Eagle River High School - Campus/Building

Campus/Building

Eagle River High School is located on a 50-acre (200,000 m2) site on the south side of Eagle River off of Yosemite Drive. Over 7000 workers and contractors from USKH Inc. and Davis Construction and Engineers began assembly of the 182,000 sq/ft building on July 31, 2003 with the ground breaking ceremony. Construction of the building took about 2 years, ending in August, with the ribbon cutting ceremony on August 17, 2005. With 46 instruction rooms, and 38-foot (12 m) ceilings in the commons area, the school fulfills the public need. The school currently enrolls approximately 840 students but it was built with room to grow as its gym and cafeteria are made to hold 600 students. The floor plan has the same basic design as the 1,600-student Dimond High School but is about half the size, using one wing of classrooms instead of two. This design allowed construction workers to improve the original design and plan ahead so as to maximize any future problems that might be encountered with the overall construction of the building.

The cost of the building was 54 million dollars, with 2% of that being paid for by the state of Alaska through the school debt reimbursement program. School bonds also paid for the high school. The school services students from the Eagle River area as well as Fort Richardson, and the Chugiak area. Most of the school's population came from Chugiak and Bartlett, which was highly advantageous, helping relieve both schools' overcrowding problem.