Juneau praises rural schools at Alberton graduation

Denise Juneau who served as Superintendent of Public Instruction for Montana from 2009 until January of this year, was the guest speaker for Alberton’s graduation on May 28. She ran against Republican Ryan Zinke for the US House of Representatives in the 2016 elections and is currently taking a look at the job description as President for the University of Montana. A job vacated by Royce Engstrom last December.

Juneau, a descendant of the Blackfeet Tribe is the first American Indian woman to be elected to a statewide executive office in Montana. One of her signature initiatives while in the state superintendent position was Graduation Matters Montana. With the initiative her office worked with 83 communities across Montana to make sure schools, businesses, nonprofits, parents and students came together to reach the common goal of ensuring that students graduated from high school and were college and career ready.

In 2016 Alberton Senior Mackenzie Spence was one of 35 students on Juneau’s Student Advisory Board which began in 2010. What the Advisory Board did was discuss important school issues such as drugs, mental health, and bullying. They then made recommendations on how schools and communities could deal with these issues. The Board also exchanged ideas on what had worked in their school, and came up with new innovative ideas for how to deal with issues facing Montana students in schools.

”The work of those graduation matters communities resulted in record high statewide graduation rates for two years in a row. The state’s dropout rate was decreased by one-third. A high school diploma opens so many doors for young people,” said Juneau.

Mackenzie reached out to Juneau and asked if she would speak at the graduation ceremony and she agreed.

“It’s always enjoyable to attend graduation ceremonies to see the result of the hard work of both students and their support networks pay off when they walk across the stage to receive their diploma,” Juneau said. “Mackenzie was one of the most recent students to serve. I was always so impressed with the students on the Student Advisory Board - they are smart, creative and ready to lead. I like to support those student advisory board members when they call and so I had to say “yes”.

Funding is one of the biggest challenges facing small rural schools like those found in Mineral County. There may not be enough money to provide all of the course offerings and student activities a larger school might offer she said

“However, some of the best events I attended when I was state superintendent were small rural school graduations. The graduation ceremonies are so meaningful to the entire community, because everyone in the community supported each student to reach such a big milestone. Most of the graduates grew up together, so their graduating together is really special.”

She grew up in Browning, MT which has a population of about 1,000 and graduated from Browning High School in 1985. She then attended Montana State University and received a bachelor’s degree in English and then in 1994 she completed her Master of Education Degree at Harvard Graduate School of Education. In 2004 she received her J.D. from the University of Montana Law School.

During her tenure as superintendent, Montana’s graduation rate increased 4.7 percent and the dropout rate decreased 1.3 percent. Juneau also provided oversight to the development of Montana’s “Schools of Promise Initiative” which was a $11.5 million, three-year project which used federal grant money to help teacher’s union leaders, school board officials, and administrators address students’ academic and social-emotional needs in some of Montana’s most disadvantaged schools.

Currently Elsie Arntzen holds the position as superintendent of public instruction.