Businesses chip in for schools

Over the last several years, local businesses have poured nearly a million dollars into Kalispell's high schools.

This year, donations helped pay for a repainted and resealed floor and a fresh paint job in the Flathead High School gym. Other contributions will cover half the cost of Glacier High's all-weather track.

And during the last six years, businesses and individuals have contributed $650,000 to Legends Stadium.

School administrators are grateful for the gifts and want to acknowledge the donors. They recognize businesses by displaying business names or logos on the items those donations helped purchase.

It's a delicate balance: Schools want to acknowledge donor generosity but don't want to give the impression that their decisions are dictated by corporate sponsorship.

"I think we want it to be appropriate," Flathead Activities Director Frank Jobe said of including logos on school property. "We don't want it to look like we're selling the school, so to speak, or selling our souls. But when people step up and are willing to donate and help out, it's nice that we can show that they've helped."

Donations have made several projects possible at both high schools.

Flathead would not have been able to redo its gym floor, paint the walls and ceiling or do as much work in its new Wellness Center this year without gifts, Jobe said.

"There were too many other needs. We wouldn't have been able to go there," he said. "It would have been done, I'm sure, but it would have been a few years."

In general, donations pay for things that aren't necessities but that enhance existing facilities, Glacier High School Activities Director Mark Dennehy said.

"These are projects that obviously we want to get done," he said. "It alleviates the burden from the taxpayer when local businesses can donate and alleviate that strain.

Glacier's $90,000 all-weather track - half of which was paid for by donors - is a prime example, he said.

"If we did not have that, we would be one of the only AA schools that does not have an all-weather track right at their facility," he said.

Without donations, the school would have paid for the track out of building reserve funds. Several donors gave money to the school's athletic complex, not the track specifically, so no donors will be recognized with logos painted on the track.

At Flathead, corporate logos are painted on each corner of the newly refinished gym floor. Another sponsor's name is displayed under each main scoreboard. When crash pads are installed on the east wall, the name of the company that donated the money for that project will be displayed in a bottom corner, Jobe said.

"We don't want it to be too gaudy," he said. "That's not one of our intentions."

In the past year, local businesses have pledged $111,000 to Flathead and nearly $157,000 to Glacier. Most of that money was given to specific projects, such as the gym floors or scoreboards.

Two businesses, McDonald's and First Interstate Bank, gave each school $20,000 to spend on reader boards. At a recent school board meeting, trustees debated appropriate ways to recognize those donors and discussed whether to include corporate names and logos on the signs.

"This is a bit of a conundrum how we manage this," school trustee Don Murray said.

It's a good conundrum to have, that so many businesses want to be involved with the high schools, he added. The district has furthered that relationship by working with the business community in its career clusters curriculum, which provides career-specific classes in six areas of concentration. Several local business leaders helped develop the curriculum.

"If not for that dimension, I would say, no, academia remains separate from advertising [and] the business community," Murray said.

Other trustees debated the message corporate logos on school signs gave students and the community.

"When I see advertisements at school … I see it as the community buying into the school," trustee Keith Regier said.

Trustee Mary Ruby disagreed.

"I'm not sure we're not educating our kids that we're for sale," she said.

Jobe said he hasn't heard any negative reaction to logos in the gym.

"Quite a few people have said, wow, that's great that a business is willing to help out like that," he said.

If anything, the donations have benefited students, he said.

"I think the kids feel pretty special that people will step up to do that for them," he said.

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