We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Chinook Schools Superintendent Darrin Hannum said recruiting of teachers for system vacancies is going well, despite a shortage of candidates looking for positions in rural districts. Hannum explained, “Chinook has a great reputation, good community support and the pay and benefits are competitive. It’s just a fact that many young grads are looking to teach for big dollars in big cities. I feel we are doing well getting some talented, new teachers coming into our system.” Hannum gave a brief introduction for the new faculty members already recruited or about to be approved for hire.
New teachers set to begin 2016-17 year
Andrew Lindquist will be teaching junior high and freshman/sophomore math courses. He grew up in Havre and his father, Rick, recently retired as a math teacher at Chinook High School. Andrew has a background in biology and was working in the oil patch in the Dakotas. He’s looking forward to returning to teaching.
Dalton Hielig is from Townsend and just graduated from Western Montana College. He will be teaching higher level math. Jordan Hielig, Dalton’s wife, will be working as a part-time counselor at Meadowlark Elementary. Dalton has family in the Turner area.
Tanner Cummings is a graduate of Belt High School. He taught one year at Geraldine after graduating from the University of Great Falls. He’ll be teaching science in the junior high and high school. Tanner ran track at Great Falls and will be coaching junior high track as well as serving as the Assistant Football coach.
Melinda Jones will be teaching at Meadowlark Elementary. She was one of the first graduates of a collaborative program between Aaniiih Nakoda College and MSU-Billings to offer four-year teaching degrees at the Fort Belknap tribal college. She’s a graduate of Harlem High School.
Bryce Weinheimer, a Chinook High grad, will be teaching at Meadowlark. Bryce has a degree in technology and will be working toward completion of an elementary education degree. Hannum added Bryce did a lot of substitute teaching this past year at Meadowlark.
Hannum said an additional two prospective teachers are expected to be approved for teaching positions. Kasie Gardenbeger will be teaching at Meadowlark Elementary. This will be her first teaching position but she’s worked in Havre as a teacher’s aide and a Head Start teacher.
James Harkings will be an elementary teacher, coming back to teaching. Harkings will be moving from Modesto, California. Prior he taught in California, in Guam for the Department of Defense, Beirut, Wyoming and Montana. He’s a graduate of MSU-Billings. Superintendent Hannum said he would like to add one more teacher at the elementary level, that search is still ongoing.
Commenting on the challenge of filling teaching positions in Montana, Hannum explained, “I hear from superintendents all along the Hi-Line, and they are also finding it difficult to recruit teachers. It’s not just our region, but the entire state and nation.”
Hannum gave an illustrative statistic about the pool of new teachers in Montana. He said, “In a typical year Montana colleges and universities will graduate about 800 education majors. Of those 800, 200 will never teach. Of the 600 available grads, half will leave the state to find teaching jobs. Of the 300 who stay in Montana, 150 will stay in the big cities, where they teach or end up doing something else.” He added, “That leaves 150 Montana grads, each year, for the rest of the state. That’s just not a very big pool.”
For new teachers in Chinook, the start of the 2016-2017 school year is less than a month away. Hannam said new teachers would report to school on August 19.
