Officials break ground on middle school

Kalispell's new middle school - the next generation of education in the Kalispell Junior High building - reached the next layer of decision-making when bids for its new gym were approved Tuesday night.

And, with a ceremonial groundbreaking Wednesday, the first layer of digging began.

"We're starting with bricks and mortar today," Mayor Pam Kennedy said before the shovels went into the sod.

"But who are truly the bricks and mortar of our community? The citizens," she said, congratulating Kalispell residents for their widespread support of the project.

School board Chairman Don Murray, braving a light rain at the podium, recounted a bit of history.

"This ceremonial act," Murray said, "has a great deal of meaning because this effort nearly didn't come through."

Trustees came close to advancing the $39.8-million high school project last year while putting the skids to the $10.9-million middle school.

"We felt, 'How can we ask the community to support two bond issues at once?'" he said. " 'How can we piggyback the biggest high school project in the history of the state with the junior high project?' … We worried we would do both to failure."

But both requests passed by substantial margins, allowing not only a middle school building but a nurturing environment to support adolescents at a crucial time in life.

"We're committed (to this support) as kids stand at a crossroads, as many of them do here," Murray said.

The ceremony was set in a backdrop of this week's school board actions.

On Aug. 18, School District 5 officials opened the first construction bids on the project. Several firms submitted bids on portions of a work package containing 22 items for the gym at the west end of the school.

Total cost for the gym came in just under $1.28 million. Swank Enterprises submitted the majority of apparent low bids, with eight other firms low on other bid items.

Trustees approved the bids, but only on the condition that Middle School Building Committee members come to the same level of comfort with the overall project deficit that project planners already felt. Project architect Don Counsell of Architects Northwest and Swank Enterprises' Bob Meinhardt, the project manager, assured trustees that costs could be managed through contingency funds and deleting specific features.

The gym is part of what now is expected to be an overall $11.47-million construction and remodeling budget.

Building Committee members Wednesday morning whittled that back from the architect's and construction manager's original $11.79-million projection,

Still, figures come in about $566,000 over the $10.9 million that voters approved last November.

The construction budget will continue being whittled back at every stage, as school officials and project managers open successive bid packages and eliminate the shortfall.

That shortfall now lies primarily in contingency funds.

Encouraged that the first bid package came in very close to expectations, committee members think the shortfall could evaporate as future bids are opened and contingency funds are not needed.

Excavation on the gym should begin just after the Sept. 5 Labor Day holiday.

Earlier in Tuesday's meeting, Laser School Head Teacher Kevin Calnan urged trustees to keep Linderman School as part of its overall district building package as they build Glacier High School and renovate Flathead High and Kalispell Junior High.

"Linderman is a beautiful building," he said.

Laser alternative high school moved into a former elementary building with 20 students and two full-time and two part-time teachers in 1975. It has grown to four full-time and six part-time staff members teaching about 120 students, who shovel snow, rake yards and more for neighbors of the school building.

"Laser is better now," he said. "Linderman could be, too," he said.

He also asked the trustees to include Laser and Bridge Academy in curriculum and building decisions.

As Laser runs out of space, Calnan sees potential in Linderman for the two schools and possibly the administration, he added, to share that building.

"We've been good stewards of this building, but we need more room. This town is growing," he told the board, urging them not to sell Linderman when seventh-graders move to the new middle school in fall 2007.

"If it doesn't work out, you can always sell the building later," he said. "And don't sell the Laser building. You could rent it out … You will need an alternative junior high down the road."

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