Hamilton to vote on $49 million school bond

by Nathan Boddy

Hamilton School Board Chair, Patrick Hanley, sees the district’s need for a modern middle school as the last piece in a long line of improvements for the district.

“This would basically complete the picture,” he said of the bond being presented to district voters in May. “This was the goal all along.”

Unlike the other schools within the district, the 100-year-old building on the corner of South 5th and State is not only undersized, but in decline. Approximately 50 years ago, when the already aging building was still occupied by Hamilton High School, an additional ‘pod’ building was constructed on the lot in order to temporarily relieve overcrowding in the main brick building. In 2000, the high school was moved to a modern structure on Kurtz Lane, and the middle school moved into the old building.

Currently, the buildings that compromise the middle school campus are lacking in modern security, a functional playground, and even suffer from ongoing plumbing and electric issues. To that end, Hanley and the board of trustees have been focused on putting together this last piece of the pie for some time.

The Hamilton School District was unsuccessful at passing a combination bond in 2023 which would have permitted construction of a new middle school. Since then, however, the district has gained voters’ permission to sell the middle school and turned its attention to assembling a new bond proposal that would lessen the total price tag for taxpayers by taking advantage of an existing structure. If successfully passed by voters in May, those efforts would finally set the ball in motion.

“Then we can focus on the middle school and get a really good middle school in place,” said Hanley. “That’s what we’re shooting for.” 

The $49 million bond would see the construction of a new building for 6-8th graders, conjoined to a newly renovated Westview building which itself would house 4th and 5th graders. The new educational facility would improve security and access for kids, while keeping administrative and non-student square footage at a minimum by allowing both sides to access and share those components.

The existing Westview building is located on a district-owned, 16-acre parcel at the corner of South 9th and Main. The building currently houses programs of the University of Montana, Bitterroot. The majority of the land is occupied with an aging track and bus facilities.

Passage of the bond would mean a property tax increase of approximately $85 per year, per every $100,000 dollars of taxable market value of a home. For example, a home with a taxable value of $300,000 dollars would see an annual increase of $255 ($21.25 monthly) in their property tax. The bond would be fixed for a 25 year life span.

Megan Tintzman is a graduate of Hamilton’s school district, and began as a freshman the year before the high school moved out of the aging building. As a sophomore, she was welcomed into the brand new facility on Kurtz Lane. 

“I remember that feeling of walking into that brand new high school and the pride I felt as a kid and how lucky I felt,” she said, adding that she’d always considered the new school to be a symbol of the community’s concern about its kids.

Tintzman is now a mother of three, ages 10, 7 and 3, all of whom are, or will be, in the Hamilton School District. She says that she supports the upcoming bond, and wants to do what is right for the next generation of kids, even if her older children might not benefit.

“Next year, my son will go into fifth grade, which is part of the middle school,” she said. “And to know that he doesn’t have a big field to go play in with his friends, to play soccer or just to get to go be a kid, it makes me sad.”

A website dedicated to the promotion of the bond’s passage has been assembled to educate people about the details and cost of the bond, as well as to address concerns. One such concern, as periodically expressed in social media, is that the district had intended to decommission the middle school building after construction of the modern high school in the late 90s. The assertion that the middle school building had been ‘condemned’ is one refuted by Patrick Hanley.

“I don’t know where that started, but it obviously got traction, and then it just stayed,” he said, adding that he himself has heard the claims, but that he is certain the district would not have misled the public. Instead, he says that the district has been following a transparent step-by-step process of improving all aspects of its facilities. 

Hanley also points out that any income received from sale of the existing middle school will be put toward the Westview property.

Andrea Gray is now in her third year as Principal at Hamilton Middle School, and doesn’t need to look far to find shortcomings of the old facility.

“Educational needs were different 100 years ago than they are now,” she said, adding that the old building may be neat historically, but “it’s not really functional as a modern educational support for students.”

From her office, which overlooks a battered expanse of mud and dead grass, Gray is able to hear the sound of students through the walls and ceiling as they move about.

“We have fifth-graders here,” said Gray. “These kids are 9 and 10 years old, and they come from a fabulous playground at Daly Elementary and its huge expanse of green, to what is sometimes referred to as ‘The Prison Yard.’”

And while Gray says that she occasionally hears from parents who proclaim that they themselves ‘survived’ the Hamilton Middle School, she rhetorically asks, “is survival really what we’re hoping for with kids during their most difficult developmental stage of life, or do we want to help them thrive?”

The Hamilton School District will hold a Community Forum on Monday, April 14 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the current Hamilton Middle School. There will be a presentation from 6:30 to 7 p.m.  in the HMS auditorium. After that, some stations will be set up that will allow the public to speak one-on-one with district representatives and volunteers on different aspects of the bond…for example, help with calculating their personal tax impact from the bond, etc. Tours of the HMS building and the pod building will be available from 7 to 8:30 p.m.  

There are sandwich boards in front of all of the Hamilton School District campuses with the QR code to the webpage where more information is available. The website page for the bond is: https://www.hsd3.org/page/hms-2025-bond, or the special website set up to promote the bond at: https://www.hmsbond.com. Ballots will be mailed in mid-April and are due by May 6th.