After more than a decade of fits and starts, Issaquah has finally broken ground on a long-planned fourth high school, a project local families have been hearing about for years. The scaled, phased campus is designed to ease severe overcrowding at Issaquah and Skyline high schools and is expected to open in the fall of 2027 for roughly 650 to 700 students. Site work began in April 2026, and crews are gearing up for full construction through summer 2027.
Skanska said in a press release that it signed a roughly $99 million contract for phase one and will begin site work in April 2026, with that phase targeted to finish in August 2027. The company noted that phase one includes a covered parking garage, a multipurpose athletic field, and right-of-way work to improve public access. Skanska said the award will be included in its U.S. order bookings for the first quarter of 2026.
Budget And Size
The district’s project budget is listed at roughly $168 million, and regional reporting describes the initial building at about 85,000 square feet. These figures reflect a smaller, phased approach compared with earlier master plans. According to the Puget Sound Business Journal, the project is being built in phases and mixes previously approved bond dollars, levies, and other district resources to pay for construction. The phased model is intended to deliver near-term capacity relief while leaving room for future additions if and when enrollment demands it.
District Plan And Features
The Issaquah School District’s capital projects page lays out phase one as a roughly 79,000-square-foot west wing with about 25 classrooms, a reduced parking garage, and a multipurpose turf field with lights and a track. As outlined by the Issaquah School District, the design also includes frontage and road improvements along 228th Avenue SE and preserves buffers and stormwater systems while keeping options open for later expansion. In short, it is a starter campus that is meant to function immediately, not just sit as a half finished promise.
Funding And The Long Road Here
Voters approved the bond to buy the Providence Heights site in 2016, but a high-profile fight over the campus and a string of appeals stalled the project for years, as reported by the Issaquah Reporter. After a bond measure failed in early 2025, the district shifted to a scaled-down, phased plan, the Sammamish Independent reported. Local coverage and district documents indicate the phased approach leans on about $146 million in previously approved funds, plus levies and other sources to fund phase one, a financial patchwork that kept the project alive when a bigger vision could not clear the ballot box.
Traffic, Trees And What Residents Should Expect
Permit and SEPA documents require curb and sidewalk work, lane widenings on 228th Avenue SE and turn lane construction at the new site driveway, all intended to keep drop off and pick up on campus and limit cut through traffic in nearby neighborhoods, according to the city’s SEPA MDNS for the project. The MDNS also spells out stormwater treatment, buffer preservation and other mitigation measures intended to reduce impacts on nearby homes and downstream habitat. Those conditions are baked into the project’s permit approvals, so neighbors should expect both construction activity and infrastructure upgrades as the campus comes out of the ground…