JBLM's Children to Get New Schools

Because of the efforts of local organizations like Clover Park School District, offices at JBLM, Congressional leaders like Cong. Norm Dicks and Adam Smith, and the Chamber, a national program was born to replace outdated and obsolete schools on military installations.

Debbie LeBeau, superintendent of Clover Park School District said, “The ground breaking of the new Carter Lake and Hillside Elementary Schools represents a federal, state and local partnership designed to ensure our military students have access to the safe and updated facilities they deserve.”

One of the top funded school replacements, the first to break ground and we anticipate the first to open will be the Hillside and Carter Lake elementary schools on JBLM.

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Carter Lake and Hillside Elementary Schools ranked second and fifth, respectively, in the top 25 schools needing immediate attention based on an independent scoring of enrollment capacity and building conditions. Funding for the two new schools comes thru the Department of Defense’s Office of Economic Adjustment (OEA) and Washington state school construction funds.

Today marked their groundbreaking at Hillside with many dignitaries including Cong. Dicks and Smith as well as military and school district representatives. The event will include a traditional shovel-and-dirt ground breaking, plus the signing of an “Education of Military Children Covenant.” Signers of the covenant included educators, senior civilian and military leaders and elected officials.  Local children were witnesses to the event.

Both schools will be rebuilt at their current locations—Carter Lake will have a capacity of 500 students and Hillside will accommodate 650 students. BCRA Design is the architect for the new schools and Skanska is the general construction contract manager. Completion of the new schools is scheduled for the fall of 2013.