Build your Future

With the construction of the elementary schools nearing completion, attention is now shifting to the high school, where renovation plans are set to kick off before the end of the year. 

According to the district’s construction projects representative and Polson High School’s principal, Andrew Fors, “The elementary projects are on budget and ahead of schedule.” Teachers at Cherry Valley and Linderman were able to begin this school year in the new addition. 

Swank Enterprises Senior Superintendent Monte Moultray said, “We never anticipated opening the elementary schools with the teachers set up in them for the beginning of this school year. The original plan was to finish those by the end of 2024.”

While both elementary schools are nearing completion, they are still under construction and receiving interior renovations that include restrooms and classroom updates, which are scheduled to be done by the end of the year, according to Moultray.

Cherry Valley Elementary is the only school still receiving  external work at this point.  Construction crews are adding three more classrooms due to a “grade realignment conversation the district is having, and partly because the projects are on budget, and we were able to manage that well enough to add some capacity during the project,” said Fors.  

Teachers at Linderman began moving into their classrooms at the end of the summer, and for many teachers the new addition has been a wonderful experience according to music teacher Elizabeth Collins.  Collins recently moved into her new music room at Linderman, where her new space is “quieter and calmer.”  

Before construction was completed, Collins taught music in the foyer to the gymnasium where her classes were limited by the shared space and access to musical instruments.  Collins said, “People were coming in to fill the concession stand and teams were coming in, which was really hard and distracting to the students.”  While teaching in the foyer, Collins also was unable to have access to her piano and other various instruments that are usually used in the music curriculum. “That made me work a lot harder, because I couldn’t accompany them on the piano, and I had to do all the singing, and the kids just love the piano,” said Collins.

Polson High School is second in line of the three phase plan. With the elementary schools wrapping up the first phase plans, the high school is seeing some changes to the property already.  In early summer, Swank Enterprises began making their mark by moving the modular classrooms (mods) and setting up safety fences.  The mods, relocated to the grass area between the high school and bus drop off road, house English teacher Robyn Bishop and Indigenous Immersion Program teacher Amy Williams.  The janitorial shed was also torn down to create room for the new addition and Swank moved the ventilation system in the metal shop to the corner of the wood shop.  This had to be done due to the fact that the metal shop will be torn down in the future so the foundation can be poured for the new addition.

The soil conditions pose a challenge to the construction at the high school. “The soil is not as stable as some areas, so we are going to have to use helical piers to be able to create a way that the soil will support the load,” said Moultray.  Helical piers are metal augers that are drilled into the ground at a certain depth, or until they hit bedrock and they stick a steel shaft out of the ground. Then concrete is poured onto them to create a beam to support the weight load.

This addition to the high school will offer ten new classrooms, including spaces for science rooms, a new art room, metal shop, and a new family and consumer science room.  Some proposed interior remodels include the bathrooms, which are set as an alternate option as of now. This means the district will look at the pricing when it becomes available to see if they can afford the interior renovations.

When construction begins at the high school, students and staff can expect a few changes to the bus route. The bus route road between the high school and middle school will be shut down to create a lay down yard for the materials and equipment.  The bus route will be redirected through the high school lot, where both schools’ students will board and deboard the bus.

The middle school will be the final phase of the project and will receive interior renovations.  The middle school will get an updated kitchen and revamped bathrooms.  The middle school is expected to start construction when the high school’s construction nears completion.

With construction impacting the students and staff in all buildings, the district has created a motto for the year: “Build Your Future.”  The motto was originally selected by the Polson High School seniors for the high school’s traditional theme of the year; however, since the motto was fitting for the district, the school board adopted the theme for all the schools in the district.  The district’s general contractor, Swank Enterprises, and architecture firm, LPW Architecture, sponsored t-shirts for every teacher in the district that included the motto on them.

When it comes to the relationship between Swank Enterprises and the school district, Moultray said, “the Polson School District is the most accommodating school district I have ever worked with.” The district values the new construction and understands that construction can be noisy and messy. According to Moultray, “They want us to be able to get our work done quickly, knowing that it’s a little bit of discomfort for a great finished product.”