School board election profile: Ruth Harrison

Incumbent Whitefish School District Board member Ruth Harrison says she wants to continue serving because she feels she still has a worthwhile perspective to offer.

“I have a passionate interest in seeing the improvements and progress that are right at our doorstep,” she said. “I feel I’m halfway through a worthwhile effort.”

Harrison, who was raised in Whitefish, was first appointed to the Whitefish School Board in 2006 and has since won re-election bids to retain her seat.

After receiving her degree in English, she taught school, worked at Montana Academy and has been in and out of ranching most of her life. She served eight years on the Pleasant Valley School Board as a trustee and as clerk for the school.

When her family lived in that school district she made the choice to get involved in the school. She and her husband and their two boys moved to Whitefish in 2000, and again she made the decision to actively get involved.

“I enjoy working with a group of intelligent, insightful thinkers that are part of the board, the superintendent and administrators,” she said. “Working with a group of people that share a common vision is exciting.”

The school district is in the middle of a $19 million project that will remodel the high school building.

Harrison has confidence in the high school project as it progresses. She said the hiring of Steeplechase Development to oversee the project was the right decision to make it successful. She pointed to mistakes in the middle school rebuild, such as the installation of the incorrect boilers, as a reason to hire a professional for large-scale construction projects.

“We learned lessons from that project,” she said. “The middle school project took its toll on the administrators and it was a difficult. Our approach this time is a good effort at avoiding pitfalls.”

On keeping the high school build on budget, Harrison said the amount that will be spent is fixed. She said she wants to continue to ensure the building is constructed in the most economical and sensible way possible.

“At this point to say we’re over budget is a misnomer,” she said. “Estimates are higher in some areas than we thought, but it’s a fluid project. We know the bottom line for the amount of the bond is written in stone. Within those constraints we have to do the most reasonable and visionary things we can for kids.”

The district has continued to lose students with enrollment down in the last 10 years. The new high school building may be one solution to attracting students to the district, Harrison noted.

“When the high school is built we will be in the public eye,” she said. “People will notice our good efforts and our visionary efforts for the future.”

Harrison pointed to a difficult economy and Whitefish’s history of having a seasonal population as reasons student numbers have struggled.

“I look for a slight turnaround, especially if we can attract good-paying jobs,” she said.

The school district’s budget, which is largely based on enrollment, continues to shrink. Harrison said school funding is a statewide issue and as long as the state Legislature continues to ignore school funding then schools “are going to suffer.” The state budget cap, which limits the amount of money a school district is allowed to collect, is restricting, she noted.

“We’re at a point where we’re maxed out and have to look at how we can afford to pay for things like teachers,” she said. “We are constrained from levying more money. When making decisions about the budget we have to look at if it’s within our means and what’s in the kids’ best interest. We have to be very careful about the choices we make.”

Harrison says she wants to continue to make sure the district is working toward meeting the Common Core Standards. By 2014-15, the state expects districts to fully implement the standards that set the learning goals for students.

“One huge goal for me is to see that we meet the Common Core Standards in the best way possible,” she said. “That we instate the educational standards that are going to be necessary for developing our kids understanding of their world.”