OPINION: Ex-teacher lambasts Bigfork's school request

Wait a minute! The Inter Lake article on May 16 was about Bigfork High School’s $14 million expansion to do WHAT?

Lower the gym floor so they can host tournaments? Hide the buses and the bus maintenance building someplace else because it is not “natural” to see them around a school? Make a large commons area so visitors can see education happening? Improve the parking lot for tournament parking?

Let me be clear. That’s 14 million bucks or more to make Bigfork High School look classy at a big cost to taxpayers who expect to see education improving, not rebuilding the sports arena! I doubt if you taxpayers will let that happen.  

Listen, I survived six administrations in Bigfork after teaching there in the Industrial Arts department for 28 years. A very similar levy was pushed by the Malletta administration for millions without giving much for actual education, just a large flashy school and eliminating vocational classes.

When I see a tremendous levy for “wants” instead of “needs,” my reaction is to see how much sense it makes. This study for the expansion was made by the CTA Architects engineers calling it the Agora option and it has cost the taxpayers $35,000 already. A plan to do the things listed in the first paragraph!

What educational benefit is there to lowering the gym floor? Hundreds of my former Industrial Art students are professional carpenters, electricians, cabinet makers, and other trades people and that area is operating with a part-time instructor now. Sports is great and lots of fun, but unless I am off base, most parents are interested in their kids learning how to work for a living and be employable after high school. And most taxpayers are interested in their contributions paying for an education in the classroom, not playing games on the perfect floor of the gym.

No graduates I know of bounce balls for a living, but hundreds of them work the trades in various professions. Rebuilding the Industrial Arts department makes more sense.

The next thing on the list is the bus maintenance building and the buses. How buses on school grounds look “unnatural” actually has me bewildered. Yes, the buses make it look like a school is nearby. Surprise! And safety cited as a reason to move them from the middle of the school property is a weak reason to spend millions to move them. In my 28 years there, I saw buses loading or unloading kids close to the entrances and no students were ever hit or injured by them. The present situation is safe.

Next is the “commons” area. Bigfork High School already has what is called the “foyer,” which was made for kids to hang out in at lunch, etc. The reasoning for a “commons area” is so visitors can see education in action instead of closed classrooms.

First of all there are very, very few visitors at the school ever. Secondly, any person interested in observing a class can get permission to sit in if they want to, but that seldom ever happens.

For years, Principal Steve Racki and one assistant allowed kids in the foyer and gym at lunch so they did not have to sit in the halls and there were seldom problems. Some kids actually like sitting by each other in the halls talking and eating privately at lunch time. This solution to use the foyer and gym was logical and cheap and just as viable today as it was a few years back.

Finally, remember that the taxes go to the school for 20 years. It is not the $60 to $70 a year we are made to think about in the article. I suspect that figure will change substantially when reality sets in... but after the 20 years we are still paying them and more. Taxes do not go down on our property — EVER. Trust me on that one. Better yet, check and see if it is really so.

My final problem with the Agora plan is the parking lot. For the number of students and faculty members at the school, there are plenty of parking places presently, and even for the sporting events. I’m sorry, but there is no sound reasoning behind spending millions to revamp parking lot and a totally functional school that only needs to be looked at from the inside carefully and arranged to teach students so they can move to the next level of real life on this planet, which unfortunately is an occupation that pays.

So these are my thoughts about the Agora plan. If I remember correctly, the Malletta era optimistically spent about $45,000 on their plan trying to get the Bigfork University going. Money down the drain! Engineers know about how to construct buildings, but unfortunately a building does not educate kids, no matter what the configuration is or the size. It takes the proper amount of good teachers, classrooms that are not crowded, material to work with, administrators who spend time daily in classrooms to see how they can help improve a situation or learn from a teacher, a school board that is in tune with the public and not just one sector of it that rules the ship.

Fourteen million dollars, folks?

Get absentee ballots if you are leaving when the vote comes up... and vote!

Les Saari, of Bigfork, is a retired Bigfork industrial education instructor.