GALLATIN GATEWAY — With hundreds of new homes coming to the Gallatin Gateway area, residents and town officials have been at odds over how to prepare for the growth while preserving a school that is more than 100 years old, a town historian said on Monday.
Gallatin Gateway School serves approximately 150 kindergarten through eighth-grade students every year. Originally built in 1914, the school has had several renovations over the years.
“I've never had kids here, but I love Gateway and I love the building. It's one of two brick buildings we have in town,” said Lesley Gilmore, a local resident.
Gilmore’s passion for the town’s history led her to join the Historic Preservation Board of Gallatin Gateway. She now works with the school board to find ways to address the growth while preserving and restoring the school.
“There's like 394 doors coming up across the street. Housing units north of the jump will easily have some kids. We just don't know how many [or] what ages,” she shared.
Until enrollment grows, she said school officials will not allot funds for expansion. Instead, they will work to make improvements.
“They had one option with tearing the building down. Another option is renovating it and also looking at all the various improvements that were required- [like the] replacement of mechanical systems, more efficient lighting, some layout changes, and dealing with some of those breakout spaces for classrooms,” Gilmore explained.
In 2020, the Gallatin Gateway School Board voted to demolish and replace part of the school, but after much pushback from the community, it decided to revisit the idea.
“So, they did a survey and the community came out in favor of saving the building. So then, that was incorporated into what went before the community in terms of a bond.”
A $7 million bond that included renovations ultimately did not pass.
“I think they decided, at that point, that they would stall the project and get a better feel for what they thought the community would absorb and what sort of growth we're going to have,” she guessed.
In the meantime, Gilmore said she wants to put a permanent marker on the school’s history.
“We're planning to submit it to what's called ‘The Review Board’ in September, and hopefully, get the building actually listed in the National Register of Historic Places,” Gilmore expressed, adding that it would eventually open the door for grant funding through the Department of Commerce.
“Every other year, we could get up to $500,000,” which she said would be huge for the school’s renovation efforts.
Gilmore said she used to serve on The Review Board and feels confident the site will be approved for registration.
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