Bonneville Schools Full; Patrons Talk New Building Plans

More students in Bonneville County Joint School District No. 93 mean less space in the classroom. With enrollment growing every year, administrators are starting to make plans for some new buildings.

Several elementary schools are at capacity, and three others are over.

Both Bonneville and Hillcrest high schools have about 150 students more than the buildings were meant to hold, meaning that overflow has moved outside for the second straight year.

Krista Bumgardner’s U.S. history class at Bonneville High School may look like an average teaching space, but in fact, it’s a modular classroom.

“As much as I love my trailer, it is a lot smaller than some of the other classrooms,” said Bumgardner.

After months of sharing spaces, the second-year teacher and three others were moved outside the main cement building last school year to combat a growing student population at the high school and throughout District 93.

“You can only have so many students in a classroom,” said Roger Hill, director of plant facilities and purchasing. “You have to have a number of square feet per person.”

Hill said the district has built five elementary schools in six years, largely to meet fire safety codes, and will likely add another in the next two years.

To keep high school enrollment around 1,300 at each school, the district is ditching expansion in favor of an entirely new secondary building. It will be the first since Hillcrest in 1992.

“A traditional, like currently, or a magnet high school,” said Hill. “Maybe a tech high school where you have trades.”

The district has already bought land for the new building. It will be near the end of First Street on what’s currently a tree farm.

“To have a school complete by 2014 (or) ’15, it takes three years from the time you pass the bond,” said Hill.

But for now, Bumgardner is taking in the silver lining: windows, sunlight, more fresh air, plus less noise and disruptions.

“We’re our own little community out here,” she said.

District 93 is looking to its patrons to determine what kind of school to build.

On Tuesday night, three members of the school facilities planning committee held a public meeting to start getting feedback.

About eight patrons showed up at Rocky Mountain Middle School, some of them also district faculty members and parents.

Members said new elementary and secondary schools are long overdue and not a question of “if.”

The discussion was focused on meeting the future needs of education, rather than worrying about cost. But there’s still that million-dollar question: Will people support a bond if they don’t have kids zoned for the new school?

Committee member Lary Larson said they should.

“The kids that are in schools now are going to be paying taxes that pay my Social Security benefits and we need to have well educated youth, a well educated generation to take care of us in our old age,” said Larson.

District 93 isn’t the only one facing overcrowding.

Administrators in Idaho Falls said District 91 is also seeing rising enrollment every year, especially at the elementary level.

This year alone, administrators said the kindergarten class came in at 800 students

The district plans to bond for the new building, but voters won’t see it on the ballot until March 2012 at the earliest.