Community Views Detailed Floor Plans for New Helena High Campus

Around fifty community members gathered in the Helena High cafeteria at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 19 as architects from A&E + SMA and general contractor Dick Anderson publicly unveiled detailed floor plans and renderings for the reimagined Helena High campus, including a new Helena High School, a relocated PAL program, district athletics improvements and a District Kitchen. The presentation included an in-depth look at floor plans and renderings followed by a Q&A.

District leaders and designers said the current estimate for demolition and construction sits at about $147.1 million, and the project is expected to break ground “this summer” with a goal of getting students into the building by fall of 2028. A&E + SMA was confirmed by the Helena Public Schools Board on Oct. 24, and Dick Anderson participated in presenting the construction approach during the community meeting.

Design details shown at the meeting include a three-story Helena High School and preservation of the existing gymnasium on campus. The Project for Alternative Learning, or PAL, is planned for the south wing on the second and third floors; district materials emphasize PAL “will remain its own school with its own staff, leadership, and values, but with the benefit of being more integrated.” HPS lists specific benefits of the move as larger, more flexible classrooms, access to shared science labs and library resources, career counseling and mental health services, improved security and ADA accessibility, and room to grow enrollment and programming.

A&E + SMA project lead Tim Meldrum framed community involvement as central to design: “The community is the design team.” Meldrum added designers had “gotten the community involved, teachers, students involved, and that perspective has really helped a lot just because we have to balance the scales of everything,” and said the team aimed to “get the wishlist but also satisfy the constraints.” On PAL’s place in the campus, Meldrum noted, “That was discussed a lot, is individuality, that autonomy.”

Superintendent Rex Weltz acknowledged the emotional dimensions of replacing a longtime building: “There is a lot of emotion tied to that, and I feel that for our community,” and he warned that “there are thousands of people that walk through this building, and there is a lot of sentimental value to this building, so when we talk about building new, you also have to lose the old and say goodbye.”

Helena Public Schools posted an Instagram invitation ahead of the Feb. 19 meeting and continues to publish project updates on the district site, including recent progress meetings on Feb. 5, a programming meeting with a kitchen consultant and Robert Worthy on Feb. 6, and plans to build physical model pieces once the program of spaces is approved. The district is simultaneously advancing other capital work, including a separate Capital High renovation design team confirmed Nov. 7.