LETTER: Vo-ag center needs your support

As a believer in the importance of a quality public education system as a cornerstone of a strong community, I was pleased to see the H.E. Robinson Agriculture Education Center receive significant funds in the high school bond measure — some $4 million.

As part of our public schools, that we can offer an agricultural education program is a wonderful thing. Every year, over 300 students take practical based coursework that is rigorous, relevant and agriculture-based. Not all of these students will be farmers or ranchers, but all of them will have an appreciation of our food system and the science behind it.

The funds requested in this bond would go to increasing classrooms at the Ag Center, where students are crowded into classrooms, improving lab equipment to keep pace with the latest in science and classroom study. It adds a veterinary science lab and would provide a state of the art welding facility. Of equal importance, it would address all deferred maintenance: septic field updates and added bathroom stalls for students.

Since the Ag Center was built in 1978, it has not received a major renovation. I appreciate that the board of trustees carefully considered all of what the Kalispell Public Schools wanted, and stuck to immediate needs only. The renovations requested in this bond for the Ag Center are an example of that fiscal prudence.

 While the Ag Center represents a quarter of the bond request, the money requested for other schools in the high school bond follows the same line of reasoning: immediate needs only. Nothing fancy. Just basic safety and security updates, renovations of the areas that desperately need attention and deferred maintenance that will bring all of our buildings, including the Ag Center, into compliance with current building codes and instructional standards.  

I for one believe this is great investment in a practical and locally relevant side of education. —Bob Herron, Helena Flats