“We can’t be a community of 30,000 people and only have three elementary schools,” Superintendent Dede Frothingham said. “The math just doesn’t work, so we’re going to run out of room pretty soon in our three elementaries and we need to build a fourth.”

In 2019, Belgrade voters approved a $48 million school bond. Part of those funds went towards constructing its third elementary building and remodeling other facilities to proactively address the district’s growth. About $20 million of the funds were designated towards buying the land and paying the construction costs for a fourth elementary building.

The site for the new school sits on about 60 acres located west of Jackrabbit Lane and north of Frank Road.

By the time the district was ready to build the fourth elementary — around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — the price of building it more than doubled, Frothingham said. Now, the district is hoping to combine the unused $20 million from the 2019 bond and the new $60.5 million bond to finish the project, she said.

It would take about three years to build the school, but the elementary classrooms could be full within two years in the “worst-case scenario,” Frothingham said.

“It needs to happen now,” she said. “...We need to be ready for this — be proactive. And it’s not going to be cheaper three years from now. This is the cheapest it’s ever going to be and so let’s go ahead and do this.”

The total capacity between all three elementary schools is about 1,400 students, Public Information Officer Leslie Atkinson said. Elementary enrollment stands at about 1,334 students, she said.

If the bond does not pass or the schools fill up before construction is completed, the district is exploring buying or leasing portable buildings to hold classes in the future. Frothingham said it would feel like a waste to spend money that could be used to build a new school instead.

It could cost between $1.2 and $1.5 million to buy one of these modular buildings for four classrooms, but that doesn’t include plumbing, Atkinson said.

“I was a principal in Colorado with portables,” Frothingham said. “Nobody wants to be in the portable.”

Portable classrooms often have no bathrooms, no running water and sometimes no windows, she said. If kids have to go outside to walk between classrooms, it also creates a safety concern, Board Chair Holly Murray said.

Steve Garvert, vice chair of the school board, said people often ask why the district doesn’t refurbish the old Thomas B. Quaw and Martha Fox Heck buildings instead of constructing a new school.

Frothingham estimated it would cost $16 million to renovate the Quaw building so it can be used for safe classrooms again. It was built in 1905 and doesn’t have an elevator, she said.

“We can’t go to the voters and ask for that when we need a new school, so we’re not doing that,” she said.

Part of the bond would also go towards renovating Belgrade Middle School, which houses fifth grade classes now because of the elementary space constraints.

Garvert said the middle school wing that hosts the fifth graders is outdated. Frothingham described the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems as “ancient,” which are expensive to maintain when the parts are not in production anymore. Community members have also said they want fifth graders to join the rest of the elementary school for ease of programming, she added.

Board members and staff said they are aware that no one wants another tax, but they wouldn’t be asking if they didn’t think it was necessary.

“It’s important for (voters) to understand that this was deliberate and well thought-out and not to just immediately vote against it because it’s a new tax,” Garvert said.

If the bond passes, the monthly cost for each district taxpayer would be about $5.60 for every $100,000 of their property’s taxable value, Atkinson said.

In general, a school bond’s impact on individual taxpayers goes down as the community grows because its cost is spread out over more people, Frothingham said. More people moving to Belgrade does not mean the district will get more than $60.5 million from the bond, Murray said.

Garvert said he is nervous about the outcomes if the bond does not pass. He emphasized that the community also uses the schools to host events and meetings for things like youth programs and summer camps.

The public seems to be recognizing the bond’s importance, but they are worried about their taxes increasing, Frothingham said.

“We respect the fact that the taxes are a challenge, and some people may vote no for that, but we just want them to vote no, but knowing what they’re voting on,” Frothingham said.

To educate voters on what the bond means for them, Belgrade schools are planning to host informational sessions before the election, she said. While they are yet to be announced, the events could include parent meetings, announcements during fine arts performances or tours of the buildings to show people why the funds are needed, Frothingham said.

“It’s never a good time to go out and ask for more money,” Atkinson said. “People aren’t just sitting saying, ‘oh I got a couple hundred extra dollars in my budget, let me give it to the school district.’ That’s not how the world works, but the world also works with our taxes funding our schools, and we need to be able to help the community see why it’s important and how that benefits our current students and future students and sets them up for success, because that’s our job. We want to make sure that we have successful people leaving Belgrade School District.”