West Valley School wrapped up a community meeting Thursday with a more defined vision for expansion.

CTA Architects Engineers, along with members from a steering committee, presented five layout ideas and concluded with a tentative concept that combines desirable components from all five. The district has contracted CTA to do master planning for $26,520.

“This relieves some pressure on your current space needs and looks to the future,” said CTA educational facility planner Nick Salmon.

This early concept looks at the long-term needs of the district and involves multiple phases that may be implemented over several years to accommodate growth and allow the district time to acquire more funding. 

The first phase would cost about $7 million and add 30,000 square feet of new construction to the existing building, which is about 60,000 square feet. This phase includes 13 classrooms — essentially a middle school wing for grades six through eight — two music rooms, a flexible area for eating and educational use, a teacher-preparation room, expanded library and administrative offices and a kitchen.

Currently, the district does not have a kitchen and food is prepared by Evergreen School District. Steering committee members said having its own kitchen would allow the district to provide more healthy options.

Two of the classrooms are designated as flexible spaces.

“This is what we call 21st-century learning — we’re trying to get away from just a bunch of classrooms with a hallway,” said CTA architect David Koel. He noted that modern learning involves more flexible spaces.

An access road would also be built behind the school for student pickups and dropoffs and kitchen deliveries.

Optional projects would include a gym that could be used by the community and a student commons area.

Seven million dollars is currently the district’s maximum bonding capacity. Growth from commercial properties within the district has significantly increased the district’s taxable value. Over time, renovations could be made to the existing building as funds allow.

Ultimately, the plan will evolve and spaces will be redefined to increase space for a total of 100,000 square feet to accommodate up to 700 students.

The original portion of the building would become a wing for kindergarten through second grade and another wing would house third through fifth grades. Each grade level would have between three to four classrooms, including special-education classrooms, flexible classrooms and shared areas. 

“There will be a nicer balance. No one piece of the school will get so huge that kids don’t know each other,” Salmon said, noting the rooms will fan out from the school’s core.

The concept also includes a new football field, play areas, entry walkways and new parking area.

Salmon said if the school were to grow beyond 700 students, it would be a better option to look at building a new school.

The school is currently at capacity with 520 students in a building meant for 470. According to Superintendent Cal Ketchum, if a current 5 percent rate of growth continued over 10 years, enrollment would increase to more than 800 students. 

While safety and increased taxes were concerns from some attending the meeting, a prevailing comment from parents and teachers was the hope to finally move classes out of the basement and from storage areas remodeled to function as classrooms. 

In 2012, a storage room was made into a computer room. In 2011, the stage was converted into a classroom. Jason Williams is a parent of one seventh- and one fourth-grader at West Valley.

“My fourth-grader is in one of the basement classrooms,” Williams said. “It smells like mold. It’s musty and dirty down there. It’s not a true classroom.”

Third-grade teacher Wendy Schwarz said a couple of years ago the toilets flooded, and water seeped into the ceiling of the basement classrooms. 

“The goal would be to get the kids out of there,” Schwarz said.

If the school district is unable to pass a bond issue and move forward with expansion, the alternatives may be to increase class sizes or bring in modular classrooms.

If the district chooses to go with a $7 million bond request, at current interest rates, owners of a $200,000 home may see taxes go up about $174.97 annually. Owners of a $300,000 home could expect to pay roughly $262.45 more, Bridget Ekstrom of D.A. Davidson said.

The caveat is that the district is expected to retire a $1.925 million bond issue July 1, 2015, and there are ways the district could mitigate overlap of a new and retired bond, according to Ekstrom. It’s possible that when the existing bond is retired, the owner of a $200,000 home would instead only have to pay an extra $97.23 annually, and the owner of a $300,000 home would pay $116.61 more.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at [email protected].