Vanguard Academy staff get a peek at new spaces

Vanguard Academy staff toured Moses Lake School District’s newest campus, Vanguard Academy, Thursday afternoon.

The campus is still under construction, but the layout is taking shape and is expected to open as-planned this fall for the 2022-23 school year.

“Right now it’s scheduled to open up in 2022 – so this year. … Right now, there doesn't appear to be anything that would get in the way of that,” said CBRE-Heery Project Manager Brian Sewell, who is overseeing the project and led the tour.

Sewell said while supply chain issues are causing some delays with certain aspects of the project, none of those delays are significant enough to prevent the campus from opening as planned this fall. While the delays in procuring supplies are a challenge, he said, the project is being managed in a way that will still see the campus completed in a timely manner. Getting materials on time is a challenge with any construction project, regardless of complications from the pandemic, he said, so experienced planning has mitigated the issue.

The first floor of the new campus will have three wings, each of which will have a large flex learning area as a common hall. That area will be surrounded by classrooms and other workspaces for students to work on homework and group projects and receive instruction from teachers. Cafeteria and administrative space are also located on the main floor. A market area where refreshments, snacks and other items will also be located there.

The second floor of the building will contain additional classrooms that open up into an open space that looks over the flex space on the floor below. Science labs and music and design studios are also located on the top floor of the facility.

A hallway to HVAC equipment, such as heating and cooling equipment will be located above the second floor, but Sewell said it isn’t truly a third floor so much as it is a maintenance access way.

MLSD School Board Director Susan Freeman said she was impressed with the campus’s layout and the concept behind the new hands-on learning facility the district is creating.

“I learned by doing things. I’m a project learner and my kids pretty much are, too. I’ve seen a need for this kind of thing for a long time,” Freeman said.

Learning at the new campus will have that hands-on approach Freeman said she appreciates, said Vanguard Academy Planning Principal Kelly Cutter. The new-to-Moses-Lake approach has drawn more interest than she’d initially anticipated, she said.

“We had an open house last month (on Jan. 12) and I was like, ‘Oh, I hope we get 100 people,’” Cutter said. “We had between 300 and 500 people show up and we were just so excited.”

Cutter said the event showed her there is interest in the community for the hands-on learning approach. At Vanguard, learners will be in one of three houses, similar to those found in J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” novels, she said. Each house will have about 150 students initially and the students will work on projects jointly. That approach will allow students to focus on their interests to a degree, she said, but will also help them develop soft skills, such as communication, planning and integrating disciplines from multiple subjects, preparing them for their professional lives after graduation. Cutter said MLSD will use a transparent and fair lottery system to enroll students if more students apply than can be accommodated in the new campus’s first year. One of the first projects for the first classes at the academy will be choosing names for the three houses, Cutter said. She expects a lot of “Harry Potter” references, but hopes that will engage the students more.

“I like to think that what we're doing, we're getting kids prepared for jobs that hadn't been invented yet, and all those soft skills are going to be very important.” Cutter said.