The Cheney School District spent the summer busily making improvements to nearly every school in the district after voters approved a $72 million bond in November 2024 to pay for a long list of improvements to existing facilities and an entirely new elementary school.
“It’s been a good, fun summer with all the projects,” said Superintendent Ben Ferney.
First up was to put in bus loops at Salnave and Windsor Elementaries. The loops keep the buses and the children getting off them separate from the staff parking areas and the parent pick-up and drop-off area. “They needed upgrades based on the traffic flow,” Ferney said. “They’re able to drop off and get right to that sidewalk and get into the school.”
Also at Windsor Elementary, the corridors got new paint and carpet, said Jonathan Miller, program manager at Turner & Townsend Heery, who helps oversee the district’s projects. Windsor was built in 1959 and updated in 2003, but additions were made in 1994 and 2019. “Nothing matched,” Miller said of the mishmash of paint and carpet colors. “Now the building has a cohesive feel. It looks so much better with fresh carpet.”
Sunset Elementary, also built in 1959 and updated in 2003, received new interior paint and carpet as well.
Maintaining proper heating and cooling at several of the district’s schools was a challenge, with parts no longer available for decades old equipment. “Those systems were well beyond their useful life,” Miller said.
Salnave Elementary got new boilers as well as a new chiller for the air conditioning system. New chillers were also installed at Windsor Elementary and Betz Elementary, which was built in 1956.
Ferney said the district’s maintenance staff worked miracles as long as they could to keep the aging equipment running, but it was simply too expensive to have spare parts made whenever something broke or wore out. “Some of the gear in those chillers and boilers was so old that they didn’t make the parts anymore and they had to be manufactured,” he said.
It’s important for classrooms to be kept at a reasonable temperature, Ferney said. “Being in a room that’s the proper temperature is so important to student learning,” he said.
Crews also upgraded the main entry at Snowden Elementary, Cheney Middle School and Westwood Middle School to include locking doors and a video intercom system. All school visitors must now be buzzed in by school staff. Miller said those three schools were the last in the district to have a secure entry area installed. “Now all the schools in the district have the same access system,” he said.
The district also plans to install laminated glass in all school entries this fall as an added security measure, Miller said. The work is low key and can be done while school is in session, he said. The laminated glass does not shatter if hit or punctured. “It buys time,” Miller said.
Several projects were underway this summer at Cheney High School, including upgrades to the school’s stadium. The 60-year old bleachers on the visitor’s side of the field were demolished and replaced with bleachers that doubled the capacity. Additional bleachers were also added to the home side of the field.
“As we continued to grow, we did not have enough seating on the visitor’s side,” Ferney said. “On the home side, the band had to stand on the track because there wasn’t enough room in the bleachers.”
The high school track was also showing its age and was replaced. The school used to have to rent security fencing for certain events and has now installed permanent fencing instead. A pedestrian pathway and more landscaping were also added.
Inside the school, the lockers were upgraded in the varsity locker rooms and the floors were resurfaced, Miller said. “Those lockers were from the early 90’s,” he said. “They were beat up, didn’t work and smelled really bad.”
Ferney said he’s pleased with the improvements at the high school stadium. “It looks awesome,” he said. “I’m excited for our kids to go play on it and our parents to come watch.”
Another project completed this summer, improvements at Crunk’s Complex, was done using funds from the capital levy approved by voters in February 2024. The high school needed more field space and decided to move boys and girls soccer to the complex, Ferney said.
Most comprehensive high schools need between 50 and 60 acres for the school, athletic fields and parking, Ferney said. Cheney High School sits on less than 30 acres, leading to crowding and overuse of the fields. The grass was being damaged due to constant use. “We don’t have as many fields as we need,” Ferney said.
The decision was made to make the Crunk’s Complex, which was officially dedicated in 2014, the permanent home of the varsity and junior varsity soccer teams. The boys teams play in the spring and the girls teams play in the fall. Moving soccer practices and games should give the fields at the high school time to recover and make them easier to maintain, Ferney said.
This summer Crunk’s Complex was fenced off to limit access. People in the community had been using it as a place to walk their dogs, some of whom dug holes in the fields. “I think there was a perception that it was a public park,” he said.
Now that the fencing is up, Ferney is hopeful that the fields can be maintained in playable condition. “We need to have a high-quality field for our athletes,” he said. “We want to make sure the location is good and it’s secure.”
All soccer practices and daytime games will be held at Crunk’s Complex, Ferney said. Night games that require lighting, which the complex does not have, will be played at the high school.
The district is already making plans for additional bond projects slated for next year. Salnave Elementary is due for an upgraded electrical system and those parts are being ordered now, Miller said.
Design work is moving forward for a kitchen expansion next summer at Windsor Elementary, which is much too small to easily serve the number of students at the school, Miller said. The kitchen at Salnave Elementary is also slated for expansion next year. “It was designed to be a warming kitchen and now they’re cooking from scratch,” he said.
One of the biggest bond funded projects, however, will not be complete for two years. In early 2020, the district paid just over $626,000 for 11.5 acres on Craig Road near First Avenue in Airway Heights to build a new elementary school. There are now enough students to warrant building the new school, Ferney said. Windsor, Sunset, Snowden and Betz Elementaries are all housing more students than they were designed for and each has three portable classrooms to handle the overflow.
“That was a big piece from our facilities planning team,” he said.
Planning for the new school, which has not yet been named, has been moving forward. The district had public meetings to get input from parents and community members about the features the new school should have. The district also put together a design advisory committee that includes parents, staff members and school board members. The committee has been making monthly reports to the school board, Ferney said.
“We’re being as transparent as possible,” he said.
It has already been decided that the new school will be a community resource as much as possible, Ferney said. “It’s going to have a larger gym and open area available for community use,” he said.
The new school will be designed to house 500 students. The district is just now starting to look at how the elementary school boundaries should be adjusted to accommodate the new school, Ferney said. That process will also be open to public input.
“The goal is to get all students out of portables and I think we’re going to be able to do that,” he said.
Garco Construction has been selected as the general contractor for the project, which is planned to open in the fall of 2027. Miller said the grading permit is expected to be granted at the end of August with site work to begin the first week of September. Utilities work and putting in the foundation of the new school will begin in the Spring, Miller said.
The design work for the new school was completed in February. The district has already identified where the bus loop and parking will be, Miller said. “We have a general layout of the building,” he said.
Ferney said he’s grateful for the community’s support in passing the bond in November, which was the district’s second attempt. The first attempt, in February 2024, failed with 54.5 percent approval. A bond requires 60 percent supermajority to pass. Several other school districts also on the February 2024 ballot saw their bonds fail as well.
“We’re super excited for it,” Ferney said of the upcoming projects, including the new elementary school. “There’s not too many districts that were able to pass bonds.”
