With the passage of the $195 million school bond by voters, Tahoma School District officials are turning their attention to next steps and going forward with the long list of projects.

The first step for the Tahoma School Board is to select a contractor, district spokesman Kevin Patterson said. He added that the district will utilize the general contractor construction manager process for the high school project.

That means that the contractor will work with the architects, DLR Group, from the beginning in designing the school. That, Patterson said, will help minimize change orders during the project and give the district more leverage in dealing with any unforeseen problems.

“It (using a general contractor construction manager process) is fairly new in public projects,” Patterson said.

Traditionally an architect was selected who drew up the plans and then the district would go out for bids and award the bid to the lowest responsible bidder who met the criteria. Patterson said that change orders once a project got underway often drove up costs.

“With the GCCM, the contractor works with the architect from the beginning so you can head off more of those problems,” Patterson said. “Because the contractor is there from the start they’re responsible. It’s almost like a building guarantee … what we should get is a much more reliable budget.”

Also in the immediate future, Patterson said, the district will begin selling bonds — likely in December — and examine what projects can be done right away. Most of those will be warm, safe and dry projects — that is new roofs, new siding on buildings and safety and security measures to name a few.

“We’ll try to do the most that we can up front, but the most visible parts will take a few years,” Patterson said.

For the new high school, planning and permitting is expected to take one year, followed by a year of site prep before the building can start going up, with an expected opening for the 2017-2018 school year.

Some of the other projects, like tearing down the B building of Lake Wilderness Elementary School as well as remodeling and adding six classrooms and other realignment related remodeling projects won’t take place until the new high school is completed.

Patterson said the school district is committed to not using double-shifting or year-round school schedules because the community approved the bond measure. Patterson said the district will find short-term solutions if needed before the high school, and requisite district restructuring, can be completed.

“We will not implement alternative scheduling because it is disruptive to families and because it takes considerable time to plan for only a one or two year solution,” Patterson wrote in an email Nov. 8. “Instead, we will seek short-term ways to house students until we can open the new high school and realign our other schools. Having a definite date when we can permanently solve overcrowding changes the equation and allows us to be more flexible.”

Other details still to be worked out include the possibility of the school district partnering with the city of Maple Valley to develop Summit Park and Ballfields.

Patterson said that district administrators have had preliminary talks with David Johnston, Maple Valley city manager, and Greg Brown, city parks and recreation director.

“Whew, we passed the bond, but woah, now we have a lot of work to do,” Patterson said. “But it’s positive work, it’s problem solving work..it’s very exciting.”