Pipes, electrical system targeted for replacement

This is the third story in a series profiling schools that would be affected by a Kalispell Public Schools high school bond request. Ballots will be mailed out Sept. 19 and are due Oct. 4.

Built in 1939, Linderman Education Center is riddled with problems similar to Flathead High School.

The last time the building had any upgrades was at least 20 years ago.

Primary upgrades needed at Linderman are the basics necessary to keep a building functioning such as plumbing, electrical and heating, plus windows and roofing.

The first safety concern is on the wall outside the center's main entrance that Kalispell Public Schools Superintendent Mark Flatau and Facilities and Operations Supervisor Jason Betterley pointed out during a tour Sept. 8.

The problem area is a fuse box. Inside is 1950s technology where fuses screw into sockets.

“So these are like breakers if you screw them out. The problem is, if you screw them out and stick your finger in —,” Flatau said.

“It's live,” Betterley interjected.

“It's a problem,” Flatau said. “To me this clearly demonstrates the needs of this aging building just in the electrical side of it.”

The other issue is that a majority of the building is connected to the fuse box and it wasn't built to carry the electricity load of modern-day needs, specifically technology.

“We're making do with what we can with the loads that we have and we're hoping it holds,” Betterley said.

Another pressing need is replacing most piping connected to the steam heat system, which would improve efficiency and temperature, Betterley said while touring the basement. After a rainy day, groundwater has seeped onto the floor, but that is typical of old buildings, according to Betterley.

“The boiler plant here is good. The challenge we're having is the old steam and condensate return lines [pipes] — they're 84 years old,” Betterley said.

Because the system is so old, a staff member needs to “baby-sit” it daily during the winter, according to Linderman Director Jodie Barber.

Barber talked about the temperature fluctuations in the old school.

“In the wintertime I have a couple classrooms upstairs at the far end of the building that you can come in and it's 50 degrees in the morning, it's 40 degrees in the morning, so it's a huge issue for us,” Barber said.

Betterley explained one of the challenges of rooms located at “the end of the line.”

“The steam's got go all the way out to them. It has to come all the way back to the boiler room, so by the time the heat gets to that room, the rooms in between have already pulled a lot of it,” Betterley said.

Flow is also a challenge, he said.

“The other challenge we have if you cut a chunk of pipe out, the pipe was originally this big,” Betterley said circling his fingers

“But after 80 years it's this big,” he said, closing his fingers. “So you don't get that flow. Replacing some pipe would give us quicker flow.”

Once the system gets going, it doesn't seem to stop until those outlying rooms are heated. This can cause other rooms along the way to overheat.

Before the entryway, Barber showed a conference room that in its current condition is not usable as a classroom. A leak in an exposed ceiling pipe dripped into a bucket. The room smells damp and musty. At the back of the room is storage for custodial equipment. The door to the storage room has been removed because, if it is shut, pipes may freeze.

Replacing single-pane windows would also improve temperature and energy efficiency and reduce utility bills, which could be used to fund future maintenance. Replacing lighting alone has the potential to shave $5,000 off electrical bills, Betterley said.

The conference room and corridor are examples of space that could be used in better ways and that is what Barber would like to see if the bond request is passed and the center remodeled.

The gym stage at Linderman currently serves as the cafeteria. During lunch, some students play basketball in the gym where ceiling tiles are broken and a spider web of cracks run through a window.

Behind the gym's curtained stage, students go through the lunch line and sit down at lunch tables. A classroom is nearby, where the noise and activity are not conducive to learning, Barber said. One of the plans is to build a commons and a serving kitchen.

As with all the high school buildings in the district, the plan is to remodel for 21st-century learning, creating multi-use and common areas.

“When schools were built, a stage was built for a stage, a gym for a gym, a classroom for a classroom,” Betterley said, noting that schools today are not as specific.

“If you take a look at Glacier [High School] infrastructure in terms of power, plumbing everything — they brought everything down corridors and to the middle of the building, so if needed to change a space.”

In addition to deferred maintenance, Linderman may be renovated to create a multipurpose lab and info-commons. A lab would be beneficial to new science teacher Jason Garver who is limited to what experiments he can teach because of safety. While there are sinks, there isn't a ventilation or fume system, emergency eye wash stations and showers, proper cabinets or lockers to store chemicals and there aren't test tubes or test-tube racks. Event setup of desks is limiting because desks are mounted to the floor Garver said.

“It would be great to have an environment that would allow students to work together doing hands-on labs and interactive activities,” Garver said. “This would include lab benches or work-spaces that accommodate more than one student and encourage teamwork.”

From lab benches to Bunsen burners, Garver would like to make science and technology a more collaborative and hands-on experience for students.

“I would like students to want to come to my class and labs because they are working together and learning in a setting with new technology and equipment. In addition, these improvements would help me prepare my students for the next step in their lives by giving them better experience in the current STEM related curricula and science and engineering practices.”

Linderman Education Center currently has an enrollment of about 170 students in the alternative high school serving Flathead and Glacier students. Also located in the building is the district's Academic Transition Center and Alternative Attendance Center (serving grades K-12).

The center also houses the Kalispell Traffic Education office, the nonprofit organization Flathead CARE and the Northwest Montana Educational Cooperative, which serves school districts in Flathead, Lincoln and Sanders counties.

If the bond request doesn't pass, Barber said, “We're just going to keep crumbling like Flathead and look how long that's been put off. We educate all of our community, everywhere around us, whether you're a partner school, whether you live in our city limits, our community uses our buildings all of the time.

“We're here. We're open all of the time.”

In addition to Linderman, Flathead High School, the H.E. Robinson Agricultural Education Center and Legends Stadium are slated for renovation if the bond issue is approved. Deferred maintenance only would be completed at Glacier High School.

If the $28.8 million high school bond request is approved, owners of homes with assessed values of $200,000 could anticipate property taxes increasing by $58.46 annually.

Voters on the high school district bond issue include residents of Kalispell and outlying partner school districts — Kila, Marion, Smith Valley, West Valley, Evergreen, Helena Flats, Somers-Lakeside, Creston, Fair-Mont-Egan, Cayuse Prairie, Deer Park, Olney-Bissell and Pleasant Valley — whose students attend Flathead or Glacier high schools.

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