BASIN — Basin community members discussed the issues facing Basin Elementary School and proposed ideas for reopening it at a meeting held on Thursday night.
Advocates and trustees have established several committees to address various topics, including increasing enrollment, school finances, and facility maintenance.
One of the biggest challenges has been finding a teacher, and the community has come up with a solution to try to attract an educator to the small school by remodeling a home as an incentive for applicants to their open teacher positions.
The home was once a parsonage for the church's pastor, but for roughly thirty years it has sat empty.
Yet, someone could be moving in soon.
"Being a teacher is a calling, and in that, you usually don't get paid a whole lot of money," said DeDe Rhodes, one community member working to save the school.
"I like to fix things," she said. "I'm not seeing this fail."
Fixing things is precisely what the community is doing to the parsonage.
They are donating their money, time, professional expertise, and materials to remodel it into a modern home for whoever steps into the teacher role.
The school district will not be responsible for the home; instead, it will be up to the community to take care of it.
Rhodes said, "We said as a community we would take this on ourselves, pay for it ourselves, and manage it ourselves."
From furniture to silverware, the home will come completely furnished.
The teacher would only have to pay for utilities, which is approximately $350 per month, not including potential rate increases.
"When you're spending almost all of your paycheck on just on a dwelling, it's impossible to do anything else," said Rhodes.
Now, the goal is to have the home completed within a month, and they expect it to cost a minimum of $3,000 for all the materials.
The work being put into the home is an example of what the community of Basin, a town of roughly 350 people, can do when they come together.
While the home is a significant motivator for applicants to the teaching position, applying for the job is challenging at this time.
Montana's Office of Public Instruction (OPI) is not currently advertising the position on its website.
Basin school board member Scott Brock says OPI's system recognizes the non-operational status as the school being closed, making it unable to advertise the position.
However, he did say they are working to change that.
