Bigfork School District pursuing upgrade

This fall, Bigfork School District will ask voters to approve $16.6 million in bonds to upgrade and improve its elementary and high-school buildings.

The existing facilities are outdated, crowded and deficient, school officials say. Earlier this month, the board of trustees agreed, unanimously approving a bond election in October.

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.

If approved, the bonds would raise annual property taxes by about $133 for a home with an assessed market value of $100,000. Homes with an assessed value of $300,000 would see a $398 annual tax increase.

These numbers, based on homes' taxable values, may change slightly next month. Updated taxable values will be available Aug. 6, District Clerk Eda Taylor said.

The district will mail voters their ballots in mid-September, she said, and all ballots are due back Oct. 9.

In a typical bond election, Montana law requires a simple majority of approval if voter turnout is at least 40 percent. Passing a bond with 30 to 39 percent turnout requires a 60 percent majority. If less than 30 percent of eligible voters participate, the election is automatically rejected.

"But if the election is conducted by mail ballot, those percentages don't bind us," Taylor said.

The district hopes that mail-in ballots will encourage more people to vote, she added. Historically in Bigfork, where turnout for school elections is usually about 12 to 15 percent, mail ballots have generated a larger response.

"That's a big reason to do a mail ballot, because you need a certain number," she said. "I don't remember ever having a 30-percent turnout for schools in my [16] years here."

If voters approve the bonds, the money will be used to expand and improve the schools' existing facilities, Superintendent Russell Kinzer said. Construction would begin in June 2009 and would be completed in time for the 2010-11 school year.

"We really need to address the building deficiencies in order to offer the types of programs that are required and facilities to allow them," he said.

Although enrollmenT numbers are lower than they were a decade ago, programs implemented in recent years take up the space that more students once filled, Kinzer said.

No Child Left Behind has required schools to implement special programs to help all students meet proficiency levels. More students are utilizing school counselors and psychiatrists, so schools have made room for those professionals as well. Bigfork has one classroom set aside as a child-care facility, which has attracted several quality young teachers, Kinzer said.

These "no-frills" programs help the school run more efficiently and create a better environment for students and teachers, he said.

"We just have some real serious [space] limitations for all of those," he said. "And the age of the building makes the situation even more difficult."

The buildings are 50 years old, which has prompted some people to question why the district doesn't simply build new schools. Nine years ago, it did attempt to pass a bond to build a new high school; the bond failed by about 600 votes.

Today, the district can't even consider constructing a new school, Taylor said.

Districts can only go into debt worth 45 percent of their total taxable value. As of February, that was about $9.8 million at the elementary level, she said. The high school bond capacity is about $12.5 million.

"Our bonding capacity does not allow us to look at building a new school," she said. "What we want to do is do some renovations on the buildings we have."

At the high school level, those renovations would include adding six classrooms, a choir room and a weight room. Currently, the weight room is on the stage in the gym, Kinzer said, and "there are several classrooms that, at 12 students, would just be overcrowded."

The bond also would pay to expand locker rooms and the band room and add a couple of offices for students and staff-support personnel. Some money would be used to expand the foyer or provide a cafeteria so students would no longer have to eat in crowded hallways, he said.

The bond money also could add computers, expand the art room and renovate or add a science lab.

"The chemistry lab is antique at best," he said.

If it passes, the bond issue may allow for a partnership between the high school and the Bigfork branch of the Flathead County Library, he added.

Students and the community would share the existing school library, which would be expanded from 1,600 to 5,000 square feet. Community members would have a separate computer network, entrance and restrooms.

The elementary bond money would be used to add a room to the Title 1 area, build a room for the remedial math and eighth-grade science classes, add two primary rooms to accommodate growth in the school's full-day kindergarten program, and add offices for staff- and student-support services.

It also would go toward improving the elementary cafeteria - which doubles as the school's foyer - and moving the offices from the middle of the building to the front.

"It's a pretty congested and confused area," Kinzer said, explaining that parents or other visitors have to walk through the crowded foyer to reach the central office.

Moving the office closer to the front of the building will improve safety and security, Taylor added.

Some money would pay to remove the district's two portable buildings, which currently house high school math and sixth-grade classrooms. They were intended as a temporary solution, and as such were not built to last as permanent structures.

"They're just in poor condition," Kinzer said. "They're not that old, but the buildings were not that high quality. They're deteriorating rapidly."

Plans also call for improving and expanding the parking lot and reconfiguring the elementary pick-up lane. This will alleviate some of the traffic congestion that occurs every afternoon, Kinzer said.

Total new square footage proposed at both schools is about 56,500 square feet.

The district will offer tours when school starts, so members of the public can tour the buildings while students are there.

"They can make the decisions themselves, and see the restrictions we see every day," Kinzer said. "We want the public to be as informed as possible, so they can vote as they believe."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.