Spokane Public Schools is lining up its next three major projects, valued at nearly $60 million, that will be under construction this year and next.

The projects are the $36.6 million Salk Middle School replacement, the $14.1 million North Central cafeteria and commons addition, and the $8.7 million second phase of the Newtech Skill Center expansion and renovation.

The Salk and North Central projects will be the first major projects to be funded through the $145 million bond measure district voters approved in February. The Newtech project will be paid for with state funds, and the Salk project also is expected to be subsidized with a state match of $11.6 million.

The school district recently awarded T.W. Clark Construction LLC, of Spokane, the contract for the $8.7 million Newtech second phase, says Greg Forsyth, the district’s capital projects director.

The project will include renovating a 28,000-square-foot, single-story building on the Newtech campus, at 4141 N. Regal. It will upgrade the building to match the 35,000-square-foot expansion phase of the project completed recently on the south side of the complex.

Bernardo|Wills Architects PC, of Spokane, designed both phases.

The second phase is expected to be completed by the fall of 2016.

The Newtech Skill Center serves about 700 high school students from 13 school districts in the Spokane area. The skill center offers instruction in several technical-education programs, including media production, Web development, construction technology, criminal justice, veterinary assistance, applied health, automotive mechanics, cosmetology, culinary arts, and welding.

SPS recently named Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, the general contractor/construction manager for the Salk project, and earlier had selected Graham Construction & Management Inc., of Spokane Valley, as the GC/CM for the North Central project, Forsyth says.

“It brings the contractor on as a partner through the design process,” he says, adding that the GC/CM approach can result in time savings and greater budget control.

Forsyth says Garco and Graham will help put together bid packages for their respective projects that will go out for subcontractor bids next spring.

The Salk project will involve constructing a 97,000-square-foot, two-story classroom and administrative building along Francis Avenue on the southern part of the campus.

The new school building is scheduled to open to students by fall 2018. The current 142,000-square-foot school building at 6411 N. Alberta, which was built in 1961, will be demolished, he says.

Including a new gym there that was completed last summer, the new school will be similar in size, but more efficient than the original structure school, Forsyth says.

The Salk gym project was one of the last big projects funded through the $288 million 2009 bond measure.

On the North Central campus, at 1600 N. Howard, the 44,000-square-foot commons building will be erected north of a science and technology building that was constructed under the 2009 bond.

Spokane-based NAC|Architecture is designing the cafeteria and commons project, which is scheduled to be completed by summer 2018.

The new building will provide a link between the science and technology building and older parts of the high school complex, Forsyth says. The structure will have enough space to serve all North Central students in two lunch periods, enabling the high school to have a closed campus during the day.

The district’s finance division is scheduled next month to sell its first round of bonds authorized by the measure passed earlier this year, says Mark Anderson, the district’s associate superintendent of school support services.

“We’ll be doing about $50 million out of the $145 million,” Anderson says. Piper Jaffray Cos., the Minneapolis-based investment bank and asset-management concern, will handle the sale, he says.

The district also plans to refinance some of its 2009 debt, due to lower interest rates that now are available.

Linda McDermott, the district’s finance director, says refinancing $36.9 million of debt will result in $2.8 million savings to taxpayers.

“The difference in borrowing costs is that significant,” McDermott says.

Looking ahead, a $25.7 million Franklin Elementary modernization and addition project is in the pre-design stage, and ALSC Architects PS, of Spokane, will start work on schematic designs in the spring, Forsyth says.

The project likely will go out to bid in early 2017, and construction is expected to start that spring and to be completed in late 2019.

The project will include preserving and remodeling 17,000 square feet of the original structure and constructing a 40,000-square-foot addition, Forsyth says, adding that the addition will replace portable classrooms currently being used at the campus, at 2726 E. 17th.

The original brick school building was constructed in 1909. 

“We will apply for historic restoration recognition,” Forsyth says.

Other projects that are to be funded under the most recent bond measure and to be constructed between 2017 and 2022 include a $22.4 million Linwood Elementary replacement, a $13.6 million Shaw Middle School gym replacement, a $4.5 million Lewis and Clark High School addition, and Adams Elementary and Wilson Elementary classroom additions and upgrades totaling $9.5 million.

The project list also includes $80 million for other additions and portables, technology upgrades, safety and security improvements, property purchases, and smaller facility improvements districtwide.