Reporter staff

Just over a year ago, Auburn voters passed a $456 million levy to rebuild six schools and construct two new ones.

Replacing Olympic Middle School is the first project on the list.

The community is invited on Thursday, Dec. 14 to come meet the school board, members of the capital projects department and the architect as the district unveils plans for the new Olympic Middle School. The open house runs from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., at the current middle school, 1825 K St. SE.

At the open house, the public is invited to view the floor plans, a 3-D building video, pictures and more.

The approved bond will pay for the replacement of five elementary schools built between 1945 and 1965 – Terminal Park, Dick Scobee, Pioneer, Chinook and Lea Hill – along with Olympic Middle School. The latter building opened in 1957.

The new Olympic is expected to open at the beginning of the 2019-20 school year.

According to the school district, tentative plans calls for groundbreaking on the new Olympic in the spring.

BLRB Architects will design and administer construction of the Olympic project. Absher Construction will be the general contractor and construction manager for Olympic.

NAC Architecture was selected to design and administer the Chinook, Dick Scobee, Pioneer and Terminal Park projects. BLRB Architects was chosen to design and administer the Lea Hill and two new elementary school projects.

The district still must acquire land to build the two new elementary schools. District officials are considering locations near the old Valley 6 Drive-In Theaters, which shuttered in December 2012, on the north end of the city, and in the growing Lea Hill and Lakeland Hills neighborhoods.

BLRB Architects will design and administer construction of the Olympic MS project.

Absher Construction will be the general contractor and construction manager for Olympic.

NAC Architecture was selected in June to design and administer the Chinook, Dick Scobee, Pioneer and Terminal Park projects.

BLRB Architects was selected in June to design and administer the Lea Hill, Elementary #15 and Elementary #16 projects.

If you need more info, please let me know. Though the public can’t see anything yet, there has been an enormous amount of planning, preparation and design work done for the bond projects.