Kila School ballots due by Tuesday
District seeks $2.1 million expansion
Taxpayers in the Kila School District have a few more days to vote on a $2.1 million bond request.
Ballots were mailed in mid-May to all registered voters in the district. The ballots may be mailed or dropped off in person until 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Ballots that are postmarked by Tuesday but not received by 8 p.m. will not count in the election.
As of Wednesday, the school had received about 350 of the nearly 1,000 ballots it mailed in May, Principal Renee Boisseau said.
A few ballots have come back without signatures. When that happens, the school sends the voter a letter asking him or her to come to the school to sign the ballot. The signed ballot then goes into a ballot box, which is taken to the Flathead County Election Office every other day.
If voters approve the bond issue, Kila will get two new classrooms, a science lab, a new library, a new kitchen and a multipurpose room, which will alleviate some demand on the gym.
Currently the gym houses the cafeteria, health and physical-education classes, the after-school latch-key program and, on snowy or rainy days, more than 100 students who can't play outside at recess.
Boisseau said the 11,423-square-foot expansion is not lavish but will give the school the breathing room it needs.
"I have no extra space. Absolutely none," she said.
The music room is in the basement, she said. Title I students work in the hallway; students eat in the gym.
The recent swine flu scare has illustrated the school's need for a sick room, Boisseau said. Health officials recommend immediately isolating kids with fevers or other flu-like symptoms. That isn't an option at Kila School, where sick youths have nowhere to go but the already crowded front office.
"We get kids all the time with the flu or [who] don't feel well. There's nowhere to put them to isolate them," she said. "The sick room is currently the counselor's room.
"There is no space in the school that's unused."
Crowded classrooms are another concern. Over the last decade, Kila's enrollment has grown by 25 percent, from 122 in fall 1999 to 152 presently.
There is no way to predict future growth, Boisseau said. Earlier this month, 11 students registered for kindergarten next fall - but last year 10 students registered and more than 20 showed up on the first day of school.
Those 25 kindergartners are crowded into one classroom. That's more than state accreditation standards allow, but the school lacks the classroom space to divide the class in two, Boisseau said.
The bonds would alleviate that pressure - but they have to get by the taxpayers first.
If approved, the bonds would raise annual property taxes by about $181 on a home with a $99,000 taxable market value. A home with a taxable market value of $198,000 would have a $362 annual tax increase.
That's the equivalent of a dollar a day or less for most taxpayers in the Kila district, Boisseau said.
"I've heard, 'I've been through school and paid taxes when my kids went to school. Now somebody else needs to pay.' Well, somebody paid taxes when you went to school. Somebody else paid to build the highway, and you use it," Boisseau said.
She said she understands not wanting to pay higher taxes, but hopes taxpayers will put students' welfare above their frustrations with the way schools are funded.
"The fact is that if this doesn't go through, we're still in the same spot. So by not voting yes, then they need to tell the kids at Kila School that they're not interested in their future, that they're not interested in some of their grandkids' future out here," she said.
For further information about the bond request, call the school at 257-2428.
Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com