2010: School Board’s year of excitement

2010: School Board's year of excitement

For the Havre Public School District, 2010 has ended with a bang and a crash, as the roof over Havre High School's library and cafeteria collapsed Thursday morning.

This is just the last occurrence in what has been an interesting year which most of the administrators and trustees look back on, for the most part, with satisfaction.

David Mahon

The year started off in controversy with the sudden resignation of Superintendent David Mahon, which generated a lot of interest, particularly after his substantial severance package.

At the time, it appeared that no one but Mahon, then Board of Trustees Chair Shad Huston and Vice Chair Aileen Couch, knew anything about why Mahon was leaving and why he got all of that money.

Current Board Chair Lee Christianson, who was one of the trustees at the time, said that even he and the rest of the board were kept in the dark.

"As a board member, we had little to do with what was going on, " Christianson said. "Basically, the chair and vice chair were working on a plan with Mr. Mahon but never indicating where they were going. It was pretty much a surprise to us. "

Now, nearly a full year after the incident, some of the titles have changed, but no one can say anything about what happened, as it was a personnel matter.

Mahon resigned and was replaced by Andy Carlson. Mahon is now principal at Baker Elementary School in Baker. He used to work for the Baker school district before becoming superintendent at Huntley Project School District in Worden. In 2003, Mahon served in the same position he holds now and won the 2001 State Assistant Principal of the Year Award while at Baker High School.

Judging by the repeated unreturned messages to the school and his hanging up on a Havre Daily News reporter during the one call to get ahold of him, Mahon was uninterested in commenting on the situation.

Huston was voted off the board in the May elections. Christianson replaced him as board president. Huston is now focusing on running his family's business at Leon's Buy & Sell and starting some of his own businesses.

Huston said he legally couldn't comment on Mahon's resignation, but did want to highlight how well he thought the school board responded to the controversy.

"After Mahon resigned, the way everyone came together and pitched in to do their parts, all the way down to the staff and the schools, was amazing, " Huston said.

Carlson was promoted from his three years as director of education to interim superintendent in February and officially hired as superintendent in July. Carlson said he was anxious about the position, but the support of the district helped him acclimate.

"I was nervous as heck, to be honest with you, " Carlson said. "I appreciate that our staff, from (administration) to building and grounds, helped me through that. "

Carlson said he felt a great responsibility to live up to his predecessors, Kirk Miller and Dennis Parman.

Since he has started, there's been quite a bit to put him on that track.

Constructive steps

The biggest visible change for the district this year was the construction project at Highland Park Early Primary School over the summer.

The addition, including to the school's cafeteria, is Couch's favorite district activity this year.

"The Highland Park project was a really good thing for our students and staff in that building, " Couch said.

Christianson said that it was an important step for the district, and they'll need more like it.

"It will be able to handle the growth we anticipate over the next few years, " Christianson said. "The issue is how do we adapt our facilities to meet new needs. Our schools are getting old, and taking care of students needs, as well as the government requirements, takes space and takes people. "

Another of these additions that Christianson is proud of was the new surface added to the track facility at the Havre Middle School.

Academic progress

While moving forward on its logistical needs, district officials were handed a list of academic issues to address, in the Adequate Yearly Progress report.

The report measured how the school was performing on the guidelines established by the No Child Left Behind Act.

The test results, for seven different grades, showed that Havre's students are proficient for the most part in reading and math, more so in reading. The numbers, though, were not good enough across all grades and demographics for the district to meet the standards of the national legislation.

The district had already been working on some plans to improve these scores and started working on others.

The district created a database of the reading proficiency, and all strategies used to improve that proficiency, of all the students in Lincoln-McKinley.

It was designed to give teachers more information about what their students are capable of and what they respond to, as they move from grade to grade.

If it goes as well as hoped, the database will be expanded to include all students K-5.

The district sought outside help in revising the math curriculum, though with a somewhat similar approach. The math faculty at the schools has been working to establish a cohesive district-wide curriculum with the ability to judge how much of each year's material a student understands as they move on.

Implementation of this program should begin as soon as next school year, and it is one of the many things the district is anticipating in the coming year.

Moving forward

According to the administration and trustees, 2011 should see a continuation of the progress made in the past year.

The new math and reading programs should be implemented and expanded in the next year.

More construction projects are being considered for development this year.

At the year's last school board meeting, the board looked at a feasibility study on construction projects at Havre High School, including updating parking lots and locker rooms.

As is obvious to anyone who has seen the high school in the last 24 hours, these projects will have to wait.

But Christianson feels that changes such as these will be necessary and positive steps in anticipation of growth, like the Highland Park addition was this year.

"The big thing this next year for the school district is looking at facilities and talking about how these buildings are going to serve our needs in the future. Specifically Lincoln-McKinley and Sunnyside. They are at capacity as it is, " Christianson said. "Obviously the high achool is going to be looked at. At the high school we're going to have to look at the parking lots. They've been falling apart for a while. The roof falling in kind of leaves that up in the air. "

For the Havre Public School District, 2010 has ended with a bang and a crash, as the roof over Havre High School's library and cafeteria collapsed Thursday morning.

This is just the last occurrence in what has been an interesting year which most of the administrators and trustees look back on, for the most part, with satisfaction.

David Mahon

The year started off in controversy with the sudden resignation of Superintendent David Mahon, which generated a lot of interest, particularly after his substantial severance package.

At the time, it appeared that no one but Mahon, then Board of Trustees Chair Shad Huston and Vice Chair Aileen Couch, knew anything about why Mahon was leaving and why he got all of that money.

Current Board Chair Lee Christianson, who was one of the trustees at the time, said that even he and the rest of the board were kept in the dark.

"As a board member, we had little to do with what was going on, " Christianson said. "Basically, the chair and vice chair were working on a plan with Mr. Mahon but never indicating where they were going. It was pretty much a surprise to us. "

Now, nearly a full year after the incident, some of the titles have changed, but no one can say anything about what happened, as it was a personnel matter.

Mahon resigned and was replaced by Andy Carlson. Mahon is now principal at Baker Elementary School in Baker. He used to work for the Baker school district before becoming superintendent at Huntley Project School District in Worden. In 2003, Mahon served in the same position he holds now and won the 2001 State Assistant Principal of the Year Award while at Baker High School.

Judging by the repeated unreturned messages to the school and his hanging up on a Havre Daily News reporter during the one call to get ahold of him, Mahon was uninterested in commenting on the situation.

Huston was voted off the board in the May elections. Christianson replaced him as board president. Huston is now focusing on running his family's business at Leon's Buy & Sell and starting some of his own businesses.

Huston said he legally couldn't comment on Mahon's resignation, but did want to highlight how well he thought the school board responded to the controversy.

"After Mahon resigned, the way everyone came together and pitched in to do their parts, all the way down to the staff and the schools, was amazing, " Huston said.

Carlson was promoted from his three years as director of education to interim superintendent in February and officially hired as superintendent in July. Carlson said he was anxious about the position, but the support of the district helped him acclimate.

"I was nervous as heck, to be honest with you, " Carlson said. "I appreciate that our staff, from (administration) to building and grounds, helped me through that."

Carlson said he felt a great responsibility to live up to his predecessors, Kirk Miller and Dennis Parman.

Since he has started, there's been quite a bit to put him on that track.

Constructive steps

The biggest visible change for the district this year was the construction project at Highland Park Early Primary School over the summer.

The addition, including to the school's cafeteria, is Couch's favorite district activity this year.

"The Highland Park project was a really good thing for our students and staff in that building, " Couch said.

Christianson said that it was an important step for the district, and they'll need more like it.

"It will be able to handle the growth we anticipate over the next few years, " Christianson said. "The issue is how do we adapt our facilities to meet new needs. Our schools are getting old, and taking care of students needs, as well as the government requirements, takes space and takes people. "

Another of these additions that Christianson is proud of was the new surface added to the track facility at the Havre Middle School.

Academic progress

While moving forward on its logistical needs, district officials were handed a list of academic issues to address, in the Adequate Yearly Progress report.

The report measured how the school was performing on the guidelines established by the No Child Left Behind Act.

The test results, for seven different grades, showed that Havre's students are proficient for the most part in reading and math, more so in reading. The numbers, though, were not good enough across all grades and demographics for the district to meet the standards of the national legislation.

The district had already been working on some plans to improve these scores and started working on others.

The district created a database of the reading proficiency, and all strategies used to improve that proficiency, of all the students in Lincoln-McKinley.

It was designed to give teachers more information about what their students are capable of and what they respond to, as they move from grade to grade.

If it goes as well as hoped, the database will be expanded to include all students K-5.

The district sought outside help in revising the math curriculum, though with a somewhat similar approach. The math faculty at the schools has been working to establish a cohesive district-wide curriculum with the ability to judge how much of each year's material a student understands as they move on.

Implementation of this program should begin as soon as next school year, and it is one of the many things the district is anticipating in the coming year.

Moving forward

According to the administration and trustees, 2011 should see a continuation of the progress made in the past year.

The new math and reading programs should be implemented and expanded in the next year.

More construction projects are being considered for development this year.

At the year's last school board meeting, the board looked at a feasibility study on construction projects at Havre High School, including updating parking lots and locker rooms.

As is obvious to anyone who has seen the high school in the last 24 hours, these projects will have to wait.

But Christianson feels that changes such as these will be necessary and positive steps in anticipation of growth, like the Highland Park addition was this year.

"The big thing this next year for the school district is looking at facilities and talking about how these buildings are going to serve our needs in the future. Specifically Lincoln-McKinley and Sunnyside. They are at capacity as it is, " Christianson said. "Obviously the high achool is going to be looked at. At the high school we're going to have to look at the parking lots. They've been falling apart for a while. The roof falling in kind of leaves that up in the air. "