The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

Bear Paw Cooperative is a Special Education Cooperative that serves 31 schools from as far east as Whitewater and as far west as Chester. Three nonmember districts lie within the Cooperative's boundaries: Havre Elementary School District, Havre High School, and Malta K-12 Schools. Currently located in the Carnegie Library Building at 421 Ohio Street in Chinook, the Co-op today is the largest of its kind in Montana, serving 20,000 square miles. It offers special education services and advocacy for children with special needs.

It may be no surprise, then, that an entity with such a reach would have a storied history. At its commencement in 1975, it was called Northern Montana Regional Services (NMRS) and was based in the original library room of Chinook High School. The program began out of a need for academic services for students in a remote part of Montana when special education programs became obligatory in 1975 to prevent discrimination by public educational institutions against individuals with disabilities.

Mrs. Ella Ortner, a school psychologist, and Mrs. Pamela Wadish, a speech pathologist certified in London, were instrumental in creating the entity and securing initial grant funding. "We needed a Gifted and Challenged Program," recalls Wadish. "Services beyond just Title I, so I helped to write a program and even rode to Helena with Mr. Conroy to deliver the application to the Office of Public Instruction. While we didn't get the gifted and talented program, we did secure funding to establish the NMRS which would provide academic services, or special education."

The urgency was due to legislation surrounding the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, which was passed by Congress in 1975. This was the first special education law directed at students with physical and mental challenges and the beginning of a state-funded program in special education.

The law stated that public schools must provide children with special needs with the same opportunities for education as other children. The mission of this act was to:

• make special education services accessible to children who require them;

• maintain fair and appropriate services for disabled students;

• institute systematic evaluation requirements for special education; and

• endow federal resources to public schools for the education of disabled students.

All of the finances for these services were initially channeled through Chester Public Schools in Chester. In 1975, Ortner served as a school psychologist for the NMRS and Candy Isern was employed as a resource room teacher.

Ortner was also the first Resource Consultant for the NMRS, which initially served a three county-area. For her service and her vision, in 1976, Ortner received the Distinguished Service Award given by the Board of Governors of the Montana Council for Exceptional Children. And the need for the NMRS continued to grow.

When construction of the Blaine County Library building located at the corner of 4th and Pennsylvania was finished in 1975, the Carnegie Library Building stood vacant. Built in the 1920s, it was scheduled for demolition. However, it was rescued from that fate by a local matriarch, Mrs. Lillian (Miller) Westin, who purchased the building and donated it to Chinook School District 10 for additional classroom space. According to a verbal agreement at the time, the space was to be used for Fine Arts instruction. The Chinook School's choral

program was located on the main floor of the building and the art program took up residence in the basement. Students enrolled in these programs walked across the street to the Carnegie Building to attend classes.

In 1977, when federal funding of regional service units like NMRS was phased out, school districts became financially supporting members of their own special education services by securing federal grants. At that time, Chinook Public Schools became the Host District of the services with Walter N. "Pete" Scott as Host Superintendent. Chinook would now be the base office for what morphed into the Bear Paw Learning Resource Center (BPLRC), an entity which would employ additional professionals and a director.

The first official Director for the BPLRC, Vern Barkell, was hired in the fall of 1979. In 1981, an Early Childhood Coordinator, Arvyce Carlson was added to the staff. Carlson served in that role until 1986.

The BPLRC would see two more directors, Sandra Scott and Mike Ferrell, before it received yet another name change and a Federal Identification number. On May 21, 1987, the Bear Paw Cooperative was officially recognized as a special education entity.

Just prior to that event, in the fall of 1985, Edward Looby, a Chinook High School junior, was severely injured in an accident that left him a paraplegic. When Looby returned to school in the spring of 1986, he was unable to attend choir or art since the building was not wheelchair accessible.

In an effort to comply with federal regulations. Superintendent Scott made three proposals: 1) that the choral and art programs be moved back to the high school's main building for accessibility reasons, 2) that the BPLRC be moved to the Carnegie Building, and 3) that the BPLRC become a special education cooperative under the supervision of its own governing board. Although these proposals transpired, community-wide controversy ensued due to Mrs. Westin's undocumented verbal agreement regarding the use of the Carnegie Building.

In 1986, the first Bear Paw Cooperative (BPC) Governing Board was comprised of James Foster, Chester; John Lee, Box Elder; Carol Elliot, Blaine County Superintendent of Schools; Kathleen Eaton, Turner; and Richard Schaffer, Dodson.

"The Bear Paw Co-op is an asset to the community while also serving five counties," Elliot recently said.

Ferrell continued to serve as Director of the BPC until 1989 when Gary R. "Dick" Slonaker was hired. Slonaker served in that role until his retirement in June 2010. When the new school year began that fall, BPC had a new director in Louise Nissen who had been working with the Co-op as a school psychologist since 2007.

In her early years with the Co-op, Nissen, who retired herself this past year after twenty-five years with the Co-op, recalls trips to Chester twice a week, as well as trips to Hinsdale.

"Eventually, we were able to assign people where it logistically made sense so that we could provide services in this large area," Nissen stated. "I still stepped in physically where and when I was needed, but while I served as Director, we hired good people in key places who did wonderful work."

Not only the BPC personnel has changed over the years-adding multiple speech pathologists, school psychologists, resource teachers, and speech/language aides-the Carnegie Building itself has seen some changes. During the summer of 2009, the main office area and the Director's office were remodeled with drywall and upgraded windows. New partitions were also purchased, and a secretary's center was added. In the summer of 2010, work center shelves were painted, and in July 2018, the Director's office saw a couple of additional changes in new carpet and paneling.

Today, the BPC's Governing Board is comprised of Valerie White, Blaine County Superintendent of Schools; Darin Hannum, Chinook, Chairperson; Bart Hawkins, North Star, Vice-Chairperson; Gary Weitz, Dodson; and Tony Warren, Turner. Moses Deanon remains BPC's Business Manager, and Julie Finely serves as its Secretary.

The BPC currently employs three school psychologists: Sara Tempel, Yvonne Garfield, and Krisite Rutledge. Its Resource Teachers are Marilyn Jurenka, DeeAnn Howard, and Carol Komrosky. In addition, Darci Ammen, Shelley Benzing, Karen Gibson, Dave Martens, and Morgan Yegerlehner serve as the entity's speech pathologists; Carra Palmer is the Early Childhood Coordinator, and Deborah Gone performs as the Speech/Language Aide.

A new position was also added this year, that of Behaviorist. Sara Putt, a licensed special education teacher who is currently a student studying to be a school psychologist, will serve in that role.

This past July, Tempel moved into the role of Director but will continue to serve as a school psychologist, as well.