Blue Creek district considers options as growth continues.

Byline: Laura Tode

Nov. 1--At Blue Creek Elementary, school starts at 8:15 a.m., but students aren't considered late until 8:25 because most mornings it takes at least 15 minutes for parents to drop off their children at the school. They have to wait in line in the school's tiny parking lot, inching forward like rush-hour traffic, to drop their children off.

"In the afternoon those 100 cars come through and they're all backed up way out into the street," Blue Creek Principal Dan Nelsen said.

In the afternoon, Nelsen and another teacher stand out in the parking lot with two-way radios, and as parents circulate through the parking lot, they radio another teacher in the gym where the children wait.

"On a good day we can get 'er done in 15 minutes," Nelsen said.

Blue Creek School District is located south of Billings, in an area growing with several new subdivisions.

It's a small school with big growing pains.

The school has grown by an average of eight students a year for the past decade; this fall at least 21 new students arrived on the first day. Enrollment was at 229 earlier this month. The 10 classrooms at the school are packed, and there's no room for expansion when additional classes will…