Spokane Public Schools is in the process of selecting a firm to provide architectural and engineering services for a planned $7 million gymnasium replacement at Salk Middle School, at 6411 N. Alberta on Spokane's North Side.

Greg Brown, the district's director of capital projects, says a design contract for the gym replacement is expected to be awarded before the end of this year. Construction is expected to begin in the summer of 2013 and wrap up a little more than a year later, he adds.

Brown says the current outdated gym was constructed along with the rest of the school in 1960, and the money to replace it will come from the district's $288 million bond measure that voters passed in 2009.

The replacement of the 22,000-square-foot space is to include new locker rooms and a smaller practice gym, he says. The new gym facilities likely will be 3,000 square feet larger than the current space, he adds.

Brown says the firm that the school district selects to design Salk's new gymnasium also will be contracted to design and engineer a master plan that eventually will be used when the district replaces the rest of the school.

"Part of what we have to decide is where the gym goes as part of a master plan for the new campus," Brown says.

The district's plan is to build the new space before demolishing the existing gym and to incorporate that new facility into what is to be the design for the middle school's eventual replacement, he says.

Spokane Public Schools plans to include funding for that project in its next bond request, which Brown says is scheduled to be presented to voters in 2015.

At current construction costs, the middle school could be replaced for about $35 million, he says. That figure, however, most likely will be higher when the district is ready to replace the building, he adds.

Salk hasn't undergone any major upgrades or renovations since it was built, Brown says.