Smith Valley School looks to expand

Smith Valley School is seeking to expand its district by roughly 10 acres of land.

The district is in discussions with landowners to secure property adjacent to the school for current and future expansion. Principal Laili Komenda said the land purchase would be contingent on passage of a bond issue that she hoped would be put before taxpayers in April, pending board approval.

Currently, a facilities committee that includes L’Heureux Page Werner Architecture is looking at renovation possibilities to accommodate enrollment growth — an issue a few Flathead Valley school districts have tackled or are discussing.

Komenda said enrollment is currently at 233 students.

“This is the largest enrollment I’ve seen since I started working here,” Komenda said during a tour of the building Nov. 2.

Since joining the district six years ago, enrollment has grown by about 44 students according to Komenda.

“We don’t have space for small groups,” Komenda said, starting the tour in the newer part of the building constructed in 2004. This area includes the main office, second- through eighth-grade classrooms, a special education room and a room that has been used for a variety of purposes.

In the hallway, paper packages are stacked above the lockers due to lack of proper storage space. Komenda stopped at a fifth-grade classroom and opened the door. With 32 students, the fifth-grade class is meeting state accreditation standards for class size by having a paraprofessional come in for three hours a day, Komenda said. State accreditation standards are 30 students per class in fifth through eighth grades.

In a teacher workroom, a small table serves as a place for small-group learning and staff meetings. The hallways also serve as a place for small groups. Another room, which used to serve as a multipurpose space for classes, now does triple duty as a staff conference room, offices for the school counselor, psychologist and occupational therapist, and a place to do therapy with students.

In the room, several staff members, including third-grade teacher Brenda Bernard and special education teacher Heidi Burkhalter, are gathered around a table for a meeting.

“Originally when this building was built, this was a great big common room. We could have a big room for common space if you wanted to work on a project with your kids,” Bernard said, noting that she could have used the room for a recent project where her students cut out large skeletons.

“So my kids cut out skeletons — and I have 27 — in the hallway,” Bernard said.

As a special education teacher, Burkhalter, in her second year at the school, said her and her co-teacher’s caseload has increased and they have one classroom.

“We have roughly 32 kids on our caseload and we share one classroom and we’re seeing that number continually increase and so we would love to have a place where we could do a lot more smaller groups,” Burkhalter said. “We’re taking the children that really need the most small-group activities — that small group intervention — but we’re putting them together. When you have four groups in there and each group is five to seven students, and you have one teacher per group, then you have not only teachers instructing, but you have that diverse level of learners that are most easily distracted and we’re expecting them to rise above and focus on their skills.”

To get to the gym, students have to walk outside to a building built in the 1970s. Komenda noted that it wasn’t built with any sports regulations in mind.

“Like for volleyball, they’re always hitting the ceiling. There’s no three-point line,” Komenda said.

At one point the bleachers were a safety hazard before lockers were removed along one wall and the bleachers pulled back.

“It used to be where people’s feet were in the court,” Komenda said. “And most of the time it’s standing room only.”

Komenda pointed up toward the ceiling where an “attic” space contained paperwork and school records. The only way to access them, “is through a trap door in the boy’s restroom,” she said.

Also located in the gym facility is a music room, a food prep room and cafeteria, both of which were converted from classrooms.

“Lunchtime blocks out two hours of time,” Komenda said, which is why a classroom was converted into a cafeteria so P.E. could be held. Even so, lunches are served in shifts to accomodate everyone.

Komenda led the tour into the original part of the school building, built in 1897 and later expanded on to include bathrooms and additional classrooms. It currently houses between 65 to 75 kindergarten and first-graders.

In one of the larger classrooms, first-grade teacher Rose Berger got students ready for dismissal. One of the biggest issues with this portion of the school is the bathroom situation for the school’s youngest students, according to Berger. There is just one stall for girls. The boys have one toilet and one urinal.

Back outside, Komenda walked over to the playground. School has dismissed and children boisterously play.

“We’re not seeing any lack of growth,” Komenda said. “Unfortunately for our district what we don’t have is commercial growth. We don’t have any big box stores who can contribute to the tax base, so instead landowners have to, but we’re minimalists here. We’re using every square inch we can.”

Growing enrollment has factored into several school district discussions, particularly at the elementary level, around the Flathead Valley. In October, Kalispell Public Schools passed a $25,282,000 elementary bond issue, with about $15.2 million slated to build a new elementary school to accommodate overcrowding. In 2015, West Valley School completed a $6.8 million expansion that added 36,000 square feet, also to accommodate overcrowding.

Reporter Hilary Matheson can be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.