Members of the Chehalis School Board use gold shovels to toss dirt into the air during the ceremonial groundbreaking of the new Jim Lintott Primary School and Orin Smith Intermediate School on Friday afternoon.
Gold shovels used for a ceremonial groundbreaking are stuck in a pile of dirt after members of the Chehalis School Board used the shovels for a photo opportunity on Friday afternoon at the construction of the new Jim Lintott Primary School and Orin Smith Intermediate School along Southwest 20th Street in Chehalis.
Staff members from Olympic Elementary pose for a picture at the the construction site of the new Jim Lintott Primary School and Orin Smith Intermediate School along Southwest 20th Street in Chehalis on Friday afternoon.
People tour the construction site for two new Chehalis schools with workers from FORMA Construction on Friday afternoon during a ceremonial groundbreaking.
A pump is used to remove excess water from the construction site of two new Chehalis schools on Friday afternoon.
Chehalis School Board members and district staff gathered Friday afternoon with golden shovels to ceremonially break ground on a long-awaited project to build two new elementary schools.
“I started teaching here in 1971,” said Chehalis School Board member Vicki Daniels. “I am thrilled. I’m thrilled for our teachers. I’m thrilled for our students.”
The students are excited as well.
“I think they like to watch the dirt get moved around,” said Chehalis School Board member Joe Clark. “Even the littlest ones, they’re excited. They know they’re getting a new school.”
The school district in January awarded a $24.415 million grant to FORMA Construction, of Olympia, for Phase 1 of the project, which includes the construction of Jim Lintott Primary School and site work for both schools.
Currently, FORMA crews are preparing the site for a foundation, owner Jace Munson said Thursday. Crews will prefabricate walls during the foundation work.
“You’ll see a building pop up pretty quickly,” he said. “I would say this summer you’ll see some vertical construction.”
The building should have a roof by fall, he added.
Phase 2 of the project, primarily the construction of Orin Smith Intermediate School, will open for bids this summer. The district originally planned to build one new school and renovate a second, but later learned it would be more cost-effective to build two new elementary schools.
“We’re really excited about the opportunity to build two new schools,” Clark said.
February’s near-constant rainfall gave the project one of its first snags, board members and district staff said.
“Well, there was a lot of rain in February,” Superintendent Ed Rothlin said. “The ground is a little more saturated than we’d hoped.”
However, the project is still on schedule, he said.
Board members Daniels and Colleen State said contractors will add rocks and possibly a geogrid product to stabilize the muddy land before building the schools’ foundations.
State said the issue came up at a good time.
“We didn’t have to undo anything,” she said.
Both schools are scheduled to be complete in September 2018, Rothlin said.
The district is building the two new elementary schools to replace R.E. Bennett and Cascade with the help of a $36 million bond passed in February 2015.
The schools will be on a joint campus with the middle school. One will house pre-k through second grade, while the other will be for third grade through fifth grade.
The schools are being built on land donated by the late Gail and Carolyn Shaw.
