BILLINGS — Billings Public Schools is exploring the purchase of a former Rocky Mountain Bank building in downtown Billings to expand healthcare education programs and help address Montana's growing need for healthcare workers.
The property located at 2929 Third Ave. N. is listed for $5.5 million.
The healthcare industry is Montana's largest employing sector, with about 6,000 job openings projected between now and 2032. Billings School District 2 wants to ensure local students can fill those positions by offering more career pathways in healthcare.
Watch a healthcare teacher talk about the need for providers:
"We have a huge shortage of health care providers, not just here locally, but also nationwide," Christine Simonsen, who teaches healthcare skills to students at the district's career center, said Tuesday. "We mentor them to become our future health care providers."
Superintendent Dr. Erwin Garcia said the district could offer additional programs like dental hygienist training, expert technician courses and behavioral health pathways.
"We need to start instilling the work ethics, the soft skills, the hard skills in our students," Simonsen said.
The district is considering purchasing the former bank building to create more space for these expanded programs.
"What we anticipate is re-utilizing the Lincoln Center and turning back into a school,” Garcia said.
Garcia said the goal is to minimize taxpayer impact by using existing lease revenue to cover costs.
"Our goal is to impact the taxpayers in the least way possible, meaning that due to the leases that are currently offered at that building, totaling about $35,000, we could actually pay the mortgage, no cost to the taxpayers," Garcia said.
The FBI is one of the current leaseholders and would continue operating in the building alongside the school programs.
"They will continue operating their businesses for them," Garcia said.
The expansion would also prevent the need for building another high school elsewhere, Garcia noted.
"It's creating more space for school without having us to go to the taxpayer, to the taxpayers, to potentially build another high school somewhere else," he said.
For students like those in Simonsen's classes, the expanded facility would provide more hands-on learning opportunities.
"Walk right across the street or even down the street a couple blocks and have the opportunity to job shadow, even just simply going to field trips," Simonsen said.
The initiative represents Billings' approach to addressing a national healthcare worker shortage at the local level.
"The more classes they take, the more opportunities they're going to have. And the more background they're going to have to be successful," Simonsen said.
