By Lindsay Peyton 

Plans are being finalized for the newest middle school in the Highline district.  

The design for the campus, which will be located at 2450 S 142 St. in SeaTac, was unveiled during a community meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 26. 

The school will be constructed where Glacier High, which was open from 1960 to 1980, once stood. 

Funding for the campus became available when the recent $299.85 million bond passed, reserving $93.3 million for the Glacier site. 

Ina Holzer, project manager with Vanir Construction Management, said design work began in 2014, before the bond passed. 

“We’re in pretty good shape on our timeline, because of the work we did,” she said. “I’ve been working at lightning speed to move this design forward.”

She expects the construction documents to be ready by December and for the request for bids to go out in early January, so that the contract can be awarded by March. 

Crews are begun the first stage of construction -- demolishing the existing buildings on the site. 

Highline hired Integrus Architecture for the project. 

Lead architect Daniel Gero explained that the blueprints call for plenty of outdoor learning environments, including a central courtyard and an additional wooded area. 

Gero said special consideration was taken for the entrance to the building. 

There will be separate drop-off lines for school buses and parents to provide for safer traffic in the morning. 

 A long, covered front entrance will bring students together before they go into the building. 

The student dining commons will serve as the hub of the school and include a stage for performing arts events. The library, located right next door, will include an active learning lab, space for casual reading and room for classes. 

The library directly connects to a technology lab. 

The school is then divided into “pods.”

Each pod contains four classrooms, built around a central commons, as well as a science lab and a conference room for small project-based learning. 

“It’s not about students in rows,” Gero said. “It’s an advanced look at education. It comes from talking to teachers about what they want. It’s all about project-based learning and being able to break into smaller groups.”

Each pod also connects to the outdoors. 

The middle school also features a large commissary kitchen, which will be used to prepare meals for other schools in the district as well. 

The campus also includes art rooms, band practice space and a gymnasium.  The existing track, sports field and baseball diamond will be renovated and resurfaced. 

Pedestrian entrances to S. 140 St and S 138 St. will be preserved, while the walkway on S. 140 St will be paved and renovated. 

The school will also have a separate entrance for the gym and for food service delivery. 

Highline’s chief operating officer Scott Logan said the middle school will be larger than the ones currently in the system, accommodating up to 950 students. The capacity at the other middle schools is 750. 

He added that the district’s capital facilities advisory committee is currently working on creating boundaries for all the middle schools. 

“It’s going to be a long, hard project,” he said. “It’s never an easy thing. It influences lives and long-term decisions. We know this is important.”

He expects to have the boundaries ready by next summer. 

Highline is also in the process of creating a committee to name the new middle school -- and hopes to submit a proposal by March. 

Holzer said construction of the new middle school will be completed by the fall of 2019. 

For more information, visit www.highlineschools.org/Page/10150.