Chinook School Superintendent Hannum Shares Personnel and Transportation Information
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According to Darin Hannum, Chinook School District Superintendent, several new people will be joining the district, including an elementary school principal. He also shared details about bus services.
Meadowlark Elementary School’s new principal will be Shane Bartshi. Although this will Bartshi’s first administrative position, he has leadership experience in Charlo, where he taught physical education, served as the school’s counselor, spent some time as the Dean of Students, and was the athletic director.
Vacancies left by Roberta Weinheimer’s retirement and the departure of Bryce Weinheimer and Bridget Metcalfe will be filled by Danelle Gibson and Amanda Davies. Gibson, who is from Havre and has 18 years of teaching experience, will be the new Kindergarten teacher. “She comes to us with great references,” Hannum said.
“We are also welcoming back Amanda Davies to the staff,” Hannum added. Davies will be taking a second grade position. However, the special education position has yet to be filled.
About her assignment, Davies expressed excitement, “I am really looking forward to the school year,” she said. “Making a difference in the life of a child or having an impact on his or her achievement drives my passion.”
Davies has experience in the school district as a substitute in addition to three years previous experience teaching at Meadowlark Elementary School and three years coaching high school volleyball.
In the arena of transportation, Hannum revealed that Chinook Schools has contracts with John Elliot for the same three bus routes that have operated for some time and that transportation is funded on a per mileage basis.
“Our routes run a little under 301 miles a day,” Hannum stated. “Because we pay Crazy 8 Transportation for each mile they are estimated to travel a month ahead of time, when we build the transportation budget, we include routes, individual contracts, and our administration fees at the school. After putting together the estimated costs for the year, we develop a budget using the Office of Public Instructions transportation worksheet. This worksheet computes what the state and the county will pay the school to run transportation. This on-schedule rate pays for roughly 30 percent of the transportation budget. The other 70 percent of the budget is paid by the district using a permissive tax, or mill levy, on our district tax payers,” Hannum explained.
