BOZEMAN — Most people wouldn’t start something new during a pandemic. Well, it wasn’t planned but that’s exactly what happened with the new Gallatin High School.
“Had to slow down a little bit on various projects. But overall, it’s been pretty good. They’ve stayed on schedule pretty well. We’re going to be ready to open,” explained Steve Johnson, the deputy superintendent of Bozeman Public Schools.
Education may look very different across the country as everyone navigates learning in the midst of a pandemic. But for a new high school, it won’t be as challenging to implement new procedures to keep everyone safe.
“It will be easier for Gallatin High School because we’ll have about 850 students in this building. It’s a 1500 student school, so a little over 50 percent of the capacity of the entire building. So, it’ll be easier for Gallatin High to provide those separations,” Johnson said.
And with hundreds of students at Gallatin High, that means hundreds less at Bozeman High.
“Those 850 students will be coming off of the Bozeman High enrollment, which will help. They’ll be down to 1500 or so. We didn’t change those plans because of Covid. It just turned out it’s going to be a benefit,” he explained.
And speaking of benefits, the pandemic has brought a lot for both schools.
“If there are any blessings about a pandemic, it allowed us to get a little earlier start on Bozeman High, so that we could get a few things done that were going to be really challenging to do during the summer months before school started, and we had the opportunity to get some of that done, so it actually was a little bit of a blessing for us to get an earlier start on that,” said Johnson.
Classes officially start on August 31, 2020.
