Before the year is out, construction or design work will have started on Spokane Public Schools projects with a total estimated cost of $18 million, and the school district says it will select architects this summer that will start design work next year on other construction projects with a combined cost of $83 million.

The work planned this year and next will include the design stages for renovation and replacement of buildings at Ferris High School and Westview Elementary, major upgrades at seven other elementary schools, and a few smaller projects, says Mark Anderson, the district's associate superintendent for support services.

The biggest project in the district's six-year $288 million bond-funded construction program is $60 million of construction to modernize Ferris High School, Anderson says. Overall projecgt costs will be $90 million to $95 million.

The district had planned to issue a call this week for qualifications from architectural firms that are interested in designing the buildings to be constructed at Ferris, and it plans to select a firm this summer for that project, Anderson says. Formal design work on the Ferris High project will begin next spring, he says. A general contractor for the project will be selected to start construction in the spring of 2011, and the project is scheduled to be completed in early 2014.

Ferris, located at the southeast corner of 37th Avenue and Regal Street on Spokane's South Hill, will be reoriented to face Browne Mountain. It will be "book-ended" by the school's two-year-old gymnasium and its auditorium, which will be remodeled, Anderson says. The 55,000-square-foot gym was constructed at a cost of $10.3 million, with funding for it coming from a $165.3 million bond approved by voters in 2003.

The high school project will include constructing about 135,000 square feet of new floor space in connected buildings clustered on the northeast portion of the current campus, Anderson says.

With the exception of the gym and auditorium, most of the existing school buildings will be torn down, he says.

A master site plan was completed for the high school in 2004, prior to construction of the gym, Anderson says, adding that after the design firm is selected, the plan will be reviewed to determine whether it needs to be updated.

Also this summer, the district will select an architect for the replacement of Westview Elementary, Anderson says.

Westview, located at 6104 N. Moore, is first of four schools scheduled to be rebuilt. The others are Jefferson Elementary, at 3612 S. Grand; Finch Elementary, at 3717 N. Milton; and Hutton Elementary, at 908 E. 24th.

Project costs are estimated at $14 million to $16 million for each elementary school, and each will have roughly 58,000 square feet of space, says Gregory Brown, the district's director of capital projects.

Construction of the new Westview school is scheduled to begin in the winter of 2011 and to take nearly two years to complete, Brown says. Construction on the Jefferson, Finch and Hutton schools will begin in 2012, 2013, and 2014, respectively.

The first construction work to be funded by the 2009 bond levy will start this year shortly after school lets out for the summer. The work will include replacing heating, venting, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems at two North Side elementary schools—Garfield, at 222 W. Knox, and Longfellow, at 800 E. Providence. Garco Construction Inc. has been awarded a $5 million contract for that work, which was bid as one project, and Bernardo Wills Architects PC, of Spokane designed it.

Similar HVAC- and roof-replacement work will be done in three additional phases at seven other elementary schools, Brown says.

In the second round of work, which will be done next year, the district soon will issue a call for qualifications for HVAC and roof replacements at three schools—Cooper, at 3200 N. Ferrall; Holmes, at 2600 W. Sharp; and Audubon, at 2020 W. Carlisle. The total cost of those improvements is estimated at $9 million. A contractor will be selected this coming winter, and most of the work is scheduled to be done during the summer of 2010, Brown says.

The third phase will involve work at Roosevelt, at 333 W. 14th; Whitman, at 5400 N. Helena; and Mullan Road, at 2616 E. 63rd. The total cost of those improvements is estimated at $9 million, and most of the work will be done in the summer of 2011.

Woodridge Elementary, which will have an estimated $3 million in upgrades in the summer of 2014, will be the only school in the fourth phase, Brown says.

Architects will be selected this fall to design minor improvements at Gary Middle School, at 725 E. Joseph, and Havermale High School, at 1300 W. Knox. The combined construction cost of the improvements at those schools is estimated at $3 million, and most of the work is expected to be done over the summers of 2010 and 2011.

Design teams also will be picked this fall for parking and athletic-field projects at Shadle Park High School, at 4327 N. Ash, and Rogers High School, at 1622 E. Wellesley. That work, which is estimated at a combined $2.5 million, is scheduled to be done in the summer of 2010.

Architects will be selected in the spring of 2012 to design a new gymnasium for Salk Middle School, and construction of it will begin a year later, Brown says. The size of the project, to be located at 6411 N. Alberta, hasn't been determined yet, but the construction budget for it tentatively is set at $11 million, he says.

Hart Field, at the northwest corner of 37th and Grand will be reconfigured and improved at an estimated cost of $2.5 million, with most of the work planned there scheduled to be done the summer of 2012, Brown says. The field, which is south of Sacajawea Middle School, is Lewis & Clark High School's sports practice-and-play site.

Throughout the life of the bond, the school district plans to spend about $4 million a year on technology improvements. Most of those funds will go toward computers and other high-tech equipment in school buildings, although the district also plans to use some of the funds to install a new phone system, he says.

The district also plans to spend about $5 million a year on a variety of projects that generally will cost less than $150,000 each, such as carpeting and boiler replacements, Brown says.