Funding Campaign Mode Gives Way To Planning Stage For Construction

Valley school superintendents went from celebrating right back to planning this week, after voters overwhelmingly passed construction bonds in all three districts.

The bonds will build a new elementary school in Liberty Lake, remodel and add to several schools across the Valley, as well as pay for several other smaller projects.

Here’s a rundown of what will be happening next:

At Central Valley, the next year or so will go into planning and design. Construction of the Liberty Lake elementary school will start about April 1997, with the school opening planned for fall of 1998. Remodeling at Bowdish Junior High will be done mostly over the next two summers, said acting Superintendent Wally Stanley. Central Valley’s bond issue is for $23 million.

West Valley Superintendent Dave Smith said construction will start this summer, probably at all four elementary schools at once.

That means construction will still be going when children return to school this fall.

Smith had wanted to move even more quickly.

“But the architects said it’s more expensive to go on a very fast track,” he said. West Valley’s $4.2 million bond will pay for the addition of 16 new classrooms to existing elementary schools.

In East Valley, construction probably won’t begin until the spring of 1997.

Superintendent Chuck Stocker said the district must pick an architect and work out designs for remodeling projects at several schools.

“It’s possible some of the outside projects, like the track at the high school might get done this summer,” he added.

, DataTimes