Columbia Falls School District running 3 levies, 1 would put roof on high school

COLUMBIA FALLS — The Columbia Falls School District is running three levies in the upcoming election.

The three levies are an elementary and high school operations levies and a high school building reserve levy. The building reserve levy is extremely important as the high school needs a new roof.

Currently, the high school has plastic as a ceiling. The roof has met its end much quicker than initially expected and construction has been done to replace the trusses and ensure that the building is safe.

“When the construction first started, there was a lot of classrooms being moved around. Teachers were in other teacher's rooms, some periods were in the study hall for a few days,” said Columbia Falls High School student Mckenzee West.

"I think — and some teachers are in rooms that aren't even supposed to be classrooms. So it's just it's a whole thing where, you know, you got your schedule, you know what classroom you're going to, and then all of a sudden it was like, going out to the art annex which is across the parking lot for a math class,” Columbia Falls High School student Kai Golan told MTN.

There is still a lot to be done to complete the roof.

Students affected by the roof construction were also in school during COVID-19 and had to deal with those disruptions too.

“It’s really hard for people to just keep up, want to keep going to school and consistency. And yeah, the flexibility that each student has is really like powerful and I just hope that the support comes through. So that continues for the students to be able to go to school,” said West.

The operational levies would be permanent levies whereas the building reserve levy would only be for two years to get the roof repaired.

“The levees that we're running here for the upcoming election in May are really just asking your community for support the building the building reserve levee as you can see, with the high school roof above me, that's what we're really looking forward to replace the roof, move it off, put a new one on, just to make sure we have that safe and secure learning environment for our students and staff,” said Columbia Falls School District Superintendent Cory Dziowgo.

The students in Columbia Falls hope that the tight-knit community will come together to support these levies as they have come together to support other school programs.

“It’s such a tight-knit community here, like a lot of the town shows up on Friday nights for the football games and, and funding like extracurricular programs — like to take school trips, you know, overnight trips, all that stuff," Golan said. "And so there's a lot of support in this community. And I think, I think that would translate over to this Levy, where I think a lot of people care about the school and are affiliated with the school.”

If all three levies pass, it would cost an additional $244.97 per year on a $600,000 assessed market home. Additional information about how taxes would be impacted can be found here.

The Columbia Falls School District levy requests will be decided in the May 7, 2024, election.