Feb 26, 2019
At this time last year, Kelso citizens overwhelmingly voted to approve a construction bond and educational levy to improve the learning experience for our students. We are so thankful for the support and generosity of our community, and continue to work diligently to...
Jan 18, 2019
Last week, a small team traveled to Tahoma School District for a tour of Lake Wilderness Elementary School. The school has 940 students — 800 K-5 and 140 pre-K. The team was there in time to see the morning arrival of nearly 200 drop-offs and 13 buses. They met...
Jan 4, 2019
After realizing we needed to make some changes to our construction plans, we started asking for input from our Kelso community. So far, we’ve held a public hearing, an open house, and our Superintendent Mary Beth Tack, along with Executive Director of Business...
Dec 13, 2018
We’re holding a public hearing and two open houses to invite the community to share their thoughts on a proposed change in construction plans for replacing aging elementary schools. (Read more about that here.) The public hearing will be held Monday, December...
Nov 13, 2018
Due to a combination of unanticipated conditions that are causing costs to be higher than originally predicted, we’re considering combining two of the three new elementary schools into one larger school at the Lexington site. Along with the unprecedented rise of labor...
Sep 25, 2018
We’ve selected Olympia-based FORMA Construction Company to be our General Contractor/Construction Manager (GCCM) to build the first two of our three new elementary schools. On September 11, a committee from the district interviewed two finalists from the bidding...
Sep 14, 2018
Design Advisory Committees have been meeting with the architects in August and September to create schematic designs for Wallace Elementary and the new elementary at Lexington. After their final meeting later this month, we’ll have some drawings to show the...
Jul 24, 2018
Painting a room seems pretty simple, and with the right tools doesn’t take very long. But before the brushes and rollers come out, there’s a lot of critical prep work that needs to be done. Like moving furniture, masking molding and fixtures, spackling nail holes, and...
Jun 26, 2018
We took a look at a few more schools in Tacoma last week to get additional function and design ideas for the three new elementary schools we’ll be building. With the great work of the Ed Spec team, notes from the open house, and several great school examples in...
Jun 12, 2018
As we begin the design work for our three new schools, and all the work we’re doing to improve the learning environments for our children, we’ve created some guiding principles to follow. Here they are: Provide integrated and flexible teaching and learning...
