Daly Elementary School in Hamilton Gets State Grant for Building Improvements

Montana Governor Steve Bullock announced on Friday, November 22 a grant of nearly $42,000 for upgrades to Daly Elementary School in Hamilton.

A statement from Bullock's office reads "We owe it to our children to provide them with a safe learning environment. The fact that part of the structure of the floor ihn the boys' bathroom has rotted and collapsed is unacceptable. That's why it's important to upgrade the school and to create good-paying construction jobs in the process."

Superintendent of Hamilton Public Schools Tom Korst said as grateful as he was for the $42,000 grant from the state, it was only a fraction of what the school actually needs.

"We actually had much more renovations that we were seeking to perform at Daly Elementary School, but we were awarded the $40,000 and change to renovate a floor that was evidently poorly built and somewhat falling apart," Korst said. "We replaced the entire floor of our bathroom in the grade 2-5 building at Daly Elementary School."

Korst said the actual repair work had been done last summer.

"Once we knew about the grant, we started work right away," Korst said. "Of course, the summertime is the best time to get that work done while the kids are away. Basically, the old floor was held together by a series of jacks underneath the building itself that I saw with my own eyes. It seemed to be reasonably safe, but now we are safe."

Korst said the closing of the Grantsdale School has helped to consolidate all the students into Daly Elementary, which has created some space issues at the Hamilton school.