Spokane Public Schools has decided to turn Shadle Park High School around.


Literally.


Northwest Architectural Co., of Spokane, has completed preliminary design work of the planned $59 million modernization of the 49-year-old high school building, located at 4327 N. Ash, on Spokanes North Side. The biggest change in store involves rebuilding the front of the school and its main entrance so they face west, toward Shadle Park, says Mark Anderson, the districts associate superintendent of school support services. Currently, the schools front and entrance are oriented so they face Ash Street to the east.


It will be a little more peaceful in the new configuration, than with the entrance on busy Ash Street, Anderson says.


Final design work on the modernization plan is in full swing now and is expected to be completed in about a year. Construction of the improvements to the school is scheduled to start in the spring of 2007 and is expected to be completed in spring 2009. The project will be done in multiple phases, so it can continue to be used during construction.


Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, is the general contractor-construction manager on the project.


In the project, only 3,000 square feet of floor space will be added to the school, which is expected to have 250,000 square feet of space when the project is completed, Anderson says. He says, however, that configuration of space in the school will change dramatically.


The schools auditorium will be upgraded, but downsized to 900 seats from 1,200 sets. The freed-up space will house additional classrooms.


The city of Spokanes Parks and Recreation Department has agreed to vacate a swimming pool near the southwest corner of the schools campus, and a new fieldhouse for the high school will be built on that site, Anderson says. A practice gymnasium located in the southwest end of the school will be retained.


A library will be built on the east side of the school, where a small courtyard and the main entrance are currently located. The library will include a wall of windows overlooking Ash Street, which Anderson says will give the school a distinctive feature on that side.


The buildings classrooms will be gutted, rebuilt, and reconfigured. Anderson says the schools classrooms currently are clustered by subject. The updated building will be set up the same way, but it will be built so that the school could be set up in small learning communities. For example, the bulk of the freshman classes would be in one area, and classes for the other grades would be in other vicinities.


Its a nice design for thinking about the future and not boxing us into one approach, Anderson says. Thats what weve done at Rogers as well. Rogers High School, in northeast Spokane, is undergoing a $59 million renovation and expansion currently.


Shadle also houses a fitness center and some classrooms in an old elementary school building at the southwest corner of Ash Street and Wellesley Avenue, but that structure will be torn down during the project to make way for a surface parking lot. Anderson says Shadle Park High is short on parking space, and the new lot will address that need.


Mike McGuire, the school districts planning principal for new construction, says 1,630 students are enrolled at Shadle this year. The new structure will be able to accommodate at least 1,750 students. Five rooms that could be used either for classes or as teacher-resource rooms are included in the preliminary design. If those rooms were used as classrooms, the school could house 1,950 students, he says.


Contact Linn Parish at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at linnp@spokanejournal.com.