Havre schools return to in-class learning

In a six-one vote Tuesday, Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees decided that students were to return to the hybrid learning model today after being fully remote for two weeks, following the recommendation of Interim Superintendent Craig Mueller.

Board Member Curtis Smeby was the only board member to vote against the action.

Chair Aileen Couch, Vice Chair Harvey Capellen and board members Cindy Erickson, Ed Hill, Tim Scheele and Brian Williams voted to return to the Phase 2, schedule 2B re-opening model.

In that model, students are divided into two groups, each attending school in class two days a week and having a remote learning day on Fridays.

Students also had the option at the start of the school year to stay fully remote.

Today will be an “A” day, Thursday will be a “B” day and Friday will be a fully remote day.

Beginning next week, the schedule returns to “A” days being Monday and Wednesday and “B” days being Tuesday and Thursday with Friday remaining a virtual learning day.

The schedule will continue until further notice unless a particular building or buildings are transitioned to remote learning as determined by Superintendent Craig Mueller’s administrative team. The team consists of the director of special services, the facilities and transportation director, the business clerk, the HPS nurse and affected building principals.

Busing will resume according to the routes used prior to Oct. 13. Cafeterias will also return to function as they were before they switched to remote learning. For full-time remote learners, the grab-and-go meals will still be available at Havre High School.

During the meeting Mueller said an order the Hill County health officer is considering implementing, with additional restrictions in the county, if the rate of confirmation of cases does not drop will not impact the school district decisions.

“The Hill County Health Order that may be put into place does not impact decisions regarding what phase the school district decides to pursue,” he said.

He added that the decision for all school-related activities, both academic and extracurricular, remains with the local school districts and school boards.

A couple of justifications Mueller gave for his recommendation to go back to the Phase 2 schedule were the PSAT offered at Havre High School Thursday at 8 a.m. and the end of the first quarter Friday.

“Yesterday, I spent about an hour with the administrative teams in the five buildings talking about not only the number of active COVID-19 cases in their building, but the number impacted by quarantine, and we had several lengthy conversations about returning to school,” he said.

Mueller said it was unanimous among all the principals to bring the students back to school following the Phase 2 guidelines.

After the 14 days of remote learning, Mueller said, students need the opportunity to check in with their teachers and resume the A/B schedule. Waiting until next Monday, the students will have been out of school for 19 days, he added. 

The criteria the superintendent’s administrative team will follow to decide if a building needs to be transitioned to remote learning will include the total number of cases in the town, county, surrounding areas and state; positivity rate; absentee percentage of students and staff, and local, state or national orders and directives.

Mueller said students with any illness should be fever-free for 24 hours in addition to symptoms improving prior to returning to school. In most cases, COVID-19 is indistinguishable from other common respiratory illnesses and, in some cases, testing for COVID-19 may be required.

“We know how vitally important it is going to be, moving forward, that we take a close look at any students that are symptomatic and we are paying close attention to the Hill County Health Department’s recommendations for quarantining our students if necessary.” said Mueller.

Board member questions

Board members had several questions before the vote.

“So all indications are that you will have enough staff to fill the classrooms?” Williams asked.

Mueller said they would have adequate staff and his administrative team would assess if a building needed to go remote.

Mueller said that the two weeks of remote learning was to give staff and students time to get well and, though new positive cases have been confirmed, most cases that were active at the time of the transition have been cleared.

“Could you talk about ... our ability to contact trace in the district?” Smeby asked.

Mueller said Havre Public Schools Nurse Jeri Erickson has been doing contact tracing for the district alongside the Health Department.

“The reasoning we went full remote was to flatten the curve. … Did we flatten the curve?” Hill asked.

Mueller said he spoke with Hill County Health Officer Kim Larson and she said the impact will not be known for seven days or more. 

Williams asked Mueller if he felt it would be a safe environment for the students and teachers to return to.

Mueller said he did feel with the precautions they have been taking, and the ones they are adding, he felt it would be safe and beneficial for the students.

Public comment

Scott Chagnon said during the public comment section that his son wants to be in school. He said that the school shutdown is taking an unhealthy toll on students and that the kids deserve a quality education and remote learning does not provide that. 

At the end of his three minutes Chagnon refused to stop his presentation and the microphone was turned off. Chagnon persisted and finished his comment saying, “I ask you board members to do the job you were put into your positions to do in both the best interests of the students of Havre Public Schools.”

Comments were then opened to viewers joining via Zoom. Out of 43 comments read, 35 people stated they were for the motion, of which nine wanted to have four days in person instead of two, and seven were against the motion to return. 

“Please bring the students back,” Carol Cloninger said. “So many of the parents I have touched base with this week are struggling being out of school. They want to be in school.” 

“I am in favor of the motion,” student Steven Preputin. “I want to be in school.”

The next board meeting will be Tuesday, Nov. 10 in the Middle School Gymnasium.