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With Bond Approval, Kalispell School District Turning Attention to Construction

City officials expect residential growth to crop up around new elementary school

By Dillon Tabish
Nathan Wilhelm works on a spelling assignment in a super-sized third grade class at Peterson Elementary School on Sept. 24, 2014. The class has two teachers and 36 students. Greg Lindstrom | Flathead Beacon

Following the passage of the largest combined school bond in history, Kalispell Public Schools now has plenty of work ahead.

With last week’s passage of two bonds totaling $54 million, every school site in town is slated to undergo some form of renovation or expansion over the next few years, including an $18 million investment in Flathead High School.

But first and foremost, the district is expected to turn its attention to building a new elementary school — the first since Edgerton was built in 1987 — as a way to alleviate chronic overcrowding at the existing five sites, which are a combined 225 students over capacity this fall.

“This overcrowding issue is still breathing down our necks. We need to address that as soon as we can,” Christine Hensleigh, community outreach coordinator for the Kalispell school district, said last week.

The school board is expected to iron out a timeline for projects in the coming weeks and months, finalizing designs and putting the construction contracts out for bid.

The new kindergarten-through-fifth grade elementary school on Airport Road will have space for 450 students and cost an estimated $15.7 million. The district previously hoped that if the bond request was approved, the school could break ground in spring 2017 with a tentative completion date of fall 2018.

The other remaining elementary sites, as well as the middle school, will receive $10 million in renovations and upgrades.

With the addition of a new elementary school comes the issue of redistricting, which includes studying U.S. Census data to designate boundaries for each site. According to Hensleigh, the district will gather public input and study hard data before making any changes to the current district alignment.

“Within all of that, we will work to preserve the model of the neighborhood schools,” she said. “Schools are part of the fabric of the community and retaining kids in their neighborhood schools is important.”

Questions have also been raised about students from out of district, such as Somers-Lakeside, being able to attend the new elementary site. The current district policy only allows out-of-district students to attend Kalispell sites if there is capacity, which there hasn’t been in recent years, leading to a waiting list.

The addition of a new elementary site is expected to spur development in the south Kalispell area, according to city officials. In early September, a developer pitched a proposal to build a 96-unit apartment complex just down the road from the future school. The proposal has been delayed after residents objected to the high-density complex.

“Schools create neighborhoods,” Tom Jentz, Kalispell’s planning director, said. “I expect that neighborhood to eventually take off similar to what happened around Edgerton. People love to live next to a grade school.”

The final election results show a 64 percent approval of the $26 million elementary school bond and a 58 percent approval of the $28 million high school bond. Voter turnout was 49 percent — 21,670 ballots were returned among 44,386 registered voters.

In the Kalispell elementary district, which encompasses city limits, 4,593 people approved the bond while 2,550 opposed it. Ten ballots were spoiled and discarded because they were improperly encased.

In the high school district, which includes Kalispell city limits and the outlying rural areas, 8,271 people supported the bond request and 6,065 were opposed.

For the 20-year bond, property taxes will increase an estimated $99 annually on a home in the elementary district valued at $170,000. For a similarly priced home in the high school district, property taxes will increase roughly $48 annually. For a home in both districts, taxes will rise roughly $147 annually.

In the high school district, the spending will cover $18.19 million in upgrades and additions at Flathead High School, including $11.7 million for new construction; $4.64 million for renovations and upgrades at the Agricultural Education Center; $3.44 million for renovations at Linderman Education Center; $958,000 to rebuild the field at Legends Stadium; and $426,900 for deferred maintenance at Glacier High School.

“I’m just so grateful,” Kalispell Public Schools Superintendent Mark Flatau said after the election results were announced the night of Oct. 4, wiping tears from his face. “We’re just so appreciative of people putting their trust in us because we know that when it comes to taxpayers’ dollars, that’s a holy trust and I understand that. And when they give that to us, it’s not taken for granted. It’s very much appreciated.”

“It’s amazing,” Lance Isaak, vice chair of the Kalispell school board, said. “It’s great to see our community come together and say yes to kids. We haven’t built a new elementary school in nearly 30 years and to really address the future for that whole next generation of students, it’s overwhelming to be part of that and it’s exciting for our community.”