Hot Springs welcomes new school leader

Hot Springs has welcomed a new superintendent to the school district. Gerald Chouinard, accepted the position on July 1, of this year. As a Butte native, Chouinard's educational experience stems from his studies in educational leadership and administration from Idaho State University. He received his Masters in Education in 1998, and from there, he accepted his first principal job in Rigby, Idaho. After taking two more positions in Idaho, he finally made his way back home to Montana, working in Lame Deer as principal and then as superintendent.

Chouinard has dedicated the last two decades of his life and career to school administration.

"When I secured this position as it became available in March, it allowed me to move back to the western part of the state where I always wanted to be," Chouinard said. In this part of Montana where he grew up and to which travelled frequently, Chouinard laughed as he said, "I took a roundabout way to get here." With three children living in Boise, and another living in the Seattle area, Chouinard made the move to Hot Springs with his wife, who also spent time in the area prior to the move.

"As any superintendent coming into a new school district, the main goal is to learn about the district the first year. You want to learn about what is going well, learn what the challenges are, and go from there," Chouinard said of his expectations for this new position.

Chouinard's approach to implementing any improvements or changes the school needs, is to take a step back, and learn about the environment before making any assessments. "I have my vision of education and doing whatever it takes for the students. I want to ensure that all of our students are learning and are emotionally nurtured as well, so they can be successful at the next step in their life."

"In reaching that vision, you must begin with where you are now. Therefore, a new superintendent needs to ask a lot of questions and listen to those that have more knowledge than they do about the current, local situation, in order to learn and take the next step," Chouinard expressed.

His outlook for creating a successful learning environment is positive for the Hot Springs school district. "We have a lot of good things going on in Hot Springs and we hope to become even better, but that's going to take a lot of learning on my part, particularly in this first year. I need to continue to ensure that I am communicating with my team to find the direction of the next steps we are going to take," he said.

The school year for Hot Springs starts on August 26. As Chouinard begins a new year in a new school and a new town, he is also starting this new beginning in the middle of an ongoing pandemic. However, COVID-19 has not distracted him from his work. He jumped right into planning what life will look like for students, faculty members and parents as they navigate through these unprecedented times.

A COVID-19 reopening planning board has been assembled to put together a plan to present to the school board. "This planning board is represented by staff, teachers, administrators, school board members and trustees. It is also represented by the community and the parents. We will also have input from local and tribal health officials," Chouinard said.

"We are going over CDC guidelines, guidelines from the governor, guidelines from the office of public instruction and we are building our plan over the next few weeks," Chouinard stated. The plan will contain an online virtual learning component. "There will also be some kind of staggered classroom learning, while still being able to ensure proper social distancing. There are going to be other components as we move forward and we will assess more as we move into the peak of the pandemic."

These components, Chouinard says, will be implemented as the school continues to open back up, or they will scale back the components if the circumstances become safer. "There's no doubt that we are going to be in a new normal, which to a large degree, won't be going away in the future," Chouinard said.

While the beginning of the school year is still around 6 weeks out, Chouinard calls the current situation "fluid." No definitive plans will be set in place for the next three to four weeks as the planning board meets for discussion on their next moves.