Page 5 - Flathead Beacon // 4.15.15

FLATHEADBEACON.COM
NEWS
Bigfork High School Grapples with Rising Enrollment and Aging Facilities
APRIL 15, 2015 | 5
W•O•R•D•S of the Week
AN INDEX OF RECENT NEWSMAKERS
BOSTON BOMBER
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted last week in the Boston Marathon bombing by a federal jury that now must decide whether the 21-year- old former college student should be executed.
TIM BABCOCK
Former Montan Gov. Tim Bab- cock, who served seven years as Montana’s chief executive and was a fixture on the Re- publican political scene for decades, died last week at the age of 95.
MEDICAID
Following a lengthy discus- sion over rules, the House voted 54-46 to endorse the Medicaid expansion last week, with 13 Republicans and all 41 Democrats sup- porting it.
CLINTON
As expected, Hillary Rodham Clinton opened her bid for the 2016 Democratic nomina- tion for president over the weekend.
RUBIO
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio also told donors this week he would seek the Republican nomination for president, joining fellow Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.
A math class at
Bigfork High School.
GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
Administrators are seeking community input about possible upgrades at the high school, including a potential renovation
By DILLON TABISH of the Beacon
Touring Bigfork High School, Matt Jen- sen sees a passionate staff and thriving stu- dent body that keeps growing in size and graduates at a 95-percent rate, well above
the state average.
He also sees tattered facilities, cramped
classrooms and inadequate essentials, such as the lack of a fire suppression system and a single private wheelchair-accessible bath- room.
“There are some great things happen- ing in this building; the highest graduation rate and highest test scores in the Flathead Valley. But the space is holding us back,” the Bigfork School District superintendent says. “It’s not doom and gloom. It’s just what we need. We need to update.”
School administrators have restarted a dialogue with the Bigfork community about
its high school, which was built in the 1960s and has received few renovations over the last five decades.
After conducting the latest site assess- ment last year that once again found struc- tural issues and growing needs throughout the campus, the Bigfork School District Board of Trustees voted to embark on an “educational visioning and strategic facil- ity plan,” which aims to develop goals and options for the school, including possible renovations.
See Bigfork PAGE 20
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