Several Sumner School District officials had the opportunity in April to view construction of a new elementary school in Cascadia.

Assistant Superintendent of Adminstrative Services Craig Spencer, Comm-unication Director Ann Cook and Maintenance and Operations Director Mark Baumgarten took a 30-minute tour of the new school, Elementary No. 9. The school will house kindergarten through fifth-grade students.

The $13.3 million facility covers 47,612 square feet with 22 classrooms, including a 4,000-square-foot gymnasium, according to Baumgarten. Berschauer and Phillips Construction Co. of Olympia, Wash., is the contractor.

Inside the school, officials got their first look at the set-up for classrooms.

Baumgarten noted the gymnasium can be divided into two separate areas, including use as a lunch room. There is also a stage area connected to the gym.

Two “modified, fat-L shaped” classrooms are separated by double doors for shared learning, Baumgarten said.

He said each classroom will have projectors mounted on the ceilings and new interactive white boards connected to computers.

Each classroom also has several Ethernet and phone connections. The classrooms have extra storage areas behind white boards.

Baumgarten said the school will have video cameras in all high-traffic area such as the front entrance, wing areas and outside the school.

Next to the school is a grass baseball field which the community can use.

“Construction is on schedule,” Baumgarten said. “The contactors are doing an outstanding job of constructing the building. They have put pride and quality craftsmanship in every phase of the building. This is first-class construction.”

Overseeing construction is Craig Lester, jobsite supervisor, along with Rick Craddock, foreman; Dan Engabroad, project engineer; and Derek Boysen, project manager.

According to Cook, construction on the school will be completed by September 2009, but it will not be open to Cascadia students until 2012 because of modernization projects at Victor Falls and Bonney Lake elementary schools.

Students at both schools will attend Elementary No. 9 while modernization is underway. The phasing and staging plan explains school attendance boundaries or alternate classroom assignments for students during the construction phase of school modernization projects.

The modernization projects will update and modernize major mechanical systems, improve wiring and technology infrastructure to support computers in the classroom and bring the building up to all current energy, seismic, fire and life safety building codes.

The district will begin modernization of Victor Falls this summer and completion is set for July 2010. The Bonney Lake project is planned for May 2010 to June 2011.

Before Cascadia students march into the new school, Spencer said the district is going to have residents pick the name of the school, the mascot and the colors.

The new school will serve 500 to 550 students with about 45 teachers and staff. It will be adjacent to a planned 5,000-acre town center and two parks.

Cascadia sold 14 acres of utility-served land to the Sumner School District for the elementary school. It will be the district’s ninth elementary school and the first of possibly seven schools, including a middle and high school, in the large development which designated 183 acres for schools.

Reach Dannie Oliveaux at doliveaux@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald or 360-802-8209.