Forums planned on school projects

Kalispell school officials are inviting the community and staff to a pair of open forums to discuss the high school and junior high building projects.

The first, from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday at the high school, will address the high school projects - the new high school to be built northwest of Kalispell and renovations to Flathead High School.

The second meeting, at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the junior high, will focus on the junior high/middle school expansion and renovation.

Voters last month approved $50.7 million in bonds for the school projects.

At each meeting, specific needs for academic and extracurricular programs will drive the discussion on what is needed in the schools.

Those factors will determine building design. Construction will be the primary topic of both sessions, with some attention given to projected timelines and concepts for the two projects.

. Saturday's meeting will start in the large lecture room at Flathead High School. Representatives from CTA Architects and Engineers will begin at 8:15 a.m. with a general project overview.

At 9 a.m., the group will break into nine separate stations for roundtable discussions to focus on academics, athletics and other extracurricular programs.

The large group will reassemble at 11:30 a.m. in the large lecture hall for a summary session.

From 1 to 4 p.m., school trustees and administrators will take a closer look at the morning's recommendations and talk with the architects about how they will guide the overall projects.

. On Monday, representatives of Architects Northwest will be available from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. to meet with junior high staff members during their preparation periods. Sixth-grade teachers will be brought in on the discussion in the afternoon, with 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. reserved for teachers who could not attend earlier.

The public is invited to the junior high library at 5:30 p.m. Monday to follow a format similar to Saturday's forum - a project overview from the architects and individual roundtable discussions.

Junior high staffers will have another chance to meet with architects throughout the day Tuesday, with Linderman School staff being brought in this day for their comments.

. On Monday night at 7 p.m., trustees will hold their regular school board meeting at the junior high library.

A key item on the trustees' agenda will be a decision on whether to use the construction manager-at-risk process or the design-bid-build process.

In the first, one person oversees the entire project and reports back to the superintendent and trustees.

The second option offers a collaboration among architects, school officials and general contractor.

The board discussed the advantages and risks of both at a recent meeting, but will make a final decision Monday.

. On Dec. 20, the board will hold a work session to consider junior high building design needs that go beyond core requirements - encompassing career, technical, vocational agriculture and alternative tracks.

That work session starts at 5 p.m. in the junior high library.

. Over the coming two weeks, the school will finish gathering comments from teachers and department heads for architects' use in high school designs.

Schottle said CTA Architects is sticking close to its projected timeline.

Schematics of the building designs, drawn from comments at the two forums and finalized by the trustees, are expected to go to the trustees in mid-January. With minor adjustments, those schematics essentially will be the final design.

In February and March, the architects will develop drawings for the mechanical and electrical systems. By the first of April, they plan to draw up construction documents. From there the projects will go out to bid.

Fall 2007 is the target for completing the school construction.

Each week, a core group of building committee members has been meeting with Superintendent Darlene Schottle and CTA Architects representative Corey Johnson. Those members are trustees Tony Dawson and Bill Sutton, Building and Maintenance Supervisor Chuck Cassidy, Flathead High School Principal Callie Langohr and Kalispell Junior High Principal Barry Grace.

Schottle is recruiting more members to join an expanded building committee that will begin meeting soon.

Reporter Nancy Kimball may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com