Board celebrates FFA students

The May 19 meeting of the Hot Springs County School Board saw some overdue recognition of student success finally addressed, before the board moved up laying some groundwork for the next school year.

The board of trustees took time to celebrate a significant event from nearly two months prior, as Hot Springs County High School Principal Breez Daniels introduced her school’s chapter of the Future Farmers of America, so they could receive congratulations for their performance as part of the 92nd Montana FFA State Convention, at Bozeman from March 30 through April 2.

“We had five finalists that were in the top three in the state,” said Britton Van Heule, agriculture education and FFA advisor for the high school.

All five groups of Hot Springs County High School students were Gold with their agriscience projects, including:

• Morgan Slover with Animal Systems 5.

• Rylee and Taylor Agar with Animal Systems 4.

• Chase Herring and Kale Bloedel with Environmental Services and Natural Resource Systems 4.

• Lexi Overfield with Environmental Services and Natural Resource Systems 5.

• And Kaia Galovich with Plant Systems 3.

“So the process now is, they finished the application for nationals, which is pretty expensive,” said Van Heule, referring to the 95th National FFA Convention and Expo, which runs from Oct. 26-29 in Indianapolis, Indiana, this year. “We’re going to upload their papers, and ship all that stuff out to Indianapolis, where they’ll judge people from all over the United States, that are conducting science-based (independent project analyses).”

From that vast pool, Van Heule elaborated that 10 students in each category division would be selected, to compete for the distinction of ranking among the top three.

“Thank you for taking your time to come in and let us celebrate you,” Hot Springs County School Board Trustee Jennifer Axtell told the students, as Board Clerk Joe Martinez handed pins to each of them. “This is the best part of our job.”

Moving onto the approval of advertising for pre-K and daycare playground equipment, Superintendent Dustin Hunt prefaced that discussion by noting that, “due to timing for playground equipment, and the supply chain being several months out, we have pushed forward to get approval for advertising” for pre-K and daycare playground equipment.

“We have a couple of vendors that are already interested, but we normally would not try to spring that without the building committee,” Hunt said, while adding, “If we ordered it now, it might be here when school starts” for the 2022-23 school year.

Hunt apologized for introducing these changes so late, and “having this many things going on at the same time,” even as he explained that one of the causative factors was that “ it’s mostly grant-funded, with some federal dollars” involved.

“We want to try to get them down, if we can,” Hunt said.

The motion to approve advertising for the pre-K and daycare playground equipment was made by Martinez, and seconded by Board Treasurer Nichole Weyer, before being carried unanimously by the board of trustees.