Hamilton School District looks to run bond survey

by Nathan Boddy

Following the successful ballot measure last fall which gave Hamilton School District 3 the freedom to sell the 100 year old middle school on South 5th Street, HSD3 is ready to test the waters again with area voters. Building on that success, district trustees are hoping to leverage funds generated from a future sale of the aging facility in order to offset the price of a new school for the area’s children grades 4-8.

To ultimately reach that end, the district is asking residents to fill out a simple survey which seeks to ascertain which of two options, if either, residents would support in order to provide a new facility. Both options involve the usage of the district’s Westview property on the southwest corner of South 9th and West Main Street, the property currently in use by the University of Montana’s Bitterroot College. It is that same property which the district had envisioned for an entirely new middle school as a part of the unsuccessful bond/levy combination in early 2023.

The district’s web page for the survey explains the options as varying in scope and cost. In one iteration there would be two completely separate buildings for the 4-5 grades and the 6-8th grades. That option would take greater advantage of the parcel and provide greater distinction between the two sides. In the other, less expensive, option, the two sides would be conjoined by mutually usable areas, although the two age groups would not interact within the shared spaces during the day. In both scenarios, the existing Westview building would be renovated and preserved. The district estimates that the cost of the bond would be $48-$54 million, and according to their information, would, “increase the taxes on a home with a 2024/25 “market value” of $100,000 by approximately $134-$148 per year and a home with a market value of $200,000 by approximately $268-$296.” This cost is a price reduction of between $15 and $21 million over the failed 2023 bond.

The district has been working with Brad Doll at A&E Design of Bozeman in order to draft preliminary plans for how the various grades could be housed at the location.

“The survey going out is supposed to find out where we’re at on that kind of support, because running another bond to have it fail is a bad thing,” said Johnson.

School board trustee Eli Johnson says that last fall’s ballot measure was an appropriate justification for moving forward. “We feel like we’ve got the public’s understanding and approval that the middle school is a problem and we need to figure it out,” he said, adding that the board has every intent on getting a good reading on the public’s thoughts. 

The existing Hamilton Middle School is over 100 years old and has been functioning only on account of a temporary ‘pod’ building which was constructed 50 years ago and quickly adapted to ease overcrowding. Both buildings, and the lifeless expanse of asphalt between them, have served for decades without appreciative update. The pod itself suffers from thin walls, lack of insulation, poor ventilation and low light. According to students, there are multiple walls within the pod that simply bend inward when pushed. Johnson hopes that these issues, combined with the successful ballot measure in November, mean the time is right to gauge public opinion and fine-tune the course for the coming months.

“If we have overwhelming public support, we can run it in May,” he said. “If we don’t have overwhelming public support, we may need some more time to, hopefully, do some public education and informing and see if we can persuade the few more percent that we need to pass it. The board is all unified in going forward with trying to get this bond passed at some point because the middle school’s 100 years old. It needs to be replaced. There’s no question.”

When asked about the step by step process that the district would use to transition from the current middle school to a new facility, Johnson asserted, “We won’t make the kids homeless for sure. Any sale [of the existing middle school] that goes through will be contingent on timing and will have stipulations that we need to either release it back or we can’t release it until we have an alternative place to put our kids.” 

The school board will vote on whether to pursue the bond this May during their regular meeting on February 11. Information about the district’s ongoing efforts for a new middle school, and a link to the survey, can be found at the website: https://www.hsd3.org/o/hsd/page/hms-bond-survey