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Heart Butte School District to layoff more than 30 and accept five resignations next week – Daily Montanan [1]

['Nicole Girten', 'More From Author', '- January']

Date: 2024-01-05  

The Heart Butte School Board is set to terminate 31 staff members at an upcoming meeting next week likely in order to cut district costs. The board will also decide whether to accept five resignations, including acting district administrator Shannon Augare.

Terminations include 11 teacher’s assistants, two mental health professionals, a substitute art teacher, the sub-administrative secretary, a truancy officer and 15 custodial, maintenance and kitchen staff members.

Resignations include two teachers, the athletic director, a truancy officer and Augare. Augare said in his resignation letter he was disappointed in the board’s decision to move forward with the terminations.

“There is no plan,” he said.

Sixty-eight staff positions are listed on the district’s website.

This wave of departures comes in the months after the board voted to place Heart Butte School District Superintendent Mike Tatsey on administrative leave and conduct a forensic audit of the school’s finances. Findings from the audit have not been released, but auditors gave a presentation with an overview of the history of district finances last month.

Tatsey previously confirmed to the Daily Montanan staff at the school had tested positive for drugs and last year Blackfeet Family Services removed children from a group home Tatsey oversaw.

Board Chairperson Forrest Calf Boss Ribs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The board voted for counselor and former legislator Augare, who previously worked at the district, to step in as acting district administrator when Tatsey was on leave.

In his resignation letter, Augare said while he agrees with the board cost-cutting measures must take place, he believed a “more thoughtful and logical approach is necessary.”

“The current strategy is hasty and will ultimately render the school in a questionable state of functionality,” he said. “This is too great of a risk.”

“Since my concerns and observations continue to be ignored, I am amending my resignation date from January 26th, 2024 to today’s date of January 4th, 2024,” he said.

Neither Augare nor Principal Sandi Campbell were consulted in the decisions about who to terminate, according to the letter. Augare said until the board appoints Augare’s successor, Campbell would serve as acting district administrator.

Community and board members have expressed concerns about the school’s financial decisions, for example, when the district had to write a check for $112,000 for purchasing cards or “P-cards,” that work like a work credit card. Board member Edith Horn-Wagner previously told the Daily Montanan a group of teachers had to come back early from a trip because their cards were disabled and it was unclear how many cards were distributed.

Horn- Wagner also said Tatsey had spent school funds on rodeo equipment for things like bucking chutes and panels used for rodeos, which can cost thousands of dollars.

She said the district loaned out the equipment, but got called out by community members for not inventorying it properly or having a memorandum of understanding about who was permitted to use it.

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[1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2024/01/05/heart-butte-school-district-to-layoff-more-than-30-and-accept-five-resignations-next-week/

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