Initial school expansion options run from $42 million to $24.6 million

The School District Six Long Range Planning Committee got its first look as the possible costs of expansion Wednesday as the committee discussed construction and renovation possibilities for the Ruder and Glacier Gateway schools.

One month of narrowing the number of possible solutions to the growing number of elementary students in the district to four last month, the committee received preliminary costs estimates for each proposed project from L’Heureux Page Werner Architecture.

The most expensive option, building two new schools for a total of $42 million was quickly dismissed by the committee, but the group will look to continue to gather information on the final three options, which include renovating both Ruder and Glacier Gateway to hold 644 students each, with an estimated cost of over $24.6 million. Another option would be to build one new school with a capacity of 500 students and renovate Ruder to also hold 500. That option was estimated to cost $33.76 million. The final proposed option is to build one new school with a capacity of 500 students, renovate Ruder to also hold 500 and renovate and reopen the Canyon School for 150 students. That option was projected to cost $29.74 million.

“The numbers are project costs with all of the fees and everything that goes with them. These are the bottom-line numbers. We think that once we sit down with everyone and discuss this, we can really start to bring those numbers down,” LPW’s Steve L’Heureux said. “We didn’t want to start with a low number and then start building up.”

While the company may be able to come up with plans that reduce the building costs, it was pointed out that the estimates did not include the cost of any demolition that may be needed.

LPW also presented the committee with a populations and school enrollment study done by Jerome McKibben of McKibben Demographic Research, LLC that showed that while the overall population of the area and overall school enrollment is expected to go up by the year 2030, the enrollment of the district’s elementary schools is expected to go up over the next five years and then begin a slow decline.

According to the study, total elementary enrollment is expected to peak at 1,067 students during the 2023-24 school year before dropping to 1,008 by 2028-29.

While those number were accepted by some on the committee, there was others that questioned the validity of the study.

“This projection seems rather gloomy compared to what I think the future of this area is going to be in the next 10 years,” board member E.J. Hoerner said.

“I think we are really on the cusp of a renaissance in this community. It’s hard to know what that is going to look like. It’s exciting and we want our schools to be ready for that,” Board Chair Jill Rocksund said. “We need this and we have to have this.”

The committee is set to meet again at 6 p.m. on Jan. 16.