A plan that includes adding more space for students to learn is in the works at Bismarck Public Schools.
You are looking at the future grounds of an expansion at Legacy High School.
The capacity for students is 1,200-1,300 due to recent growth space is running out.
School leaders say adding a new wing to the building will help solve the problem.
“We saw the trend coming a few years ago and we probably hit capacity last year and now we’re over capacity this year,” Legacy High School Principal Tom Schmidt said.
That capacity being 1,400 students.
The high school was built in 2015 for its prior capacity and adjustments have been made such as teachers sharing classrooms where needed.
“We have a math classroom right now being taught in the science classroom, things like that. Staff are very flexible; students are very flexible,” Schmidt said.
Bismarck Public Schools Business and Operations Manager Darin Scherr said plans in past years have been in the making for a school expansion but required the needed funds in order to proceed.
“We’ve probably been bumping this for a couple of years now,” Scherr said.
The funding for this project comes from the Education Stabilization Fund and totals in the amount of $13 million.
“80 percent of the dollars will be used for what we’re calling long-term tax avoidance and what that means is that we don’t have to go out and ask the taxpayers to have a property tax increase,” Scherr said.
It will start with removing a wall from the north end of the building to add classroom space for special education, science and technology.
“Our hope is to have a partial floor available by mid-year of next year in that January time frame and then total completion by the fall of 2023,” Scherr said.
This expansion at legacy will help the high school reach the same room of capacities like Century and Bismarck.
The design of the school was created to have an expansion added.