Options emerge for Muldown school

Three top options have emerged for Muldown Elementary School’s redesign — ranging from necessary facility updates to construction of a brand new school.

The options, presented Thursday at a community forum at the school, come after six months of work from architects and engineers from L’Heureux, Page and Werner as they collaborated with teachers, parents, community members, support staff, administrators, and trustees on the Muldown Project Task Force to develop plans to address significant issues facing the 50-year-old building. Problems include a failing original heating system, structural issues with the roof, lack of insulation and vapor barriers, inadequate drainage in parking lots, a failing irrigation system, and many mechanical systems far past life expectancy.

More than 70 people attended the meeting at Muldown.

Whitefish School District Superintendent Heather Davis Schmidt introduced the project and showed a video, titled “Challenges Through Opportunities,” that features current staff talking about the challenges they face in the building. The video was made by Whitefish High School student Jeff Hyer.

“We realized about a year ago that we were in pretty deep, that the challenges we have here at Muldown are pretty significant and we needed some expert help,” Davis Schmidt said.

Chad Smith, maintenance director for the school district, said the first hour of his day is spent ensuring that the building’s heating system won’t shut down. In the winter, Smith recalled 12-hour days spent shoveling piles of snow off the 50,000 square foot roof.

L’Heureux, Page and Werner estimates the cost of only repairing the current building to be $9.1 million.

“It’s a lot of money just to fix the building,” Tim Peterson, one of two principal architects for the firm, said. “There’s been two or three studies in the last 10 years and they’re all pointing to the same issues. Seems like it’s time to take care of it.”

The task force came up with 11 original options for fixing the building, but narrowed the list down to three. The selected options range from tackling the most urgent needs to creating a facility that will better enhance innovative learning and reduce overcrowding.

The first of the three options is adding a new building west of the existing Muldown school while remodeling parts of the current building. The new building would include a new gym, multi-purpose and dining area, library and kindergarten area. A new main entrance area, student entrance and visitor entrance would also be added, with offices adjacent to the visitor entrance area. The building would be an addition of more than 35,000 square feet to Muldown.

In the existing building, the old multi-purpose area would be remodeled into a maker lab, a multi-use science area, and an arts area. The old ramp area would be turned into a commons area and the kindergarten wing would be repurposed as a pre-kindergarten wing as an anticipation of a state law that would fund pre-K education.

Parking would also be expanded to the west and a student drop-off area would be added at the new building.

The task force lists the price, roughly $16.3 million, and improved traffic circulation as major positives for the option. The distance from grades one and two to the rest of the school, truck delivery issues and having two courtyards are listed as cons. Construction would take approximately 45 months from design approval to student move-in.

The second option presented is the construction of a brand new Muldown school in the lot west of the existing school and south of the high school. The building would be roughly the same size, around 84,000 square feet, but would feature two floors to maximize space. The plan would cost roughly $21 million and take 30 months to complete. The demolition of the existing Muldown school, about $350,000, is factored into the overall cost estimate.

The new building would house kindergarten through fourth grade and a pre-kindergarten building will be added to the east. A long traffic loop on East Seventh Street would allow for two student drop-off areas and two exits back onto Seventh Street and parking would be expanded at the existing lot.

The task force lists more efficient use of space, saving on maintenance costs in the long term, energy efficiency and no compromises in instructional environment as positives for the plan. Construction of a new building while attending school in the current building would also be the least disruptive for students and staff.

Emotional attachment, historical importance and the removal of a possibly useful building are the main drawbacks to the plan, according to the task force.

School board trustee Marguerite Kaminski worried about the possibility of destroying something of historical significance to Whitefish.

“Was any thought given to the preservation of history?” she asked.

L’Heureux said while they do focus on preserving older buildings whenever possible, the benefits of moving on without the current Muldown building might outweigh the costs of keeping it running.

While pre-World War II buildings are known for their quality build and longevity, post-war buildings are a different story, he noted. The building, constructed in 1966, came at the end of the post-war building boom, and most buildings constructed at that time were done with the least expensive materials available.

“Post-war construction is not anywhere near the quality and longevity that pre-war was,” he said. “We are sensitive, I’m a historic preservation person. It just starts getting a little funky when you start getting over 50 years with any building.”

The final option presented consists solely of a remodel of the current building, priced around $13 million and taking 32 months to complete. Students would learn in temporary classrooms placed in the lot west of the school while the current building is gutted and reconfigured.

“It’s never going to be what you’d get out of a new school,” Steve L’Heureux of LPW said, of the third option.

Next month the task force will meet with Muldown staff to collect ideas and in March another community forum is planned.

Davis Schmidt said she hopes to put a bond request before the school board in late spring to early summer, and to have a bond issues before taxpayers in October of 2017.