CV district picks site for school
The Central Valley School District Board decided Monday to build a new elementary school on land closer to the bulging student population in Liberty Lake.
Pending voter approval of a $55.2 million construction bond on March 14, board members voted unanimously to select the Mission Avenue and Holl Road site for the next elementary school.
The site is within the area under consideration for annexation by Liberty Lake, east of Barker Road and north of Interstate 90.
“We need to be very proactive because March 15, we will be ready to move forward,” said Superintendent Mike Pearson. “We don’t want to delay. … Our goal is to have that school open by 2007.”
Pearson also told the board that staff plans to ask permission to begin interviewing architects at the next board meeting Feb. 13.
“We want to break ground August of this year,” Pearson said.
Two sites were available as possible locations for a new elementary school, as proposed under the district’s construction bond.
Ballots for the all-mail special election will be sent out by mid-February.
If approved, the bond would pay to build both the new elementary school and a middle school in Liberty Lake as well as remodel three other school buildings throughout the district. Six other school buildings would receive updates to technology and infrastructure. The measure would cost homeowners 60 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
The district purchased a 17-acre site at Mission Avenue and Long Road – just west of the site selected Monday – last year and recently negotiated a purchase agreement for the 12.6-acre parcel at Mission Avenue and Holl Road from a Liberty Lake developer.
Developers for River Crossing LLC plan to build 2,000 homes in that area over the next 20 years.
Under the purchase agreement for the land, the district will pay $25,000 up front and has two years to decide whether it will purchase the land for a price not to exceed $275,000.
The developer agrees to develop access along Holl Road, while the district would pay to develop the road along Mission Avenue.
Central Valley also agrees to waive up to $475,000 in impact fees that the developer may be assessed under the district’s current capital facilities plan proposal. The district is asking Spokane County and the cities of Liberty Lake and Spokane Valley to impose the collection of impact fees to help ease the burden of growth.