FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 28, 2025

CONTACT
Karen Ogden
Communications Officer
Helena Public Schools
406-324-2002 (o); 406-788-4375 (c)
kogden@helenaschools.org

Building the Future: District moves forward with Master Facilities Planning  

Recommendations to be presented to Trustees March 11 are part of broader planning initiative 

HELENA – Helena Public Schools is taking next steps in its ongoing work to address aging school facilities as it continues a long-term planning initiative aimed at strengthening the district’s financial health and preserving and restoring high-quality educational programs.

“Helena Public Schools is a state leader in public education. Our students consistently perform among Montana’s best academically. Our teaching staff is among the most highly qualified in the state. And our sports teams bring home state titles year after year,” said Superintendent Rex Weltz. “But – due to years of lagging state and federal funding coupled with population decline – we must change the way we operate our district. We can no longer wait to address issues like failing school buildings, changing population trends and low staff pay.”

Weltz will present multiple facilities recommendations to school Trustees at their regular full Board meeting March 11, including the following:

• • Seek a bond for major renovation of Capital High School, construction of a new Helena High School and construction of a new Kessler Elementary School.
  • Recommendations for the future use of Hawthorne Elementary School.
  • Recommendations for use of existing unused buildings, including sale or lease.
  • Potential purchase of land for the district transportation facility and for athletic playing fields. The land on which the district’s transportation facility sits is currently leased, as are some of the district’s playing fields.

While the recommendations will be discussed, no votes are expected to be taken. The Board of Trustees is the sole entity with authority to close a school and any such action would need to occur at a publicly noticed, open meeting. The Board would need to follow its established policy for school closure (Policy 8150).

Master Facilities Planning progress

The recommendations to be presented March 11 are the next step in an ongoing Master Facilities Planning process the district launched in Fall 2022 to address immediate and long-term facilities needs.

A group of community stakeholders was engaged in this process, which was led by Helena-based SMA Architecture + Design (SMA). The stakeholders’ input helped shape the Master Facilities Planning document that SMA presented to the Board of Trustees last spring.

The plan contains in-depth data on each of the district’s facilities based on engineers’ assessments as well as demographic data, stakeholder input and cost-benefit analyses. All of this data is the basis for the plan’s recommendations for future use of district facilities.

The plan can be viewed at https://bit.ly/hpsfacilityplan

“I appreciate the extensive engagement and input from our community through the stakeholders’ committee and the public meetings,” said Weltz. “The facilities recommendations I’ll present to Trustees are shaped by data and stakeholder feedback.”

Tours, community forums coming this spring

Helena Public Schools has made tough decisions over the past few years as the district has been forced to make budget cuts, including this year’s reductions to PE and music teaching staff. The district identified these reductions through a Budget Consensus Committee process to ensure that stakeholder voices were heard.

Parallel to that effort has been the ongoing Master Facilities Planning process. The Master Facilities Plan ties into the launch of a broader, 10-year planning initiative that will look at the district’s future through a wide lens, considering topics such as school district boundaries, our future funding outlook, restoring music and P.E. staff who were lost last year, maintaining appropriate benefits for district employees, consolidating resources, and the best way to use and manage all district facilities as we plan for the future.

The district is launching a series of school tours and community forums on future needs and plans. The first is a facility tour of Helena High School on Tuesday, March 4, at 6 p.m. starting in the Little Theater. Details on additional events will be announced in the coming weeks.  

“Our public schools can’t meet all of our challenges ourselves. Montana’s school districts need support from our state and federal governments to continue the excellent, cost-effective model of public education that Montanans expect and deserve, a legacy that is now in jeopardy,” said Weltz. “But what we can do – and we must do as a community – is adjust and align our district with today’s needs so we can restore programs such as fully staffed music and PE, and provide students with the school facilities they deserve. We must do our part at the local level. Amongst the many challenges we face, this is also a time of tremendous opportunity for our Helena community to take action and emerge with our schools stronger than ever.”