Lydig Construction Inc., of Spokane, has landed a $46 million project to build a new school in Everett, Wash., for the Lake Stevens School District.


Joe Williams, a project manager here for Lydig, says work on the project is expected to start early next month, and the two-story, 224,000-square-foot structure likely will be completed in August of 2007.


The Seattle office of Spokane-based Northwest Architectural Co. is designing the structure.


Northwest Architecturals Web site says the school has been designed to accommodate 1,500 students and will serve all eighth- and ninth-grade students in the Lake Stevens School District. Enrollment in the districts schools is growing rapidly, and the new school, which is being called Lake Stevens Mid-High School, will ease crowding at the districts two middle schools and its high school.


The new school will include four personal learning centers, in which students will take all of their classes, the Web site says. Each learning center will house classrooms for language, math, science, social studies, and other subjects.


The building has been designed so that it eventually could be converted into a high school, he says.


In addition to building the school structure, Williams says Lydig will make some road improvements near the campus and build baseball, softball, soccer, and football fields there.


Construction of the new school follows extensive site work completed last month. A Port Orchard, Wash.-based company cleared the land, put in a building pad and water main, and created a staging area where Lydig can work on rainy days, the school district says.