Utility installation and some other work has begun at West Valley High School in preparation for a planned $25 million renovation and expansion there.


Peggy Cannon, assistant project manager at the West Valley School District, says the district has awarded an $831,000 contract to Schimmels Construction Inc., of Spokane, for the initial work. Schimmels started work on the job earlier this month and is scheduled to complete it in late July.


The district plans this summer to award a larger construction contract for renovation and expansion of West Valley High, which is located at 8301 E. Buckeye, in Millwood.


The work that Schimmels is handling involves installing new utility lines, building and paving two new parking lots with a total of 201 spaces, and constructing new tennis courts, Cannon says. Also, Schimmels will build a 2,400-square-foot addition to an athletic-storage building near the schools football field, she says.


That initial handful of jobs doesn+t involve any improvements to the main school building, which includes roughly 133,000 square feet of floor space.


Cannon says the main expansion and renovation work at West Valley will be completed in stages.


As planned, a 55,000-square-foot gymnasium and events facility will be constructed first. Work on that building, which will be north of the current school building, is scheduled to start in October, as is a remodel of the schools music facilities.


Later in the project, a 15,000-square-foot second-story addition, which will house nine additional classrooms, will be constructed and all of the classroom and office space in the main building will be remodeled, Cannon says.


All of the work is scheduled to be completed by the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year. When its finished, the school will have a total of 203,000 square feet of floor space, about 70,000 square feet more than it has now.


Northwest Architectural Co., of Spokane, designed the improvements. The school, which currently has about 860 students, will continue to operate during construction.