Kila aims to build 'one classroom at a time'

When voters overwhelmingly shot down Kila School’s $2.1 million bond request last June, the district could have given up its building dreams.

Nearly 72 percent of voters who participated in the 2009 election voted against the bond issue. It was an even more discouraging defeat than the district’s 2007 request for a $147,500 building reserve levy, which more than two-thirds of voters opposed.

Taxpayers might have denied Kila’s requests for more money, but the district has found a way to build anyway, with a new approach.

School board members and staff have adopted the motto “one classroom at a time,” and the school’s first new classroom is slated for construction this summer.

The district will use one-time-only federal stimulus money to help with building costs, Principal Renee Boisseau said.

Projected costs are about $171,000; the district has about $60,000 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Of that, only $45,000 may be used for construction. The remaining $15,000 must be used to help equip the room.

Because that money was allocated for special education and Title I programs, the new 1,200-square-foot classroom will be for special education and Title I students. After school, it will be used for students in the latchkey program.

The rest of the money for the building project — and for equipping the room, once it’s built — most likely will come from funds and grants the district already has, Boisseau said. But district officials hope voters will approve a levy request on Tuesday to help with construction.

The $150,000 building reserve levy on the ballot would be levied over three years. The $50,000 gained in its first year would be put toward the new classroom, Boisseau said, and the remaining two years’ funding would be used to build a second classroom.

“It’s so we have a base to draw from,” she explained. “If we can keep money in the pot, so to speak, we can add another classroom or a multipurpose room.”

If voters approve the levy, annual property taxes on a home with a $100,000 taxable value would increase by about $29.62. Property taxes on a home with a $200,000 taxable value would increase about $59.24 a year.

The classroom will be built regardless of what happens Tuesday, Boisseau said. If all goes according to schedule, it will be finished by the end of September.

The new classroom is part of the master plan the district created before last year’s bond election. That plan called for an 11,423-square-foot expansion, including two new classrooms, a science lab, a new library, a new kitchen and a multipurpose room.

Before the election, the district told the community it needed the expansion because the school was bursting at the seams. Kila’s fall 2008 enrollment was 152 students; with that many children, every classroom was full.

The pressure hasn’t alleviated this year. In fall 2009, enrollment was up to 160 students. That’s a 21 percent increase in 10 years.

The last time Kila’s enrollment swelled, in the mid-1990s, is the last time the school got an expansion. A wing was added in 1995-96, the year before Boisseau was hired at the school. There were 145 students enrolled in fall 1995.

The district hopes to break ground on the new classroom by June but first has to line out its labor.

“We’re going to try to use volunteer labor for parts” of the project, Boisseau said.

The district doesn’t have any volunteers yet, but Boisseau said she is hopeful that community members might be available to help with things such as tearing down part of the existing building or breaking ground.

Kila will, of course, need a contractor; the project likely will go out to bid in May, Boisseau said.

The school also would welcome financial donations, she said. A recent chili feed and basketball game hosted by the parent-teacher organization brought in about $500.

For additional information about the project, call the school at 257-2428.

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