EVERETT — Building a new $24 million View Ridge Elementary School in Everett will require taking down the current building in two chunks.
The first part of the demolition project, which involves the southern portion of the school, will begin this summer.
“By tearing down the
southern portion we can build the new school in there,” said Darcy Walker, construction manager for the Everett School District. “There’s much more room on the south end of the site.”
Classes will continue at the school, 202 Alder St., during the 2011-12 school year. The school’s 555 students will be housed in the northern portion of the old building and in up to seven portable classrooms.
Classes that are taught in the portables will remain in them until the new school opens.
The goal is to have the new school fully open by November 2012, he said.
“Then we’ll move the folks out of the northern portion of the school into the new school.”
When the school opened in 1953, it had two classroom wings, a gym and cafeteria. A third wing was added in 1956 and the final southern portion of the building was added in 1981.
Money for the project comes from a 2006 bond issue and state matching funds.
“Due to the favorable bid climate… it’s a great time to build a new building that will last for 40 years,” Walker said.
Ann Grounds, of Everett, said she has seen early renderings of what the new, two-story school will look like.
Both of her two children have attended the school. Her 10-year-old daughter, Peggy, is now a fifth-grader there. Her son, Kelly, who now attends Evergreen Middle School, went to school there as well.
Grounds attended the school herself in the 1970s, spending all but one of her elementary school years there.
“I go back and walk the halls that I did as a kid,” she said. Her son’s first-grade classroom was the same room as her kindergarten class.
“So it’s kind of neat to go through the halls,” Grounds said. “But at the same time, we definitely need some new schools.”
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.
View Ridge Elementary School by the numbers
69,000: Square feet of space
26: Classrooms, with space for 600 students
8: Instructional areas for small groups, such as the computer lab and the music program
$17 million: Estimated construction costs
$24 million: Total cost of the project, including outfitting the new building with equipment, and other costs, such as architectural fees.
Source: Everett School District
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