By Tim Leeds
The Havre school board Tuesday night placed the report of the Athletic Review Task Force on the agenda for the May 9 meeting.
The item will be placed on the information section of the meeting. Members of the task force will report, and public input on the issues will be taken.
The board may then place the item on the June meeting's agenda as an action item.
The task force presented options on several sports in its written report to the board. The actions could include adding or phasing in boys' cross country, girls' fast-pitch softball, and boys' and girls' soccer.
Letters were included in the report both in support of adding more activities and in opposition. The item will be considered as an information item to let people in the community express their ideas and concerns to the board and to the task force before the board considers it as an action item.
In other items, the board heard a report from Dr. Kirk Miller, superintendent of public schools on meetings planned to provide facts about the school elections on May 2.
The elections will consist of voting on three board members, an increase in the high school mill levy, and raising the building reserve from $125,000 a year to $150,000 a year for three years.
Miller said he will present the facts about these items and the actual effect they will have on the voters in public meetings to be held at 7 p.m. at the Havre Middle School on Tuesday, April 18, and at Cottonwood School at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 27. Miller said he would also present these facts to area service groups and to staff of the district's schools.
The board also approved a pilot program for the K-5 schools under the Elementary Montana Behavior Initiative (MBI) for the 2000-2001 school year. The program removes the current emphasis on assertive discipline and replaces it with guidelines to model and teach appropriate behavior.
Under the same agenda item, the board revised policies concerning discipline and detention to reflect the new elementary school programs.
The MBI program will function under guidelines with the acronym BRIM, Be prepared, Respect yourself and others, Interact appropriately, and Move in a safe manner.
The BRIM guidelines will be posted in the schools, a T-chart, still being created, will be posted for appropriate behavior in common areas such as hallways, and teachers will post BRIM expanded guidelines with specific teacher expectations in their classrooms.
The program is intended both to teach the students appropriate behavior better and to provide consistency in behavior management in all of the elementary schools in the district.
