Stafford Municipal School District’s new middle school is nearly completed. The $26 million school will be finished Aug. 5, just in time for the 2020-2021 school year. Classes start Aug. 19, but they will be online only for at least the first four weeks, according to Stafford MSD's website. The school will be able to accommodate 950 students in grades six through eight. The full building will be 139,360 square feet over three stories. It will include science laboratories, robotics facilities, engineering and computer labs, a band room, two art rooms, a fitness room, two gymnasiums, a library and a cafeteria. The existing middle school, which the new building replaces, will be turned into a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) campus for grades three through eight. It will open in the 2021-2022 school year.

The projects were designed roughly two years ago, around the time of shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, near Houston. The new middle school will have additional safety features to guard against school shootings, including bullet-resistant materials and a design intended to deter and detect intruders. “The way the school is designed, we are able to limit the coming and going of people in such a way that threat detection can (take) place at a secure vestibule,” said JP Grom, vice president of Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, the program manager for Stafford MSD's bond program. Additionally, Stafford MSD's two-story, 26,362-square-foot administrative building was completed the first week of June. It has offices, training and conference rooms, and a board room. The facility cost $6.9 million. The new middle school and the administrative building were designed by AutoARch Architects and are being constructed by Drymalla Construction. RECOMMENDED EDUCATION Parents: Take our survey on Oregon's back-to-school plan FOOD & LIFESTYLE Pueblo Harvest FOOD & LIFESTYLE Indian Pueblo Store These projects are part of a 2017 $62 million bond program. In the future, additional projects will include a community center, an outdoor educational plaza, an early childhood center and renovations to the elementary and high schools. As Stafford MSD is a municipal school district, some of these facilities will be for public use. “Stafford is growing; its demographics and student population (are) growing,” Stafford MSD Superintendent Robert Bostic said. “We’re starting to attract back families that have traditionally chosen other places for their child’s instruction.” Bostic credits Stafford’s new STEM-heavy model with this influx of families. As of last school year, the district had 3,600 students.