Bozeman High School Narrows School Expansion Plans to Two

Bozeman School officials have narrowed Bozeman High School’s inevitable expansion down to two solutions. Officials also eliminated any possibility of expanding the current high school any further.

One option remaining calls for building a separate campus for Freshmen, still under the Bozeman High School umbrella. That campus would accommodate 800 students.

The second option calls for building a second high school right away. This school would be a separate entity from Bozeman High School.

The third option, now no longer being pursued, called to expand the current high school again—this time to 3,000 students.

High school enrollment in Bozeman is projected to reach 2,400 students by 2020. The pros and cons of building a freshmen campus over a full high school focus on money available compared to expected growth in Bozeman. Creating a separated Freshmen campus would be cheaper on the front end, but could potentially limit future expansions. Creating a full high school would cost more but allow for more flexibility in the future. Creating a separate high school would also require initial growing pains as districts would need to be redrawn, class availability could be affected and athletics would require new organization.

In light of narrowing down their choices, Bozeman school officials have also moved to delay the multi-million dollar bond proposal for the new school. Initially to be brought up in November 2016, officials have moved the vote to May 2017 to avoid competing against the other multi-million dollar proposal –a new Bozeman/Gallatin County Law and Justice Center. The Bozeman community already approved expansions of Sacajawea Middle School and Hawthorne Elementary in 2015.

Although the vote might be delayed, the school district continues to gather funds to address Bozeman growth. The board approved a $550,000 property tax increase for 2016 for dealing with growth and building repairs. The plan will increase taxes by 9.9 million over six years. The 10% raise will hire 11 more teachers to address Bozeman’s 3.2% increase in enrollment. The money will also go towards repairs of school buildings.

Source: http://www.nbcmontana.com/news/Bozeman-s-high-school-expansion-plans-narrowed/38554020

http://www.nbcmontana.com/news/Bozeman-s-high-school-expansion-plans-narrowed/38554020

http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/education/bozeman-school-board-to-vote-on-tax-levies/article_4124e0e1-7ac8-55bb-aff0-d8863f20c76b.html

http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/education/bozeman-high-bond-may-wait-until/article_d7994ac1-ea72-5b5a-8db7-e6c1c7cf4a5c.html

http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/education/bozeman-high-full-already-expecting-more-students/article_5cc06f8f-06f2-57cb-aa04-e79d02b1b7ee.html