EVERETT — Seeds voters planted two years ago in the form of a $74 million school bond measure have sprouted and are rising from the ground.
New classrooms and parking lots are blooming like azaleas and rhododendrons around the Everett School District, and bigger changes are on the way.
"We have all sorts of work going on," said Mike Gunn, the district’s director of facilities and planning. "We’re moving full-speed on three projects right now."
A 12-classroom building at Jackson High School is scheduled for completion in the fall. The $2.67 million project is going up at the west end of campus.
Also new for the fall are eight classrooms at Gateway Middle School. The new rooms, found in three different parts of the campus, will cost $2 million.
Penny Creek Elementary School will get six new classrooms for an estimated $1.4 million. The Everett School Board is expected to award a bid on this project at Tuesday’s meeting.
But the major projects included in the 2002 bond are modernization at Eisenhower Middle School and Emerson Elementary School.
The work at Eisenhower, now famous for its dome design that houses virtually all of the campus, is expected to cost nearly $13 million. Eisenhower opened in the early 1970s.
The project will involve modernizing or replacing all building systems, including heating, ventilation, electrical, plumbing, roofing and finishes. The buildings will also be retrofitted to better withstand an earthquake.
Gunn expects that most of the existing building will be remodeled and reused.
"We have to have a project that conforms to the budget," Gunn said. "If we put everything in there that everybody wanted, it would probably cost too much."
The work at Eisenhower should be finished in 2006, as will the construction at Emerson Elementary.
The work there will also include modernizing or replacing all building systems. The cost should be about $5.4 million.
Roofs, heating systems and floors have already been replaced at many schools, Gunn said.
In addition to construction projects, the 2002 bond measure provided money for technology upgrades. Since then, the district has installed nearly 3,000 new computers in classrooms and computer labs at schools, to go with 1,000 printers. It has also installed the latest Microsoft operating systems and junked more than 2,000 old computers.
The district also installed a new phone system.
Technology upgrades that are still on the way include computers in school libraries, where the goal is to have one computer for every five students.
Reporter Victor Balta:
425-339-3455 or
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
