LAKEWOOD — With construction on the new $66.8 million Lakewood High School building set to start in the spring or summer of 2015, community members were invited to the existing school to find out what the future had in store for them.

Kari Parks is a mom to two kids, but with her oldest in fourth grade at English Crossing Elementary, it’ll be a while before either of them attend high school in the new building. Still, she regards it as something to look forward to.

“I’m excited by the fact that it’s going to be totally rebuilt and replaced from the ground up,” Parks said. “It’s time. We were due for a completely new high school, both for our kids and our community.”

While Parks was intrigued by the idea of outdoor learning spaces, fellow Lakewood mom Ilene Miller appreciates that the new facility will be built with room for the student population to grow.

“It just seems very crowded right now,” Miller said. “I also like that they’ve moved the timetable up, so that my daughter will hopefully get to enjoy it by the time she’s a high school junior.”

Ilene’s daughter, Nicole Miller, attends Lakewood Middle School. As a basketball player, Nicole was glad to see the school’s floor plan included two gymnasiums, although area resident Karen Swanson considered this wasteful.

“Between the gyms, the fitness room, the weight room, and all the square footage that’s being taken up by the theater and the band, music and vocal rooms, these are spaces that won’t lead students on a path that will support their lives,” said Swanson, who does not have children in the district.

Andrew Smith graduated from LHS in 2006, but he’s returned for the past six years to help build sets for the school plays.

“It’ll be nice for the next generations of students not to have to go to classes in portables, or to walk all the way across campus to get from one class to the next,” Smith said. “These were things we could have used when I was in high school here.”

Lakewood Superintendent Michael Mack explained that the school district is engaged in the permitting process for the new building, after which it will commence the first phase of groundwork construction by the summer of 2015, followed by the second phase in January of 2016.

“We’ll start with all the work we can do that will be least disruptive to the existing school,” said Mack, who aims to see construction wrapped in August of 2017.

“In a perfect world,” he laughed. “In the meantime, we’re making every effort to keep our community informed, and to show them that we’re being good stewards of their money.”