Building reserve question faces school voters

Taxpayers have until Tuesday to decide whether to support a $6 million building reserve and technology levy from Kalispell Public Schools.

The school district is requesting the levy to pay for repairs and upgrades to properties in its high school district.

Polls close at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Money would be levied over five years and would be used solely for building and technology needs.

If voters approve the levy request, property taxes on a home with a $100,000 assessed value would increase by about $28.80 a year. Annual taxes on a home with an assessed value of $200,000 would increase by $57.60.

That money would be used on projects throughout the district, which includes Flathead and Glacier high schools, the H.E. Robinson Vo-Ag Center, Linderman Educational Center, the auxiliary services building on East Washington Street and the central office above the Flathead County Library — almost 638,000 square feet of building space and 87 acres of land.

Flathead High School would receive about half the levied money, including $900,000 toward a fire suppression system to bring the building up to code.

That sprinkler system is necessary, according to school officials and the Kalispell Fire Department.

Fire Chief Dan Diehl conducted an in-depth inspection of the high school in November. Officials had long known the school needed fire safety upgrades, but under the old fire code, those upgrades would have cost millions of dollars.

The district planned to address needs as best they could with available dollars, including building reserve money.

Kalispell Public Schools has relied on building reserve levies to maintain its facilities since 1982, but in 2009, voters denied a $4.1 million high school levy request. They approved a $2.8 million elementary request at the same time.

Diehl’s walk-through at Flathead coincided with Montana’s adoption of the 2009 International Fire Code, which gave the school more options for addressing its safety needs.

Instead of paying millions for fire walls, special windows and doors and construction to move certain classrooms closer to fire exits, the district could spend less than $1 million to install sprinklers in the portions of the school that lack them.

That’s part of the reason the district chose to ask voters for more money in this building reserve levy than it requested in 2009, Superintendent Darlene Schottle said.

The board of trustees also decided the district needed to start saving money for building needs at Glacier High School, which will be 10 years old and likely starting to need repairs by the end of the levy’s five-year cycle.

Other levied money would be used to make roof repairs at Flathead and Linderman; to replace rooftop heat, ventilation and air-conditioning units at Flathead; to install a fire suppression system at Linderman; and on other projects throughout the high school district.

Technology needs that would be covered by the levy include renewing software licenses, improving and repairing the district’s telephone system and repairing and replacing routers, switches and servers at the high schools.

Some building and technology needs can’t be ignored, district officials say. If the levy fails, the district will need about $433,000 from the general fund budget to pay for those necessary projects. The 2011-12 general fund budget already faces a minimum $500,000 deficit.

Additional information about the building reserve levy is available at www.sd5.k12.mt.us.