Kalispell Middle School Health Instructors Say Program Cuts Have Had Negative Impacts

Noah Couser has long taught physical education and health at Kalispell Middle School, in the popular health enhancement program, which he heralded as a gold standard in the state.

For most of his 17-year tenure at KMS, students have had health enhancement class all 180 days of the school year — double what state accreditation standards require. That time allowed 30 days for students to get through required material in the health curriculum, and 150 days’ worth of an outlet to move their growing bodies.

Health teachers have also served as a part of the grade-level “teams” at the middle school level. Those teams are tasked with teaching students their core subjects, with all students on a team having the same teachers for the duration of the school year. Couser said being part of the team provided a chance for health teachers to really get to know their students. He and a colleague, Gabriela Chavez, described that dynamic as vitally important given that students in their classrooms are confiding in them about issues like suicidal ideation, drug and alcohol use, or romantic relationships.

“They’re trying to figure out who they are, they’re having new emotions, their bodies are physically changing and they’re trying to figure out their identity in life,” Chavez said. “And all these things, these are the conversations we have during those health units.”

But this year, the health enhancement program at KMS has experienced a change.

Last spring, Kalispell’s elementary district grappled with budgetary challenges that resulted in a reduction in force (RIF) to the tune of 16 positions. That included cutting the KMS health department in half. It left 4.6 positions in the department instead of the nine the school previously employed.

Health teachers now teach students at multiple different grade levels, sometimes changing grades each class period, rather than serving as members of the educational teams that get to know the students on them more deeply. Students have required health enhancement classes 90 days out of the school year, rather than 180. While that amount of time meets the state’s accreditation standards, Couser and Chavez say it’s a challenge to get through the full health curriculum and offer students the chance to move during their school days.

Over the course of the year, they described the impact of changes as massive to their own classrooms. They say they have seen more behavioral issues, feel less of a connection with students than in years past, and have spent more time lesson planning with the changes.

Couser acknowledges some of those challenges are ones other teachers in the building have long dealt with as students rotate through elective courses — called “encore” classes — every quarter. But he also makes the case it’s especially important for health teachers to have connections and be able to offer support for their students, given the sensitive material that comes up in their classrooms.

“You don’t know your students,” Couser said. “You only see them every other day, and there’s just so much more disconnect to where I feel like we’re not able to support them how we used to.”

While Couser and Chavez have tried to work with the changes, they don’t think the program’s new form should stick. Couser and Chavez say they have heard that feedback from students, parents and program alums. Those sentiments sparked Couser to organize a public comment period, bringing concerns to the Kalispell Public Schools board of trustees in late February.

A student, parents, fellow teachers, and Couser and Chavez told the board slashing the program has posed — and will continue to pose — consequences for students’ mental and physical health. Couser posted a clip from his public comment to his social media, which was viewed more than 100,000 times.

“Our program has always been a pivotal bridge between adolescence and young adulthood, and for so many former students, a guiding force to helping them through this incredibly difficult and challenging stage of life,” Couser said in the video. “Daily rigorous exercise impacts mental health. We all know that. We choose that for our own lives, for our own sanity. And our most sensitive demographic of students, who may not have engaged parents and lack the scaffolding and resources to implement exercise and daily physical activity for themselves — we are doing them a disservice by not providing them opportunities for exercise daily in our school.”

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Administrators say the cuts and changes to the health enhancement program serve as part of a wider story.

The district has struggled in recent years with school funding. That perennial challenge is one faced by schools across the state. Districts from all corners of Montana have gone to voters for levies they say are more and more necessary as adjustments to the state’s school funding formula haven’t kept pace with inflation, stretching schools’ budgets to their limits.

Matt Jensen, the superintendent of Kalispell Public Schools, pointed to a discrepancy between ANB funding for middle school and high school students as part of the problem. ANB, or average number belonging, provides a per-student entitlement to school districts across the state. But sixth graders are funded at a lower level by the state than seventh and eighth graders, despite all students being in the same building at Kalispell Middle School. According to Jensen, that funding discrepancy also makes a difference in terms of budgeting at the elementary district, resulting in the types of RIFs the district had to make last spring.

Dallas Stuker, the middle school principal, explained a lengthy process went into choosing where to cut at the elementary level when it became apparent a RIF would have to happen last school year. The administration team kicked off those conversations in August of 2024. Then, instructional leaders at the school came into the mix. Finally, Stuker said he communicated the plan, including cutting the health enhancement program, to the rest of the staff — a conversation Couser recalls happening last February. In addition to cutting the health enhancement program, Stuker said the middle school downsized by an entire team of teachers, going from three at each grade level for nine teams of teachers total, to eight teams, with one split between seventh and eighth grade.

“It’s a delicate process,” Stuker said. “Like I said, it’s not fun for anybody. It’s not fun for Mr. Jensen, it’s not fun for me. But the reality is we have the amount of money we have, and so you gotta make it work the best you can for yourself.”

While Jensen and Stuker agree that health and physical education are important, they also point to the several other encore classes offered at the middle school as important, too.

“The other thing that we put through is how did the decisions we make have a direct impact on students?” Jensen said. “And so, when you look at a schedule and let’s say you were trying to make the same amount of position reductions, but if it wouldn’t have come from P.E., where would it come from? We knew that P.E. was over accreditation. That could’ve wiped out an entire other department, so like, getting rid of all the shop classes, getting rid of the culinary classes.

“Those departments are already pretty thin as far as the number of staff in those positions because they offer a certain number of sections. So, it just became like, gosh, if you reduce staff in those other CTE (career technical education) programs, you really have a significant impact because you’re cutting all the sections under this area of electives.”  

They said they’ve tried to maintain options for students to take physical education daily by offering encore classes students can take in addition to their 90 days of regular health class. And Stuker said middle school students can also participate in after-school sports through the school, which are no-cut activities.

But for Jensen and Stuker, operating within the district’s means while providing as many options for students as possible remains the goal. Finding that balance, however, remains a moving target. Kalispell Public Schools has a levy on the ballot for the elementary district this spring. Should it fail to pass, it could result in more cuts at the elementary level.

Couser understands budget constraints. Nonetheless, he finds it frustrating that courses like art, music and physical education are often the ones that land on the chopping block when cuts come down the pike.

“We’re the state with the highest suicide rate in the nation, and how our state is not making whatever means necessary to protect our kids and our adults and our community members in this area of life, it’s beyond me,” Couser said. “We have the greatest mental health crisis in young people that we have ever seen, and we’re like, ‘yeah, let’s cut this.’”

He and Chavez said their goal in bringing light to the challenges KMS’ health enhancement program has faced isn’t to create tension between themselves and administration, or to blame the community for the lack of funding.

Rather, they hope to figure out how to tackle the issue as a team, bringing parents, community members and administrators on board to understand the depth of the issue and come up with solutions.

Like administrators, Couser, too, views it as an issue that goes beyond the doors of KMS.

Since KMS was doubling state accreditation standards for the number of days students spent in health class, Couser sees the argument of administration that the school is still in alignment with others in the area and with the requirements for Montana. But he said Kalispell has historically made a higher investment for students in health enhancement. It’s an investment he thinks the state should attempt to mirror, as opposed to the district scaling the program back.

“Sure, we can compare ourselves to another school and say, ‘we’re doing just as much as them.’ But to me, that shouldn’t matter,” Couser said. “And I think that’s where I have been directed by people that are above me of like, this needs to change at the state. And I’m like, ‘good, who do we talk to at the state?’ Because there’s not a person who can look me in the eye and say, ‘you know, I think it’s good for kids to have less activity.’”

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