New science high school will have 3 floors, 26 classrooms

Construction giant Skanska, the contractor for Evergreen Public Schools’ latest project, released new details about the district’s health and science high school.

Skanska broke ground on the project in October. The school so far is on track to open its doors in the fall of 2013. The 69,000-square-foot building will be three stories high with about 26 classrooms, according to the construction firm.

The Evergreen school board last fall named the school the Henrietta Lacks Health and Bioscience High School, after an African-American woman whose cancer cells have been used for lifesaving research for more than five decades. Lacks died in 1951.

He-La High, as it will be known, will feature teaching labs especially equipped for its biomedical engineering, anatomy, nursing, research, chemistry, advanced biology, biotechnology, microbiology and pharmacy programs.

The building will also include a fitness room, music room and a commons area at its center.

The school has been designed to allow a lot of daylight to come into the building. The project will meet standards for the Washington Sustainable Schools Protocol, which is similar to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — or LEED — certification, Skanska said in a statement Thursday.

He-La High will draw some of its electrical power from a photovoltaic system.

The project site is at the corner of Northeast 92nd Avenue and Northeast Ninth Street.