School board hears research on baseball, eighth grade athletes

The Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees at their monthly meeting Tuesday evening discussed the ramifications of adding boys baseball as a sport, discussed bills at the Legislature and heard an area report from Lincoln-McKinley Primary School Principal Holly Bitz.

During the meeting, Havre High School Activities Director Mark Irvin said he’s spent some time over the past few months researching how establishing boys baseball at Havre Public Schools may affect the school and its programs.

Irvin said based on current estimates of costs for uniforms, travel, coaching stipends and umpires, it doesn’t seem like the district has the funds to sustain a program like this while they’re struggling to keep their existing programs going amid declining enrollment.

“I worry a little about how we are going to maintain the programs that we already have,” he said.

He said he spoke with people from the American Legion’s local baseball program who were mostly against the implementation of a program by the district. Indeed, when the subject was brought up at a meeting last year, many feared a potential program like this would be redundant with the Legion’s program.

He said baseball seasons tend to be pretty long and strenuous, and he suspects students who try to participate in both high school and Legion baseball would get very fatigued.

He said he suspects implementing this new sport would draw recruits away from the track and tennis teams, as he thinks many students would migrate over.

Irvin said he hasn’t received much public comment on the issue since it was brought up last year, but if the board does decide they want to go through with creating a program they should get the ball rolling sooner rather than later.

Irvin also talked about the possibility of having eighth grade athletes participate in high school sports, which he also expressed concerns about.

He said Havre Middle School has a lot of Class B rivals in the area and if eighth graders start playing high school sports that would necessitate more travel — he said middle school students don’t tend to handle travel as well — and will raise the district’s transportation costs noticeably.

He said their middle school teams have been very competitive for the past few years and he’s also concerned about how a shift will affect that.

As for current teams, he said, athletics participation at the high school is already very good and the only team he sees that is short on members is the wrestling team, which does have openings for its lower weight divisions, something eighth graders could fill.

During the meeting the board also approved a question to be put on the school board election ballot, asking voters to approve a levy increase that would allow their elementary school district to reach their maximum budget allowed by the state.

Havre Public Schools Interim-Superintendent Brad Moore said the High School District is already at its maximum allowable budget so no request for taxes will be on this year’s ballot.

Havre Public Schools District Clerk Chris Wendland said potential candidates for the board will need to have their paperwork in by March 23 for this year’s election.

Trustees also approved estimates provided to them by Moore for the coming year’s permissive levy.

Moore said the estimates were based on their predictions for what budgets and the tax base will look like later this year, and the numbers will change as time goes on, but they are required to get the board’s approval for the preliminary estimates, approval the board granted.

Trustees also briefly discussed a number of bills being discussed in the Montana Legislature, including two having to do with charter schools.

HB 562 would authorize the creation of “community choice schools” under the jurisdiction of a new, autonomous, statewide commission attached to the Montana Board of Public Education.

Under the bill, parents and community groups could seek approval for such a school directly from the new commission or from an authorized local school board. Choice schools would be subject to the same federal laws as K-12 public schools, but governed at the state level by their own set of curricular, licensing and academic reporting regulations.

The other bill, House Bill 549, seeks to place state oversight of charter schools directly in the hands of the Board of Public Education. Public charter schools would be governed by the same laws and administrative rules applied to public schools, and be under the local jurisdiction of either an existing elected school board or a locally elected charter school board under this law.

HB 549 more or less codifies what is already in Montana law, as the state already permits the creation of charter schools provided they have the same accreditation standards as public schools. Bridger Academy in Bozeman is an existing charter school.

Board Chair Curtis Smeby, who attended the meeting remotely, said the two HB 549 is much preferable but he has concerns about both bills.

Moore agreed, saying later in the meeting “We can do everything a charter school can.”

Another bill Moore and Smeby said they’ve heard serious concerns about is HB 774 which would require all elections, including state, county, city and school to be held at the same time every two years.

Moore said that while there is some stability to be gained by consolidating all these elections, putting all of these important issues on one ballot is sure to contribute to voter fatigue.

He said if people are looking at 10 to 15 pages of request for taxes a lot of them are just going to vote no on all of them, and he understands why.

He said he has no problem with people expressing their wishes on the issue of taxes and voting no, that’s their right, but by making it so everyone has to make their pleas at the same time will only make it harder to make a case that their need for funding is legitimate.

“Clogging this up will only make it harder, not just for the schools, but for others,” he said.

He also said candidates for something like a school board are going to have a lot of trouble holding anyone’s attention if they always have to do it during a presidential and midterm election cycle.

Smeby said he’s had meetings with the Montana School Boards Association and other similar organizations and all of Moore’s concerns were expressed there as well.

Moore also talked about HB 332, which would establish a health insurance trust for teachers.

He said the bill was tabled but he’s been told it will be brought off the table soon.

On the subject of elections, Smeby said he’s received requests that board members get more training on meeting protocols and proposed that said trainings be held in early to mid-April, but some board members suggested they be held after the elections so potential new members can benefit from them.

Smeby said that makes some sense and said they can discuss the matter in more detail at their next special meeting.

The board also discussed what that calendar for the coming year would look like and decided to discuss it in more detail at the next special meeting.

Members tried to find a time for that meeting that works for all their members but by the end of the meeting hadn’t established a time, but said they would announce it once they figured it out.

Trustee Jakob Ingram said the subject of the year’s calendar was a subject of a lot of discussion last year and it seems unwise to hold it at lunch time, which is when special meetings are generally held.

During the meeting the board also heard an area report form Lincoln-McKinely Primary School Principal Holly Bitz, who said she wanted to focus on the many community partnerships the school has made use of over the years and thank the community for their ongoing support.

“Educating children is a community process and Havre is an amazing community,” Bitz said.

She said local organizations like the Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line, the local Masons, Rotary Club and Montana Actors’ Theatre have been incredible to work with, as has the local Border Patrol, firefighters and Havre Police Department.

She said they’ve also received a lot of support from Northern Montana Care Center and Independence Bank as well as a host of local churches, retired teachers and families supporting students directly.

Bitz also thanked the Havre Middle School National Junior Honors Society for coming and reading to their students, the Havre High School’s Advanced Placement Chemistry Class which is going to come over to the school to do science experiments with their students and the many Native American speakers who’ve provided students education as well.

She said people and organizations like these are teaching students to give back to their communities and she’s thankful for all of them.

As for the rest of the presentation, Bitz said while the school still faces many challenges, they’ve made substantial progress closing the gap left the the COVID-19 pandemic, with high attendance and a lot of participation in their new reading programs.

She said parents have also been very engaged and in the last two rounds of parent-teacher conferences they’ve seen a participation rate of between 91 and 92.8 percent, which is extremely high.

She said the school is doing their best to keep parents informed about where their children are in their education.

Bitz said teachers are working on updates to their English Language Arts curriculum as well as instruction in Spanish.

She also talked about upcoming events including the K-5 STEM Family Night at the Middle School Auditorium March 23 from 6 to 7 p.m. and the second grade Spring concerts April 9 and 11, held in conjunction with the school-wide art show.

Toward the end of the meeting, Moore also talked briefly about an offer from Independence Bank to set up an ATM at the high school, which he said would help concessions sales, especially during 9-C, with the bank waiving most of their fees.