HELENA — Just off Highway 12 near Spring Meadow Lake in the Helena Public School District sits Kessler Elementary School, and if voters pass a $43,000,000 bond proposed by the district, it will be replaced by a new school building.
"We make it happen, but I think that there are things about this building that limit that," said Riley Thatcher, who is going into her fourth year as the principal of Kessler.
(Watch to learn more about the proposed school bond)
Some concerns she has with the current building are safety and security.
Students have to leave the main building and walk to a mobile unit for music class. With the school being next to the highway, they have had to put up an extra fence to pull kids away from traffic.
Thatcher said, "There was the spring before the additional fence was added, and it was a weekend, thank goodness, but there was a driver that hit our outside fence."
Thatcher says another issue with the current building is a lack of accessibility.
"I'm asked all the time, 'Do you have an elevator or do you have a service elevator?' We don't have those here, so we're constantly moving classrooms around to make the spaces accessible to kids," she said.
Former HPS school board member and Kessler grandparent and volunteer, Ellen Feaver, says she has also noticed problems within the school.
"This building is pathetic," she said. "In the winter, it is so hot in some of the rooms and then it is so cold in some of the others."
Many opponents of the bond are concerned about an increase in property taxes, given the current cost of living in Helena.
Others have expressed distrust in the school district.
The elementary school bond is the smaller of the two proposals on the ballot.
If it passes, owners of a property valued at $300,000 would see an increase of roughly $40 in property taxes each year for 20 years.
Taxpayers will continue to pay off two existing bonds through 2037 and 2039.
According to Montana law, bonds can only be used for buildings, and HPS says local taxpayers are the only funding solution for bonds.
The district also says there have been misconceptions that revenue from the Montana Lottery Referendum or the Marijuana Initiative would directly go towards state public education and property tax relief, but they only go towards the state's General Fund.
Some students who attended Hawthorne Elementary School will be moving into Kessler, and if the elementary school bond is passed, the district hopes the new school building will be ready by the fall of 2028.
MTN spent hours over the past weeks around the Helena area and reached out to dozens of people on social media, hoping to interview opponents to the bonds who have been vocal about their stance.
However, no one would speak on camera by the time this story aired.
You can find more information about both the elementary and high school bonds here.
