LWSD planning facility improvements

The Lakewood School District plans to build a new middle school STEM lab, a new Cougar Creek Elementary roof and a new district office with leftover funds from their bond.

After the completion of the new Lakewood High School and other projects that were part of the bond the district received $11.5 million in Washington state matching funds.

After other projects such as portables and new ball fields for the district were completed, about $7 million of that $11.5 million remains.

Lakewood school officials talked with locals at a May 6 meeting about what they planned to build with the remaining funds.

Those projects include a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) lab at Lakewood Middle School, a new stadium roof at Lakewood High School, merging the transportation and facilities into one building, a new district office and a roof at Cougar Creek Elementary.

The Cougar Creek Elementary roof is costing a lot in maintenance, said Dale Leach, director of learning support and operations at the district.

“The roof has exceeded its warranty and life expectancy,” he said. “With all the snow in February we started to have to do some patching … water was getting into the infrastructure."

A roofing consultant said the roof could have a year or less of life left in it, said Leach, and a more permanent solution is needed for the building.

The Lakewood High School stadium has seen a lot of improvements in the last couple of years.

“We just spent a lot of money on a new surface for the track, lights at the stadium, and LED lights in the bathroom,” said Leach.

The next step is a new roof.

“There are a lot of birds that roost in the space between the iron works and the ceiling,” said Leach. This causes bird droppings on the seats that have to be scrubbed down before every game.

The district used to pressure wash, however they learned they don’t have the water drainage capacity to do that too often.

“So now we only pressure wash for the really big events like graduation,” said Leach.

Lakewood Middle School will receive a new STEM lab with 3D printers and CNC machines.

“We’ve been looking at how we can promote those kinds of technical skills that we do at the high school,” said Leach.

“We have lots of kids that need that hands on experience,” he said.

The lab is something the district has been looking at for a while and is meant to provide exposure to technical skills at an earlier level for Lakewood students.

The lab would be in the middle school’s old shop room, which currently hosts the district’s facility department.

Because of that, the facilities department would move to the transportation facility which would be expanded.

“We’re already permitted because we planned to expand our existing transportation facility,” said Leach.

The new facility would bring together a lot of the district’s departments which are scattered throughout multiple campuses right now.

The technology department and food service department are both located elsewhere, but would be closer to administration with a new merged building.

Finally, a new district office would be built.

“I’ve been a part of many school districts and building a new district office has always been a hard sell,” said Leach.

“What I haven’t seen before is a district office made of two houses built in the 1920s and 1930s that are now structurally unsound,” said Leach.

Even if they wanted to remodel, they likely couldn’t because of the old “crumbling” foundation, said Leach.

The district has spent a lot of funds in the last couple of years on maintenance to the building, such as for a septic system replacement.

“Every time there is a wind storm we have tiles that blow off and need to be replaced,” said Leach. “There just comes a time when a facility ages out."