Trustees Present: Joe Knapp, Diane Lorenzen, Mike Smith, Julie Tompkins, Shelly Wills, Marcia Holland
Others Present: Alex Apostle, Nick Salmon, Karen Allen, Trevor Laboski, Heather Davis Schmidt, Pat McHugh,
Burley McWilliams, Roberta Stengel, Becky Sorenson, Brian Bessette, Julie Robitaille, Jane Bennett, Brian
Fortmann, Melanie Charlson, John Combs, Hatton Littman
At 6:02 p.m. Board Chair Joe Knapp opened the meeting. This is the second in a series of reviews of the Facilities
Strategic Plan. Trustees Lorenzen, Tompkins, Smith, Wills, and Knapp are present now. Knapp said we hope one or two more will arrive as we move on. [Holland arrived during the meeting.]
Public Comment: Knapp announced that since this is an open meeting situation, we will open the floor to anyone with comments on non-agenda items; please give your name and state whom you represent. There was no public comment.
Welcome Back/Overview of Process Nick Salmon
Nick Salmon from CTA said as was just mentioned, we are looking at Region 3 tonight. We will go in alphabetical and chronological order there: Franklin, Hawthorne, Lowell, Porter, Big Sky, Vo-Ag, Willard, and Jefferson. We will have 10 minutes for each group to talk about their preferred alternatives and any additional insights they may have. The other piece of this is to keep in mind that these are just concepts, designed to get an idea of the compelling needs at each school and how much it might cost. Details will be tackled in future efforts.
Present Top Ranked Options for Region 3 Facilities: School Principal, Teacher, Student & Community Member
Franklin: Nick noted that it is almost 100 years old. It is north of Mount, west of Russell, on one of the smallest parcels. He showed the oldest part: it was expanded in the 30s and in the 50s, to include a gym—gyms and lunchrooms were not common. There was a more recent addition on the south side when we went to all-day
Kindergarten. Large portions are not accessible, including a basement under the building and a second floor room.
They looked at two options: Expand and Remodel what they have, or Start Over.
Roberta Stengel, principal: good evening, thanks for giving us this opportunity to talk a little about the work we did as the Franklin Facilities Committee over the last few months. She introduced Rachel Danielson, 4 th grade teacher; Mary Lyndes, 3 rd grade teacher; and Keri Maart, FRC specialist. It is her first year in our FRC, but her kids went to Franklin; she has a lot of vested interest, lives in the neighborhood, and has gotten to see a lot of the work we have done. We had three areas of focus. The process was invigorating to our group. We struggled initially. Franklin is an old school we all love; it is beautiful. But it really isn’t fitting our needs of where our kids are or where we are as teachers. Gyms didn’t even come into schools until the 1950s. Roberta said she came into the district in 1978. Teaching is very different now. At that time, she delivered instruction to her students.
Once in a while we might do something really wild like write our own play—those were the greatest days.
Roberta said she thinks that is where we have evolved to. At Franklin all the space is utilized. We don’t have breakout spaces to get together for a project or for teachers to plan together as a teaching team. We still are
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stuck in a building from the turn of the century over 100 years ago, using new skills we have as teachers, trying to engage our students in spaces that are locking us in. We focused on how to get an environment that addresses learners today or teachers today. [Trustee Marcia Holland arrived.] Either of the plans you will look at give us additional spaces to do projects and work together. That is really our first goal: to change the learning environment, to engage students, to be more innovative as teachers. Both plans do that for us. It is taking that building and turning it on its side, so to speak. Our address is not really where you come in—this addresses that.
The second thing we talked about is the safety. Roberta went back to the slide and pointed out a few things safety-wise for this building. This looks great from above, but for supervision, if you are supervising on the playground, it is a large area to cover, and there are areas on the far side of the building where kids can wander off and you don’t even know about it. In the courtyard we have a number of doors: some are as close together as she and Shelly. There are 14 doors in the exterior. Many are just double windowpane. People sometimes just walk into the courtyard and start banging on the glass doors. It is a safety issue. We are looking at getting rid of corners and all these excessive doors; getting an entry where everyone knows the front of the building, where to go in, where to be greeted, and they can find out where to go next. There is no elevator. They have two different upstairs spaces with no elevator. Down the road, even with a remodel, there will be an expense in dealing with the upstairs space.
The third thing we talked about is that we love our school on that block in that neighborhood. We talked about moving to Jefferson. We have kids in that neighborhood. But none of us on the committee could let go of the love for that building in the neighborhood where it is.
Rebuild and remodel is one option. But in the end, Roberta said, she really believes Franklin needs a new school, and they need one in the near future—in the next 5-7 years, not 15. Things need to happen there. That is not a great space for today’s learners. It feels good, but we cannot do all the things we need to do. We could go with the remodel. But some of the issues we deal with right now will still be there.
Questions: Lorenzen: can you think of a space in Missoula, another school that would be great if it were a new
Franklin? Suppose we got you a new school like Paxson, or Chief Charlo, or something. Roberta said she thinks you will have to customize to their lot. She visited some new schools a number of years ago, and there were a lot of things she saw in those schools 15 years ago that allowed people to get out and work in groups together— small groups, large groups, teachers working together, and that also provided technology. That is a challenge for
Burley and his maintenance crew—they are dealing with a patchwork quilt that runs into issues. They are looking at a 2 story building similar to Chief Charlo or Paxson, but we would have to fit it on that lot.
Also we don’t have any parking; that is a problem with other places too. In winter there was no place to park a vehicle during snowy days—just a tiny little path for cars. Franklin has a mini parking lot on one side, with perpendicular parking, but we have buses on one side.
Another part of our discussion was going to the city and asking to make one street a one-way, regardless of what the plan is, so it would be one way coming in for drop-off for people. It is a challenge, but Franklin needs that challenge met soon.
Knapp said he is struck that we are dealing with a piece of property under 2 acres—does that almost make this an unsolvable location for a school, being brutally honest about it—not the wrong location, but the wrong piece of property? Roberta said Nick can answer; it is a challenge. There is a love for that neighborhood. She said she is advocating for the folks she represents, and she would like to do everything she can to make it work right there in that neighborhood. Nick: good solid mid-20 th century thinking about elementary sizes said 5-10 acres is a good lot size for elementary schools. [Hatton Littman arrived.] Two acres is not impossible. Hellgate
High School is on 3.5 acres and has 1400 students. It has to do with how you develop it. Nick showed on the diagram the original school; the current courtyard becomes a commons area, and then a 2-story wing on one side. We want to use as little of the site as possible and leave open space, so 2-story should be the model you pursue. Two to three acres for urban schools is pretty common around the state.
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Smith asked if we are limited to 2 stories. Nick replied that buildings get more expensive when you go to 3 stories—structural systems have to be able to deal with earthquakes and wind, the elevator becomes more expensive, and stair towers have regulations. Two-story is recommended for elementary or middle schools.
Pat: does the expansion to the school stay intact with the remodel? Nick: all the additions after 1928 would go away under this concept, because they create odd levels and irregularities; to be tied to them is not effective, including the newer addition. As Roberta mentioned, and it is an important thing you will see in Lowell as well— it is an urban setting, so you have an urban solution to traffic flow: use the streets for parking and the north edge for the bus.
Hawthorne: Nick noted that there are 2 parcels adjacent to the school. It is on Hiberta, beyond the city limits, in the county service limits, about a mile from Reserve. This site had another school on it built over 100 years ago and added onto in the 1950s with the gymnasium and an adjacent space; it burnt down in the 1970s. An addition replaced the school that built down; there are modular classrooms, and an addition of 4 classrooms.
Floor plan: it is a 2-story space, with 4 classrooms not accessible. The gymnasium, like Jefferson’s, is about 4 feet lower than adjacent floors. To the west, partitions are operable acoustic partitions from the late 70s, which create the possibility of flexibility but are not as flexible as we would like.
This group looked at two options: Expand or Replace. For clarity: the idea is to expand out to the east with a lunchroom, maybe a multipurpose space, and to move the library from the center space to a position on the northeast; this arrangement reconfigures grade level groupings. It is not ideal, but it creates breakout space for projects, technology, and the same kind of thing on the 2 nd floor. Replace: we show a generic school from
Oregon that we are using for illustration, not necessarily the one we would go with.
Becky Sorenson, principal, introduced Erin Beck, para at Hawthorne and community member, who is a former
Hawthorne parent and a current Porter and Big Sky parent; and Jeremy Flesch, parent of a 2 nd grader and incoming kindergartner.
Jeremy: it has been a great opportunity to serve on the facilities committee, and he appreciates the opportunity to speak this evening. They discussed many options and ultimately arrived at the recommendation he describes as Expand and Renovate. In his opinion, that was chosen for 4 reasons: 1-the current location works quite well: it is in walking distance to the river, small farms, and outdoor learning environments like the visiting naturalist program. It is truly a community school with great support. 2-it addresses physical challenges, including the lack of elevator, that restrict student learning: students can’t participate in collaborative learning with students in other parts of the building. An additional structural challenge is the lack of flexible learning spaces. The Renovate portion would address that. 3-enrollment predictions for coming years indicate a significant increase in enrollment, and it addresses the challenges of where to sit, learn, and eat lunch, by adding additional classrooms and more flexible learning space. 4-it makes the best use of fiscal resources while providing a 21 st century learning environment of which we can be extremely proud. It is good for students and a wise financial decision. We need to address technology at Hawthorne and beyond. His family has 5 technology devices at home; many students at Hawthorne are not so lucky. A quality 21 st century educational environment includes technology. Together we need to provide a more robust technology environment for our students.
Erin: the grade level classrooms are pods. If this were to happen, it would create engaging classroom settings; increase collaboration and learning; enhance PLCs, which are very important at Hawthorne; and increase student collaboration between classrooms. To convert the library in the center of the building to an open, flexible space, would allow Hawthorne to have a large space for collaboration, small group projects, and technology. It would allow students to be more hands-on. New library/media learning center: this new space would include updated technology and storage space for updated technology, which would be portable for use throughout the building. Multipurpose: a shared space for lunchroom and music room, useful for practice and performances. Dedicated gym space would eliminate conflicts in the schedule of lunch and concerts and gym; it would help with student engagement during P.E. time, which leads to a healthier student population.
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Becky: we want what’s best for our kids. Our staff is ready to provide the best education. Concerns include safety and security. Our building does not have access. A parent in a wheelchair never got to visit his child’s classroom—that is not okay in the 21 st century. We have some students who can’t access our upstairs or our annex. We have a staff member who is a wonderful interventionist, but cannot get to the 102 students in our upstairs. There are not restrooms on the 2 nd floor to accommodate 102 students. She worries for safety and security next year and now.
The annex is a charming learning space out behind the school, but students are not connected to our learning community. It is a safety issue for them going back and forth between the buildings. The door is locked every day at 9 a.m. There are concerns about people coming onto the playground and going into the annex. It is a safety concern; it is not accessible, and it is too close to the building to get a ramp.
Main entrance: we installed 2 cameras—if the secretary is sitting at her desk watching the monitors, she can see people coming. The main entrance is not obvious: it looks like it should be facing 3 rd Street. People come in on Hiberta on the side, even though there is a sign that says “Office” with an arrow. Our plan is to move the office to the Hiberta space and to have a welcoming waiting area with a receptionist able to see people as they come in and out.
There are heating and cooling issues due to adding on over time. If we could fix the single pane windows, which have breaking seals, some of that could alleviate the problem. Now, you have to have someone on the inside and the outside to get the windows to shut properly. Since she has been at Hawthorne, we have had 3 floods. One was in a newer area: a sprinkler went off; they came in on New Year’s Day and picked up debris off the gym floor. They had to replace the gym floor.
They are half on septic and half on city sewer. They need to be hooked completely to city sewer.
Third Street has gotten to be very busy. People go pretty fast. Their crossing guard was almost hit a few years ago; she had pushed some kids out of the way of a DUI driver at 7:30 a.m. They want to work with the city and county for sidewalks and lighting, and to rearrange the crossing. It is not safe for students to bike and walk.
The staff loves and embraces technology and the PLTW (Project Lead the Way) curriculum. Kids are excited about collaborative learning. We need bandwidth. The annex does not have wireless, and part of the building does not. Teachers want to meet with small groups and to be flexible and collaborative. They want to include students with different learning abilities. We also need private spaces for occupational therapy, physical therapy, and things that need to be private. We are ready to embrace 21 st century learning. We need to renovate and expand.
Questions: Tompkins: the accessible permanent capacity listed is without the upstairs and modular. You are at capacity now; peak capacity is 430. Will expanding accommodate all of those students? Nick: the plan is for capacity of 450 for all elementaries in the future. Nick said Becky had some observations of some spaces that need to be accommodated for. We have contingencies built in, like a future design team reviewing needs and discovering they need to add additional space. Tompkins said she wants to make sure that if it grows at the rate you think it will, that expanding will accommodate that. Becky said when she came to Hawthorne 4 years ago, enrollment was at 320 students. Now they are between 360 and 370. Space is a big issue right now, and she is worried about next year. Nick: we will show enrollment and student distribution a bit later, including how many students live in proximity to these schools.
Lowell: Nick explained it is on the west side of town, near the Scott St. Bridge over the railroad tracks. The parcel is more than 4 acres of land, half of which is in a long term lease to the city for Westside Park, and more recently a long term lease for Partnership Health Clinic. The original school, built by A.J. Gibson, was 2 rooms on one side, 2 on the other, and 3 stories. In the 1930s there was an addition, including a gymnasium, and in the
60s it was expanded again. There were minor additions more recently, including a 2 classroom modular.
This group arrived at 2 options: Expand and Renovate, or Replace. Nick showed a diagram of the Renovate option: all key services would be on the ground level, moving up classrooms in groups of 4 for K-2 and groups of
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3 for the upper grades. One alteration to the prior option: existing rooms are very small. This is illustrating that within the existing school we would capture as much of the adjacent spaces as possible—part of the corridors.
We use breakout areas for projects, presentations and technology, and as the way to get from one place to another; this is an example of capturing that space (35% is typically corridor).
Their second option was to build new. It is an urban site. We would use the street system by putting the bus along Phillips. The city bus stops on Scott St. We could create triple the amount of parking by using diagonal parking on Sherwood and Shakespeare.
Brian Bessette, principal, thanked everyone for getting the process going. We are so ready for this. He introduced Sally, parent of 4 th and 5 th grade students, and Carole Addis, teacher. One of the strengths of Lowell
School is the resiliency of the people who work in it; we are always looking at the positive. But our facility is a barrier to moving forward with Achievement for All. Safety, security, and health are the most significant issues.
Our office is on the 2 nd floor. The main entrance: people can come in and go anywhere in the building without us seeing them. We don’t have bathrooms on every floor: you have to go up or down, which is a safety issue. Staff bathrooms are embarrassing and subpar. We work through those things. We are resilient. Bigger issues include space. Our classroom sizes are small: 875 square feet is our average. A special education room with two special ed teachers and their two paras is not functional. A wall between our sick room/nursing station does not go to the ceiling, so there are confidentially issues. The building is not ADA accessible. The annex, the new part, built in 1960, has a ramp that is not to code; it is too steep. Teachers over the decades have gotten sick, and we don’t know why. Burley and Scott Reed tested and came back: we are okay on mold count. When the addition was put on in 1960, the air circulation was not proper; they opened those, and it is better. We have had good teachers go to other schools and find that their health issues go away. In our new plans the annex goes away no matter what. Room temperatures: a teacher tracked the temperature in spring, and it happens in fall too: the average room temperature was 83 degrees, and on some days hotter. We have air conditioning; we keep the windows open at night upstairs and as long as we can until it heats up, because the air conditioning is too loud to run during instruction. This happens at least 2 months of the school year.
The Expand option: we are really focusing on the box at the top. The drawing represents a lot of what we wanted. In the box we remove the existing modular classrooms; we would have 2 new modular classrooms, but we want them to be attached. We could expand the school to the north maybe; we also like some options going east. One reason we are talking about east is that we could have a dining room from which we can walk out into the garden. We would demolish the east annex. We could create parking in the street, which would be outstanding. Cars get sideswiped every year. If a car is coming in the other direction at same time, you have to pull over. Outdoor learning areas are included. Learning environments: the rooms are so small. The saving grace is that our 3 rd , 4 th , and 5 th grades are small, but that is a luxury we will not have for long, because the enrollment bubble is moving up. Technology: with a complete remodel or a new facility, we will have technology upgrade infrastructure. It is not a luxury; it is necessary for functionality. Complete remodel of the inside would remove walls to make rooms bigger. We realize if we were to completely start over, the building does have a historical piece that a lot of people like. Starting over may be a challenge. We just want it functional and up to standards.
Carole is thinking about where the kids work now for Title and assessments. Brian: we have assessments going on in a closet where they can’t close the door. We have lots going on in the hallways. It is time not to have to settle, to make it functional. Carole: Band meets in the teachers’ lounge. Reading groups in the morning meet in the teachers’ lounge, and another meets in a tiny room off the bathroom. Storage is in one of the little kid bathrooms and the hallway. She invited trustees to come anytime, and she will show you. She is so excited that the process is happening; it is necessary.
Questions: Wills: is there a feel for keeping the historic building or starting over? Brian: people working in the school are ready to level it and start over, but neighbors have a strong attachment to the building. He said they could compromise and keep the front. We will go through a process; he doesn’t want to make a decision for the neighborhood. As long as we walk through the front doors and it is completely different.
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Smith commented that on the options we are getting, of expand vs. re-do, and with this one as an example, there may be an attempt to continue operations while a new school is built next door—but here what would we do with the kids meanwhile? Nick replied that it is an example of the need for swing space. The Mount Jumbo lease runs out at the end of 2015. That would be about the time frame, and it is about the size that would accommodate the entire Lowell population. Having the students off-site would allow the contractor to move much more quickly. It could be done adjacent, but it is more disruptive, and it would add 6-9 months or more to the project. If the desire is to renovate and expand, we could figure out another location for students and move through it more quickly. Brian said they have talked as a school—it would be tough to go somewhere else for a while, but in the big picture it would be worth it.
Holland said she had the same question. Can you leave a historical façade and tear away everything behind it? She understands why the community likes it, but having been inside, it is so dysfunctional. She does not know how it ever functioned as an effective school. Nick: in the last 10 years in Spokane and in Seattle, schools have gone through keeping the public façade but doing something dramatically different. At Lowell the first floor is 4-5 feet underground, so you are not necessarily getting the best use of space. It is a great challenge for a team: that’s why we are illustrating the cost. The cost for expansion and renovation is almost the same as replacement.
Tompkins: you said once that buildings like this are sometimes more structurally sound than newer buildings.
If you take out all the integral building, what is the point of that? Nick said he would have to go back and look at how Lowell was constructed. For example, Hellgate is concrete and steel behind all that. The building code has changed frequently over the years. Much more detailed evaluation would need to be done.
Tompkins: do we have resources in Missoula to deal with that kind of remodel? Nick replied that there are easily a half dozen general contractors, both on the preservation side and on the general contractor side.
Knapp said he is assuming there is a substantive additional cost to maintain the appearance and bring in modern day functionality. Nick agreed; that is why the cost is essentially equal to replacement. Knapp: to maintain the appearance of the late 19 th century but create the functionality of the 21 st century seems like a financial challenge. Nick: there are pages of detail dollars that add up to the simple dollars stated there: you can see where all those dollars are going.
Knapp asked Sally as a parent to give a sense of the thoughts of the other parents. He understands the love of the old building—what is the price the community is willing to pay to maintain it? Sally replied that the
Westside and the Northside are pretty vocal. She would like to see a new building, but she understands those who want to maintain the older building. We might be divided over that in our neighborhood.
Lorenzen said her father went to Lowell. He was dismayed that it was still just like when he went there. His feeling was that we should knock it down, it’s just a building. She suggested we ask around—maybe they are not that attached to it.
Trevor said he does not really care whether we keep the building or not. He understands what Brian is asking for, functionality; but that can’t be our measure—it has to be better than that. We would not want to sacrifice a
21 st century learning environment to maintain a building or a façade of a building. Nick: Broadwater and
McKinley schools are each 100 years old; they had $12 million expansion and remodel. It is the going price; they have a comparable number of students.
CS Porter Middle School: Nick explained that it is on South Reserve. It was originally a honeycomb system, expanded to the northeast and to the north, with a 2 nd gymnasium space.
The group chose 2 options: Expand, or Relocate. Nick will give a review of enrollment projections and where students live relative to the school.
Julie Robitaille, principal, introduced Becky Krantz, 21 st century teacher/librarian extraordinaire, a member of our team. She has worked in a few high schools and other middle schools, so she has great perspective on technology, 21 st century learning, and what we are trying to do at Porter; she brings fresh eyes to the building.
We are on Reserve. The school was originally built in the late 60s as a grade 1-8 elementary. Reserve was
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probably 2 lanes, and kids rode horses on the weekend to school—a friend of hers did. Reserve has changed quite a bit. There is a safety concern getting on and off Reserve to Central, which is the address of our school.
There is concern about how narrow it is there. The front office is not very noticeable or welcoming. There are concerns about the bus situation on Central.
Expand: Julie explained that this option involves removing one of our pods that contains all our music programs and creative communication, and moving it to the back of the gymnasium; this creates a much safer bus and drop-off area, and moves the front office and FRC.
Becky spoke about the safety portion: everybody who looked at Porter asked about Reserve. Our bus loop is a very important and pretty easy change; it improves the parking situation and drop-off compared to the current bus system where they are on all sides, with lots of people monitoring. It also improves the approach to the front office and defines the entrance. She could not find the front of the school when she started. They have a giant sign with 15 arrows. People who need to go to the FRC often have trouble finding it. It is also defining – currently they have 6 th , 7 th , and 8 th grade pods. Currently 8 th grade is a little bit split. It creates a creative space for art and creative communications space, a breakout area for them and for music groups. It provides shared rehearsal space for students working in small groups, and it would be adding a 6 th grade science room with all the parts you need in the classroom, including grade appropriate counter heights. This Expand option improves quite a bit of our issues. Julie: we had to add a few more classrooms, because we are expecting a bump in enrollment of 100. We expect 20 more next year. Space, roof, and boiler issues are urgent. The Renovate option could take care of a lot of things.
Julie explained another idea that is a little out of the box: we could think about re-aligning, in which we could combine with the DNRC, which is behind us kitty-corner. We could do a STEM type of middle school and be really innovative. The Steering Committee liked the idea of a really innovative middle school, but looking at the
DNRC between Porter and Big Sky HS, there is not a high density of student population; it would be more of a magnet school.
For the Relocate option, the Steering Committee came back with the idea to relocate to 3 rd and Curtis, the
Adult Learning Center, Dickinson. This would give us the opportunity to have a centrally located state of the art middle school, accessible to many neighborhoods. There is a lot of growth around Russell St., and we would be closer to the Lowell kids. It would give us the downside of being quite a ways away from our Cold Springs kids.
We are a Title I school, and 40 percent of our population does not have meal benefits; the 60/40 balance is a good mix. We would want to consider boundaries but keep a good mix, still serving a lower socioeconomic demographic. We would be close to Franklin and Hawthorne, and closer to Lowell; we would have better safety and accessibility, state of the art learning center, biking, and walking.
Questions: Lorenzen said she read the neighborhood plans at the library. They called themselves the Dickinson neighborhood: they were devastated when they lost their school. She thinks the idea that we could put a middle school back in the neighborhood is really exciting.
Julie Robitaille: we could use Porter as a swing school as we renovate other places. It is also a good 7 acre chunk desirable for selling.
Big Sky High School: Nick: Big Sky is on South Avenue across from the Fort Missoula complex. It was built in the late 70s. A chunk was built about a decade earlier; the original COT expanded. The property includes Missoula
County Stadium, and the Veterans’ Cemetery is to the north. Floor plan: all 3 high schools arrived at an alternative with many different features. This is Expand: it includes infilling and rethinking the use of space. The plan captures the atrium outside the library and makes it a dining area. By giving up dining out of the cafetorium, it makes that space a dedicated performing space. It gets rid of corridors, pushing more rooms to the exterior so they have windows. There is less circulation, a whole collection of small learning spaces, lab and breakout, etc., using spaces that exist and taking over corridors. It improves the entry.
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Brian Fortmann, principal, introduced Michelle Manning, Tom Andres, and Richard Farrar. Brian: Nick covered a lot of the input phase we have gotten from the community, teachers, parents, and kids. We lack a lot of windows to the exterior. The redesign for labs, common areas, and work areas will help. Nick was talking about the number of corridors: we have a lot of hallways, and people get disoriented or forget which hallway they are in. There is a lot of corridor space—a lot of wasted space. 21 st century education includes creating learning labs, engagement, and collaboration: there are 40 classrooms right here, most 30 x 30. None of these classrooms have windows to the outside. By eliminating one corridor and expanding, we can have larger spaces more open to creativity. A middle corridor and another space would be redesigned. Functional labs. Big Sky has done a fantastic job since they opened at being creative and at multiuse of space. The cafetorium: when it is not used for that, it is an auxiliary to our auxiliary gym. What we do not have is a performing arts area. We have outstanding performing arts teachers, but we do not have a theater. We have a wonderful stage with no place to build sets, no seating, just plastic chairs; and the acoustics are not good for performing arts. For the last almost 35 years we have done great at using shared space. Music and drama are all located nearby. By expanding and making a theater, we can capture the courtyard and move into the commons, and have more functional space. Our media center is fantastic, designed to let in a lot of light.
Some concerns: security concerns. We will redesign for safety and security, including better controlled access.
All educational stuff is in one area. We could open the building for the public in the evening, and they could be secured from the educational areas. It is a supervisory issue that we have to wander through there while other things are going on. It is a problem that a high school the size we are does not have a large meeting room. We would like a break out area outside, which would be simple to put a roof over, and great for multipurpose meetings of 150-200 people. Multilevel.
Questions: Holland: right now you house a branch of the public library. It looks like the side you would want to lock off. Brian: that is fantastic; it would not be in the locked off area. It gives students a place to be that is safe.
People love it, we love it. We would improve that entry way. This is our one preferred option.
Lorenzen: she is looking at the lower right: does that stay the same? Yes, it was recently redone. Those are the Health Science Academy classrooms. They have redone furniture, so it is easily movable, and it makes learning labs and group tables; it works very well.
Lorenzen asked about the triangle across the street. Nick replied that it is coming up. It is a separate parcel.
Nick explained that only 8-12 students live within ¼ mile of the school, and even at a mile it is maybe 50. That is a small number of students. Brian said in senior projects at Big Sky, a student about 5 years ago went into the old laws and things and found out that if you ride a horse to school, the school has to provide a place to tie your horse up. They did.
Vocational Agricultural Program: Nick spoke about the parcels to the south: the Vo-Ag to the east, another parcel , the old cemetery. These are 2 parcels surrounded by the city master plan to redevelop the region as softball fields, etc.; they have excluded them at the moment; they said they are in the overlay district of the historic fort. They have challenging use due to the proximity of other things. Target Range, the remaining parcel with the Vo-Ag farm, and the rest of the Missoula College complex adjacent to the gravel pit. The complex of buildings, farm, and more recent classroom buildings.
Tom: if you haven’t been to the Ag Center, he invites you to come. It is a full-fledged working farm. They have produced 6 tons of pork this year, the largest pork producer in Missoula County. They want to create a science lab, bolster clinical work, develop a veterinary science lab, and do cellular and genetic work, as part of the science academy. Also they would like to have a commercial kitchen, with the intention to process food. The farm to fork idea is very popular. We want to complete the circle, create bacons and hams, jams and jellies and sell you your Thanksgiving turkey. Value-added agriculture: it will make our great program better. It is the intent to have a science lab dual as a commercial kitchen.
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Willard Alternative Program: Nick: Willard is on 2 parcels. It was built in the late 20s, at the same time as
Whittier and the original Paxson, to the same design. It was an elementary school when it was built. Then it served as the adult learning center for a period of time. It has been home to the Willard program for 13 years. It sits on 2 different parcels, not interconnected. Floors: it has 3 floors, built around a center gymnasium space on the main level; the major library space is on the upper level. Of what was the gymnasium, a portion has been captured as the weight room. The 2 nd floor has balconies. There are a lot of code and other challenges. There is an awkwardly placed elevator, but it is not fully accessible. You have to go up some steps to enter the building.
The accessible route is from the south or north. The school has 150 students. Two original options: expand and realign. The group asked for your consideration for relocating or rebuilding on the current location.
Jane Bennett, principal: Region 3 has older, more historic buildings. In Dr. Apostle’s hometown of Tacoma,
Washington, they had a beautiful, centuries-old high school, castle-like, but dysfunctional for contemporary education. Your counterparts there considered whether they should ask the voters for $75 million to build a new high school, or for $184 million to refurbish the existing beautiful-on-the-outside structure. They decided to go for $184 million, and the voters passed it. That is the pitch for historical preservation. No one has really talked about the process, so she wanted to mention it. There are photographs on the handout of our very strong
Willard contingent having fun. Kudos to Nick and the process he put all our schools through. We have enjoyed the time we spent together envisioning what the alternative high school program could be. Jane introduced
Steve Mutchler, outstanding teacher; Kyle Fox Daniels, student; Dawn Payne, parent; and Dave Gray, local architect, who has been a key player as an advisor to us. He has been a guest teacher inside our school working with students on similar issues.
Jane explained that the Start Over option is their preferred number one option at this time. If you have been in Willard, you do not need the litany of things that will not support 21 st century education: technology, safety, security, sustainability. We will talk about our vision for the alternative high school-to-be.
Steve said he had the privilege of working with his students and Nick in the 2011-12 school year, in a projectbased learning class where they did a campus study, and they presented to Mayor Engen and Dr Apostle, at that time, for a renovation. They did a lot of footwork before we started the process. The 16 member team looked at the future: what do we want to create? We want to ensure that every student achieves their full potential regardless of circumstances and ability. What if their circumstance is they go to high school every day in an elementary built in the 1920s? Their conclusion was that Willard does not meet the 21 st century learning needs.
What do students need? We are a program that is building our curriculum on project-based learning. We need flexible spaces, breakouts, big and small conference rooms, learning studios that have movable walls that are flexible, the ability to combine groups of students. We have teams working in classrooms with an echo effect.
We need learning studios equipped with labs for science classes. We need work stations located throughout the common area, so you can plug in a laptop and work on a Prezi. Students need messy and dirty rooms for government classes creating art, spaces where we can get dirty and not feel bad. We need indoor gym space: we have limited physical recreational space. We need a dedicated health enhancement learning space. We need to be able to look into and out of our learning spaces. Now we are isolated from one another. We don’t have a performing arts studio. We need a stage for guest speakers. We need an industrial kitchen which lends itself to culinary arts programs. Our students need basic needs before the 21 st century needs. Many students are 18 and homeless. They have no place to bathe or wash clothes. Willard needs those facilities. Jane has said to think big.
This new school of his dreams—he would like to see it be LEED certified. It would be a great learning opportunity for students attending the school to know about leadership in energy and design.
Nick mentioned that we have yet to talk about the Jefferson group, attendance areas and enrollment; he asked them to try for a minute each.
Kyle Fox Daniels said he does not believe in learning from a school book, but from hands on. Hands-on offers more of a better learning overall. Willard is a hands-on kind of school.
Dawn Payne, Willard parent, commented that Willard comes up last alphabetically; many of our students come up last in other ways. Thank you for all she has learned through the process about Willard and about
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MCPS. Her daughter chose Willard: it is a program of choice. It really needs your attention now. There are many competing demands. When she thinks about what happens at Willard, she believes in the process of what is happening here. Even though we may be last alphabetically, consider that we may need to not be last.
David Gray: the Willard School is a mess. Corridors are open to spaces; you could not get out in a fire. It is a hazard; it would be very expensive to bring it up to code. When talking about that kind of renovation, it would be better repurposed to some other use. You could build new next door: it is centrally located, close to businesses where we can do internships. You can put in a building next door that is energy efficient and include the technology that is needed, not investing massive amounts of money into the building. Sell it and use it for apartments or businesses. It is not practical for a school any more.
Jane: our number one option is Start Over on the current piece of property. She said she is intrigued by the conception along Brooks Street: there are advantages to the location with some of the things we would like to do with our students. John Combs will talk about it. We are ready right now to work with an architect on designing a new building. We know very well what we want. Our school is falling apart; we are ready right away to begin a new building. Ten, fifteen, twenty years from now, if we had an opportunity to move into something like this on Brooks, we would be amenable to that. What would happen to the school we are asking you to design? It would be a possible alternative middle school program someday. There will always be middle school students in Missoula who can’t thrive in the 600-700 student middle schools we are planning. Thanks for letting us provide our vision of what we would like to do with alternative education.
Jefferson Center: Nick explained that there are 5 different groups that use this building: central kitchen, skills and trades groups, fine arts, the federally mandated preschool for special education, and it is a place for itinerant staff to land within the community. The fine arts piece of it was most vocal: what you will see is primarily the vision of fine arts. In general he would say maintenance and the central kitchen could likely stay in this location.
Jefferson is on South Avenue, several blocks off Russell, near the mall. The gym is 4 feet lower than adjacent space. The building had a fire and reconstruction of the north end. It is essentially the same building as Prescott, parts of Franklin, and Washington; they were all built off the same parts and pieces.
John Combs said that he thinks for the history of this city we have been divided. Malfunction Junction is an example of a lack of a strategic plan. John said he has been a Missoulian since 1973. He does not think our schools have ever had a strategic plan: they couldn’t have one and look like this. They are like his mom—she will be 96 next year; she has some new parts, but would not be willing to carry us into the 21 st century any longer.
She is 2 years younger than Franklin. John taught for 28 years at Hellgate High School. He loves that building, but we need to take care of our “mom,” and make some tough decisions.
John talked about Jefferson: the top floor is itinerants/”gypsies,” occupational therapists, people who need office space. It is also the location of our huge instrument inventory. There are only 5 instruments up there; all the rest are checked out to 5-8 th graders. Also our music library is there. The bottom floor has visual arts supplies for K-8 and our visual arts secretary, the Fine Arts office, and three preschool rooms. When it comes to fine arts, we don’t care what you do with Jefferson; we are happy there. He does not know that we would spend a lot of money there. We had a flood there his very first day on the job, in an old locker room. They have single pane windows. It is not a super safe entrance. It is dated.
John said he is here to talk about what our fine arts needs are. Alex told him years ago to think outside the box: that’s where we live. The plan on the screen is out of the box. John talked about what we have at each high school. For Big Sky: Brian alluded to the cafetorium—if you combine a cafeteria and an auditorium, you get a really nice cafeteria. Sentinel has the Margaret Johnson Theater, formerly called the Little Theater, which is apropos—there was a much nicer facility in Shelby, his first job. Hellgate: thanks to some reconstruction, it has a very nice theater, an intimate space that holds about 580 people. The stage is too small, it has no fly, and that is the best place we’ve got. All of them have their own safety concerns: the light board at Big Sky HS, the rigging at Sentinel. Let’s build a new box and put together a Performing Arts Center in this town. We have needed one
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for years. The best space in Missoula for performing arts is Dennison Theater, with seating for 1100. We can’t do much in there. The university needs the theater a lot. When we try to get in there and there happens to be space, we pay. It will cost him $1500 at the end of April, and he is getting it for free. We don’t have an appropriate 21 st century spot. John listed events we put on in gymnasiums: the AA Choir Festival, the 6 th Grade
Choir Festival in the Jefferson gym, 7 th grade choir, the AA Band Festival, 7 th Grade Band Festival, and they are packed. Absolutely packed. There is no seating space for anyone. The AA Orchestra Festival was in the cafetorium. All-State Orchestra performances once every 7 years. He would like to say Missoula should be the best place we could go. The Performing Arts Center would be a place to hold IB art shows, high school drama events, a home for the Missoula Symphony Orchestra and Chorale, the All-State Festival, and traveling
Broadway shows that go past us now—people take their dollars to Spokane. We should have the ability to train kids in tech—set building and design—there are jobs out there. He would love to have space for a conference center, hotels, and restaurants. The Brooks Street corridor is in trouble, and we could make the difference.
Nutcracker performances. The All-City Gala. Holiday community events. Messiah. All kinds of things. In it would be a large stage with a full fly, capable of holding the symphony orchestra; storage space for instruments; gallery space; theater workshops. The Kennedy Center is looking at us as a possibility of a model of how we would do things for Any Given Child, not just for K-8. We are one of their favorites out of 14 cities. They have talked to us about starting a new model of how we do things at the high school level. These are some opportunities we have to put Missoula on the map and to be a gift for the entire Missoula community. 45% of Missoula goes to fine arts events every year, not counting school events.
Holland asked where this is. John replied it is at the Holiday Village shopping center. He pointed out the locations of Sentinel, Washington, Hellgate, and Big Sky in relation to it.
John: The district is forward thinking, high achieving—this is the definition of it. He is tired of listening to outstanding high school performers in truly subpar places. He thinks we could solve it.
Nick: in addition to Performing Arts there, we could also see Willard, culinary, administration—we don’t know the combination; it is likely to be driven by the current owner/developer. There are possibilities for street level retail and residential components. The school district could be a small part of it. This is Urban Renewal District
3: there is tax increment money that sits here in the district ready to be spent, which could be used for demolishing buildings and preparing for new development. By December 31, 2015, they have to aggregate a large public project and bond that. This is something they could treat as a major project. It will not fund a 100% public project, but it can fund a mix. The Missoula Redevelopment Agency is likely to do some sort of mixed use facility—e.g., if it includes performing arts; but Willard students could be in school on the 2 nd or 3 rd level and working on the street level, or for an attorney in the building for a part of the day. There are a wide range of opportunities. The $10 million price tag is just for the performing arts space. It is expensive space because of the parts and pieces that go into it, including mechanical and electrical.
Trevor: given the expense it takes to run drama programs and music programs 3 times over, you end up with
3 mediocre programs. A light board or a sound board is not affordable times 3—but times one they become more than viable.
Nick: one school he shared with the group was in the Cincinnati district, with performing arts, in proximity to the Cincinnati Music Hall; it was viewed as a redevelopment project in addition to being a school.
Questions: Smith: John touched on the value to the community, but also the idea of bringing in money. With the opportunities it would present for non-MCPS usage, would that money come to us or to the developer? Nick said it is too early to say. He would not build a model off of a hope to make money. Virtually no performing arts center in the U.S. makes money. They are always being supported in some way.
Holland: is the owner of the property interested in taking advantage of the redevelopment? Nick said the owner has contacted him 3 times since we started. Yes.
Apostle noted the fact that we are affiliated with the Kennedy Center and that we are one of their top 2 favorites out of 14; the other is Austin, Texas. They really like how we are doing things.
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Tompkins: if we build a performing arts center in the Holiday Village corner, does the rest stay the same? No, envision all of that as gone.
Hatton: while the profitability of that as a performing arts space may be questionable, there is the value of other performing arts groups, like in Big Sky, Montana, where nationally recognized touring groups perform in an incredibly rural area. We are on I-90. They drive by us every year.
Nick: this is very much likely to emerge from a significant collaboration with a developer, the Urban Renewal
District, or other partners in the region. It is not something the district would go alone on.
Review enrollment projections and geographic distribution of students Nick Salmon
Nick reminded Trustees that they received this; we will spend more time on it when we get to the next segment.
He highlighted the bulge years in the elementary, middle schools and high schools, and noted that they are not unique. The years following are nearly as large. The 10 year cohort is not something we can hold our breath for and hope it works. Communities that make an investment see greater enrollment because people make choices based on the investment and improvement.
Public Comment: None.
Dr. Apostle, addressing everyone who presented: you made us all very proud tonight. Excellent job. You were convincing, exciting, eloquent, realistic, and you were thorough. These are exciting times for our school district and our community. With the plans you set forth, he thinks we are in good shape. You did a tremendous job.
Very proud of all of you. You did a tremendous job.
There was no further Board comment.
Board Chair Joe Knapp adjourned the meeting at 8:03 p.m.
As recording secretary for this Board meeting, I certify these minutes to be a true and correct copy of what was taken at the meeting.
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Elizabeth Serviss, Minutes Recorder
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Joseph Knapp, Board Chair
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Pat McHugh, District Clerk
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