Still not convinced $14 million renovation makes sense

In June I was invited twice by Mr. Jensen, the superintendent of Bigfork High School to look at his Agora plan for a $14 million levy.

He expressed to me that he wished I had visited with him before I submitted a letter to the Bigfork Eagle and the Inter Lake newspapers so he could have explained the plan correctly.

In our discussion I urged him to cut the levy back to only adding classrooms in the area the original blueprints ”allowed,” which would include about eight classrooms on the southeast side of the school. I expressed the need to change the grade-school parking lot to allow traffic to flow, thus alleviating the morning and evening traffic jams, and finally the need to hire another teacher in the industrial arts wood shop. These items are “needs” for the school.

I studied the original elevation and floor plans of the school when the Malletta administration attempted to pass a $14 million levy a few years ago and planned to eliminate vocational classes. I will have more to say about that in future letters to show how similar it seems this levy was put together. The biggest difference is this time a tactic of rushing the levy to a vote and having the vote at a time many taxpayers are heading south for the winter is in motion.

The Bigfork High school was designed for 265 students. For many years a building called the “portables” was located behind the wood shop and housed three classrooms of math students. Apparently when they got rid of that building recently, the students were sent to the grade school. So for $14 million we need room to house 35 students because the number enrolled in the high school is at or under 300 students. It is a “Class B” school.

Not long ago Mr. Jensen expressed in the Eagle that all the items he is asking taxpayer money for are “needs.” He was very interested in co-authoring a letter with me to the newpapers even though we disagreed on most of what the levy proposed. I decided to decline that offer after he composed a letter and sent it to me. I am afraid I cannot support this levy and would be deceiving the public by seeming to be an ally to an outrageous levy.

When the points of what was included or “needed” in the levy came out, I believe the Inter Lake pretty much had it right. A tournament grade gym was on the horizon. For a “Class B” school! Why? The wood/auto shop was not a part of the plan until after my second visit. After that visit with Mr. Jensen, he managed to include improving the wood/auto shop for $870,000. This figure came to me over e-mail two days or so after our visit, and I am wondering who so quickly came up with the estimate and dollar amount for the shop, when in fact it really only needs a wood shop teacher. Perhaps it was meant to make it seem like an expensive program compared to the gym?

The only other figure he quoted was $500,000 for the gym saying it would be foolish to not include it in this levy. The gym is a bargain and has to be in this levy according to him! Contractors, can you reconstruct the area under the gym floor, lower and build a brand new hardwood floor, move the north gym wall 30 feet, add bleachers to the north wall and extend the length of the east and west walls, install a new roof, and build new locker rooms almost the total length of the gym on the east side for $500,000, which he claims is the cheapest part of the levy? I would think ticket sales to sporting events would pay that meager amount and a levy to taxpayers would not be necessary.

There were no individual dollar amounts for the library, commons area, offices, classrooms, parking lot, bus maintenance building destruction and construction, etc., that were as specific as the wood/auto shop and the gym. And with $870,000 suddenly added to the bill the levy would be $14,870,000 now, wouldn’t it?

This is basically a new gym under the guise of a cheap remodel job. And is it the most important part of the levy for a select few I wonder? I worked in the wood shop for 28 years and I know an $870,000 remodeling job is BS. I was also told that in just a few years there would probably not be a wood/auto shop! Others in the school have also heard that statement. That truly sounds like the Malletta scheme from out of the past. So why spend money improving it I wonder? Maybe because it isn’t really a consideration, or it would have been on the original agenda instead of after I began questioning and investigating the plan and writing to the newspapers.

I plan to write more thoughts about spending $14 million of tax payers money in the weeks to come and hope your wheels are spinning. There is much more below the surface concerning Mr. Jensen’s other “needs.” I am not against passing a levy, just this particular one. Classrooms, traffic flow, and the wood/auto shop need first consideration.

Would the bank give any one of you a blank check in hopes you know what you are talking about. Not likely without at the very least a valid set of plans and not without at least a two- or three-year study of something as large as a $14 million project for a high school of 300 or less students. The three-day study mentioned by board member Zach Anderson by 25 community members, at least nine of which are presently or have worked for the school in one way or another, hardly seems like a plan ready for quietly passing on Oct. 9. If you are not registered to vote, it might be worth looking into.

I had a seventh-grade math teacher who had a saying when we came up with answers to problems that were wrong. He said, “I smell a rat in the woodpile.” I get it!

Les Saari, of Bigfork, is a retired Bigfork High School industrial arts instructor.