Bismarck Middle Schools Might Receive Renovations To Accommodate Rising Student Population

As the student population in Bismarck's three middle schools continues to grow, the school board is not looking to build another school to accommodate more students.

The school board held a meeting on Thursday and discussed how they are going to avoid overpopulation in school. They have decided that they need some expansions to address the school's growing population, KX News reported.

They are now looking to hire an architect for them to get estimates on renovations for the current schools in town. According to the administrators, the middle schools are the one the needs an expansion as these schools are filling up the most.

"I'm no architect but I'll tell you with the three middle schools that we have, those are really good, viable buildings and they are really quite beautiful, so if we could add on, the board is clearly leaning that way." says Tamara Uselman, Superintendent of Bismarck Public Schools.

According to Bismarck Tribune, The three public middle schools may have an expansion. The school board will first study how much the building will cost them.

"We want an architect to focus on the renovation of the three middle schools rather than construct a fourth school," said Lawrence King, president of the Bismarck School Board.

The school district has been choosing between the two options for the past few months to address the increasing number of the students. A committee of school representatives and parents together with community members will be helping the board on making decisions.

Although no firm decisions have been made yet, King said that they want to keep the feeder system that classifies the student's designated middle and high school based on the elementary school they attended.

Another factor that they are considering is the cost. Initial cost estimate showed around $35 million for a new middle school while renovating the three existing schools will only cost them $18 million.