UPDATED: Helena architects weigh in on school facility issues

Helena architects laid out possible solutions for a holistic approach to solving the Helena School District facility issues at Monday mornings Facility Committee meeting.

The committee made a decision during a previous meeting to discuss options with several groups of professionals in the community, and the architects were the first group.

Ben Tintinger of Mosaic, Mike Dowling of DSA Architects and Tim Meldrum of SMA Architects were joined by community member Darryl James in the proposals to the committee.

Dowling said the group, which started discussing solutions a year ago and has been meeting steadily for the last month, focused on solving problems with the buildings. They started with the big picture and tried to envision solutions that will work far into Helenas future.

We cant afford to redo things or make bad decisions, Dowling said.

With the goal of keeping mostly walkable neighborhood schools, the group pitched ideas for the west side and east side of Helena.

On the west, they suggested expanding Broadwater to accommodate the extra students living in the Four Georgians district and turning C.R. Anderson into a larger elementary school, then finding new land for a middle school.

Their suggestion for the east side was less concrete. Much of the discussion centered on repurposing the Helena High campus to house both a middle and high school, then renovating Helena Middle School to house elementary students from Central-Linc and Bryant.

They suggested keeping the Smith and Jefferson campuses.

Part of the point the group hoped to make is this solution would solve problems with Helena High School as well.

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UPDATED: Helena architects weigh in on school facility issues