Bellevue School District began a new chapter in its history on Wednesday with a formal groundbreaking ceremony marking the building of its first new neighborhood school in over 40 years.

Scheduled to open in September 2018, the new school was formally named Wilburton Elementary School at the July 18 School Board meeting after the Bellevue community it resides in.

“In the past five years alone, the Bellevue School District has grown by over ten percent, and now serves over 20,000 students. With the generous support of our community and voters, we are able to use funds from the bond passed in 2014 to build a new Wilburton Elementary School that will help us serve 650 elementary students in our district. We are grateful and excited about this opportunity,” said Christine Chew, Bellevue School Board president.

Located in the Wilburton community at the corner of Main Street and 124th Avenue Northeast, the new Wilburton Elementary School will house approximately 650 students, preschool through fifth grade. It will draw students from around the downtown and Wilburton areas, relieving overcrowding at Enatai, Woodridge and Clyde Hill elementary schools.

The 82,000-square-foot facility designed by BLRB Architects and built by Edifice Construction, will be a state-of-the-art facility that takes advantage of the natural slope on the property, maximizes natural light in every classroom, and provides additional open learning spaces for small group instruction.

The school will also have a playground, an all-weather field and a 41-car drop-off/pick-up line to minimize the impact on surface streets.

As this school was designed and is being built, the district is engaging Microsoft to gain a worldwide perspective on how technology is best incorporated into learning at the elementary level. Wilburton Elementary, as well as other elementary schools in the district, will be able to take advantage of these advancements.

“We are excited to continue our close relationship with Bellevue School District as they build out their new elementary school. We are committed to working together to shape a forward-thinking learning environment, which thoughtfully levers current and emerging technologies to empower all learners to achieve more,” said Mark Sparvell, senior manager, Microsoft Education.

“I want the school to be a model, where we use technology to disrupt the system so that students are engaged and excited to learn. I want a school that is accessible to anyone, and that can be replicated by anyone. Wilburton will be a lighthouse school for the district, where we will share our learnings as we learn from others,” said Wilburton Elementary Principal Beth Hamilton.

Hamilton, has worked for the Bellevue School District for 15 years, the last six years as principal at Medina Elementary. During the 2017-18 school year, Hamilton will be preparing for the new school, hiring its staff and engaging the school’s new community.

“We have so many great things we can do together as we build our Wilburton Elementary community. I can’t wait to start meeting the students and building their love of learning,” Hamilton said in a recent interview.

For more information, visit www.bsd405.org/wilburton.