American Falls School District has two proposals up for vote

Overcrowding and aging buildings that are falling apart are just a few of the issues facing the American Falls School District.

To try to help fix these problems, there are a couple of proposals for voters to consider next week at the polls.

Voters will have one bond, with two separate parts to consider. The first calls for $12.5 million to build a new elementary school.

The new school would take the place of what is currently American Falls Intermediate School. The current gym and cafeteria would stay, and the new elementary school would connect to those other buildings.

Chris Torgesen, the principal for the intermediate school, said the building is falling apart and not up to par.

“The buildings are over 50 years old,” Torgesen said. “They need new roofs, plumbing needs to be upgraded, electrical needs to be upgraded, there’s no restrooms on the second floor, which we could use.”

The new elementary school would add 52,000 square feet and 25 classrooms. It would also add a grade level, moving third grade over from Hillcrest Elementary, which is also a must.

“The building at Hillcrest is well beyond our capacity,” said Tina Fehringer, principal for Hillcrest. “We’ve added about 100 kids in the last six years to the school and it’s caused us to have some overcrowding issues.”

Currently Hillcrest has about 500 students and they are using every inch of available space to accommodate those students. They have even had to turn a hallway into a computer lab and testing area.

School officials said they’re excited to see these changes being talked about, and they just hope the public realizes the need.

“We’ve made use of the buildings and done very well,” Torgesen said. “I just think the kids in American Falls, third through fifth grade, deserve a nice facility.”

The second part of the bond calls for $1.6 million to build an auxiliary, or second, gym in the high school.

Superintendent Ronald Bolinger said this is needed because currently, both boys and girls sports events that happen at the same time have to find other facilities in which to practice and play in.

Bolinger said both of these proposals have stemmed from public input at various public meetings over the last five months. Bolinger said they’ve had great attendance from the public at all those meetings.

Bolinger said because the current high school bond will soon be up, this new bond will not increase taxes, which will remain the same through 2018. Then, in 2019, taxes will actually decrease by about 32 cents per thousand dollars.

Bolinger said so far the community has been very supportive and he’s grateful for that.

“I’m cautiously optimistic about the whole thing,” he said. “And I want to just thank our public for being involved. They have literally donated thousands of hours to coming up with these proposals.”

The public will vote on Tuesday, May 17.