A memo from Superintendent R.J. Souhrada to Kalispell architect William Bierrum confirmed official action by the school board on October 29, 1974 to officially name the new building "West View" school. The first children to start school in the new building were students in the fourth and fifth grades. In 1982 the first grade moved into West View making it a first grade school building.
Construction on the present main building began in July 1990 and was completed in February 1991. After completion of that addition, the staff elected to rename the school Ruder Elementary School honoring Mel and Ruth Ruder. The doors of Ruder Elementary opened on February 15th, 1991. It brought a 29,500 square foot addition to the original building. It houses 11 new classrooms, Administration offices, a new Library and a Special Education complex. It then became a Kindergarten through Second Grade.
!996-1997 brought even more construction and bigger changes to Ruder Elementary. An addition of five classrooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms and a full-sized gymnasium were added to the existing building just to the north. Ruder now includes a Pre-School, seven sessions of Kindergarten, six First Grades, one Pre-First, seven Second Grades and three Third grades.
The start of the 1996-97 school year turned Ruder into the home of a Kindergartner through Fifth Grade community school. We are growing and we love it!
