West Seattle schools: Milestone for new Arbor Heights Elementary

| Arbor Heights | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

(Photo by Scott Thomas)
11 months after crews began the process of building the new Arbor Heights Elementary by demolishing the old one, construction has reached a milestone, with structural steel going up. Both Scott Thomas and Darren Pilon sent photos today.

(This photo and next by Darren Pilon)
We also have an update on the construction plan – Seattle Public Schools is building to the maximum possible capacity, about 660, rather than to the smaller option, 500 students. This is according to district spokesperson Tom Redman; the decision had not been made when the last pre-construction community meeting was held, nor had it been made when we asked a few times in the ensuing months.

Arbor Heights students and staff will spend their second year in interim quarters at the Boren Building starting in September, with enrollment projected at about 400. As of right now, the plan to occupy the new building for the 2016-2017 school year is still on. That’s three years earlier than what the district was planning until the Arbor Heights community convinced SPS leadership that they couldn’t serve students appropriately for that much longer in the old, crumbling buildings.

Eric1 July 29, 2015 (9:41 pm)

Wow. Nice to see it coming up on time. Given the overcrowding in other schools it will be nice to see Seattle schools being built with expansion in mind. I am guessing that a lot more people might want to get into the “new” school when it opens.

D Del Rio July 30, 2015 (3:14 pm)

Glad it is finally being rebuilt. I went to Arbor Heights in the 1970’s. The original part of the school was falling apart back then. I can only imagine how it was during the last few decades.