Cultural clothing in schools approved on first reading

Havre school board members approved to move on and consider district policy changes during Tuesday's Board of Trustees meeting, among them one that will allow students to wear cultural-appropriate clothing.

Trustees will have until the next meeting Jan. 9 to review the proposed policy changes before ultimately voting whether to make the changes official.

The cultural-dress policy, mainly aimed to accommodate Native American students, allows for those students to wear for example beads, or other similar culturally relevant items on graduation caps, while also including guidelines that would prohibit abuse of the policy. Examples of abuse would be any student wearing things related to sex or violence.

"You can't put a pistol on your hat," District Superintendent Andy Carlson said.

Another proposed policy change would allow students who haven't met the attendance requirements but know the subject to still be able to pass the class. If the student can prove he or she knows the topic by passing a test, they can move on. Carlson said it allows leeway for students in extraordinary circumstances.

While Montana has some of the strictest staff licensing requirements, a new licensing policy would allow administrators, such as superintendents, who served five years in another state, to work in Montana as administrators, Carlson said. The policy would apply only to administrators and not teachers.

Although it hasn't been an issue in Havre, the military student policy would allow students in military families to enroll in school more fluidly, the point being to make the transition of military students easier, since military families sometimes move around more frequently.

The district is looking at a policy that may enable it to borrow money from other designated funds if it's applied to safety-related expenses. Those funds have to be replenished as soon as possible afterward.

A policy to keep opioid antagonist medication in school clinics has already been passed as legislative law, Carlson said, but trustees will vote whether school nurses should be able to administrate the anti-opioid drugs.

Trustee Ed Hill and others asked whether the nurses were equipped to know when a student was going through an overdose.

Carlson said there have not been any opioid overdoses in the school.

Director of Special Services Karla Geda spoke to trustees about what was happening in the special education department. Among the topics, Geda said, was a possible re-evaluating of diagnosing students on the autism spectrum. Sometimes autism is masked by other conditions, she said. The re-evaluation would address that masking.