West Ada to add two school buildings — including new elementary — to counter growth
The West Ada School District is moving forward with plans to build a new elementary school and a career-technical education building.
The projects are an attempt to accommodate growth within some parts of the district’s boundaries and to provide high school students with more career-technical opportunities.
With the school board’s approval, the district will advance its plans to build a new elementary school on the backside of the site of Lake Hazel Elementary School. The district is projecting it will need space for over 200 more students in the area within the next five years, and this project will help create those additional classrooms.
Lake Hazel Elementary has major facilities needs that could cost around $8 million over the next five to 10 years if it remains in use, district officials said during a board meeting this week. The school’s floor plan also poses challenges, with a dated setup that isn’t ideal for student learning.
The new planned elementary school will accommodate more students and has an estimated cost of about $23 million. The district plans to use the same design as Independence Elementary in Star, another new elementary, and the goal is to move quickly enough to open the new building in the fall of 2027.
“Our goal, and it’s an aggressive goal, is to get to work on this tomorrow,” David Reinhart, West Ada chief operations officer, told the school board.
He said this change will address elementary growth over the next five to eight years. During the board meeting, trustees acknowledged Lake Hazel is in serious need of repairs and called the plan fiscally responsible.
The district also got approval to move forward with its new career-technical education building in Meridian. The district purchased the vacant warehouse on Locust Grove last year, with a goal to expand its offerings and better prepare students for workforce needs.
The district hopes to open the CTE building in 2027.
In the new center, West Ada plans to offer programs including residential construction and welding, and to expand to cosmetology and dental assisting down the line.
“As Idaho’s largest workforce development organization, West Ada is committed to ensuring every student graduates with a clear pathway to a meaningful career,” Reinhart said in a news release.
That project is estimated to cost about $14 million.
The district said it will not try to raise taxes to finance the projects, but will instead use other funding sources, including taking advantage of the facilities bill the Legislature approved in 2024 that provided Idaho districts with money intended to repair and replace their aging facilities and construct new ones to accommodate growth.
