The Wellpinit School District, on the Spokane Indian Reservation northwest of Spokane, is planning an estimated $18 million renovation of a building that its high school now will share with the district's middle school rather than the elementary school.

Integrus Architecture PS, of Spokane, is designing the project and the Spokane office of Marlton, N.J.,-based Hill International Inc. will manage the project.

Rusty Pritchard, a senior project manager with Hill International, says the Washington state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction will hold a hearing to determine whether the project may use a combined general contractor-construction manager process for the work. That would allow the construction manager to begin planning for construction work during the design phase. If that model is approved, he says, the district will put out a request for general-contractor proposals in late September or early October. The construction cost is expected to be about $13 million, Pritchard says.

The project will involve improvements to the about 57,000-square-foot school building, including classroom modernization; a heating, cooling, and ventilation system upgrade; electrical upgrades; and exterior and site improvements.

Until now, the building has housed both elementary and high school classes, says Tim Ames, the school district's superintendent. The middle school grades have been located in a building about a mile away. That building, originally constructed in 1923, was renovated six years ago, Ames say. This summer, the school district has been moving the kindergarten through fifth grade classes to that building, and the middle school grades to the high school building.

During renovation of the combined school building, which is scheduled to begin next spring, one wing of the building will remain empty until work is completed there, Ames says. Then, classes will shift to the renovated area, and another wing will be vacated for remodeling.

A general contractor-construction manager has been requested for the work rather than the traditional design-bid-construction model in order to "have everybody at the table in the initial planning, which limits the cost of change orders," Ames says.

Because the school district is on nontaxable reservation land, it has been seeking other sources of funding for construction for about a year, Ames says. It will pay for the project with a $12.1 million state grant, a $4.3 million federal grant, and $1.6 million in school district matching funds.

Ames says the school district will request funding from the Spokane Tribe of Indians. "We hope the Tribe will support us," he says.

Completion of the design phase of the work is slated for June 2011. The construction work is scheduled for completion by November 2012.