Smell of sawdust, roar of earthmovers enliven Pioneer groundbreaking
The smell of sawdust was already in the air as students and Peninsula School District officials gathered for a celebratory groundbreaking at the new Pioneer Elementary School last Friday.
Even as principal Stephanie Strader, acting superintendent Art Jarvis and four school board members wielded their golden shovels, a construction crew only yards away was chewing up tree limbs and spitting out wood chips.
“This may be only a symbolic occasion,” Dr. Jarvis said over the roar of the machinery. “But in a very real way, Pioneer Elementary School, begins as of today.”
The groundbreaking sets in action the conversion of the former Boys and Girls Club at 8502 Skansie Ave. into the district’s newest elementary school. When completed next fall, it will have 30 classrooms for kindergarten through 4th grade. A fifth grade will be added the following year, bringing enrollment to about 550 pupils.
Population bulge
The new school is part of the district’s strategy for handling the pig-in-a-python bulge of incoming students expected in the near future. Already, the district has enrolled its largest-ever kindergarten class — more than 700 pupils — and more are expected next year.
Pioneer Elementary will be the first new school added to the district since Voyager Elementary School was built in 1988, Dr. Jarvis said.
“Oh my goodness, I am over the moon happy,” said Strader, after herding her 5th-graders in orderly rows to watch the groundbreaking.
Pioneer will be a magnet school specializing in science, technology, engineering, art and math — the so-called “STEAM” subjects. Enrollment will be open to students from the entire district, with seats filled by lottery.
Construction was made possible by passage of a $198 million bond issue in February of 2019. The bond issue will also finance a second new elementary school, to be built opposite the present YMCA on Harbor Hill Drive, and a remodel of Artondale and Evergreen elementaries.
“This could not happen without a community that values education,” said school board president Deborah Krishnadasan.
Other board members present — and decked out in hard hats for the occasion — were David Olsen, Lori Glover, Natalie Wimberly and Chuck West.
Timely purchase
The school district bought the Boys and Girls Club building for $12.8 in April of 2019, and has been using its existing 8 classrooms this school year for overflow kindergarten classes and the 5th grade from Discovery Elementary School.
Those 5th-graders, whom principal Strader called “our first pioneers,” were an enthusdiastic audience for the ground-breaking, and many of them got a turn with the shovels when the bigwigs were finished.
The current construction will add a new wing to the north side of the existing building, convert office space to classrooms, and add two parking lots, a bus turnaround, and more playfields, including a covered recess shelter.
The architect is TCF Architects and the general contractor is Forma Construction.
Flashing shovels
After short speeches by Dr. Jarvis and Krishnadasan, the big overhead doors were rolled open and the dignitaries and their student guests took their places along a prepared plot of soil outside. Among them were the principal’s two children, Samantha, 8, and Kendall, 5.
As the machinery across the way clanked and roared, thirteen shovels turned dirt, to flashes from cameras and cheers from the assembled 5th-graders. Afterwards, there was a scene of controlled chaos as the Discovery kids, led with schoolboy-like enthusiasm by school board member Chuck West, took turns at the shovels.
After all the years of work and anticipating, “watching it was just a sheer joy,” said Dr. Jarvis.
(Left to right in groundbreaking photo: Stephanie Strader, Dr. Art Jarvis, Riggs Holland, Kendall Strader, Chuck West, Samantha Strader, Deb Krishnadasan, David Olson, Andrew Fobes, Tu Tran, Lori Glover, Jaiden Carrier-Azami, Natalie Wimberley)