators and that will certainly continue into 2024 though there will surely be developments as the new year arrives.