Crunch time for Gateway project

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

Crews and subcontractors from Swank Construction were hard at it last week on the new Glacier Gateway Elementary School. Major portions of the school are completed, but there are still plenty of facets of work to be completed as contractors try to get the school largely completed for students and staff to move into by January.

“It’s going to be tight,” School District 6 superintendent Dave Wick said during a tour last week.

The hope is to have staff moving in from the old school over Christmas break.

Whether it’s completed by then or not, there’s plenty of interesting innovations in the new construction. The amenities all cater to kids.

For example, the kindergarten bathroom toilets nearly sit on the floor, so children don’t have to struggle to get up on an adult-sized seat.

In addition, the younger grades have bathrooms immediately adjacent to the class.

The lockers are also built for young people. Instead of being high off the ground, they’re at ground level, so kids can easily reach the handles.

Pre-K classes have “break out spaces” between classrooms, so kids can go into a smaller environment and get work done without actually leaving the class or having to walk down a hall or study in the hall itself.

The showcase feature of the new building is the new “cafetorium”, which features a built-in stage and stairs, so students can perform concerts and musicals on a raised platform.

Above the cafetorium is the library, with windows that offer expansive views of Teakettle Mountain. Students can sit in the window and look out across the valley.

The ceiling features natural wood features and cross-laminated timbers made by local firm SmartLam.

Crews last week were painting the walls of the cafetorium.

The new kitchen will serve the entire district’s cooking needs. The walk-in coolers for the facility were reportedly en route from a Texas firm last week.

The building also has some kid-proof features, like durable rubberized flooring and walls designed to take abuse. The walls also have pin boards so student projects can easily be put on the walls.

The school also features two new gyms, one for events and another for practice. The gyms were completed a few weeks ago.

All told, the school is 88,000 square feet with a budget of about $21.97 million. The building was expected to be completed by this fall, but the project ran into supply chain issues that have plagued building projects across the U.S.