CV plan urges new high school, other buildings

In the next five years, Central Valley School District needs a third high school capable of holding 1,800 students, plus new elementary and middle schools, a draft capital facilities plan says. The plan, unveiled Monday, prioritizes construction projects needed to address the growing population of Spokane County’s second-largest school system, and also provides a glimpse of how full some of the district’s schools are already.

“It’s not complete; it’s still just a draft,” said Melanie Rose, district spokeswoman. “I expect there are going to be changes.”

Monday was the first opportunity school board members had to review the updated facilities plan, which says the district will need at least three new buildings to handle an expected increase of 11.6 percent in the student population by 2012.

It calls for building a middle school adjacent to Liberty Lake Elementary School; an elementary school at a district-owned site at Mission and Long or a piece of land at Mission and Holl; and a high school on district-owned land at 16th and Henry. At current prices, a new high school would cost taxpayers $71 million.

The plan comes on the heels of a report given to the district’s board of directors last month, which provided options to be considered to address overcrowding at schools in the eastern and southern portions of the 80-square-mile district. That report includes solutions such as busing, year-round school and double-shifting.

Even though the current facilities plan was created just two years ago, several factors – including three failed attempts to pass bonds to build new schools – caused directors to ask Central Valley staff to update the list of long-term needs.

Also at issue is the district’s request that the local jurisdictions within its boundaries – Liberty Lake, Spokane County and Spokane Valley – collect impact fees from developers on the district’s behalf as a way to help offset the cost of rampant growth.

At least one, Liberty Lake, is considering the fees, but asked the district for an updated facilities plan.

“When they looked at the first one that we did, they did not agree with the numbers,” said board member Anne Long.

According to the draft plan, Central Valley High School was 23 percent over building capacity in October, and University High School was 17 percent over capacity. Greenacres Middle School was 24 percent over capacity, and Evergreen Middle School has 23 percent more students than it has room for.

“There’s a lot of good information in there about where we are right now with our facilities, and where we are going,” Long said.

The board will spend the next several weeks reviewing and discussing the document. Long said there are no plans to put another construction bond on the ballot anytime soon.