New & Replacement Middle Schools

Among the projects included in the November 2018 voter-approved $495.3 million bond are three middle school replacements and three new middle schools. As we redraw attendance boundaries throughout the district, we will also be shifting to 6th-8th grade middle school model. 

Program Design

How will the middle school experience change with the addition of sixth graders to the student body? A Middle School Design Work-Group comprised of students, parents, staff, and administrators developed guiding principles that will shape the middle school experience for students. These principles were adopted by the SPS School Board.

Facility Design

Designing new middle schools provides a chance to think about what works well and what could be improved in our school buildings. We started the visioning process in January with a Student Visioning Workshop for New Middle Schools, including 30 current eighth and ninth graders. Then, in February, a Community Facility Design Forum for New Middle Schools was held to include more than 90 staff, parents, students, administrators and community members with provocateurs from across the country stretching our thinking about new middle school designs.

Lastly, we held a three-day Design Summit, funded by the Schmidt Foundation, on imagining innovative schools. Thirty SPS parents, students, staff and community members participated with nationally acclaimed educational design experts. "Design team" participants challenged each other to re-imagine Spokane middle schools and presented their work, which included an impressive collection of insight, experience, and creativity as they thought about promoting connectivity, flexibility, and collaboration.

Design work, which will be done by local firms over the next year, will focus first on Shaw and Glover middle schools. Find the report from the Design Summit here.

Timelines

A phased approach to middle school replacement has many benefits:

• Shaw and Glover replaced – 2021-22
  • Takes advantage of state construction matching funds
  • Leverages existing staff for planning
  • Provides an additional year to plan, staff, and budget for new schools
  • Provides additional time to change school boundaries
• Denny Yasuhara MS (northeast) and Pauline Flett MS (northwest) built – 2022-23
  • Building both new schools at the same time reduces feeder pattern complexity and allows for moving all north side 6th graders into middle school at the same time
  • Relieves overcrowding at 22 of the school district’s 34 elementary schools
• Sacajawea and Carla Peperzak middle schools built – 2023-24
  • Replacing Sacajawea and opening the new Carla Peperzak Middle School concurrently allows for moving all south side 6th graders into middle school at the same time
  • Relieves overcrowding at the remaining 12 elementary schools

Committees

• Partnership Policy (includes representatives from the City and SPS)
• School Design (includes parents, staff, community)
• HR Staffing (focus on: assignment, transfer, recruitment)
• School Support Services (focus on: transportation, equipment, security, furnishings, supplies)
• Teaching & Learning (focus on: middle school program design, curriculum, instructional technology, option schools, special programs, extracurricular)