Top School Board Priority

Redevelopment of the high school facilities is the top priority of the Whitefish School District Board of Trustees.  Much of the campus is now more than 50 years old and both its physical condition and its design limit the District’s ability to fulfill its mission to deliver quality 21st Century education to our children.  Extensive input from community members also indicates that there is broad consensus among District voters that the facilities need to be updated. 

Project Summary

This brochure describes a proposed design for the redevelopment of the high school facility that is based on two years worth of gathering input and ideas from the community.  The proposed 120,000 s.f. design would renovate 40% of the existing facility and replace the balance of it with a new structure.  The total cost for the project is estimated to be $19M.  Before seeking support from the District’s voters, however, it has engaged an extensive process to raise as much alternative funding as possible.  $4.5M is already committed largely through grants from both the State and the Whitefish Community Foundation and the District is seeking approval of a $14M bond.  The $500K balance will be achieved through private fundraising to finish a proposed performance and assembly hall. 

Extensive Community Feedback Process

Funded by a design grant from the State, the District hired architects with school expertise to work with the Whitefish High School Futures Committee, a diverse group of local leaders, parents, faculty and students.  The Futures Committee produced three different design options that it shared with the community in the fall of 2010.  Through personal interviews, a booth at the Farmer’s Market and an on-line survey that collected over 300 participants, the District has collected feedback from over 600 community members including faculty, students, parents, community leaders and general citizens. 

Learn more about the 6 step process the District has followed. Click here.

Learn more about the Futures Committee. Click here.

Design Responds to Community Desires

The proposed design directly responds to the feedback from the community.   The architects worked to incorporate the preferred elements from the three plans as well as other elements that community members, in particular the high school faculty and administration, had identified as critical to the facility.

Front entry of proposed plan - architecture reflects historic Whitefish buildings while still being cost effective.