The six months of Mark Flatau’s first year as Kalispell Public Schools superintendent have been replete with challenges and successes.

One item that falls into both categories is the recent purchase of land for a future school site.

The challenge ahead is deciding what type of building will meet the needs of a growing elementary and middle school population, then passage of a bond to finance construction. Flatau estimates this could be a five-year process.

The last time an elementary school was constructed in the district was Edgerton 27 years ago.

“Our elementaries are full. If we had 100 more kids at the elementary level next year we would be able to manage them, but in many cases we’d be reaching over-capacity,” Flatau said. “We need to saturate the community with the information they deserve and should have that demonstrates the need and explains fully the cost.”  

Another challenge Flatau has inherited is securing long-term funding for Flathead and Glacier high school programs after a failed technology levy in May, at a time when both schools have rolled out technology-centric engineering and biomedical programs.

What concerns Flatau is that prior to the rejected technology levy, there had been several unsuccessful attempts to get voter approval for high school building reserve, while school maintenance continues to be deferred.

“We will not be able to sustain our current programs without some level of long-term levy support,” Flatau said.

Flatau said he is impressed with and wants to retain the quality academic curriculum available to high school students, such as Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Project Lead the Way.

“Having spent my entire career up to this year in Washington, if all you know is Kalispell Public Schools and you haven’t been anywhere else, you don’t know just how good the quality of programs here are,” Flatau said.

Part of encouraging support for the high schools is strengthening the relationship with the 13 partner districts that send students to Flathead and Glacier. Visibility and transparency have been two qualities Flatau has regarded as components of maintaining a strong public school system.

“We want to build some stronger collaborative ties with those folks. That’s the focus for December — getting out to all of our partner districts. Of course there are 13 partner districts, so that will be a challenge,” Flatau said, adding that he likely will continue the initiative into January. “We consider those kids our kids when they will walk across that stage four years later [in high school] with a diploma.”

Visiting schools and classrooms as often as possible has been another priority of Flatau. His frustration has been that he hasn’t had more opportunities because of a schedule packed with meetings.

Flatau is such a proponent of stakeholders seeing education in action that he has scheduled classroom visits and invited school board trustees and central office staff along.

“We’ve already started our board/superintendent walks,” Flatau said. “We have a lot of staff in this [central office] building. In many cases they don’t have an opportunity to go into the buildings. I’m taking one or two staff members from here with me so they get a sense of what they’re supporting. Everything that we do boils down to support for what’s taking place in our classrooms so those staff being able to see students engaged in learning gives them a sense of what our mission is and our purpose.”

Flatau said he would eventually like to organize meetings with key communicators to promote conversations about education.

“We want folks to see that the investment our community is making in our schools is paying off,” Flatau said, noting that it’s as much about accountability as visibility.

Superintendent Socials are also on the table for people who would like to learn more about the district. Flatau has already attended several. In some instances, Flatau’s role has been to listen and in others he has spoken on specific topics such as Special Olympics.

In other instances, the gatherings have been casual meet-and-greets.

“If you would like an hour or half hour of my time some evening, invite the neighbors over. I’ll bring the cookies,” Flatau said.

To schedule a Superintendent Social, call Administrative Assistant Beth Kornick at 751-3434.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.