Deer Park School District has selected Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, for a $33.7 million project to expand and modernize its high school, says district superintendent Mick Miller.


The project will include expanding the high school into a 156,000-square-foot facility, by constructing a 75,000-square-foot addition to the current 81,000-square-foot structure. The expansion project will add about a dozen new classrooms, a music wing with a performing arts theater, and a second gymnasium, Miller says. The project also will include modernizing the current high school, including installing new heating, cooling, and electrical systems and a new roof and refacing the exterior walls of the building.


The district has sent the contract to the Washington state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for final approval, and Miller says he expects the work to begin next month and to be completed before school starts in the fall of 2010.


During the project, the district will continue to use the building, but has bought five portable buildings with a total of 10 classrooms to accommodate classes that are displaced from the main high school during construction.


Miller says that, with about 700 students, the 30-year-old building is bulging at the seams. He says the expanded building will be able to accommodate more than 800 students.


NAC/Architecture Inc., of Spokane, is designing the project, which is being paid for with a combination of state funds and school levy dollars in the district, which serves Deer Park and Loon Lake.


Contact Jeanne Gustafson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at jeanneg@spokanejournal.com.