Berreth, Ophus face off for one-year Havre School Board term: Garrit Ophus

Garrit Ophus, a sitting member of the Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees is running to retain his seat in a race against longtime Havre Public Schools employee Brandon Berreth.

Ophus took the position last month in the wake of former Trustee Scott Adams' resignation which came only a few months after his appointment in December of last year.

Ophus says he's a team player and an excellent communicator, talents that would serve the board and community well should he get elected.

He said he's open and willing to listen to and work with his fellow board members, Havre Public Schools Superintendent Craig Mueller and Hill County as a whole to make things better.

"If you don't listen, you're not going to make a decision that's right for the district," he said.

He said the schools' number one priority at the moment should be to come out of COVID-19 and the current policies they have in place in preparation to address the learning gap that has surely developed, despite the admirable performance of the district's teachers this past year.

He applauded the recent decision by the board to move to a five-day-a-week schedule for grades kindergarten through 5, which will start this week.

"It shows that we are making that improvement," he said, "that we are getting there."

He said the learning gap probably can't be accurately measured until the schools' end of the year assessments, but the summer will be a critical time to try to close that gap, or otherwise find ways to do that.

From the perspective of a parent of children in the school system, he said, he thinks the board did the best job that they could dealing with COVID-19 using the information they had.

Their primary concern was keeping people safe, he said, which was the appropriate place for their priorities to be.

Ophus said he thinks his opponent is a good candidate and he respects his experience and the fact that he has such deep roots in the community, but thinks the board could make use of a different perspective.

He said he can come to the board with questions about why things are done the way they are instead of simply sticking with what has always been done.

"I can come with an open, fresh mind," he said.

Ophus said this has been a difficult year for everyone in the school system and he hopes to help things recover in any way he can.