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Mountain Home News

Plan to move ninth grade into high school next year OK'd

Friday, January 16, 2009
Michael Nowotny

During the recent meeting of the Mountain Home School Board, the board unanimously agreed to re-configure the district based on the overcrowded condition at Hacker Middle School.

To address that, as well as the anticipation of a 1-4 percent decrease in state funding for next year, district officials and the school administration have devised a plan to house grades 5 and 6 at Hacker Middle School, grades 7-8 at Mountain Home Junior High School and grades 9-12 at Mountain Home High School. Currently, Hacker houses grades 5-7 and the junior high has grades 7-9.

"It will definitely help with the overcrowding at Hacker Middle School by taking out one entire grade level of students, which will help with traffic congestion, crowded halls, etc. However, the problem now moves to the high school as they will have some of the same issues but they are older students and perhaps can deal with this better than the younger students," said Superintendent of schools Tim McMurtrey.

The move to send the ninth-grade students to the high school will require 12 additional classrooms. To aid that, the district will move three existing temporary buildings from West Elementary, Hacker Middle School and East Elementary, resulting in eight classrooms, and the district having to purchase two more double-wide units.

The cost of moving the existing units is approximately $200,000. The addition of the two new temporary buildings would be $300,000. In total the move would cost $500,000. The project includes skirting, sidewalks, etc.

McMurtrey plans to have a completed application presented to Planning and Zoning by Feb. 2.

The changes will take place beginning next year (2009-2010).

Mountain Home High School will utilize temporary buildings until completion of phase II, which would convert the existing junior high into a high school.

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  • (I thought all HS's were Freshman-Senior)? It just makes sense!

    -- Posted by MommiezBoyz on Fri, Jan 16, 2009, at 4:59 PM
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    Seems this was a quicker and cheaper fix than the expansion. While I will agree that it would be nice to have a better high school than what we currently have, it just does not make economic sense right now. That and the board just kept trying to sell us the same plan and did not listen to the voters when change was asked for. Sounds almost like the WECRD doesn't it?

    -- Posted by B Mullen on Fri, Jan 16, 2009, at 8:02 PM

  • Personally, I think this is worse than any other solution that has been offered.

    The over crowding sitiuation is not soley with Hacker Middle School. It's at ALL of the schools in Mountain Home.

    The bond would've (and should've passed) had voting only taken place in the JH and HS. I've seen the numbers. Unfortunately, parents at the elementary schools, as well as hacker, have their heads up their butts and only thought "oh my, this means more taxes and I won't benefit"

    Mountain Home School District's infrastructure is inadequate. Even schools such as Twin Falls High School, which are funded almost equally, have substantail facilities.

    This is a poor solution. The overcrowding at the highschool and junior high will be worse. The student to teacher ratio is rediculous already.

    This is going to be a failure. Wait and see.

    -- Posted by lilmissmelmo on Sun, Jan 18, 2009, at 10:12 PM

  • Unfortunately, parents at the elementary schools, as well as hacker, have their heads up their butts and only thought "oh my, this means more taxes and I won't benefit".

    -- Posted by lilmissmelmo on Sun, Jan 18, 2009, at 10:12 PM

    lilmissmelmo,

    Could it not also be possible that these parents had their heads squarely on their shoulders and thought "oh my, this means more taxes and we can't afford it at this time"?

    -- Posted by Beau on Mon, Jan 19, 2009, at 4:33 AM

  • According to my daughter because they are moving 9th graders over that means there is now going to be 3 kids to a locker. Most kids already share one locker. Hopefully the school has a plan when things are missing from a locker cause bet me if I am going to pay for a book that gets damaged when there a 3 kids sharing one small locker.

    -- Posted by small town on Mon, Jan 19, 2009, at 10:55 AM

  • The school district is foolish to think that High School students will accept the overcrowding with open arms. I was thrown into this same situation while in High School and believe me when I tell you that the ones who will pay will be the freshmen. A lot of upper classmen will see them as intruders and an aggravation. Overcrowding in any situation should be avoided if possible, but in my observation the situation is more controllable in lower grades.

    -- Posted by Hesitant on Tue, Jan 20, 2009, at 11:29 AM
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    They are just going to over crowd the High School until it gets bad enough that the parents will finally pass the bond.

    -- Posted by BassmasterJ8 on Wed, Jan 21, 2009, at 7:58 AM

  • If we took kindergarten out of elementary school as I dont believe it is manditory how many classrooms would this open up? Also did you know Mtn. Home dist.requires more credits to graduate than the whole rest of the state. Many of these are in the form of "manditory electives" oxymoron? Plus attendance is down by Tims own words. And I would like to know why school buildings cost more per sq. foot here than anywhere in state and maybe country.Dont believe it look it up in the statesman.

    -- Posted by glenbob on Wed, Jan 21, 2009, at 10:53 AM

  • If we took kindergarten out of elementary school as I dont believe it is manditory how many classrooms would this open up? Also did you know Mtn. Home dist.requires more credits to graduate than the whole rest of the state. Many of these are in the form of "manditory electives" oxymoron? Plus attendance is down by Tims own words. And I would like to know why school buildings cost more per sq. foot here than anywhere in state and maybe country.Dont believe it look it up in the statesman.

    -- Posted by glenbob on Wed, Jan 21, 2009, at 10:54 AM

  • Without kindergarten these kids would be even further behind. Kindergarten now isn't like it was when I was younger, they are learning to read in kindergarten. What would be the plan for the education they get in kindergarten if it was taken out.

    -- Posted by small town on Wed, Jan 21, 2009, at 5:19 PM

  • Here is the problem with over crowding. Several years ago they had put a bond through to build a new high school. Well the Junior High that they currently was supposed to be the new high school. They over did it when it came to the class wall in the cafeteria. They also over did it by putting all the bars on the windows. When the school district put the bond through the first time it was brought up to be the the high school not the junior high. This is where the mountain home people that have been around for awhile are being weiry of passing another bond for the school district. They feel that their taxes were wasted and so do I. I was supposed to be the second class to graduate in the new high school. I know that I voted no on many bonds that had come up after that one to continue to build on the "High School". I think that the school district has to prove themselves in order for another bond to go through like that.

    -- Posted by kbrown on Sat, Jan 24, 2009, at 9:10 AM

  • Here is the problem with the over crowding of the schools. Several years ago the school district put through a bond for a new high school. It is now known as the Junior High. The school district over spent on the new "High School". Because they couldn't put in an auto shop, a second gym, and a few other things because they over spent on making the school look "pretty" they couldn't make it the high school. I can understand why the mountain home people are uptight about not voting yes on another school bond. They are afraid that their taxes would be wasted just like they were before. I was supposed to be the second class to graduate in the "New High School". I can say that I voted no on all the bonds that the school tried to put through to add to the junior high to make it the high school. If I was still in Mtn. Home I would continue to say no on it. I think that the school board has to prove themselves again before they will get another bond to go through.

    -- Posted by kbrown on Sat, Jan 24, 2009, at 9:16 AM

  • I think it's about time that the high school houses 9th-12th so the move in my opinion is a great idea. As far as the bond passing, all I have heard are all the people that believe the extra money paid in taxes isn't really that big of a deal. That is great then donate some money to get the rest of the High School built. So many people think they can do a job better than someone else if that is truly the case then why don't those people have the job??? Better yet why not do something proactive to make your voice heard by the powers that be instead of simply complaining in our little news paper? I myself have no clue how to help the situation with the high school but overcrowding is a fact and handling the overcrowding is something that will make the kids stronger.

    -- Posted by Missylynn on Fri, Jan 30, 2009, at 7:56 PM

  • I wasn't complaining when I posted my comment. I was stating the truth. A lot of people have been changed in the school district since this all first started. So maybe it is time for the schools to upgraded. The children in Mtn.Home deserve to get the best education possible and unfortunately until he overcrowding issue is taken care of this won't happen.

    -- Posted by kbrown on Mon, Feb 2, 2009, at 9:40 AM
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