Progress made on new high schools in Stanwood

STANWOOD —Three months after voters in Stanwood and on Camano Island approved a $147.5 million bond to build a new high school, teachers are preparing to move out of portables and designs are being drafted.

There are 11 teachers who have classes in a cluster of portables known as “Portable Village” on campus. They’ll be moving to other rooms at the end of June, after school is out this year, to clear the area for early construction work, said Christine Del Pozo, principal of Stanwood High School.

Design work likely will continue into next school year, with public meetings to gather feedback. Two advisory committees are working with McGranahan Architects, one on Stanwood High School and the other on Lincoln Hill, the district’s alternative high school.

The new Lincoln Hill High should allow the district to condense its three alternative programs — Lincoln Academy for 7th and 8th grade students, Lincoln High for 9th grade and beyond, and the Saratoga parent-partnership program — into one location, Del Pozo said. The idea is to locate that building across the street from Stanwood High School, near the sports stadium. Stanwood High is to be built on the same campus it currently sits on, but in a different corner of the property, allowing the existing school to stay in use during construction.

The architect and committee members are planning where specific features should be placed in the schools. They need to figure out the best locations for a gymnasium, performing arts center, shop and greenhouses, Del Pozo said. Architects also have been working with teachers to list their needs in the classrooms. Detailed designs come later. A preliminary timeline estimated construction starting in later 2018.

So far, the school is on track to open in fall 2020, but it’s early and designs or construction conditions could affect the schedule.

The district started selling the bonds this month.

Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.