Summer school construction

Cat tracks, dust clouds and the sound of construction work will soon fade away, leaving a new high school in Bonners Ferry. The $11 million school, located just east of the existing high school, is the first major school project in Bonners Ferry in 34 years. At 91,000 square feet, it will accommodate 600 students and can expand to keep up with enrollment growth. “It’s a tremendous thing for our community and our school district to have this new high school,” said Don Bartling, superintendent. “It’s something we’ve been looking forward to for many years.” The new high school is one of many school projects in North Idaho this year, ranging from new buildings to outdoor additions and minor maintenance. The high school features a 506-seat auditorium similar to Lake City High School in Coeur d’Alene, plenty of parking and a catwalk above hallways for easy maintenance. The exterior design hinged on weather concerns, with vaulted ceilings above and a system of tiered drainage swales to store water runoff and carry it away from the school. Judy Wages, a science teacher at Bonners Ferry High School, has been hoping for this for seven years. She moved from a teaching job in Seattle with five full labs and was taken aback by the two labs in the Bonners Ferry school. The day after the bond passed, she and other science teachers took a peek at the proposed plan and pushed for three science labs. The teachers then took an active role in classroom design. Wages has since been sneaking peaks at the labs as they move through phases of construction. “It’s pretty exciting,” said Wages. “It’s going to be an incredible boost to have this.” The main building is set to be completed by October. Teachers and students will begin moving in when the gym and music room are completed in December. Students from a makeshift middle school will move into the old high school once the new school is completed. In Kootenai County, meanwhile, there is a full slate of summer construction projects planned, including new schools and numerous renovations. Spirit Lake will gain a new junior high near Timberlake High School. The $4.9 million school will accommodate nearly 300 students by January. The Lakeland district also is adding a $1.3 million practice gymnasium to Lakeland High School. The new gym will have limited seating and is located next to a new main entrance. Rathdrum Junior High is being remodeled with wiring, insulation, carpeting and technology improvements. About 15 classrooms are included in the $700,000 project. The Coeur d’Alene School District recently broke ground on Atlas Elementary to replace Hayden Lake Elementary. The walls are being erected now and work on the project will be completed next summer. The school, designed for about 550 kids, should open by fall 2005. In addition, about 280 Project Coeur d’Alene students will walk into a remodeled school this fall. A new addition has been completed and finishing touches will be done before school starts. The improvements more than doubled the building’s size to about 36,000 square feet. In Post Falls, a few teachers from Post Falls Middle School are packing in their supplies for a new school year at River City Middle School, completed earlier this month. Most outlying school districts are keeping up on maintenance over the summer, and a few are bumping up their energy standards. The West Bonner County School District’s largest capital improvement this year is a $120,000 heating, ventilation and air conditioning upgrade. Ken Eldore, facilities manager for the district, said the new systems are his number-one project during the height of maintenance season. Once completed, he said, the teardown and replacement of old units will be “a definite way to capture energy savings.” From a budget standpoint, the school district wants to be as prudent as possible in every account. Utilities is one of the biggest accounts. “If we can save money in a utility account, that’s money that can be spent in the classrooms or student education,” he said. The district also will be resurfacing the high school track and other athletic turf improvements. The Kellogg Joint School District is continuing to install new heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. The district added air conditioning to five rooms last summer and will add six new systems to classrooms this year. The St. Maries Joint School District and Pend Orielle School District are focusing on outside improvements in their districts. In St. Maries, the school district is putting final touches on a two-year track and field project at the middle school. The bulk of work was completed last year, and a concession stand and bathrooms will be erected over the summer. A few sets of bleachers also are planned and future plans for the field include landscaping, a locker room, a wrestling room and storage. Pend Orielle will be replacing soccer goals this summer and improving top dressing at the field. In addition, the school district will replace wood playground equipment at Washington Elementary, Northside, Kootenai, South Side and Sagle. Some equipment costs about $30,000 at half-price, but will be a much safer alternative to the wood equipment, said Sid Rayfield, facilities manager for the district. Without students and staff around, maintenance is able to kick into high gear to get the schools ready for the next year. “This is the time for this department to step out,” said Rayfield. “It is our most busy time of year because we can come in and get some stuff completed.”