Ned Wendle, Mead School District’s director of facilities and planning, says the district plans to complete two major projects this year and start construction soon on a third.

All three projects are funded through the $69.5 million bond approved by district voters in 2015, and the first two—a new Northwood Middle School and an expansion at Midway Elementary School--are expected to be completed this year.

Construction will start in April at the third project, the planned modernization and expansion of Shiloh Hills Elementary School.

Wendle says construction of the new $29 million Northwood Middle School, which began in late 2016, is nearly completed, with students and staff already occupying parts of the building.

“There are a couple of items yet to finish, but we consider the project to be mostly done,” he says. “The finishing touches will only take about another month to wrap up.”

Spokane-based Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, is the general contractor for the project, and ALSC architects designed the new school, which was built just south of the existing, 56-year-old facility at 13120 N. Pittsburg.

Wendle says the project included upgrading a 16,000-square-foot portion of the current school building and integrating it into the new school, which now includes about 121,000 square feet of space.

Now that the new building is nearly completed at the new Northwood school building, Wendle says classroom space in the old Northwood building will be used to house students from Shiloh Hills during construction at that school.

Wendle says the district’s $16 million renovation of Midway Elementary, located at 821 E. Midway Road in Colbert, is well underway. 

Wendle says Spokane-based Bouten Construction Co. is the contractor for the project, which started last spring and is expected to be completed by September. He says Spokane-based MMEC Architecture & Interiors designed both the Midway Elementary and Shiloh Hills modernization projects. 

Wendle says construction on the $16 million Shiloh Hills Elementary School modernization and expansion project at 505 E. Stonewall is set to begin next month and won’t be fully completed until August 2019.

Garco is the contractor for the project, which when completed will add 11,000 square feet of new space to the elementary school, bringing its total square footage to 60,000. 

Last month, Mead School District voters approved a $114.5 million construction bond measure that’s expected to go toward construction of five other substantial new projects, including construction of a new middle school, a new elementary school, a co-op facility, a maintenance building, and a sports stadium.

Wendle says design work on the five projects covered under the new bond will be starting in the next couple of months, and the construction schedule will be fairly aggressive, as the district hopes to have those projects built within 3 1/2 years.