Kila School project to begin
As soon as fireworks from the Fourth of July weekend subside, a crew will get cracking on Kila School’s new classroom.
The district went out for bid Monday, and the school board on Tuesday awarded the project to Davidson Construction.
Davidson submitted the lowest bid for the 1,250-square-foot construction project, district clerk Sharon Leach said. The Kalispell company bid $141,525, which works out to about $113 per square foot.
Seven other companies, all from the Flathead Valley, bid on the project, Leach said.
Most of the money for the project will come from existing district funds.
“We’re pulling from the flex fund, the technology fund — we’re pulling wherever we have some money,” Leach said.
The district also has $60,000 of one-time-only federal stimulus money to use for the project. Of that, only $45,000 may be used for construction; the remaining $15,000 must be used to help equip the room.
Kila had hoped to add to its building funds. The district ran a $150,000 building reserve levy in May that would have been levied over three years.
The $50,000 gained in its first year would have gone toward the new classroom, and the remaining two years’ funding would have been used to build a second classroom.
But voters rejected the levy request, leaving Kila just enough money to build one classroom. Workers will break ground after the Fourth of July holiday and are expected to wrap up by the end of September.
When it’s finished, the classroom will house special education and Title I programs, Principal Renee Boisseau said.
Special education and Title I students have been in the only space available to them in the crowded school — a tiny room next to the library. A 21 percent enrollment increase over the last decade has squeezed students into every nook and cranny of Kila School.
After special education and Title I students move into their new classroom, the school counselor will move out of the small conference room next to Boisseau’s office. The conference room will then be used as a sick room, Boisseau said.
Without a place to put ill students, they have had to lie in the front office, where they have no privacy and could potentially get others sick.
The new classroom is part of the master plan Kila School created in 2009. The plan ultimately calls for an 11,423-square-foot expansion, including two new classrooms, a science lab, a new library, a new kitchen and a multipurpose room.
Kila ran a bond election in 2009 to build the entire addition, but voters overwhelmingly rejected the $2.1 million request. Since the bond’s defeat last year, the district has adopted a new motto, “one classroom at a time.”
Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.