Ground Broken on New Era for Clover Park Schools

On a cloudy Thursday evening, a feeling of success was in the air.

More than 100 people, including Lakewood City Council members, educators from the Clover Park School District, community members and students, turned out for the groundbreaking ceremony on the new Hudtloff Middle School.

A construction bond approved by voters in 2010 will fund construction of the new middle school. Hudtloff will be the third school in the district to be rebuilt in the past decade; a 2006 bond funded the Lakeview Hope Academy, which opened in 2008, and a new Lakes High School was unveiled in January and is expected to be completed by the end of August.

Hudtloff, which will be expanded to about 99,000 square feet – 12,760 square feet larger than the existing building built in 1957 – is the first of three schools to be constructed with the $92 million bond. The project is estimated to cost about $48 million, which includes $10 million in state funds, and be completed by the start of the 2013-14 school year.

In remarks to the crowd gathered under a blue canopy in anticipation of rain, Superintendent Debbie LeBeau thanked the community for its support.

“The confidence and support our community has displayed in Clover Park School District’s construction projects over the last five years is groundbreaking, in my opinion, especially in light of this economy,” she said.

“This is a visible beginning of a new era for the Clover Park School District.”

School Board president Walt Kellcy Jr. felt similarly in thanking the voters for approving the bond.

“Because of you, we are able to provide our students with a state-of-the-art, attractive educational facility that will be more functional and efficient,” he said.

In addition to building new sports fields and a music room, the school will also feature a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) lab for students to do robotics, which are currently done in a portable classroom. It will be connected to a manufacturing lab in hopes that students will be able to build and then program their work.

Kellcy said that he believes the new modern campus will build school pride and contribute to a more positive learning environment—and hopefully draw more families into the district.

“This helps us in our efforts to provide a quality education for each child,” Kellcy said.

To Lakewood Mayor Doug Richardson, who chaired the citizens committee that recommended to the school board which schools should be rebuilt, the partnership between the city and school district seemed natural.

Richardson said that prospective residents want to know about the schools—and the families of prospective students in Clover Park schools want to know about the community.

“The city and the Clover Park School District, whether they want to be or not, are linked,” he said. “And of course we want to be.”

The project officially kicked off with the breaking of ground by LeBeau, Hudtloff principal Moureen David, Richardson, the other present School Board members and Hudtloff ASB president Ryan Engardo to cheers and applause from the crowd. The group then moved inside for refreshments, music by Hudtloff’s eighth-grade jazz band and a chance to look at the intricate model.

Standing beside it, David smiled a little wistfully. In eight years as principal, she has gotten used to the sprawling campus.

“Everything is in reach; you can get to every wing quickly,” she said. “But right now, it just seems like—and it will probably not be true—but it seems like because it will be two stories, it will be a different sense of proximity.  Right now, I can be in any classroom I want to be quickly.”

So is it hard to move on?

“Yes, it’s a little bittersweet,” David said. “But it’s time to say goodbye.”