Smaller schools serve as hubs of their communities

When tiny Montana towns lose their small community schools to consolidation, the result is often what Renee Boisseau calls the “Butte effect.”

Butte’s population fell with the demand for copper, turning the thriving boomtown into a mere shell, said Boisseau, the principal of Kila School. The same thing tends to happen to small communities that lose their school buildings, which is one reason rural communities fight hard to keep their schools.

“If Kila School was ... to disappear tomorrow, I guess I would kind of liken it to the Butte effect for a while,” Boisseau said. “There was quite a bit of loss ... a grieving. There was an identity there.”

Some communities along the Hi-Line are still grieving the loss of their schools. School buildings closed in Joplin and Inverness when the district merged with Chester. Kremlin and Hingham businesses closed when those towns’ schools consolidated with Gildford.

Small communities need their local schools to stay alive, according to many people who oppose consolidation.

The school gives Kila identity, Boisseau said. Without it, the community consists of a post office, a veterinary clinic, a church and an inn — barely enough for people to venture off the highway into Kila itself.

The same is true for West Glacier Elementary during most of the school year, Principal Cortni King said.

“We’re kind of the only show in town that’s open every day of the week. There’s the post office during the week and Belton [Chalet] on the weekends,” she said.

“We are kind of the hub.”

The school is the center of activity for more than just the families of its 28 students, she said.

King estimates about 350 people live in the greater West Glacier area. At least a third of them attend school events such as the holiday program, she said. And when Missoula Children’s Theatre helps West Glacier students with a production, “pretty much the whole community turns out,” King said.

They are still very much invested in a school they had to fight for, she added. West Glacier originally was part of the Columbia Falls School District, but when the school building burned down in the 1980s, administrators decided not to rebuild the school and instead bus students to other district schools in the Canyon.

The West Glacier community fought the decision and seceded from Columbia Falls in 1986. Even now, with enrollment about a third what it was in the 1980s, King suspects the community would resist efforts to rejoin Columbia Falls.

“They feel like they seceded for a reason,” she said. “The community fought so hard for that, that they aren’t willing to relinquish that” local control and sense of identity.

The Deer Park area has relied on its school as a community center for generations — probably since the original building was constructed in 1886.

On weekends, it is in demand for wedding receptions, funerals or open-gym time, Principal Dennis Haverlandt said. Even if the facilities aren’t needed, its equipment often is.

“Some people take tables and chairs to have their own parties at their own houses. That’s been going on for years,” Haverlandt said.

People turn to the school as a community center because, as in Kila or West Glacier, there isn’t much else available in the immediate vicinity, he said.

“When you don’t have a local church, for the most part, or a downtown area, there’s a need for something such as a school that families and groups can come to and participate in,” he said.

Smith Valley School often is open for community use, Principal Mike Welling said. At least once a month, the school tries to host an event that is open to the public, be it a Christmas program or a Veterans Day assembly. Outside groups, such as scout troops or 4-H clubs with Smith Valley students, use the school frequently for meetings.

The connections community members make to small schools can last long after they or their children graduate, Haverlandt said, citing a Deer Park School alumni page on the social networking site Facebook as an example.

“It’s still growing. It’s fairly new,” he said of the fan page. The page demonstrates “there’s still that tie” to the small community school.

Marion School’s place at the heart of its community stems more from a “sense of identity” than as a hub of activity, Principal Jay Hurder said.

“Our kids go to the school that’s in our town. To me, that has become the center of the community because that’s where the kids are every day,” he said.

“We want our kids local. That’s where that sense of identity comes from.”

The same situation exists in Kila, Boisseau said. People might not always stop in at the school, but at least they can see the place where their children and their neighbor’s kids spend the bulk of their day.

“At least now when people drive by at night, they can see cars in the parking lot, see the readerboard. They can see snow forts that the kids have built,” she said.

“There is sort of a sense of commitment that, here we are. Here’s our little part of America. ... Here’s what feels good about being in Kila.”

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