Montana middle school plans for overcrowding

School officials in Bozeman, Mont., are planning to expand an area middle school to help keep pace with enrollment. While the school is not currently overcrowded officials would like to take preemptive measures, according to a local NBC affiliate.

Officials project that in two years Sacajawea Middle School will reach it's student capacity, and will be unable to keep up with the growing numbers. As a result, the Board of Trustees is voting on a plan to expand the school's facilities, NBC Montana reported.

There are currently 40 classrooms in Sacajawea Middle School, according to school principal, Gordon Grissom. Currently, the school can hold a total of 750 students. While the actual enrollment of SMS is much lower, rooms are serving double duty holding activities for which they were not intended.

"One is designated for weights, weight lifting, weight machines and those types of activities that health enhancement classes use," said Grissom. "Then we also have an aerobics classroom that has bicycles and a climbing wall and those type of resources available for the classes as well."

While expansion plans are still in the early stages, Johnson told NBC Montana that if the upcoming vote goes toward hiring an architect to evaluate expanding SMS, that phase could be completed by the end of June.

The next phase  would include designing and approving construction bonds, which could go to voters in the fall of 2016.