Part 2: This is the fifth article in a series profiling schools that would be affected by a Kalispell Public Schools elementary bond request. Ballots are due Oct. 4.

Built in 1939, Russell Elementary is one of two buildings in Kalispell Public Schools on the National Register of Historic Places.

Russell, along with Kalispell’s other four elementary schools, is experiencing overcrowding, something the district hopes to address if voters approve a $25.3 million bond request.

With an enrollment of 288, Russell is over capacity by 38 students.

“We’ll be up to 300 kids by the time the school year is over,” Russell Elementary Principal Bill Sullivan estimated.

One of the challenges of overcrowding is scheduling lunch and physical education in the shared gym for 288 children by 12:50 p.m.

“I have to kind of crunch lunch into a certain time period so we can still get P.E.’s in,” Sullivan said, noting that roughly 80 children eating lunch at once can be noisy, but it’s what has to happen.

If the bond request passes, a regulation size gym/multipurpose area, serving kitchen, music room (currently music is held on the stage) and flexible breakout spaces will be built in addition to addressing deferred maintenance.

During a tour of the building on Sept. 13, Sullivan walked outside to the tetherball courts where the new gym would take up some of the space. He showed a side of the building not visible from the street that is in poor condition. The exterior wall on the west side of the gym is made of plywood paneling coated with some sort of gravel plaster that is chipped off in places, exposing the wood. Paint on other parts of the building also is flaking off.

“The gym and building itself look cosmetically in need of some work,” Sullivan said.

He then unlocked a door and walked inside a small — and toasty on a sunny day — serving kitchen adjacent to the gym.

“We have some issues with ventilation,” Sullivan said.

Replacing the school’s single-pane windows would help with temperature and ventilation. Sullivan noted that windows on the south side of the building were replaced years ago thanks to a grant, but the rest of the building still has many energy-inefficient windows that need to be replaced. He also pointed out some windows that were boarded up in the 1980s as a cheap alternative to replacing windows.

The roof also has ongoing problems with leaks. When leaks are fixed, new ones spring up.

And like Hedges Elementary, there isn’t a meeting room to hold parent meetings or discuss individualized education plans for students with special needs. This means Sullivan has to use the basement rooms where the school social worker, psychologist and speech pathologist work.

“All of our rooms are full. My office is tiny, so we have to kind of displace the social worker and school psychologist and speech pathologist,” Sullivan said. “If it gets kind of in a spot where I need to have a bigger place, I tell all those guys, ‘You’ve got to go,’ and they take their kids and go find some place in the building.”

After showing the basement rooms, Sullivan swung open an old fire door nearing an “antique” designation.

As with the other older elementary schools, Russell has made use of closets and nooks for offices.

“We’ve made all those adjustments down the line because of our enrollment and it keeps getting bigger and bigger,” Sullivan said. “I don’t think there’s an elementary building that has any of those places left to convert and we continue to grow.”

If the money is approved and a new elementary built south of town, redistricting of elementary school zones will occur, which is a positive, Sullivan said.

“We can’t fill our school with neighborhood kids because of its boundaries,” Sullivan said. “I’d say 60 percent of the population stays here. I would say 40 percent are in and out based off of if they don’t have room in their current school.”

In addition to Russell, Edgerton, Elrod, Hedges and Peterson elementary schools are slated for renovation if the bond issue is approved. Deferred maintenance only would be completed at Kalispell Middle School. A new elementary school would be built on Airport Road, and as a result, rezoning would occur to allow more students to attend their neighborhood schools, which is currently not the case due to overcrowding.

If the $25.3 million elementary bond request is approved, owners of homes with assessed values of $200,000 could anticipate annual property taxes to increase by $116.82.

Only residents living in the Kalispell Public Schools elementary district (not people who live in rural outlying districts) may vote on the elementary district bond issue.

Residents of the elementary district also will vote on a $28.8 million high school district bond issue. That would add another $58.46 in annual taxes on a $200,000 home.

If both bond issues pass, elementary residents could see a total property tax increase of $175.28.

Hilary Matheson is a reporter for The Daily Inter Lake. She may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.