It’s the first full school year for new Somers-Lakeside Superintendent Alex Ator, who says he’s looking forward to getting back to business.

School started Sept. 2 for students at Somers Middle School and Lakeside Elementary, and Ator said it’s good to see kids come back focused on learning, extracurriculars and building social skills. He feels like public education is balancing out again following upheaval caused by the Covid pandemic. 

“Having people coming through the doors feeling safe again, feeling excited again and seeing kids and parents move past all of that ... Getting back to really, truly how things work,” Ator said in a recent interview with the Bigfork Eagle.  

Ator brings 11 years of experience from his previous superintendent and principal role in Roberts, Montana. He accepted a two-year contract with a $120,000 salary following a Feb. 20 Somers-Lakeside school board meeting.  

Ator is excited to lead a bigger district. At Somers and Lakeside, he’ll work with two principals, a technology advisor and a full business staff, which contribute to feeling like he’s part of a team.  

Communication is part of that effort, including sending daily updates to trustees about how the school day went. Ator said the exercise gives him the opportunity to reflect and digest anything noteworthy.  

“I find it very similar to a teacher doing an exit ticket with their students. That always makes a student provide a recall of what was learned through that day. So these help me ... and it also allows me to go back and look at those notes a couple of weeks from now,” Ator said.  

Ator takes the helm amid big changes coming to the northwest shore of Flathead Lake. Lakeside has seen zoning efforts, the approval of an expanded wastewater treatment facility and the approval of a new luxury development built by the same company that runs the private Yellowstone Club in Big Sky.  

It’s a double-edged sword, Ator said, as the development and continued growth of the community brings in tax revenue for the school. But, like many people in Lakeside, he is concerned about traffic and adequate infrastructure.  

These concerns come to the forefront when discussing students getting to school. 

“The school is looking at what it would take to build some sidewalks and potentially a bike path in a couple different locations. One kind of going from where Ben Williams Park is at, also the old Apostolic Church, and then the Flathead Landfill area, kind of through town, across to burning Creek and by the school,” Ator said. 

The sidewalks are part of conversations looking three-to-five-years into the future, he added. However, school officials have a long-term goal of making the community a little more walkable or bikeable for students. Ator said the district has started conversations with the Montana Department of Transportation to discuss grants, particularly ones that were used for the successful Evergreen sidewalk project.  

In Somers-Lakeside School Board news, trustees unanimously appointed Dr. Chelsey Spence to the board at their Aug. 14 meeting. Spence is a local physician, fire board member and parent to a Somers middle school student. 

Trustees also adopted the district’s final 2024-2025 budget, with $4.26 million in the general fund, reflecting inflationary adjustments and the state STARs Act, which relates to teacher compensation, according to board meeting notes.  

Increased state support and taxable value across the district allowed local mills to decrease roughly 7%. 

For more information about Somers-Lakeside School District, visit somersdist29.org/.  

Taylor Inman may be reached at 758-4440 or [email protected].