Cork popping has given way to elbow grease as Academy School District 20 broke ground Tuesday on a $21 million elementary school where Research Parkway dead-ends at Wolf Valley Drive.
It's the first of several construction projects and renovations under a $230 million bond measure that 60 percent of 58,000 voters approved in November 2016.
"You do all that hard work on the bond, it passes, you celebrate, and then you take a deep breath and go, 'Oh my gosh, now all the real work begins,'" said D-20 spokeswoman Allison Cortez. "This suddenly became very tangible and very real."
D-20 issued the first round of bonds Jan. 12-24 for $160 million. The sale generated $183 million, "as a result of buyers paying premium prices," Cortez said.
About 100 people attended the ceremony at the 82-acre vacant lot in the Wolf Ranch neighborhood that Nor'wood Development Group donated for schools.
Also on the site will be a $12 million Innovation Learning Center that will house the district's home school program, online education and the Challenger Learning Center. It will include space for cyber security, coding and robotics classes.
The elementary school will occupy 17 acres and accommodate 600 kindergarten through fifth-grade students. Cortez said it's a normal size for elementary schools in D-20, the second-largest school district in the Pikes Peak region with about 24,000 students.
The elementary school and connected Innovation Learning Center are to open in the fall of 2018.
"It's an aggressive schedule," Cortez said. "The design is innovative and quickly came together. It's going to be a push, but we're going to get there by next fall."
Cortez said a committee of 27 residents and seven ad hoc members is studying district boundaries and will issue recommendations this fall for reworking them.
Jonathan Johnson will start this summer as principal for the new elementary school. For the past five years, he's been principal at Breckenridge Elementary School in Summit School District. But he started his career in D-20, working as a teacher at Prairie Hills and Antelope Trails elementary schools and as assistant principal at The da Vinci Academy.
Cortez said Johnson will form a committee that will work on name suggestions for the school.
The site has room for a middle school and down the road, a new high school.
Quotes also have been sent out on a new School in the Woods building in Black Forest.
"When the growth and capital needs committee looked at needed improvements, our schools experiencing the most growth and busting at the seams were Chinook and the schools near Wolf Ranch," Cortez said.
Many of the projects will lead to the removal of portable buildings that students currently use for classes and improve aspects such as security and technology, she said.
"These projects ensure that we will grow responsibly and continue the standard of excellence that has become associated with our district."
