Whitefish High School Expansion Bond Ballots Due Sept. 17
Voters will decide on two separate bonds set to expand Whitefish High School and its athletic complex, which the district says are necessary to keep up with unprecedented growth.
By Denali Sagner
Ballots are due on Tuesday in an election for two bonds that, if passed, will expand Whitefish High School’s academic and athletic complexes.
In its second attempt in two years to pass a high school expansion plan, the Whitefish School District has put forth two separate bonds — a $26.5 million bond to expand Whitefish High School and a separate $6.1 million bond to expand its adjacent athletic complex.
If passed, the academic expansion will include added classrooms and labs, an expanded culinary arts program, renovations to Whitefish Independent High School, new multi-purpose spaces and added capacity for STEM and career and technical education courses.
With the athletic complex expansion, the district plans to construct a new 10-lane track, football field, 1,500-seat grandstand, admission and concession facility, restrooms and parking spaces, all of which will be owned by the district, no longer forcing Whitefish’s high school teams to practice on rented fields and courts.
For a homeowner with an assessed value of $300,000, the academic bond would cost $42.82 per year and the athletic bond would cost $12.80 per year. The district split the proposal into two separate bonds after voters narrowly rejected a $33.7 million combined athletic and academic bond last fall, with some citing a need to update one piece of the campus, but not the other.
School officials say the bond is necessary to account for unprecedented growth in the district’s student population. Whitefish High School last year enrolled 637 students, a 28% increase from a decade earlier. Using a 2% annual growth rate projection, the high school is expected to enroll 723 students by the end of the decade.
“We’re seeing growth in student population, but we’re also seeing growth in academics throughout our district. We’re seeing growth on the playing field and through the arts,” Whitefish School District Superintendent Dave Means said in video promoting last year’s expansion proposal. “We want to ensure that we do this right and we have enough room to grow for the next 20 years.”
With a record number of students, educators have been forced to adopt space-saving measures such as sharing classrooms and hosting courses in the old Muldown Elementary School building. Parents and teachers have expressed safety concerns that students are forced to walk outside of the building to attend classes in overflow buildings, a common refrain in American schools as districts have been forced to reinforce and redesign buildings in the wake of school violence. Families have also raised concerns with the state of the district’s athletic facilities, citing broken chain link fences, inaccessible bleachers and the partly broken track.
Ballots are due no later than 8 p.m. on Sept. 17. They can be mailed or returned in-person to the Whitefish School District Office at 600 East Second St. The district office is open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday prior to the election. It will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day (Sept. 17).
School district staff will be available to answer questions at the Back to School Bash on the Whitefish Middle School lawn on Sept. 12 from 4 to 6 p.m.
More information about the bond proposal can be found on the district’s website.