School sites under construction
An update on renovation work across the valley
Today marks the grand opening of Glacier High School and the conclusion of a 2 1/2-year, $35 million project.
Alhough Glacier is the biggest one, it isn't the only school construction project in the valley. Several schools will wrap up building projects by the time school starts, and several more hope to build in the near future.
Here is a roundup of school building projects across the valley:
Flathead High School
Even though construction isn't quite finished, it is far enough along to impress students and community members familiar with the old school, Principal Peter Fusaro said.
"If you were at Flathead High School before and you walk in now, you kind of get the 'wow' effect," he said.
The biggest change at Flathead has been the addition of a commons area. The former front foyer has been expanded and will become the school's hub. It will feature a new food court with four dining options: pizza, home-style food, a deli and a grill.
The tables that will fill the room during lunch can be pushed aside for other events, Fusaro said. School dances will take place in the commons, and school officials are considering adding a stage in one corner of the room for student performances.
The former kitchen area will continue to operate, but it will serve the district's elementary schools. The old cafeteria is being transformed into the school's "wellness center," complete with weights, cardio equipment and an area for aerobics.
Athletes will have a refinished gym floor with new logos and new railings in the stands. Outside the gym, Fusaro hopes to convert the hall into a "circle of champions," with trophies and photos of past teams and sports standouts.
Some landscaping will be done outside the commons. Crews are working furiously to finish before school starts, but "it's going to come down to the wire," Fusaro said.
The goal is to have everything finished in time for the school's open house Sept. 27.
A bond passed in November 2004 is paying for most of the work, but the school's building reserve funds and community donations have given Flathead more opportunities to improve the school. New boxes in the black-box theater and a new gym floor are largely the result of donations, Fusaro said.
"It's something the community can be extremely proud of. I know I am," he said. "Without community support, we wouldn't be able to do it."
Kalispell Middle School
It has taken two years and just under $11 million, but construction is nearly complete at Kalispell's new middle school.
It will be ready just in time to welcome more than 900 new students, none of whom have had classes in the building before. A new entrance awaits them, opening into a large commons area that serves as the connection between the existing building and the new cafetorium. The cafetorium will give the school its first cafeteria and auditorium/performance stage.
A mezzanine, which holds the administrative offices, overlooks the new commons area outside the cafetorium. The kitchen is stocked with new stainless-steel appliances and equipment.
The driveway in front of the school has been widened to better accommodate bus traffic. In the morning, parents and school buses can drop children off in front of the school; in the afternoon, students can board buses at an expanded area on the north end of the school outside the sixth-grade wing.
An 8,000-square-foot competition-sized gym is ready for student use. Some money will be used to repair the old gym floor, which was damaged in a heavy rainstorm in July.
New lockers line the upstairs corridors. Students shared the old, full-length lockers, which were in constant need of repair, Principal Barry Grace said. The new lockers are shorter but each student will have his or her own.
Lockers have been installed in the sixth-grade wing, which was completed earlier this year. It housed the school's administrative offices during the last school year but will be ready for sixth-grade use Sept. 4.
"We're excited," Grace said. "It will be good."
Whitefish School District
This summer, the district wrapped up construction on the middle school, completing a $10.2 million renovation.
"Facilities-wise, Whitefish has turned a corner," Superintendent Jerry House said.
The school psychology office, staff development room and custodians' room are nearly finished. Two permanent stations and a new entrance and exit have been installed in the cafeteria.
The school's two gyms recently received new wood floors. A group of citizens held fundraisers to get quality gym floors, which cost about $109,000, House said.
A private contractor remodeled the boys' locker room, which needed to be renovated for "hygiene reasons," he said. "It was just becoming dingy."
Landscaping will be the last thing finished before students go back to school Aug. 29. Instead of equipment and piles of dirt the public has seen for the last two years, the front of the school will feature a lawn and trees, House said. Sidewalks in front of the school will come with heating coils to thaw ice in the winter.
"I did not want to use salt," House said. "It's death on the carpet. It was a pay-me-now, pay-me-later kind of thing."
The district's administrative offices in the middle school basement are 95 percent complete, he said. A room for school board and community meetings is finished, and administrators already have moved into their new space.
It's the first time the directors, the business office and the superintendent have all been in the same place, House said. His last office was a closet-sized room in Muldown Elementary School; before that, he was in a tiny office above the middle school auditorium.
The auditorium's multimillion-dollar makeover is nearly finished. The community, which has helped raise $4 million of the $4.7 million needed for the project, will be able to rent the auditorium for events.
It will seat almost 500 people and features a computerized backdrop for digital scenery for productions. The auditorium is 14,120 square feet; the expanded lobby is about 4,600 square feet. Outside, a 12-foot marquee will announce the auditorium's latest productions.
District officials already are discussing their next potential building project: improving the high school. Students need more lab space, House said, and there is no cafeteria or food service area. Officials also are discussing building an auxiliary gym with two more locker rooms for practices and physical education classes.
Officials hope to create a career
area, House said, for school-to-work and vocational programs. He also would like to put the counselors together; currently two are using space in the high school's makeshift cafeteria while two others use tiny offices in another part of the school.
Officials also are discussing creating a performing arts center for students in speech and debate, drama, choir, band and orchestra. The original area likely would be a shell, House said; the district would finish the building as time and money allow.
"What I'm trying to do now is say to Whitefish, 'OK, we're a high-achieving school district. Our next level is what?'" House said. "'If we want to be the best in the West, how are we going to get there?'"
Officials may present a bond request to the public early next year, House said. He didn't know how big the bond would have to be to renovate the high school.
Helena Flats School
By the time school starts this fall, administrators will have new offices and students will have a new computer lab where the old office once stood.
Those changes are the first phase of a construction project that began in June. The entire makeover that will expand the school by about 13,100 square feet should be finished in December, Superintendent Paul Jenkins said.
At that time, the school will have a new wing for its sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students. This will keep the three upper grades somewhat separate from the rest of the school, which will benefit younger students, Jenkins said.
"It will give them their own area, which is good," he said. "When we use them in the classroom, they're great. In the hall, they act like they're supposed to act - like adolescents."
The new wing also will include a new science lab and music room.
Plans also call for an expanded library and cafeteria. While construction is going on, students will eat lunch in the gymnasium.
Helena Flats began building after voters approved a $2.38 million bond issue in November. Because of that generosity, Jenkins said, the district decided not to run a mill levy this spring and instead is relying on increased state funds to operate the school.
Helena Flats received additional money due to increased enrollment.
It may have upped the school's funding, but increased enrollment is the reason Helena Flats needed to expand in the first place. The school is at full capacity, and the district has seen a tremendous amount of development, Jenkins said. It's a trend he doesn't expect to stop in the near future.
"We had to do something," he said.
Bigfork School District
In October, the district will ask voters to approve $16.6 million in bonds to upgrade and improve its elementary and high-school buildings. School officials say the existing facilities are inadequate to meet staff and students' needs.
The district hopes to pass an $11.1 million high school bond, which will be repaid over the course of 15 years. The elementary district is requesting a $5.5 million, 15-year bond.
At the high school level, the bond money would be used to add six classrooms, a choir room and a weight room. It would expand locker rooms and the band room and would add offices for students and staff-support personnel, Superintendent Russell Kinzer told the Inter Lake in July.
Some money would be used to expand the foyer or build a cafeteria so students would no longer have to eat in crowded hallways. The bond money also could add computers, expand the art room and renovate or add a science lab.
If it passes, the bond may also allow for a partnership between the high school and the Bigfork branch of the Flathead County Library. The two entities would share the school library, which would expand from 1,600 to 5,000 square feet.
The elementary bond money would be used to add a room to the Title 1 area, build a room for remedial math and eighth-grade science classes, add two primary rooms to accommodate full-day kindergarten and add offices for staff- and student-support services.
It also would improve the cafeteria and move the offices from the middle of the building to the front.
Somers Middle School
District officials and school board members have met semimonthly for most of the year, trying to find a solution to the district's crowded classrooms. Finally, after months of planning, they may be nearing a solution.
"We've looked at options, turned them down and changed our minds," Superintendent Teri Wing said. "I think that we are going to be closer to having a floor plan by the end of September."
Construction likely would take place at Somers Middle School, which has more property and is better suited for expansion. Lakeside Elementary is already at capacity in the new building finished 11 years ago. It will be paid off in 2011.
At this point, Wing said, the facilities committee has made a few decisions.
"First, we don't really have enough money to build all the space that we're going to need," she said. "Second, definitely we're not going to bring younger kids into the building with the middle-school kids."
That's a definite even though Lakeside Elementary has no extra room to accommodate its swelling student population. Teachers possibly could squeeze a couple more students into each class, but there is no additional classroom space available.
"At Lakeside, we are absolutely at capacity," Wing said.
Traditionally, the district has had three classrooms for each grade. This year, the elementary school will have four kindergarten classes, five first grades and four third grades.
"We're looking at that bubble moving up to the middle school, and we know we have limited time," Wing said.
Like at Lakeside, Somers Middle School teachers could squeeze a few extra students into classes, she said, but there are no extra classrooms to accommodate all of them. Both schools need to keep class sizes relatively small to meet accreditation standards.
The district finished the 2006-07 school year with about 600 students. There could be that many when school begins Sept. 4 or there might be several more. Officials won't know how many to expect until the first day of school, Wing said.
Last year during late registration, which takes place during the two weeks before school starts, 68 new students enrolled, she said.
Even if the committee presents final plans next month, the soonest a new or expanded facility could open is fall 2010, Wing said.
"We're going to be very tight for several years," she said.
Stillwater Christian School
School officials hope to build a new campus off Whitefish Stage Road, just north of West Reserve Drive, on 20 acres donated by Ray Thompson, Semitool's chief executive officer.
Plans aren't yet final, but the new school could open as early as fall 2008.
The campus has been located at the old county nursing home site south of Kalispell since 1992. Flathead County Parks and Recreation recently struck a deal with Stillwater Christian to purchase the property: If the county can raise $1 million for a down payment by Sept. 8, Stillwater will finance the rest of the cost - $3 million - at a rate of 7 percent.
The money would go toward Stillwater's building fund. At the school's annual celebration banquet in May, Superintendent Dan Makowski said the new campus could cost upwards of $15 million.
The new school currently is still in the planning stages, but school officials could have plans ready by the time school starts Sept. 6, Makowski said.
Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.