An easy choice for West Valley

West Valley School is popular these days — and that popularity is getting to be a growing problem.

Consistent population growth — the school’s student count soared 55 percent from 2003 to 2012 — has pushed the school to the limits of how many youths it can squeeze into its classrooms.

“We’re at a breaking point,” West Valley Superintendent Cal Ketchum says, pointing to West Valley School’s 544 students and 58 staff members shoehorned into a building meant to hold a maximum of 470.

The future portends more of the same: School officials estimate that in the next decade, enrollment could grow by another 200 to 300 students.

To address both current and future overcrowding, West Valley voters are being asked to approve a $6.8 million expansion project. Ballots were mailed out last week and are due back Oct. 22.

The money would fund approximately 30,000 square feet of construction to accommodate the rapidly growing enrollment. The 20-year bond issue would pay to build 15 classrooms plus multi-use areas, a library expansion and auxiliary gym, and, if money is available, a kitchen renovation.

More than anything, the construction project would give the school, its staff and students some much-needed space. The school already has two classrooms in its basement and one in its multipurpose room and has run out of closets to convert into classroom space.

To address the overflowing-classroom challenge is not cheap. The $6.8 million price tag is well above the $3.5 million that voters rejected three years ago. Since then, however, the problem of packed schoolrooms hasn’t gone away and if anything has gotten worse.

Positive economic developments in the West Valley district — early retirement of bonds from 2000 and the newest surge of commercial development with retail stores and office buildings just west of U.S. 93 — promise to ease the individual taxpayer’s burden somewhat.

Expanding the school would cost most homeowners around $100 to $150 more a year. Those are no small amounts in an area still recovering from several years of economic doldrums, but in the long term the higher taxes represent a worthwhile and necessary investment in facilities for our children, perhaps the most important assets there are.

Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Daily Inter Lake’s editorial board.