Mead School District says its in the final stages of planning for a new middle school that will replace one of its current schools and will cost an estimated $31 million.


The district hopes to secure $12.5 million in state funding later this month to help finance the project, says John Dormaier, director of facilities and planning at the district. The funds would come from money set aside in the state budget for capital construction projects at kindergarten through 12th grade schools, he says.


If the state awards that funding, the district plans to seek bids for the project in mid-August and to start construction in mid-October, Dormaier says.


The new, 115,000-square-foot school, which would have a partial second story, is planned to be located between Day Mount Spokane Road and Green Bluff Road, just east of U.S. 2, he says. Including playfields, the facility would occupy about 35 acres of that nearly 80-acre, district-owned site, which is near Colbert Elementary School, he says. The district bought that property in the 1990s when it was considering building Mount Spokane High School there.


The proposed school would house students in seventh and eighth grades and would be able to accommodate up to 850 students, which is the same capacity as the current Mead Middle School, Dormaier says. The new school is expected to include classrooms, a multipurpose room, two gymnasiums, locker rooms, administrative offices, and a library, he says. Northwest Architectural Co., of Spokane, designed the school, which is expected to be completed in time for the 2008-2009 academic year, he says.


The current Mead Middle School has 110,000 square feet of space and is located on a 17.5-acre site, at 12509 N. Market, at the southwest corner of Market and Farwell Road, he says. The structure that houses the middle school was built in the late 1920s and was the original Mead High School, Dormaier says. It has been remodeled five times, most recently in 1987.


The building is reaching the end of its useful life, Dormaier says.


The district plans to conduct a capital facilities planning study in 2009, during which a committee will determine a new use for that building or will decide to demolish it, he says. The district operates one other middle school, Northwood, at 13120 N. Pittsburgh, plus three high schools and seven elementary schools.


In addition to the state funding it hopes to receive for the new middle school, the district plans to fund the project with some of the proceeds from a $37.7 million bond measure the districts voters approved in 2004, he says. Those bond-sale proceeds also have been used to fund a new, nearly $13 million elementary school thats rising on the Five Mile Prairie, as well as renovation work thats wrapping up on the districts historic Five Mile Prairie School.


Contact Emily Brandler at (509) 344-1265 or via e-mail at emilyb@spokanejournal.com.