West Valley School’s $6.8 million expansion project is on budget and on schedule to be completed in August.

Interior walls were being painted as West Valley Superintendent Cal Ketchum gave a short tour of the new addition March 27. He estimates the majority of construction on the new addition will be completed within a month.

Then demolition would start on the main entrance of the existing building and administrative offices around May 4 in order for the completed school to open for the 2015-16 school year. 

The timing of the demolition originally was to begin toward the end of May.

The last day of school, historically scheduled in June, will be May 29 this year to accommodate construction work. Construction crews will make efforts to work on the main entrance when students are not in school to avoid distractions, Ketchum said.

The new addition will house grades six through eight, leaving room to grow in the district which has experienced high enrollment growth for years.

Voters approved a $6.8 million bond issue in October 2013 to build an approximately 36,000-square-foot addition. The expansion includes 15 classrooms, administrative offices, a media center/library, auxiliary gym and kitchen.

“We’ll definitely have room for growth,” Ketchum said.

While students are off for spring break, construction crews have been busy working on the addition. Ketchum estimated 80 to 85 percent of drywall has been installed.

Ongoing construction of the addition, located on the south side of the school, hasn’t affected students much except for temporarily downsizing the library, according to Ketchum.

“It’s been pretty seamless for most part,” Ketchum said.

One of the features of each new classroom is a movable wall. Ketchum stopped at one classroom to show how it worked. 

While people may be familiar with accordion-style panel walls, a more contemporary design feature in schools, commercial buildings — even homes — is an overhead door that operates like a garage door. The overhead doors in the new classrooms have solid panels and feature a set of windows looking into what will be a common area. 

The idea is that teachers will be able to open up the wall and extend the classroom into the common areas.

“The reason we didn’t do glass all the way down the door was more of a safety factor,” Ketchum said, in addition to retaining privacy.

As construction nears completion on the addition, the district has been working on choosing new furniture to fill it. 

“We’ll have to order furniture by mid- to late April to be able to get it here in time and set it up,” Ketchum said.

Two middle school classrooms have been using demonstration sets of furniture to guide the selection process. The demonstration desks aren’t the typical square or rectangular shape. Some desks are shaped like trapezoids, while another set has arced corners allowing for numerous configurations. 

Flexibility and functionality are key concepts behind the new addition, from furniture and storage to walls — leaving classroom configurations up to teachers. The only room to have fixed cabinetry is the science lab, Ketchum said.

Budget-wise, the district is in good shape. A contingency fund currently contains close to $900,000. Ketchum said this is due to a lower-than-expected base bids for the project, among other factors.

“We’re lucky there’s been no change orders to any great degree. We also changed a few things that have been favorable for us,” Ketchum said giving an example of keeping stained concrete flooring in the girls locker room rather than replacing it with tile as initially planned. “That saved us $8,000 or $9,000.”

The contingency fund is primarily for unforeseen expenses.

“You can assume nothing bad is going to take place, but you can’t predict that, so it’s nice to have that contingency fund,” Ketchum said.

If builders do not run into any obstacles, contingency money is planned for upgrades to the existing building such as replacing siding, windows, exterior doors and interior paint. 

The district is currently seeking bids for those upgrades. Any additional contingency money may be used to purchase equipment for the new kitchen if the school isn’t awarded a $350,000 Quality Schools Grant. West Valley currently is 41st on a list of 53 applicants whose projects depend on funding from the Legislature. 

“We’re still hoping for that, but we’re planning like we’re not going to get it,” Ketchum said. 

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.