HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – The Havre Public School Board held their regular monthly meeting on Tuesday night and decided to keep the District in the current 3A schedule, which features four days a week of in-person learning.
Mueller also released the results of a survey of Havre Public School parents and staff that asked about their thoughts on reopening.
In the parent survey, 959 people responded, with 54.7% preferring to remain in the current 3A schedule. For the staff survey, 190 people responded, with 67.4% saying they are not ready for five days a week of face-to-face instruction.
Reasons for remaining in the current learning model include the need to keep remote learners on track and staffing shortages.
The Board also set a special meeting for this Thursday at 6:30 PM to interview the two finalists, Garrit Ophus and Michele Holden, for the trustee seat that Scott Adams recently vacated. The seat will be up for election for a three-year term in May.
Other agenda items for the meeting:
- The purchase of two new 72-passenger buses from Harlow’s Truck Center for $192,717.58 was approved. Expected delivery is two months from now.
- Permissive mill levies were approved, and information will be posted for the public to view by the end of the month
- Several course changes for Havre High School for the 2021-22 school year were approved. This includes the addition of a Stagecraft elective class, and a change to the Applied Technology course to add lessons on coding. Courses removed due to staffing or other issues include a science course called Next Generation Science
- Several policy revisions were approved on second reading. These policy adjustments are a result of ballot initiatives approved by Montana voters. The changes explicitly state that firearms and marijuana are not allowed on District property despite changes to state law
- Revisions to District Policy 1511 were approved on first reading. This clarifies the Code of Ethics for School Board Members in accordance with the Montana School Boards Association
- The District was provided a draft report of an audit of the 2020 fiscal year from Denning, Downey and Associates. The District is set to receive an unmodified opinion for financials and compliance, which means no issues were found
- Approval to allow the District to have the District Nurse collect specimens to send to the state for examination. The current BinaxNow test they are using to test for COVID-19 needs to be verified with a PCR test from the state if it comes up positive.
