When Edgerton Elementary was built in 1987, the rising population of Kalispell had exceeded 11,000 people.
Nearly 30 years later, there are now over 21,000 residents and the school on the north end of town remains the newest among four other aging elementary facilities, all over 65 years old.
As classrooms swell with students and deferred maintenance piles higher every year, administrators and community members are grappling with how to address the consistent growth and deteriorating facilities.
But the questions about how to proceed loom as large as the answers:
Should the city build a new elementary school for kindergarten through fifth graders and maintain only one middle school in town, which is already the largest in Montana?
Should it build a large site that could facilitate kindergarten through eighth grade classes?
Could Flathead High School be reshaped into an elementary and middle school, leading to the creation of a new high school?
The questions and answers will coalesce over the next year as Kalispell School District #5 gathers input from community members, staff and engineers. Talk of a new school surfaced in recent years as enrollment continued a steady climb, but the chances of something happening have grown significantly since November, when voters approved the acquisition of a 25-acre section of open land on the south end of town. The school district has hired a team of planners and engineers to help devise a solution for the empty land and aging facilities. Last week featured the first community meeting devoted to developing that strategy.
“We’re going to be gathering a lot of information and discussion over the next several months,” Mark Flatau, Kalispell schools superintendent, told a crowd of nearly 40 people who attended the facility planning work shop on June 24.
“How we maintain our schools and how we keep them healthy environments for our kids is very, very important.”
Meetings will be held monthly after the next gathering in August. During the first gathering, Flatau encouraged continued community input throughout the process as a way to ensure the final plan is “citizen driven.”
At the end of the planning process, the school board will review the final blueprint and determine whether to seek voter approval for a bond. If approved, a new school could realistically emerge in two to three years, according to planners.
The initial thoughts have mostly centered on developing a new elementary site, but midway through last week’s discussion the idea of building a new Flathead High School surfaced again and again.
The current high school has been built onto a building that originates back to 1910 and sits in a crowded residential neighborhood rife with parking problems. The high school has $8 million in deferred maintenance needs, according to the school district.
Flatau said the notion of building a new high school has been brought up before, but, according to planners, the new property would not be big enough for a high school the size of Flathead. Glacier High School, which was built with a $39.8 million bond from 2004-07, sits on 60 acres. A new Flathead would ideally need 42 acres, according to planners.
“I just don’t think it’s a viable site,” Flatau said.
There would be other potential hurdles, too. Voters approved the acquisition of the new land for the elementary district, not the high school district.
“There is just a lot of factors there,” Flatau said. “It boils down to the community being willing to support that.”
Steve L’Heureux, one of the lead planners from Great Falls, said the community should identify its priorities that would give “the best possible education to your kids.”
Other towns across Montana are in similar situations as populations grow in some of the state’s largest cities and facilities continue to decline with age. In 2013, Billings voters approved a $122 million bond to build two new middle schools and address $36 million in deferred maintenance. Bozeman passed a $26.37 million bond in 2012 for a new elementary school and upgrades to its other aging sites. In November, Missoula voters will decide whether to approve a $85 million bond request for its elementary district. Helena voters resoundingly shot down a $70 million bond request two weeks ago. Great Falls is in the thick of a contentious debate over how to address the dilapidated Great Falls High School.
In Kalispell, the ensuing debate is destined to get “messy,” according to Flatau. But the superintendent said he is optimistic that the city will support the school district.
“We are going to get to a great final solution. We’re going to get to a point where we can articulate our needs. We will win them over,” Flatau said. “Kalispell’s public schools are growing. Kalispell’s public schools have needs. Kalispell’s public schools have a plan that we’re working on and starting right now.”