BOZEMAN, Mont. – As Bozeman continues to grow, so does the school district.
Bozeman currently has eight elementary schools, and that could be changing in a few years.
“We’re keeping an eye on what’s going to be happening at the K-5 elementary level. Our current projections are that in about 2022, or 23, our K-5 buildings will be full and we’ll be looking to build a ninth elementary school to accommodate the growth that keeps coming,” said Bozeman School District Director of Business Services Mike Waterman.
Waterman also noted that the district grows every year and this year was no different. There are almost 7,000 kids in Bozeman schools.
There’s been an upward trend for the past fifteen years, and the district believes that will continue next year.
“We know this year’s kindergarteners will be first graders next year, and first graders will be second graders so there’s that continuation that happens and we do a lot of our projections on that,” Waterman said.
“The number that is kind of tricky to predict is kindergarten because we don’t necessarily know who those kids are going to be,” he added. “We do a lot of those projections based on live birth data from Bozeman Deaconess. We also use census data and those types of things to come up with a number.”
The school district is trying their best to keep up with the growing city.
Building another elementary school is just a projection as of right now and the district does plan to keep an eye on the growing numbers and capacity of each school.
