School construction, maintenance keep Tri-City districts busy through summer

Tri-City classrooms may be empty of students, but schools are still full of activity as fresh paint, new pavement or completely new facilities take shape around the area.

The community’s three largest districts are taking advantage of the quieter summer months to get in maintenance projects before fall classes return.

Here’s a rundown of what’s in the works around the Tri-Cities:

KENNEWICK

The Kennewick School District will open two new buildings when school starts this fall — Sage Crest Elementary School and the new home of Desert Hills Middle School.

Construction is largely complete at both buildings and new furniture arrived in mid-July, said Doug Carl, the district’s capital projects director. Teachers and other staff were expected to move their individual classroom materials later this month and in early August.

Sage Crest, south of Southridge High School, will be the district’s 15th elementary school. A ribbon-cutting is scheduled for 10 a.m. Aug. 25. Desert Hills staff and students will move from their current location near 10th Avenue to the new school in west Kennewick on Clodfelter Road.

Two other school construction projects still have a ways to go. The district’s new fifth middle school, Chinook, under construction just northeast of Southridge High School, is moving along, with all cabinetry installed and flooring going down. Students will start this fall in the old Desert Hills building before moving to the new building for fall 2017.

“The interior is pretty far along,” Carl said.

The replacement of Westgate Elementary School on Fourth Avenue is now in its second planned year and on schedule. The size and layout of the lot required the district to move students and teachers to the Fruitland building beginning with the 2015-16 school year so demolition could be completed. The new Westgate will open in fall 2017.

All of those school construction projects are paid for the $89.5 million bond approved by voters in February 2015.

The opening of a fifth middle school is freeing up many portable classrooms that the district is redistributing to other schools in need of space. And there’s a long list of maintenance projects also on tap this summer, from work on wood gym floors and paint jobs to HVAC and plumbing work.

PASCO

This is the first summer since voters approved a $46.8 million bond in February 2013 that the Pasco School District is not working to complete a new school, but there are a few bond-funded projects on its to-do list.

The district has broken ground on new science labs on the east side of Pasco High School. That $5.75 million project will also lead to the relocation of the school’s library on the second floor to the ground floor, also on the east side, district officials said.

Construction will stretch throughout the coming school year. The district is still determining how to address parking on that side of the school, as well as what to do about the visitor’s entrance.

“That’s one of the challenges when you do a remodel, you try to cause as little disruption as possible,” said Randy Nunamaker, the district’s executive director of operations.

About $800,000 is going toward the removal of 24th Avenue between Marie and Octave streets next to Stevens Middle School in central Pasco.

The street separates the main school grounds from some of its athletic fields, raising safety concerns when students cross the street to reach the fields. The area will be covered in sod as the district waits to see if voters pass a bond this winter to rebuild Stevens.

A number of schools will benefit from other maintenance projects, such as parking improvements at Mark Twain Elementary School, interior painting at several elementary schools and the replacement of a skylight at McLoughlin Middle School.

Four new double portable classrooms costing $1.2 million are also being installed at Rosalind Franklin STEM and Ruth Livingston elementary schools to address crowding.

RICHLAND

Marcus Whitman Elementary School will open its new building on Snow Avenue in central Richland this fall, allowing its students and teachers to return after a year in the old Sacajawea Elementary School. That building, in north Richland, will be torn down after it is vacated.

The district’s fourth middle school, which has yet to be named, continues to be built near Keene Road and Belmont Boulevard in West Richland. However, it will not open until fall 2017.

Those projects are paid for by a $98 million bond approved by voters in February 2013. The district has yet to start construction on the last of that bond’s projects, a rebuilt Jefferson Elementary School. Administrators say that project is in the design phase and should open to students in fall 2018.

The district is also completing individual maintenance projects at several schools. That includes shuffling administration departments, with special education staff moving from the building next to the district’s main offices so the information technology staff can move in.

“I know they have quite an extensive list,” said Caren Johnson, Richland’s facilities use coordinator.

This story was originally published July 17, 2016 at 6:46 PM with the headline "School construction, maintenance keep Tri-City districts busy through summer."