Close Great Falls High? Re-open Skyline school?

Three things are clear about Great Falls Public Schools: enrollment continues to increase, the district's buildings continue to get older, and the school district doesn't have the money to make all the repairs to its facilities.

With that in mind, the district has heard all sorts of proposed solutions — both realistic and far-fetched — to the problem. The ideas have ranged from closing Great Falls High and building a new high school south of town to opening up some of the shuttered elementary schools to accommodate the increased enrollment to possibly holding a bond election as early as this fall to fund some of this work.

On Monday, the board of trustees will hold a work session to listen to Superintendent Tammy Lacey and other administrators summarize the ideas discussed at each of the facility meetings and weigh the pros and cons of each before deciding how to proceed. Ideas at the meetings were bounced around between the public, trustees and administrators. But to be clear, Lacey said, the district has not yet formulated an action plan.

"We're not leaning toward anything at this point," she said.

Board Chairman Jan Cahill said he doesn't think closing Great Falls High and building a new high school on property the district owns near Ayrshire Dairy is a realistic proposal, though rumors have swirled the district is seriously considering it.

"It is part of the discussion," he said. "But personally I don't think it's real feasible."

Lacey said the point of meetings over the last month was to brainstorm ideas. Ideas surfaced to sell the district's administrative offices and move into one of the district's other properties. Another idea was to return West Elementary to a middle school. There's been talk of moving sixth-graders back to the middle schools, shuttering Longfellow and Roosevelt and building new elementary schools. There also is the idea on the completely opposite end of the spectrum that the district could do nothing.

"It's hard to discern where the ideas came from," Lacey said.

Though the ideas might be new, the issues are not. Great Falls has seen its enrollment steadily increase at the elementary level for the last few years. While enrollment is still down at the high school level, the district is projecting enrollment to continue increasing, which will eventually spill over into the middle and high schools. Lacey reported at Monday's school board meeting that enrollment in Great Falls is up by 100 students this year.

The problems with the various schools are not new, either — at least not to school officials. Under former Superintendent Cheryl Crawley, a study was commissioned on what was important about Great Falls High to the community and the work that would need to be done to make it a safe and effective 21st century learning environment. It was determined it would cost approximately $58 million to do everything from upgrading the heating and ventilation to replacing windows, stabilizing the building and more.

And that's just Great Falls High.

Over the course of the last few years, and at the direction of the school board, the district's building and grounds committee has compiled a list of all of the issues faced at each of its buildings — everything from accessibility to safety to technology needs — and the timeline under which those issues need to be addressed. Just to fix the problems that exist would cost $30 million.

But Lacey said if the district's going to consider some of the big ideas — building new schools or adding onto existing ones — it could cost between $100 million to $150 million.

"We've been studying the problem for a long time," she said. "We're very familiar with the issues."

Lacey said part of the facility meetings also included discussion on how to finance any or all of this. The district doesn't have $150 million to spend. Trustees are looking at everything from grants to a bond issue. There's been discussion about holding a bond election this fall. Part of the reason the district is talking about it now is because interest rates are so low.

"You can fall in love with a problem and study it for years," Lacey said. "If we're going to do something, we don't want to wait too long."

However, Lacey said, the district and the trustees will listen to what the public wants before moving forward.

City Commissioner Bob Kelly attended his first facility meeting last week and had no idea the scope of what the district is looking to do. He and his wife, Sheila Kelly, have been strong supporters of the school district in years past. He said if the district is going to consider a bond, it's going to take some time to get the community behind it.

"My only concern is that there is a large challenge ahead of us," he said. "I think it's premature to get upset about any of the ideas at this point. I'm pleased to see (the district) is thinking outside the box."

Reach Tribune Staff Writer Kristen Cates at 791-1463. Follow her on Twitter @GFTrib_KCates.

GFPS trustee work session on facilities:

When: 5:30 p.m. Monday

Where: District business offices, 1100 4th St. S.

The meeting is open to the public.