Columbia Falls High School Bond to Appear on November Ballot
Voters will have a say on the $84.8 million bond issue to pay for an expansion and additions to the high school, which would mark the school’s first major renovation in 30 years
By Mariah Thomas
After a years-long effort to bring all the district’s buildings into the modern age, Columbia Falls High School is taking center stage at the Columbia Falls school district.
“It’s the last one standing,” said Cory Dziowgo, Columbia Falls’ superintendent.
This fall, voters will weigh in on an $84.8 million bond ask to expand and renovate the high school building. If approved, the bond’s term would last 25 years. For a home with a taxable value of $300,000, the bond is estimated to cost $216.79 in the first year.
It would pay for the school’s first major renovation in recent memory, according to high school and district administrators. The high school was first built in 1959. It hasn’t received major changes since the 1990s. In 1990, the school added on a new academic wing, and it expanded the industrial tech area in 1995.
“It’s been said a lot, but it’s just time,” said Josh Gibbs, the high school’s principal. “The high school hasn’t been remodeled in several years aside from insurance stuff last year, and it’s time that we update it and have the facilities to support the learning that we’re already doing.”
The expansion would allow the high school to house up to 1,000 students. The district anticipates having to meet that need in the coming years, according to Dziowgo. Last year, the high school’s enrollment sat at 694 students, per figures from the Flathead County superintendent of schools.
Gibbs said the bond would provide more spaces for group work and learning areas, which he said are needed to bring the building into the 21st century. Dziowgo added the bond will also improve the building’s safety features. For example, the building doesn’t have fire sprinklers, which would be added in the renovation. The funds would also improve the district’s spaces for career and technical education, Gibbs said.
“One of the stronger components of our school here at Columbia Falls is we are preparing our students for career and college-ready,” Gibbs said. “We do really focus a lot on that career and developing students’ skills and giving them opportunities to go right into our workforce and supporting our valley and manufacturing we have here.”
Columbia Falls High School offers students several career and technical education options. A woods program helps students develop construction chops, in part through a partnership where students build housing for Glacier National Park employees. The high school’s welding program provides students a chance to become certified welders and enter the workforce once they graduate. And the school offers CNC machining and autoCAD programs that meet manufacturing and other workforce needs in the area.
The bond would pay for improvements to all those areas. The school also plans to add an automotive bay and expand space for other programs, like culinary arts.
“The big thing is that this bond and the project that’s been developed truly touches and positively impacts every area of our school, whether it’s the CTE, or arts and music, or business lab or science,” Gibbs said.
The choice to renovate the high school, rather than build a new one, came because of the district’s prior investments in improvements. Dziowgo told the board in August he didn’t want to go “backwards with any of the federal money that we’ve used already.”
During the COVID pandemic, the district completed a ventilation project at the high school using federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) dollars. Voters also approved a two-year building reserve levy in 2024. It replaced the school’s roof after an investigation found extensive water damage and safety concerns. That levy will come off the taxpayer rolls in 2026.
Ballots will be mailed to voters on Oct. 17 and are due back to the Flathead County Elections Office on Nov. 4.
Columbia Falls Schools will host meetings for community members with remaining questions about the bond in the election lead-up. The complete list of meeting dates, locations and times can be found on the district’s website.