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Construction & Planning » Ridgeline High School Construction

Ridgeline High School Construction

QUICK FACTS:

Web site: www.rhs.cvsd.org

Principal: Jesse Hardt

Mascot: Falcons

Address: 20150 E Country Vista Drive, Liberty Lake, WA 99019

Architect | Contractor | Process: ALSC Architects | Garco Construction | Design-Bid-Build

Groundbreaking Ceremony: August 29, 2019

Construction Period:  March 2019 - August 2021

Dedication: Tuesday, August 31, 2021

School Opens | Students Move In: September 2021

Sq Ft: 242,466

Student Capacity: 1,600

Total Completion Cost:  $98.2 million estimated construction from 2018 construction bond and state construction match

Key Features: Brand new school including upgraded safety/security, direct day light/windows in every classroom, new classroom furniture, new parking lots and on-site traffic flow.

Over 430 name and mascot ideas – along with their rationale – were gathered for several weeks. A naming committee reviewed all the input in order to find the one name that would best portray the school community for years to come. The CVSD School Board ultimately decided on the name on November 26, 2018 after the committee gave their top three recommendations.

Ridgeline High School rose to the top because it fits the geographic characteristics of the area. “It is a powerful name that represents the beauty of the views of the hills surrounding the school site to the north, south, and east,” states Jesse Hardt, the new Ridgeline High School Principal.

CVSD Board President Cindy McMullen, who participated on the committee asserts, “I love that Ridgeline combines the beauty of the location with the element of strength that Central Valley schools – especially our high schools – are famous for.”

The 14-member committee consisted of the board president, principal, parents, students and teachers. Eryn Lewis, an eighth grader from Greenacres Middle School that participated on the committee adds, “The name Ridgeline High excites me because I had a small part in choosing it and it is something new and important. My favorite part about the name is that it reflects the beauty of our surroundings and our community. I believe that Ridgeline High will be an amazing school!”

Principal Hardt concludes, “The name, Ridgeline, gives this new school community the best opportunity to create our own culture and tell our story.”

What happens next? A new mascot and school colors will soon be chosen so that the distinct Ridgeline High School community identity can continue to take shape.

CVSD selected the site between Country Vista Drive and Sprague Avenue just west of Henry Road as the site for its third comprehensive high school, Ridgeline. This location will ensure our commitment to a fall 2021 school opening, reduce construction costs, and provide better traffic and neighborhood access. In our 2018 school construction bond, we promised to build practical functional schools on time and on budget. This site allows us to keep that promise and it's only 0.8 miles from the original site, which had some unforeseen challenges.

New site benefits include:

  • Provides significant cost savings in construction
  • Provides a visible, centralized location with improved traffic and neighborhood access, including good traffic flow on and off Country Vista, separated bus and parent traffic, and 945 parking spaces with parking adjacent to sports fields
  • Includes more cost-effective sewer and water access
  • Minimizes impact to surrounding neighborhoods
  • Includes more space for athletic fields and future growth
 
Site Clean Up
 
In being proactive, CVSD contracted with the environmental services company, Hart Crowser, to manage the clean up of the property adjacent to the Ridgeline site once the Spokane Gun Club relocates in July 2021. It should be noted that the high school is not being built on the gun club firing range which will allow time to clean up the property once the high school is built.
 
Hart Crowser has expertise in cleaning up sites such as this. All precautions will be thoroughly vetted to ensure student and community safety, and all Washington State Department of Ecology standards will be followed. Under existing rules and regulations, lead shot on the grounds of a designated firing range are not considered hazardous waste; however, it is a contaminant. This is the case no matter how long a range may have been in operation and no matter how long the discharged lead shot may remain in the soil or on the ground. At the time the Spokane Gun Club relocates, any remaining lead shot will be removed and reclamation may also require removal of the soil.

A third comprehensive high school was envisioned more than 37 years ago, when the district purchased property for that purpose on Henry Road. Now, with current high schools being overcrowded by more than 1,000 students, a new high school became the best solution.

Several years before the 2018 construction bond, our Capital Facilities Planning and High School Advisory Committees gathered more than 9,000 collective community thoughts through Thoughtexchange on three focused areas: overall district facility needs, the vetted solution to overcrowding (a third comprehensive high school), and most recently, the desired programming for all high schools. These thoughts guided the creation of the February 2018 bond package to solve our district’s most urgent needs—without raising the tax rate.

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