Twin Falls Middle School nears completion
March 26, 2008
By Laura Geggel
As the newly planted trees mature and the surrounding elk run becomes indented with hoof marks, Clint Marsh hopes Twin Falls Middle School will look like it naturally fits in with the landscape.
Twin Falls Middle School, approved for construction as part of the May 2003 school bond for $22.7 million, is two months ahead of schedule, nearly 80 percent complete. It is also nearly $6 million over budget.
Ten of the 40 acres originally bought for the school have been slated for a future elementary school and another 10 acres have been set aside for the elk run, to be home to a herd of 30 to 40 elk.
The school is set to open to a herd of students Sept. 3, who will soon populate the three wings, dubbed north, middle and south fork. The Kaleetan Gymnasium, Cascade Commons and Clara M. Vinup Library are named for the geography and people - in the library’s case, a women’s activist - from the area.
“The first year will be focused on creating a school culture. We’re researching the other middle schools to learn from them to create vision, policy and procedures,” said Ruth Moen, the new principal.
Moen is currently principal at Snoqualmie Middle School and previously directed Chief Kanim Middle School.
The school, with help from students, recently chose a school mascot and colors. The Raven will be the mascot, and the colors will be silver, black and dark green.
The school got off to a shaky start in November 2005 after the school board delayed construction a year, due to erratic student enrollment. The extra year came in handy, said Marsh, construction program manager for the Snoqualmie Valley School District. All seven permits took two years to secure, and three permits are still pending.
The budget was revised twice, once to account for the year-long delay, and a second time to readjust for the price of steel, increasing the cost to $28.5 million. Impact fees paid for the difference, Marsh said.
Wings from the school jut out like pinwheels attached to the commons in the center. Each wing has seven general classrooms, a computer lab, a specialty classroom - for life skills, special education and a flex room - a teacher preparatory room and a custodial closet. Active boards, a student-teacher interactive white board, will be found in some classrooms. The science labs come with acid-resistant piping and chemical resistant countertops.
“It’s an academy within an academy,” Marsh said. “Each wing can be a building on its own.”
During public events in the commons, the doors to the wings can be shut. Even the restrooms have vestibules that allow teachers to hear what is happening within the restroom without walking around the corner.
Other security checks include fewer doors accessible from the outside. The only entrance that will be open during the school day leads to the main office, requiring visitors to sign in and pick up a visitor’s badge.
“We want it to be a community school that can double as a community center,” Marsh said.
Some classrooms are tied together to create double-use spaces. For instance, the band room can double as a dressing room for the theater.
Marsh also commended the use of natural light from the high windows.
“Everywhere in this building, you’re looking at some part of the mountain,” he said.
The high ceilings raised construction costs, but sunlight will save the school in electric bills.
Though bulbs may have been exchanged for windows, the engineers did not skimp on the wires. Miles of cable run throughout the walls, giving any classroom in the school the ability to have wireless Internet access, although Marsh said most wireless networks would not be turned on permanently due to security issues.
Teachers at Chief Kanim and Snoqualmie middle schools were given the opportunity to transfer to Twin Falls. Shawn Lawrence, a seventh-grade social studies and language arts teacher from North Bend currently at Chief Kanim, is happily making the move.
“I’m thrilled and excited about it,” Lawrence said. “It doesn’t happen very often that you get the opportunity to build a new school and culture from the ground up.”
Most of the teachers at Twin Falls have been assigned, but Moen is still interviewing people for the band and choir position in addition to a counselor, assistant principal and librarian.
Moen plans to kick off the school year with an assembly.
“We’ll learn how the architects, electricians, designers - how all of the teams - worked together and share the story of the construction with the school,” she said.
The school’s construction staff will hand over the care of the school to faculty, who will in turn give it to the students, “so they will understand the thinking, planning and teamwork that went into Twin Falls,” Moen said.
Reporter Laura Geggel can be reached at 392-6434 x221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
Comments
Got something to say?
