To ensure the first phase of its school facility improvement plan is completed on time and within budget, Spokane Public Schools has hired Greg Brown, former director of construction for Bethel School District near Tacoma, as director of capital projects.

Brown will oversee the actual construction of bond-funded projects. Coincidentally he is a graduate of Shadle Park High School, one of the schools that will be remodeled.
Brown oversaw $114 million of facility improvement projects for Bethel. His charge in Spokane is to implement the facility improvement construction projects approved by voters in March of 2003. The cost of the Spokane projects is approximately $180 million.

Brown will work with district technical staff and Principal on Special Assignment Mike McGuire who is charged with ensuring the six schools (replacement of Lidgerwood, Lincoln Heights, and Ridgeview elementary schools and remodeling of Shadle, Ferris and Rogers high schools) will be designed to meet future learning needs. McGuire was the former principal at North Central High School.

McGuire, Brown, and architectural firms selected by the District have lead two task forces in establishing district-wide elementary and high school educational specifications and programming standards. These documents, which are capable of changing with technology and time will be used in all future modernization projects in the district.

“We are indeed fortunate to hire professionals of this caliber to work with our team in ensuring our long-term facility improvement plan is successful,” said Dr. Mark Anderson, associate superintendent of support services. “Greg’s experience in Bethel, as well as in Tacoma and Puyallup where he also led construction projects, will blend in nicely with Mike’s extensive instructional expertise. We know that taxpayers want us to design and create schools that will serve children for the next 40 or 50 years, and to do that well, we need experts in both instruction and construction.”

Brown, a Spokane native, attended the old Browne Elementary, the former Glover Junior High, and graduated from Shadle Park and the school of architecture at Washington State University.