GLENDIVE RANGER REVIEW Thursday, March 18, 2021 • Vol. 59, No. 22 • Glendive, Montana $1.00 Vaccines open to all on April 1 By Hunter Herbaugh RECYCLING: Ranger-Review Staff Writer GROW takes in a large Seeing encouraging progress in addressing the COVID-19 amount of cardboard in pandemic as well as a significant increase in supply of vaccines, Gov. Greg Gianforte on Tuesday announced that all Montanans its first month operating 16 years and older will be eligible to be vaccinated starting out of the Uran Center, April 1. This comes a week after President Joe Biden directed the nation’s governors to make vaccinations available to every- Page 9 one 16-years-old and older by May 1, putting Montana ahead of the national deadline. “I’ve said for some time that when my name comes up in the line, I’m going to get my vaccine. Well, my name, like all other Montanans 16 and older, is com- Jamie Ausk Crisafulli graphic ing up pretty soon. I look forward to getting the vaccine when my name is called and I encourage all Montan- ans to consider doing School enrollment dips the same. Getting one of these safe, effective By Jamie Ausk Crisafulli A lot more people (chose) homeschool or vaccines will protect Ranger-Review Staff Writer private schools.” you, will protect your He noted that the drop in numbers was loved ones and your The spring enrollment in Glendive Public less than district officials had feared as they neighbors from this Schools dropped to its lowest point in 10 went into the school year with COVID-19 virus,” he said. years. restrictions in place. The news comes as a There were a total of 1,088 students He added that the closure of the BNSF Die- welcome development BUCS CLINCH enrolled in early February in the Glen- sel Shop last year had a small impact in the to the local health department. As part of this expansion, Gian- dive District, down 76 students from last loss in student numbers as well. forte noted that the Department of Public Health and Human CHAMPIONSHIP: year’s spring enrollment of 1,161. The lowest However, Schreibeis is expecting a turn- Services will continue surveying county health providers to For the second straight enrollment in the 13-year enrollment chart around next year. Based on current dis- determine if they may need help from the state to finish vacci- provided by Glendive Public Schools – 1,082 trict numbers and the average kindergarten nating those currently eligible before April 1. However interim year the Buccaneers – was recorded in 2011. class, he expects enrollment to be up around Dawson County Health Department director Laureen Mur- are Mon-Dak The highest spring enrollment in recent 35 students next year. He said he also hopes phree noted that she doesn’t believe county health providers history was recorded in 2016 when the dis- to attract some students whose families have will need help, as they are ready and excited to expand vaccine Conference champs, trict marked an enrollment of 1,311. That’s chosen other avenues of education this year availability. a 17% decrease in student numbers in five back to the district next fall. The district “We’re very excited that starting April 1, we can get the vac- Page 7 years. will continue to offer different formats for cine to anyone that wants it, that will be great. We’ll be getting Montana school districts are required to education to accommodate students, he said. information out in the next day or so about people signing up report students count numbers to the Mon- Glendive Schools lost a total of 17 students and all of that,” Murphree said. tana Office of Public Instruction twice a from the fall count to the spring count, Montana is continuing to make encouraging progress through year. Enrollment numbers on “count days” with the biggest drop occurring at the high the COVID-19 pandemic, as the state dipped below 1,000 active SCHOOL CHANGES: are used to determine school funding pro- school. cases for the first time since last July on Friday. Gianforte held vided by the state. The spring count day was Dawson County High School recorded 24 a press conference Friday afternoon, the day before the one GUSB makes some Feb. 1. fewer students since the fall count, going year anniversary of the first case being detected in Montana, Superintendent of Schools Stephen Schrei- from 334 students to 310. The majority of the where he highlighted the progress and efforts made across the modifications on COVID- beis said district official expected a slight student loss was in the senior class, which state to help bring down the active case count. 19 rules, increase in enrollment this year, but instead had 11 fewer students compared to last fall “As has been the case for several weeks, we’re making several factors contributed to the decrease. equaling a 16% loss in class size. encouraging progress in Montana combatting this pandemic. Page 2 “We felt like our numbers were going to go The current senior class has long been Our trend lines remain promising. For the fourth straight up, based on how things were laid out,” Sch- the district’s smallest class for most of its week, we’re averaging fewer than 200 cases per day. Over the reibeis said Wednesday. “The biggest reason (for the decrease) has been COVID-related. See ENROLLMENT, page 2 See VACCINATION, page 2 Woman’s tenacity earns recognition By Hunter Herbaugh noted that the only thing she really Ranger-Review Staff Writer remembers was the sound of her helmet hitting the ice. One of Glendive’s own senior ath- Following the accident, she was letes is being recognized by the left with a long road to recovery. LEGISLATURE: National Senior Games Association Memory lapses and loss of physi- for her dedication and resilience. cal abilities meant she relied on As session works Brenda Frelsi, known to many as her family for support. Luckily, she the pastor for the Zion Lutheran was surrounded by people who truly through its second half, Church, has been recognized as the cared for her, to the point where larger tax cuts are pro- NSGA’s Athlete of the Month for the they were worried for her just using month of March. the stairs. posed along with a lot Frelsi said she was asked to share of other proposals. Cov- her story because March is Brain Injury Awareness Month and the “After three years of erage inside, NSGA was impressed with her tale crying after every time I Pages 5 & 12 of overcoming a serious injury to be able to compete again. would try to ski because “I think it was about four years I was on the ground all ago, (the NSGA) sent out one of those things saying ‘share your story with the time, one time I went us’ because sometimes they spot- out and thought, ‘I’m do- light people for whatever and I went News tip or like, ‘You know, I’m a brain injury ing better,’” survivor, I’ll share that,’ and sent it Brenda Frelsi in, and I’m sure they got hundreds, story idea? Email and then I forgot about it. Then, Photo courtesy of Brenda Frelsi about a month ago the guy emailed Brenda Frelsi competes in the long jump during a past Senior Games competition held rrnews@rangerre- me and said it’s Brain Injury Aware- in Laramie, Wyo. Frelsi was recently honored as ‘Athlete of the Month’ by the National ness Month in March and I want to Senior Games Association. view.com! use you as our featured person. So then we talked on the phone and it “My kids wouldn’t let me go down laundry when they were home so proved difficult for her, she didn’t was kind of cool, I’ve never been in the stairs, my kids were in third and that if I fell down the stairs, they let them keep her down. Though she a magazine before,” she said. sixth grade, and did the cooking and could find me,” Frelsi said. would fall, Frelsi said she kept bik- Frelsi, 62, suffered a severe brain the laundry for about two months It took her awhile to recover. In ing with a friend that kept encourag- injury when she had an accident and didn’t even let me go down all, it would be ten years before ing her and making sure she stayed while skiing when she was living in the stairs because they were sure I her physical capabilities were com- safe and when she saw her daughter Wyoming. When she was approxi- would fall down, and when I stopped parative to what they were before. skiing the following fall after the mately 45 years old, she was skiing falling down some, they were really Throughout the period, there were accident, she knew she had to be able with her daughter and hit a par- funny, they said to me, ‘we’re tired more falls. The first time she got to do that again. ticularly icy patch of snow. What of being your mom, it’s time for you back on a bike, she said she fell she recalls of the accident is mostly to be our mom again,’ so we made every time she took a turn. what others have told her, as she a plan for me to do things like the However, even as those years See ATHLETE, page 2 Pag e 2Glendive Ranger-Review Thursday, March 18, 2021฀•฀Page 2Glendive This weather report for Glendive and the area is www.americanford.us brought to you by: 100 Ford Ave • (406) 345-3673 GUSB loosens mask mandate, sets levies By Jamie Ausk Crisafulli must meet the approval any increases or decreases Ranger-Review Staff Writer of the Glendive Education in its permissive levies for Association per the district’s the 2021-22 year.