The shovels have been turned and the dirt has been broken for the new Fort Riley Elementary School to be built on post.
The new $21 million school will be built on the edge of the Forsyth 
neighborhood on post and will replace the current 60 year old facility near main post.
Dr. Beth Hudson, Geary USD 475 Associate Superintendent said during the ceremony that it was a celebration.
“We celebrate not only the partnership of the Fort Riley and Junction City communities but we celebrate the collaboration between the local agencies, those at the state level, and those that help so much at the national level,” Hudson said.
Hudson further called the new school evidence that when you work together, “many good things can happen for the good of our military families.”
The new school has been designed by the same architecture firm that designed both the new Fort Riley Middle School and Seitz Elementary School, Schaefer, Johnson, Cox, Frey Architecture.
Troy Hertel, who is an architect with Schaefer, Johnson, Cox, Frey Architecture, explained that the new school is designed similar to Seitz Elementary but instead of metal framing and decking they will use wood material.
“We will bring in the warmth of the wood into this building. I think that the character outside and inside will be a little bit different even though the wings, the gym, and the music rooms and all of that stuff will be pretty much identical,” Hertel said.
The new school will be approximately 75,000 square feet with space for 500 K-5 students.
The school district received a federal grant totaling $16,096,000, which will provide a majority of the funding. The district will provide a match totaling $4,024,000, bringing the total amount of the project to $20,120,000. Of this the total project cost, $18,410,000 represents actual construction costs, $900,000 represents architectural and engineering fees, and the remaining amount includes $810,000 for furnishings.
The District’s local match will be a combination of about $3 million dollars from the state and the remainder from federal impact aid money received by USD 475.