As part of its efforts to work with the community, Cornerstone General Contractors held scheduled tours of the new facility.
fter years of planning, design, and construction, the new Inlet View Elementary School is nearly finished in Anchorage’s South Addition neighborhood. The project is replacing the original 1957 building, one of the oldest schools in Anchorage, which will be used by students through the end of the year. The project is on track for students to move into new classrooms at the beginning of the spring semester in January.
“Right now, the siding is going up,” says Jonathan Hornack, senior project manager for Cornerstone General Contractors. “The parking lot on the east side is striped and signed, and the west side parking lots are nearing completion.”
Landscaping and exterior hardscape began earlier this month, and the Anchorage School District is expected to take over the building in early December to begin furnishing classrooms. Once students settle in, demolition of the existing school will begin in early 2026, followed by construction of a playground, hockey rink, and basketball courts next summer. Full project completion is scheduled for August 2026.
More Need Than a Targeted Upgrade Could Cure
The new building will accommodate up to 289 students, an increase in capacity of more than a hundred students over the current building. The original school, built for 170 students, currently has 215 students enrolled.
“We’re well over capacity,” says Charlie Peters, the Inlet View project manager with the district’s capital planning and construction department. “We’re expecting—because of the International Baccalaureate program that is within the elementary, since this is the only elementary school with that program—that we will see more students going to the school.”
“Right now, the school only has a gym slash multi-purpose room—one space, and typically our elementary schools have two spaces: one multi-purpose room, one gym,” Peters says. “We’re giving them that in the design we have.”
Unlike other Anchorage schools receiving targeted upgrades, Inlet View required a full rebuild due to its age and outdated systems. The existing school does not meet a handful of education and safety standards, such as no sprinkler system for fire protection and no line of sight between the office and the entry. The infrastructure of the current school is past its life expectancy, with more than 550 work order repair requests in 2018, and has had temporary out-buildings for more than 15 years.
Some elements of the existing school will carry over to the new building, including a mural on the west face of the gym.
A Family Project to Benefit Families
“For us, this project is really personal,” says Larry Embly, project manager and co-owner of Circle. “I know friends who went to Inlet View. Now we’re taking that school down and building something new—it feels like giving back to the community.”
The new Inlet View Elementary School will be two stories, with room to accommodate students who want to be part of the International Baccalaureate program, the only one offered in an elementary school in Anchorage School District.
“We’ve got a big family that works here—my dad, uncle, cousin and now my son,” Embly says. “It’s special to be working on something that our kids or grandkids might go to one day.”
Embly said the project has been one of the best Circle has worked on.
“Cornerstone [General Contractors] is extremely high on safety,” he said. “Every day, we know we’re building something safe and lasting. This project was a team effort from the start.”
Peters agreed that the school has been shaped not just by engineers and contractors but by the people it will serve. In addition to Peters, the design committee included community members, staff, PTA members, and the school principal.
“I would say that community involvement is very important on these projects,” Peters says. “Making sure that not just people that are affiliated with the school are aware of it but people that live in the community, and then not just during the design phase but being available during construction. When we’re out there compacting asphalt, or dirt, or just building the building, I think being open and available is important.”
Hornack says the project has been meeting with the local community council on a quarterly basis, or whenever there are updates, to keep neighbors up to date.
“We try to meet with [the community] to make sure they’re in the loop and can tell all their neighbors what’s going on and why we’re doing what we’re doing,” Hornack says.