State grant to help Whitefish school
The Whitefish School District has been awarded a $13,200 Quality Schools Planning Grant to help create conceptual designs for a proposed new high school.
The grant from the Montana Department of Commerce will help the district pay for architectural design services and conceptual design studies, according to a press release from Steeplechase Development Advisors, the project manager.
The rest of the expense will be covered by the district’s tax increment financing fund, which is earmarked for capital outlay projects.
The school board hired Bayard Dominick and Chris Kelsey of Steeplechase in October to guide the district through the planning and evaluation process of building a new or remodeled high school.
Steeplechase secured the Quality Schools grant and will choose an architectural firm.
The district is requesting proposals from architectural firms and will evaluate those proposals later this month. The chosen firm’s work will be integrated into a draft plan for the high school project.
The plan will describe how Whitefish High’s long-term curriculum and programs would be supported in a redesigned building and how the building would use current technology. It will outline opportunities for community partner groups to use the facility.
The plan will be based on enrollment projections and analyses of the existing building’s potential for renovation.
After the board of trustees approves the draft plan, the district will share it with the community to get comments and feedback. The revised draft will be accompanied by a funding plan.
Steeplechase anticipates it will be at least a year before the school board adopts a final plan.
The project is still in its early stages, although in spring 2009 the school board set a goal to be in a new high school in four years.
The biggest hurdle to getting a new or remodeled school is money: The district’s last two proposed high school building plans have failed to gain voter approval.
In March 2008, voters denied a $21.5 million bond request to renovate and expand the high school. Plans at that time called for 164,000 square feet of new construction, remodeling and improvements, including more than 20 new classrooms, a new food court and cafeteria and an expanded library.
School officials said then that the existing building has problems with safety and liability and no longer meets the needs of its staff and students.
It was the second time in five years that voters had denied a bond request. In 2003, taxpayers rejected a $10.4 million high school bond issue but approved $10.2 million in bonds to renovate Whitefish Middle School.