A bird’s eye view of Elementary #18

August 2019 Bond Project Update

Site plan for Elementary School #18

Planning for Elementary #18 is well underway and the site plan and floor plans for the school were approved at the August 13th School Board meeting.

The school, which will be located on Waller road, north of 176th Street East, will house 700 students starting in the fall of 2021. The school will also have space for enough portables to house another 200 students in the future. When all is said and done, Elementary #18 will be the largest elementary school in the district.

Knowing this, and knowing the current challenges our schools have with traffic congestion, the new plans include a huge area for parents to pick up and drop off their students before and after school. This will help minimize the impact on the surrounding roads. There is also a large parking area planned, and the documents show spaces to park 17 school buses, as the location of the campus and lack of sidewalks, means few, if any students will be able to walk to school.

During the School Board meeting, Director of Construction Cathie Carlson said the plans also indicate the district will try to leave as many trees as possible around the perimeter of the property.

Plans for Elementary #18 were presented, reviewed and approved at the August 13 School Board meeting.

The final building design has two wings, each of which will have a shared breakout space that can be used for a number of different activities.

The school will also feature two serving lines in the cafeteria to help the 900 students get lunch as quickly as possible.

Elementary #18 will also feature an auxiliary gym. This can be used as a flexible space, ready for gym class, orchestra class, or anything else the school needs.

As previously reported, each kindergarten and first grade classroom will have their own bathrooms. Along with the normal multi-stall bathrooms in the building, Elementary #18 will also feature 11 single-stall, gender-neutral bathrooms throughout the building.

All water fountains in the building will also have bottle filling stations, per new code from Pierce County.

Designers and district officials are now making decisions about some of the more detailed planning, including security measures like door-access controls and camera systems.

Elementary #18 construction is scheduled to begin in Spring 2020, with a completion date of Fall 2021.