HELENA — Pretty soon, things are going to start looking different on Helena High’s campus. Tuesday, the school district officially broke ground, one step closer to a brand new school.
(WATCH: Helena Public Schools breaks ground on new high school)
“These pieces of equipment will turn liquid into noise here shortly,” Helena Public Schools superintendent Rex Weltz noted.
Hundreds of community members, students, and staff gathered for the special moment.
Current estimates for the project are around $147.1 million, including demolition and construction, all part of the $240 million high school bond the community passed in September of last year.
Brian Kessler, the Helena High principal, expressed, “You see it on paper, we have had a lot of meetings on what this building is actually going to be, but to be to the point now where we are moving dirt, digging holes, and getting all the big pieces going, it is going to become real very quickly.”
The new Helena High School will be three stories, preserving the existing gym. PAL school will be located in the south wing of the building on floors two and three. The goal is to have students in the building by the fall of 2028.
Weltz said, “There are going to be a lot of students benefiting from the brick and mortar, if you will, but it is not about that, it is about the experiences the buildings will bring.”
The project is led by architects from A&E + SMA and general contractor Dick Anderson.
“It is like my dream, and it is going to be the biggest and most exciting educational project I have ever been involved in,” Dick Anderson shared.
Other pieces of the project include the district kitchen, which will be completed by the fall of next year, and the district stadium, which will sit on the current HHS footprint. The stadium construction is set to begin in the fall of 2028.
With construction soon underway, the district will have a livestream camera on its website to keep up with the project.
