Local schools receive construction money

OLYMPIA - Three local school districts received more than $7.45 million in construction money Thursday from the state's capital projects budget.

The Moses Lake, Warden and Othello school districts each passed bonds to pay part of the cost of construction, and state school construction pays the balance.

Moses Lake School District received $5.1 million as the state's portion of its new transportation facility, to be located on Yonezawa Boulevard. Othello School District received $1.8 million to build a new wing housing six classrooms at Othello High School. The Warden School District received $443,599 to upgrade the vocational-agriculture building at Warden High School.

Moses Lake district officials will open bids for the transportation center July 24, with the time to be announced, said Mark Johnson, the district's director of business and operations. Construction is projected to begin later this fall.

Othello district officials will start advertising today, with the goal of opening bids August 1, said assistant superintendent Gina Bullis. Construction is expected to begin immediately after the bids are awarded, with a projected completion date of January 2013.

The new classrooms will be located between the existing consumer science and business education classrooms, and will house four science classrooms, Bullis said, with two for general studies.

- Staff report