By Lindsay Peyton

Construction is wrapping up at two new elementary schools in West Seattle – just in time for the first day of school on Wednesday, Sept. 7.

Arbor Heights Elementary, located at 3701 SW 104th St, will offer the community a sneak peak of the campus during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 6.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony will also be held at Genesee Hill Elementary School, located at 5013 SW Dakota St, at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 6.

Both campuses were constructed with funding from the Building Excellence IV Capital Levy, approved by voters in 2013 – and each will offer students state-of-the art learning environments.

Arbor Heights School, a 90,000 sq. ft. elementary, will accommodate 660 students, doubling the capacity of the 1940s-era building it replaced. The budget for the school was $40.9 million.

The campus was built around the concept of a pioneering Environmental Science Technology Engineering (E-STEM) program.

“The big thrust of the design was environmental learning from sea to sky,” R. Ross Parker, senior associate with Bassetti Architects said.

He explained that there are several nods to the natural ecosystem throughout the building and on the site – from the native trees planted around the campus to the informative placards throughout the building featuring educational concepts.

Each grade level has five classrooms organized around a shared, open learning area, a group study room and an idea lab.

The school also has a grass playfield, paved running track, covered play area, raised garden beds, a sundial, an in-ground slide, outdoor classrooms and a rainwater collection system.

The sustainable design includes windows oriented for daylight exposure, LED lighting, natural cooling systems, user-controlled fans and automatic sensors for the lights.

“We wanted to really use the building as a learning tool,” Parker said.

The structure of much of the building is exposed to inspire an interest in engineering, Lorne McConachie, principal of Bassetti Architects, added.

“Part of our goal was to teach children how buildings work,” he said. “Throughout the school, there are specific areas where we have what we call a guts-out approach.”

The school will also have the latest technology, with WiFi in every space.

The design process for the school began in 2013, and the old building was demolished soon after. Construction for Arbor Heights began in the spring of 2015.

Genesee Hill Elementary School is the new home for former Schmitz Park Elementary students.

Eric Becker, senior project manager for the building, said that the original Genesee Hill campus was constructed as a temporary facility in 1949 and closed in 1989. It was unoccupied since 2009.

The new campus is about 91,000 sq. ft. and cost $41.1 million to construct. Work on the site began in the summer of 2014.

Becker said a 16-member School Design Advisory Team, with representatives from the neighborhood, helped create a thoughtful layout for the building.

“A lot of attention was paid to the building for durability and maintainability,” he said. “There was a lot of forethought.”

Each grade level has an area for small group instruction, four classrooms and a shared common space, as well as an extra classroom to be used as needed. The rooms are equipped with special sound systems to amplify the teacher’s voice and individual ventilation systems.

Outdoor features of the campus include classroom amphitheaters and a grass playfield. Murals depicting the forest bring the outside in.

Genesee Hill also features state-of-the-art technology. There is a combined art and science lab, complete with kiln. Behind the performing arts stage is space for a dance classroom. All of the rooms have moveable furnishings to make it easy for instructors to modify the spaces.

The school also has a separate day care facility, which will be used for kindergarten students this year. The space can be converted to day care if enrollment in kindergarten drops.

Leslie Harris, who represents District VI for Seattle Public Schools, said that both Genesee Hill and Arbor Heights will be assets for the community of West Seattle.

“This means that teachers will have the tools to do their jobs,” she said. “They’re absolutely inspiring spaces. Our kids deserve that -- and our teachers deserve that.”

For more information about Arbor Heights Elementary, visit http://arborheightses.seattleschools.org.

For more information about Genesee Hill Elementary School, visit http://schmitzparkes.seattleschools.org.