Five Central Valley schools will start the year with safer points of entry after “creative financing” of levy funds

The Central Valley School District is building new entrances at five schools over the summer, years earlier and potentially cheaper than expected through the MacGuyvering of some school funds.

Construction is well underway at Greenacres Middle School, Summit K-8 school, and Broadway, Progress and Liberty Lake elementaries for new secure entrance vestibules commonplace at modern schools. These projects come at a combined cost of around $2.8 million in taxes collected as part of the capital levy voters approved in February 2024.

The entrances make schools safer, Special Projects Director Jay Rowell said as he showed off the construction site at Greenacres. Improvements there will cost an estimated $1.2 million.

“It’s necessary because we have all the issues that you see happening in schools nowadays; we’re trying to be as safe as we can be,” Rowell said. “What that means is, we vet everybody who comes into the building, are they supposed to be there?”

The Greenacres office used to be nestled deeper in the school. Office staff had eyes on the front of the school through cameras and could remotely unlock the doors for visitors, but weren’t otherwise able to see much outside their walls.

“In Greenacres before, you’d walk in the front doors, and you have to go all the way across to this side of the hall to even get to the office,” Rowell said. “So this hallway is accessible, the commons is accessible without you having to check into the office. That’s what we’re correcting here in these schools.”

Now, visitors will encounter two sets of doors at the school. The first leads visitors to an enclosed vestibule where front office workers can buzz them into the office . All school guests will need to check in before entering to the school.

“Those folks who know them, know the kids, know who should be picking them up, those are our frontline folks,” Rowell said.

Five more Central Valley schools will get updated entrances next summer; after that, each school in the district will have a standardized double-door vestibule entrance attached to the front office.

Initially, construction for the 10 schools was to be spread out through the six-year life of the levy. Expecting increasing construction costs, former Chief Financial Officer Gina Bullis undertook some “creative financing,” she said, borrowing a chunk of money to pay for the projects upfront, then repaying the bonds with property taxes collected under the capital levy over six years.

The district borrowed $14 million in school board-approved debt to be paid off with the approximately $7 million to be collected each year under the levy.

In addition to the new entrances, the initiative will finance new roofing at six schools, playground or blacktop updates at 12 schools, HVAC improvements and a cyclical technology refresh districtwide.

This summer, construction will wrap on five entries, four playgrounds and three roofs in the district.