Sunnyside, Havre High facelifts go to voters

Sunnyside Intermediate School and Havre High School will see changes through renovations if the Havre community votes in favor of using funds and taxes to do so.

If the Havre area votes in favor of the renovations, they will be funded by a combination of the local bonds and state funds, including the $2 million Quality School Project Grant.

“We can’t complete everything at Sunnyside with the grant, but we can cover a lot of it,” Superintendent Andy Carlson said.

Havre High School’s locker rooms and fitness rooms will be modernized and brought up to code with the acceptance of the vote.

The locker rooms were built in 1965 and have not been changed. The girls’ locker room was built before Title IX, which called for women to be allowed into activities or educational systems that receive federal funds, and are not up to par as a result.

One of the biggest problems in the locker rooms is the lack of ease of supervision. The way the locker rooms are set up now puts a long wall between the lockers and the offices of both the boys’ and girls’ locker-rooms.

“Locker rooms are one of the biggest things schools get in trouble for,” Carlson said. “It’s where many, if not most, bullying begins.”

A third locker room, which has problems with the plumbing and supervisory hinderances, will be cleaned up as well.

Other changes at the high school include: updates to the laundry room, changing the current weight room into a fourth locker room, and the construction a new fitness room and wrestling room at the south side of the gymnasium complex.

These changes, if voted through, would be expected to be completed in the 2014-2015 school year.

“We’d be able to offer a lot more, not only to student athletes,” Carlson said, “but to students as well.”

The renovations of Sunnyside will essentially move the main entrance of the school to the opposite end of the hallway where it is currently stationed. This will be due to the moving of the main offices to the other end of the hallway. According to Carlson, these offices and the area they are located get very congested at times and there are privacy issues due to having to walk from one office to get to another.

The gym currently doubles as the school’s cafeteria. The tables and equipment used to served lunch and breakfast have to be set up and broken down twice a day. With the renovations, the gym will be turned into a full-time cafeteria.

Also in the plans for Sunnyside is an addition to the school that would make four more classrooms and a new gymnasium.

The parking lot of the Havre Middle School will be renovated to avoid overcrowding at events and safety issues it sometimes sees, Carlson said.

The price tag for the elementary school and parking lot of the middle school will be $5,079,908 after the $2 million grant. The high school projects come out to $2,652,576.

A video presentation of some of the areas that will be renovated is available on the home page of the Havre Public School District website.

There will be a tour of Havre High School and Sunnyside Sept. 23. The tour will start at Havre High School at 6:30 p.m. and then Sunnyside at 7:15 p.m. Carlson will lead the tour and present the areas of renovations to those interested.

The mail-in ballots will be available and sent to voters Sept. 23.