Most kids in Lake County headed to school Tuesday morning, with the exception of Polson students, who have one more week to goof off before the regimen of busses, bells and homework begins.  

The late start on Sept. 9 is due to significant remodeling projects at the middle school and high school. “The hope was that if we were creative with our calendar and we extended the summer, it would give our contractor more time to get that work done without staff and students on site,” said Andy Fors, who was promoted from high school principal to superintendent this year.

Despite the tardy start, the school year will end as usual in early June. To accomplish that feat and still keep students in school for the 180 days required by state law, the district added 10 minutes to the school day and removed the early releases and half days that usually pepper the calendar.

This marks the third year of significant construction projects for Polson Schools. Thanks to two major bond levies approved by voters in 2023, the district was able to invest more than $40 million in improvements.

Remodeling and additional classrooms were completed last year at Cherry Valley and Linderman elementary schools. Now, it’s the high school and middle school’s turn.

Over the course of the summer, Swank Enterprises remodeled student bathrooms and some classrooms in the middle school, created a new STEAM lab – an acronym for science, technology, engineering, art and math – and added a new entrance to the middle school gym.

Phase two, which Fors anticipates will get underway in January, completely revamps the district’s commercial kitchen, housed in the middle school. Students will still be fed however, thanks to smaller kitchens located in each of the other buildings.

Meanwhile, at the high school, “There's lots happening, there's cranes in the air, lots of things flying around,” says Fors, as work begins on a two-story addition that will house 14 classroom spaces.

Over the summer, the parking lot was completely resurfaced, a new entry with an accessible ramp was added, basement bathrooms were remodeled “and in what we call Freshman Hall, the classrooms have all been gutted and remodeled.”

By next September, Fors anticipates that high schoolers will move into the new addition, which houses four science labs, an art lab, and a metals manufacturing shop, along with two dedicated career and technical education classrooms. The school’s computer science, business, media and consumer science labs will also receive significant upgrades.

According to Fors, these major improvements at the high school help meet three objectives: providing room for growth under the same roof (instead of stashing kids in modular units), improving security and giving students more opportunities to explore career and technical education.

“All three of those items are not only being addressed but they're going to put our school system in a great place,” he said.

Enrollment holds steady

This year’s district enrollment, as of last week, was at 1,631 students, slightly above last year’s number of 1,617. The district, Fors said, “kind of hovers right there,” and has for nearly 40 years.

Although enrollment has remained steady, Fors says buildings were overcrowded, with reading groups and elective courses meeting in hallways, closets or in the back of classrooms, and some regular classes housed in separate modular units.

“Now we have adequate spaces for all of the programming that we need in our elementary schools,” Fors said. “And we will have the same in the middle school and high school soon.”

Grades realigned in middle and elementary schools

The building projects in the elementary schools have spurred another major shift this year: a grade realignment for Cherry Valley, Linderman and Polson Middle School. Students in grade 5 will spend this year at Linderman, instead of transferring to the middle school, which will now accommodate grades 6-8. Cherry Valley houses pre-kindergarten through second grade, and Linderman is home to grades 3-5.

Fors says teachers and administrators believe the new alignment “is going to have a direct impact on our students. And we've received a lot of positive feedback from parents who are really excited about fifth graders being in Linderman.”

Tight budget forces staff reductions

Despite all the positive change in Polson Schools, Fors says the district was “in a pretty tough spot with our budget.” That’s translated into significant staff reductions.

The district is down seven teachers this year, four in the elementary and three in the high school, as well as one and a half administrative positions – a half-time Human Resources employee and the full-time curriculum director (who is now the high school principal).

Fors attributes the belt-tightening to several factors, including inflation and higher operational costs, which state funding hasn’t kept pace with, “so that was a little bit of a burden.”

Shifts in student population also drove some of the cuts, he said. Most of the reductions were in positions occupied by teachers who were already planning to retire.

The goal is to “put the district in a place to be a little bit safer in sustaining the staff that we have,” Fors said.

The building projects, he noted, have remained on time and on budget – an accomplishment he attributes to Swank and Great Falls architecture firm LPW, which has been willing to “go back to the drawing board and adjust some things to make sure that the budgets will fit.”

Grounded in the community

Fors grew up in Polson and earned an undergraduate degree from Montana State University in technology education before teaching for 10 years at Glacier High School in Kalispell. After earning his master’s in educational leadership from the University of Montana, he spent a year as an assistant principal in Evergreen School District and two years as assistant principal at Glacier High. He has since earned his licensure as a superintendent, also from UM.

He was hired as high school principal in Polson in 2020 – the year of the COVID pandemic – and promoted to superintendent after Mike Cutler announced his pending retirement last winter.

“I was born and raised in this community and went through the school system. I'm very proud to be back in the same system and supporting students and staff,” he says.

As an administrator, Fors is known for his hands-on approach, which often finds him sweeping the floor between periods at basketball games or flipping burgers or hot dogs at community events.

It’s a kids-first attitude he plans to bring into his new role. “My hope, especially in a district this size, is that I can continue to work closely with not only the staff in the buildings, but also with the students,” he said. “Because that's a piece that I've always enjoyed as an educator.”

He leaves the high school in the capable hands of former guidance counselor and curriculum director Betsy Wade, who he predicts “will do an incredible job.”

    Polson School District Superintendent. Andy Fors grills hot dogs for the crowd at Linderman field during Purple and Gold Day on Aug. 21. (Emily Messer/Leader)