Recent News Board of Education Standards Based Education Construction Updates

Lakota Middle School

Originally built:		1960
Construction Status:		Opened in September, 2010
Address:		1415 SW 314th Street, Federal Way, WA 98023
Budget:		$34 million

 

Lakota Middle School was built 50 years ago as a junior high serving 7th, 8th and 9th grade students. Lakota became a middle school when the entire district transitioned to a middle school-four year high school structure in 2003.

Now serving 6th, 7th and 8th grade students, Lakota is one of two middle schools in the district to offer the Checkpoint/Cambridge program as a prequel to the Cambridge Preparatory Program at Federal Way High School. It has a proud history in music instruction as well as academics and sports. Lakota’s feeder schools are Adelaide, Green Gables, Lake Grove, and Twin Lakes elementary schools.

The new Lakota building will make better use of natural light. Students and teachers will be more secure in the new school with entrances that can be monitored more effectively. A new building also means that students will no longer have to bundle up indoors to cope with an ancient and unreliable furnace. Modern wiring and building designs allow for state of the art technology. Rebuilding will also allow the district to more effectively address waterproofing and mold prevention to prevent indoor air quality issues.

The new Lakota will be designed to incorporate the latest research into how young adolescents learn best. The rebuilt school will accommodate new instructional techniques, such as multi-age groupings, looping, teacher collaboration and small learning communities. The building will be flexible so it can adapt to future instructional needs.

Because Lakota will be built on a slope, the front entrance of the building takes visitors and students into the school on the top level of the building. The area just inside the main door opens to the level below, allowing a view of the school’s Great Room. The Great Room will accommodate multiple uses, including cafeteria, larger meeting area and a performance venue. An alcove on the north side of this room will house the student store and provides a location for students to gather. Portals for Internet access are being built into this area, which will allow it, if the school's administration chooses, to be a middle school version of an Internet cafe. Three distinct areas in the school will have classroom clusters around a larger joint area, to allow collaboration between teachers and students.

Students and staff will enjoy a variety of the school’s new features:

• The new school was designed using solar panels on the roof. Working at optimum efficiency on a sunny day, engineers estimate that the system will generate approximately 15 percent of the school's energy needs. It is one of the ten largest solar energy systems in the state. Depending on the amount of excess electricity that the solar panels return to Puget Sound Energy's electrical grid, Federal Way Public Schools will receive a reduction in its electrical service monthly billing.
• The school sits back from the street and is surrounded by wetlands in a beautiful, park-like setting.
• The commons area, where students will eat lunch and gather for assemblies, features a two-story glass wall that will look out into the courtyard and provide natural light. 
• The commons area will be larger than that in the old school.
• Generous use of skylights and windows throughout the building will bring abundant natural light and create a warm and inviting atmosphere.
• The old gym will be remodeled and refurbished, keeping a piece of Lakota’s history. The gym will also have refurbished hardwood floors. 
• The gym will also be equipped for use as a black box theater for productions by students and possibly members of the community.
• As required by the Washington Sustainable Schools Protocol, the school does not have wall-to-wall carpeting, which can contribute to asthma and upper respiratory infections among school children because of reduced air quality caused by dust accumulation and harsh chemicals used to clean the carpets. Instead, each classroom has concrete floors with radiant heat. Each room also has four six-by-six foot carpet squares to use as the teacher chooses. The carpet squares can be removed and cleaned off-site as needed.
• Long hallways will be replaced with clusters of classrooms so teachers and students can collaborate and work in teams.
• Bathroom facilities will be easier to reach than in the old building.
• Wireless carts will serve as mobile technology centers and allow easy transport of computers and equipment from room to room.
• There will be additional storage in the new school.
• The new Lakota will provide higher capacity fiber optic cabling and conduits to run wires through cleanly. The conduits will allow faster and more efficient future technology upgrades. 
• Students and staff will be safer in the new building in the event of an earthquake because of additional earthquake resistance features. 
• Classrooms measuring 900 square feet will give teachers a comfortable space to provide multiple learning centers in the room.
• Small instructional areas will be available throughout the school. Because they are nestled in private areas, they are perfect for intervention and personal, safe and healthy contact for staff and teachers.
• The commons area used for eating and assemblies will be larger than that in the old school.
• Skylights and windows will bring abundant natural light into the new school, creating a warm and inviting atmosphere.
• The old gym will be remodeled and refurbished, keeping a piece of Lakota’s history. The gym will also have refurbished hardwood floors. 
• The gym will also be equipped for use as a black box theater for productions by students and possibly members of the community.

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