The Cheney School District has purchased a 10-acre parcel of land on the West Plains where it plans to construct a new elementary school using money from a $79 million bond levy passed by voters earlier this year.

The district paid about $523,000 for the land, which is located at the intersection of Hallett and Holly roads in a mostly residential area, says Brian Aiken, the district's director of finance and operations.

Meanwhile, construction of two new middle schools in the district, also paid for by the bond, is set to start early next spring, but preliminary site preparation already has been under way this fall, he says.

Cheney Middle School, located at 2716 N. Sixth, currently has about 200 more students than the number for which the building was planned, with about 900 students in all.

Aiken says the 10-acre property for the new elementary school has been zoned for commercial use, and its location in the center of recent growth on the West Plains makes it a prime spot for a school. He adds that the seller of the plot plans to develop the land around the parcel for residential use.

The district estimates that the construction of the school will cost between $16 million and $17 million and hopes to seek bids for design work before the end of the year, Aiken says, adding that the district already has formed a task force to begin planning the new school.

The district has been growing at a rate of close to 100 new students a year, Aiken says, which has prompted the need for a fifth elementary school.

Currently, the district has about 30 portable classrooms at four of its six schools, and it's anticipating that it will add another one or two portables by next fall at Betz Elementary School, which has seen steady growth as residential developments on the West Plains have continued to mushroom.

"There's lots of affordable housing and available land, as well as commercial growth, which all means more growth in students," Aiken says.

Once its fifth elementary school is completed, which the district hopes to have ready for students by fall 2013, some of the overcrowding at its four other elementary schools will be relieved, he says. The new elementary will be designed to hold about 500 students.

Aiken says both of the two new middle schools will be constructed at the same time and will be identical in design and layout to save money. Bids will be sought from general contractors for those project sometime in February of next year, he estimates, with construction starting as early as possible in the spring.

The $79 million bond will pay for most of the construction costs of the three new schools, but the district also is hoping to receive some state matching funds for the new middle schools.

"We are most excited about keeping the economy going," Aiken says. "We are building schools that will last 30 to 50 years for the community and are putting people to work within our own community."

Each school will have the capacity for about 700 students, and the middle schools are to be completed in September 2012, he says. The district is spending around $37 million on each of the new middle schools, with one to be built at the current site of Cheney Middle School, and the other to be built near Windsor Elementary, which is located at 5504 W. Hallett.

The old middle school building, which was constructed in 1978, will be demolished after the new schools open, he says.

After the fifth elementary school is completed in 2013, Aiken says the district will re-evaluate the needs of Cheney High School, which has been identified as needing expansion before long.