For 116 years, Adams Elementary has served students living near South Regal Street and 37th Avenue.
A proposed replacement for the aging building would extend that service to kids across the South Hill by incorporating a Boys & Girls Club into the new school.
In an interview with Spokane Public Radio (SPR) on Friday, Boys & Girls Clubs of Spokane County (BGCSC) CEO Wendy Drum said this partnership fills a need for after school programming in the south of Spokane.
“We have this arrangement with quite a few other school districts right now, where during the school day, the classrooms are used for K-12 education,” she said. “And then after school, when those rooms are typically empty, we come in and we use a few of those classrooms or a few spaces to provide after school activities until about 6 or 6:30 every night.”
As part of Spokane Public Schools’ November 2025 bond proposal, a new Adams would replace an antiquated facility with a modern hub for youth development and community engagement, similar to a North Spokane project planned for Madison Elementary under the Together Spokane proposal.
Adams Principal Beth Nye said the current building isn’t equipped for the needs of today’s students and its outdated design lacks essential accessibility features, like ADA-compliant ramps, requiring some students to attend schools outside their neighborhood to receive needed accommodations.
And despite a 1917 addition to the school and three portable units installed in the 1970s, space constraints persist at the school.
“We affectionately call our gym a ‘cafetorium,’” Principal Nye told SPR. “It is our gym, it is our cafeteria, and it is also our auditorium. And, for example, today we're having promotion here, so we need to use it as an auditorium, which, you know, creates a situation for lunch. So, we're going to have outside lunch today, which the kids will enjoy. PE classes will be outside as well. Thankfully, it's a bright, sunny day, but had it been raining today, we would have to scramble very quickly to figure out what our alternate plan was going to be.”
Design work and permitting for a new facility was completed with funding from the 2015 bond, meaning the project is shovel ready. With voter approval this November, construction on the new school could begin in early 2026 and be ready by the start of the 2027-28 school year.
BGCSC have committed capital funding and programming to the project in a bid to expand their services to a new area of need.
In an interview with KHQ on Friday, CEO Wendy Drum said replacing Adams in this way is about reimagining what a school can be for its students, families and the entire community.
"So, having a club versus not having a club, it is essentially [a question of] ‘Where do these kids go when they aren't in school or when their parents aren't available at home for them?’" she said.
Learn more about this and other projects at TogetherSpokane.org.
IN THE NEWS
Spokane Public Radio: South Hill school would pair with Boys and Girls Club at new facility
KHQ News: Spokane's Adams Elementary plans new club for kids' after-school safety