Whitefish School Board January notebook
The Whitefish School Board of Trustees met mid-January and discussed a variety of topics.
Long-term facility plan adopted
For several months the Whitefish School District has been working on developing a long-range plan that looks at current and future facility needs districtwide. At the January business meeting, the school board unanimously gave approval to adopt the Whitefish School District Long Range Facility Plan.
The board did not make any changes to the final plan in January. At previous meetings trustees discussed drafts of the facility plan and the education consultant heading up the committe working on the plan, Darlene Schottle, presented the findings.
When predicting future enrollment, the committee decided on using a 2% growth factor which aligned with historical data. Using that data point, the facility plan states that addressing capacity issues at Whitefish High School is the number one priority.
Whitefish High School is less than 20 students away from reaching its capacity limit, according to the long-range facility plan. Enrollment in the high school will likely surpass that capacity mark in just two years, but has already reached the “trigger point” for planning purposes meaning the district needs begin to exploring options now for the building.
As discussed in multiple board meetings, solutions to this could mean a variety of things such as constructing a new wing to the school, reconfiguring grade levels, or utilizing alternate school district spaces.
Whitefish Superintendent Dave Means spoke to this as a priority prior to the board voting to adopt the plan at the January meeting.
“It's great to see that our district is growing, it's thriving and it's wonderful to see,” he expressed. “It also presents some opportunities for us to consider additions, possible expansions of our facilities. One of those areas is the consideration of the high school expansion as the one that stands out as the first priority.
“Based on the numbers we’ll be above the 600 number of students in the high school next fall, so its an indicator that we should consider expansion and look into that. That’s all outlined in the plan,” Means added.
According to the plan, the middle school has the most extra space out of all the school buildings in the district. Its current enrollment is still over 200 students less than the designed capacity, but the committee determined that its extra space could be used to alleviate space issues in the other schools.
As far as Muldown Elementary School, the building is brand new as of 2020. The long-range plan predicts another elementary school building will need to be built within the next decade.
At the recent meeting trustees discussed that action would soon need to be taken to address some of the pressing issues in relation to school facilities, and they will begin the process of looking into the WHS building.
The entire long-range facility plan is available to view on the district website, wsd44.org.
Board approves superintendent contract
At the January business meeting, the Whitefish School Board also took a brief moment to discussing renewing the superintendent contract for Dave Means.
Prior to becoming superintendent, Means worked for 16 years as the director of education services for Whitefish School District. His responsibilities in that role included supervising the special education programs, overseeing section 504 plans for students with disabilities, supporting human resources, and working on homelessness and mental health services.
In 2020 Means took on the role for interim superintendent after an unsuccessful hiring search by the district. Means served in the interim role for one year before taking on the permanent role one year ago in January 2021.
In the recent meeting, Whitefish School Board Chair Katie Clarke explained that the board recently met in a work session to conduct the superintendent evaluation. The evaluation is based on evidence gathered throughout the whole year, including student achievement data and other input from various stakeholders, Clarke explained.
“The consensus amongst the board is that Superintendent Dave Means is a highly effective leader,” she said. “So thank you for your highly-effective leadership.”
School district superintendent contracts are three-year contracts. By voting unanimously to approve the contract extension, Means’ tenure as superintendent will continue through June 2025.
In a future business meeting, the school board will look at the actual numbers and details in the contract. Then the board will need to vote to approve or deny the contract.