School Board OK’s teacher housing
The old junior high.
By CHRIS PETERSON
Hungry Horse News
The Columbia Falls School District 6 Board Monday night agreed to tweak a draft set of covenants for the old Glacier Gateway School to include teacher housing for the building.
As the housing market has surged over the past couple of years, it’s become more difficult for teachers to find affordable places to live.
The original draft covenants only allowed for senior housing.
Developer Mick Ruis has agreed to purchase the building, which was previously a high school and then the junior high and its gymnasiums for $550,000.
The change in covenants would now allow for senior housing and/or teacher housing.
Ruis has said previously the old school would be renovated into about 30 units total.
The covenants also prohibits subdivision of the property without the written consent of the school district. The property can’t be used for commercial retail activity, either.
The covenants do, however, allow Ruis to “permit the historical public use of the gymnasium for community purposes.”
The covenants would extend to any future owners of the property.
The district decided to sell the building after it learned it would cost even more to tear it down, as it has asbestos in ceiling and floor tiles in some areas of the building.
The cost to tear it down was estimated at more than $1.3 million.
The developer said he would use the gyms, at least in part, to house the Ruis Wrestling Academy, a youth wrestling program he funds.
Ruis was an avid wrestler in his youth.
He can’t start work on the project until the new Glacier Gateway School is completed as the district is still using the classrooms.
The new school is scheduled to be completed in December, with students and staff moving in over Christmas break.
The north part of the building will be torn down entirely to make way for parking at the new school.