BASIN — After a year of empty classrooms and empty halls, Basin Elementary School is getting ready to welcome students back for the coming academic year.
A year ago, the school was in non-operational status with no enrolled students nor a teacher. Now, things look very different.
“Very busy, very busy, but we’re glad,” Basin School Board of Trustees Chair DeDe Rhodes said. “We’re glad to do it.”
With five enrolled students, a teacher and several applicants for the open custodian and paraeducator positions, Basin Elementary School is reopening. The first day of classes is Aug. 24.
Getting to this point was not easy.
“You’ve got to do your own advertising, find your own teacher, so you got to put a lot of stretch out there,” Rhodes said. “If you can give them housing, that’s No. 1.”
(WATCH: Basin Elementary School prepares to reopen doors for 2026-2027 academic year)
The Basin community pulled together and made it happen, even renovating a house for the teacher, provided rent-free. Rhodes said that helped attract more applicants to the job.
Of the three applicants, Alyssa Smith was chosen for the job. Rhodes said she has experience teaching at another small school in Montana.
“This teacher has a wonderful approach,” Rhodes said. “She has an interaction with the children that you really need at this stage. She teaches them not only the basic skills, she teaches them life skills.”
Before the last academic year, the school had been operating in Basin for 130 years. Not opening for the 2025-2026 school year was tough on the community.
“Most communities revolve around certain infrastructures—school is probably no. 1, post office is no. 2,” Rhodes said. “You lose your school, your community is going to go down.”
With the doors opening back up, Rhodes has high hopes for the future of the kindergarten through 6th grade school—including possibly adding a pre-K and enrolling more students.
“I’m expecting more to come,” Rhodes said. “I’m thinking ‘Field of Dreams.’”
Rhodes said she believes there are about 15 to 20 school-age children living in the Basin area, but students to not have to live in Basin to attend the school.
You can find more information about the school, and how to enroll online.
