Central Valley School District has started construction on its new Riverbend Elementary School, which it’s developing at 17720 E. Mission, in Spokane Valley.

Marla Nunberg Genther, director of communications for the district, says the $19 million project is being funded through the $121.9 million construction bond measure approved by voters in 2015, in addition to state matching funds. 

She says MMEC Architecture & Interiors, of Spokane, designed Riverbend Elementary, and Spokane Valley-based T.W. Clark Construction LLC is the general contractor for the project. 

Plans show the 58,000-square-foot building will have a 502-student capacity and include 26 classrooms for kindergarten through fifth grade. The site also will feature new playground equipment and a 110-stall parking lot. 

Nunberg Genther says Riverbend Elementary is expected to be completed by July 2018 and to be ready for students to move in by September of that year.

The district has completed several other remodeling projects funded through the bond, measure including projects at Chester, Greenacres, Sunrise, and Opportunity elementary schools, and Evergreen Middle School, as well as construction of a new building for Liberty Creek Elementary School.

Nunberg Genther says passage of the bond measure also made it possible for the district to apply for and receive a $20.8 million class-size reduction grant from the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction last year. 

  “The class-reduction grant was applied toward Liberty Creek Elementary, which freed up additional funding for both the remodel of North Pines Middle School and construction of Riverbend Elementary,” she says.