HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – Havre Public Schools hosted a strategic planning meeting at the Middle School Library on Monday evening.
At the start of the meeting, the Board was presented with draft components of their updated strategic plan, which will be adjusted further.
Meeting attendees said some goals over the next 3-5 years should include increasing the graduation rate, decreasing the dropout rate, upgrading facilities, and improving staffing recruitment and retention
Debra Silk, Associate Executive Director and General Counsel for the Montana School Boards Association (MTSBA), joined the meeting virtually and helped mediate the conversation, including on the issue of staff recruiting and retention.
“It might be enhancing or developing enhancements to your recruitment efforts. That’s a strategy, right. We’re not identifying exactly how you’re going to do that. But you’re identifying the area that you need to focus on.”
One shorter term goal, Trustee Tim Scheele suggested, was to ensure students that miss the bus make it to school.
“There’s always kids that are never gonna reach their bus on time. Therefore, they don’t make it to school. So why don’t we take that opportunity and essentially it would be like an uber bus for the schools to go pick them up and drop them off. If they need to stay 30 minutes after school, we have a van that will take them home. We close those deficiencies that they have on themselves with their family, and we close those deficiencies so we are getting them to school so that they’re engaged in what we’re doing.”
This was the third strategic planning the District has held. A fourth meeting may take place in the coming months.
