With demolition set to begin in January, Federal Way High School students will notice some changes this fall.

In August and September, crews will dig a retention pond to serve as a drainage and cleaning pond during construction, as well as install water and sewer lines and an underground power line to service the 48 portable classrooms that will fill the back parking lot and half the football practice field, said project manager Rod Leland.

The portables, each 24 feet wide by 60 feet long, will be brought to school property between September and December. During Christmas break, school staff will vacate the southern section of the school where most of the classrooms are located. When classes resume in January, most students will find themselves in portable classrooms.

Demolition of the southern section will begin in January and is expected to take about six months, Leland said. Construction will then begin on the new corridor with three three-story classroom wings, which could take up to 10 months, he said.

The next phase of construction will tear down and rebuild the northern section of the school — excluding the gym — and replace the theater and cafeteria. The northern section will also be pushed closer to Pacific Highway. Major construction is expected to continue through 2016, with fine tuning, such as landscaping, continuing through 2018.

“We’re on the train now and it’s about to leave,” Leland said.

Funding for the $106 million project comes from three sources. Federal Way voters passed a levy in 2012 that will collect $10 million per year, at an approximate tax rate of 92 cents per thousand, for six years. For a home valued at $150,000, that’s equal to about $137 per year, or $11 a month.

The additional $50 million comes from two sources.

“Because we have been able to build the last five schools under budget during the economic downturn, there are funds remaining from the previous bond measure that can be used for Federal Way High School,” Stenberg said. “We also anticipate state match funding. None of these funds can be used for day-to-day operations costs. By state law, they are reserved for capital expenses, such as construction).

By using the levy and remaining funds, the project will be paid for by the time it is completed. In choosing to forego bonds, which paid for previous projects, approximately $29 million in interest will be saved, Stenberg said.

“Taxpayers are getting a pretty darn good bargain,” she said.

Money from the levy will be used for other projects as well. Approximately $1 million will be used for installation of security cameras at campuses throughout the district, and $2 million will be used to update playgrounds at 23 elementary schools.

With portables filling one parking lot, the number of spaces available will decrease. For general school attendance, it won’t be a problem because only about 200 of the 1,600 students drive themselves, Leland said. However, parking will be a challenge for events, especially at Memorial Stadium, which is used by all the high schools, Stenberg said.

The district is working on arranging shuttle services between the stadium and surrounding parking lots.

With construction mainly on the south side of the school, and taking place while students are on site, officials don’t want students crossing the construction site to get to class, nor do they want to make students walk up Pacific Highway to enter from the north, Stenberg said. The district will work on adding new routes to shuttle students who walk to school from the south.

The new building design will make the school easier to navigate — some students have only five minutes to traverse as far as a quarter mile of halls between class periods.

The new building will also meet safety and ADA requirements and district learning goals, which include an environment conducive to more small group and independent learning, Leland said.

The construction will also eliminate weak points at joints, where pieces of the building were connected over the years, as well as eliminate flooding issues. The current building drops about 40 feet between the north and south ends, Leland said.

Other challenges with the old building include many exterior doors that are hard to constantly monitor and exterior brick walls turned into interior walls, which make it difficult to run wiring, Stenberg said.

Federal Way High School is the last project in phase one of the district’s modernization and replacement plan, which included rebuilding Lakota Middle School and Lakeland, Sunnycrest, Panther Lake and Valhalla elementary schools.

Experts evaluated all the buildings owned by Federal Way Public Schools and buildings were arranged into four phases, based on need for revitalization. Federal Way High School, built originally in 1938, has had 12 major additions and remodels between 1938 and 2002. But the additions and remodels make the current school awkward and in need of a serious upgrade, Leland said.

Nearly 60 percent of Federal Way High School students are from below poverty level homes and the school seems to mirror that, Leland said. But the new school will be “refreshing.”

“Parents and kids will feel it’s a place worthy of coming to,” he said.

Ninety percent of the materials from the old building will be recycled, Leland said. Bricks from the old buildings will be available for alumni and community members to take as mementos.

* Corrections: The Mirror previously reported that Federal Way voters passed a levy in 2012 that will take 60 cents per $100,000 in house value, to be put toward the construction, generating $60 million. That is inaccurate. Federal Way voters passed a levy in 2012 that will collect $10 million per year, at an approximate tax rate of 92 cents per thousand, for six years. For a home valued at $150,000, that’s equal to about $137 per year, or $11 a month.

In addition, the additional $50 million comes from two sources.

“Because we have been able to build the last five schools under budget during the economic downturn, there are funds remaining from the previous bond measure that can be used for Federal Way High School,” Stenberg said. “We also anticipate state match funding. None of these funds can be used for day-to-day operations costs. By state law, they are reserved for capital expenses, such as construction). The Mirror strives for accuracy and regrets the errors.