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School board votes to let dogs in school

Two athletes were honored, therapy animals were discussed and the special education department was explained at Tuesday night’s Havre school board meeting.

Nikki Gabrielson and Haley Ohm were given special recognition for their outstanding achievements by the school board at the meeting. Both were all-state athletes — Gabrielson a golfer and Ohm a cross-country runner.

“We see excellence every day,” said Superintendent Andy Carlson. “Let’s take time to recognize it.”

Therapy animals

Carlson then explained to the board the first item on the agenda — the consideration of a policy that would set guidelines on the use of therapeutic animals in classrooms.

The school system currently has no policy pertaining to the use of such animals in classrooms, and many schools in Montana already have, according to Carlson.

“Not every animal is a therapy animal,” Carlson said. “We need proof.”

The proof would come from teachers who require an explanation and research as to why the animal would be useful in the classroom. The students who may have allergies to animals would need to be taken into consideration and the animals would need to be certified before they would be allowed in the classroom, in order to avoid dogs — which the policy is mainly designed for — biting children.

The animal would also need full documentation of required vaccinations

The vote to accept the policy was unanimous.

Carmen Lunak, of Havre Middle School, gave a presentation of good news about activities and student body numbers at her school.

“I have to take a minute to compliment the staff,” Lunak said.

The middle school has 462 students. Over 41 percent of the students are on the honor roll and there were 64 students who had perfect attendance. Lunak also spoke of the success of “Activity Day,” where students played games designed by their teachers.

Special education process explained

Deb Ferris, the district’s special education director, gave a presentation on how the special education program was holding up.

The district currently has 344 students in the special education program. Ferris went on to describe the process a student goes through before he or she is enrolled into the program. The process includes interventions and referrals from school employees.

Carlson reclaimed the podium after Ferris to tell the board of a conference he and others from the school system went to. The conference focused on the digitalization of education.

Managing technology

“Whether we embrace it or not, technology has impacted our instruction practices,” Carlson said. “You have to go from trying to control technology to managing it.”

He gave examples of technologies and medias, such as YouTube, previously banned from use in instruction now being utilized as faculty and administration realize their benefits, as well as realizing there is no separating technology from education any longer.

He also announced Havre High School just received a $25,000 grant to address air quality issues in the upper level and shops of the school.

“As a school district, we’ve been very fortunate,” Carlson said.

 

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