Two schools under construction with a total value of $151.9 million—Sacajawea Middle School and Carla Peperzak Middle School—are on schedule to be completed and ready for the 2023-2024 school year, says Greg Forsyth, director of capital projects for Spokane Public Schools.

Sacajawea Middle School is located at 401 E. 33rd, on Spokane’s South Hill, on about 20 acres of land and is being built adjacent to the old middle school structure it will replace.

The contractor for the 139,000-square-foot project is Spokane-based Lydig Construction Inc. ALSC Architects PS, also of Spokane, designed the school, which Forsyth says is valued at $75.1 million.

Peperzak Middle School is located at 2620 E. 63rd, on the Moran Prairie. The project has a total budget of $76.8 million. Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, is the general contractor for the 149,000-square-foot school, and Integrus Architecture PS, also of Spokane, designed it.

Peperzak is the last of three new middle schools, and Sacajawea is the last of three replacement school projects to be funded through a $495.3 million SPS bond approved by voters in 2018. Peperzak and Sacajawea middle schools will accommodate students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, and each school will have a capacity of 825 students.

The schools also will have “academic neighborhoods,” which are clusters of core classrooms with shared central space to enable students to meet and collaborate on learning projects, says Forsyth. Once Sacajawea is completed, the old middle school will be demolished, and the space will be converted into two softball fields, he says.