Deer Park eyes a scaled-down building project
Students from Deer Park School liten to Miss Montana Maddie Murray last week. School enrollment has surged in the past few years, prompting the district to seek a building levy to add more space.
Deer Park School will put a scaled-down school expansion project up to voters in May. The new $1.8 million project would add three more classrooms, a multipurpose room and a new office complex.
The school would also upgrade its heating, electrical and plumbing systems and add and upgrade the restrooms.
The project also includes a new library. The old library, which is downstairs, would be converted to a classroom.
All told, the project, if approved by voters, would add about 9,000 square feet to the school.
It would not, however, link the old original school with the new school. A $3 million project proposed last year would have done that, but voters rejected that proposal, 207-126.
That project would have increased property taxes on a $200,000 by $300 annually. The scaled-down project would cost a home assessed for $200,000 about $180 more per year.
Over the past six years growth in the district has been substantial, noted principal Dan Block. In 2012, the district had 77 students. Today it has 145. While the school does attract students from the greater Columbia Falls and Canyon areas, about 135 of those students live in the district.
The school plans on keeping the old teacherage, which is used as an office and the old quonset hut, which is currently a music room along with a math classroom. The quonset hut, which used to be the gym, will be used for storage, Block said. The teacherage will be used for the school’s special classes, like speech and physical therapy, Block noted.
Deer Park is the oldest school in the county. Its original schoolhouse, which dates back to 1921, is still in use today. The district itself was formed in the 1880s.
Block also said the project will make the school more secure, as the office will now be in the main building.
Two open houses are planned. One is April 15 from 6 to 8 p.m. and another is May 3 from 6 to 8 p.m. The election is by mail. All registered voters in the district will get a ballot in the mail. They must be returned by May 22.