Shadle remodel is back to one phase

The first major face-lift to Shadle Park High School since it was built in 1954 will be done in one stage as originally planned, thanks to increased state funding, school officials said Tuesday.

Tight budgets and rising building costs had administrators struggling to get everything built under the Spokane Public Schools 2003-2009 Capital Projects Bond.

For the past year, school officials were considering breaking the multimillion-dollar Shadle remodel into two phases with the second half to be funded by a 2009 capital bond.

That plan was officially rejected two weeks ago, said Mark Anderson, associate superintendent of school support services for Spokane Public Schools.

A final analysis of the numbers showed that the best financial plan was to do the project in one phase, Anderson said

“Phase two would have been dependent on the bond passing in 2009,” Anderson said. “There was no guarantee that it would have gotten finished.”

What helped get the final project of the 2003 capital bond in under the wire was a healthy bump in state matching funds.The 2003 bond factored in a state match of $32.8 million. With increases during the last Legislative session, the state match is now $63.4 million, Anderson said.

On Tuesday, Rep. Timm Ormsby, D-Spokane, called the last Legislative session “the best K-12 construction budget in history.”

As vice chair of the capital budget last year, Ormsby helped obtain the additional funding.

“People have a lot of ownership and pride in (their schools),” said Ormsby, a cement mason and concrete finisher by trade. “Both Shadle Park and Rogers High School will be very new versions of the same school that past graduates had come from.”

Before the last legislative session, remodel projects were just 80 percent funded, while new buildings received 100 percent funding, Ormsby said. In the last session, remodels received the same backing.

Stacie Wachholz, a Shadle Park teacher, heard Tuesday that Shadle will be remodeled in one phase. “Well, cool,” she said.

Wachholz had attended meetings on the remodel and discussed teachers’ needs with architects. She knew there was talk of doing the project in two phases but said most school staff hadn’t heard the latest budget news.

“We’re all curious how it’s going to happen,” Wachholz said. “Right now it feels really distant.”

Rogers’ $54.8 million remodel will begin in January and finish by the summer of 2008. Shadle Park’s remodel is planned to start in the fall of 2007. Students at both schools will stay on school grounds during construction.