Belgrade High School is the only school in Montana to start at Class C and move up to AA.
“This building was first built in 1963 when we were Class C. It’s come to a point where we kinda needed to make a major change and bring everything into the modern educational era,” said Belgrade High School Principal Paul Lamb.
Belgrade High School celebrated the completion of its $25 million remodel on Saturday with an open house for the public.
Students and staff gave tours to anybody in the community interested in seeing the updates first-hand.
“We went from a 900 student capacity to a 1200 student capacity,” said Lamb. “We have nice, wide hallways. Our older part of the building has smaller hallways, and they always felt crowded with students walking in between classes.”
Now that Belgrade High School’s remodel is complete, there are 15 classrooms, one new gym, and a new wrestling room. There’s also a new kitchen and cafeteria that seats up to 500 people.
“Just like the space in general like having this new cafeteria or the new math classrooms upstairs, it just gives us a lot more room,” said Jayda Brown, a Belgrade High junior.
The art rooms, library and technical education classrooms also saw a major face lift.
“Kids this year are very excited about the new area. They are taking pride in their school. School spirit is kinda at an all time high right now,” said Lamb.
“To start here as a freshman and have construction going on the whole time and to see the end and see the whole ending and finish. It’s really cool,” said Brown.