New CV High School Breaks Ground Tuesday

Sat., Sept. 2, 2000

By Marny Lombard marnyl@spokesman.com (509) 927-2166

The groundbreaking ceremony for the new Central Valley High School will take place under the goal posts at noon on Tuesday.

The symbolism is clear: Replacing the sky-blue, 1950s-era, cinderblock home of the CV Bears has been a community goal for more than a decade.

Two years after Central Valley voters approved a $78 million bond to replace the district’s two high schools, construction is starting. At last, two schools-for-the-future are on the way, Central Valley officials say.

“This is going to transform education in our area,” said Craig Holmes, chairman of the CV school board.

“It’s a new dawn for Central Valley High School,” said Skip Bonuccelli, school district spokesman.

The district has mailed out 1,700 invitations to the ceremony. Six or seven golden shovels will dig into the turf on Tuesday, handled by everyone from CV Superintendent Wally Stanley to CV High’s ASB president, senior Bri Johnson.

Crews actually began moving dirt earlier this week, said Garco Construction president Tim Walsh. Garco won the contract to build the 230,000-square-foot school for $27 million.

“It’s a great big deal for us to have the opportunity to build CV High School for the community,” Said Walsh. “We’re tickled pink.”

There’s more.

About 30 minutes after the fanfare on the practice football field, school board members will meet in the CV High library for a special meeting to award the contract for construction of the new University High School, the matching school that will be built at 32nd and Pines. U-Hi’s groundbreaking will be scheduled later in September.

Lydig Construction submitted the apparent low bid for that project, board members learned at their regular meeting earlier this week.

In other school board business, districts across the Spokane Valley are working with formally approved budgets for this school year.

Central Valley’s budget of $72.2 million was adopted this week. Also this week, East Valley School District formalized its $31.4 million budget. West Valley approved a $24.3 million budget last week.

Freeman’s $5.8 million budget gained approval earlier this summer.

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