One new school is opening. One is being demolished. And three more are on the drawing board for complete reconstruction starting next year.

Jack McLeod, the director of the Bellevue School District's facilities, jokingly calls it the "Bellevue stimulus plan."

Eastgate Elementary opens in a brand-new building on the first day of school Aug. 31. Meanwhile, the kids at Ardmore Elementary will spend the coming school year at the Bellwood elementary school building while their old school building is demolished and rebuilt.

But the big work starts next summer, when a two-year overhaul of Bellevue High School begins. Here's an animation of what the new school will look like.

Nancy Larson, manager of facilities, maintenance and information technology for the district, explains that the new focus in rebuilding schools is to make them more secure, so they could be locked down in the event of an emergency. And the district is also striving for greater energy efficiency. So the California-style campus of sprawling, loosely connected buildings -- so popular when most Bellevue schools were constructed -- is making way for more compact, energy-efficient two-story buildings.

With the remodel, Bellevue High will keep its gymnasium, but the school will have all new classrooms and a new performing arts center. Three-quarters of the school will be brand-new.

As part of that, the city of Bellevue will hold a hearing on the conditional use permit of the project Aug. 27 at 6 p.m. at Bellevue City Hall.

McLeod said there have been a number of community meetings about the project already. Neighbors aren't happy about the traffic patterns at the school, and McLeod said the district is working on the design to try to relieve congestion on the school site.

The two other schools scheduled for reconstruction in 2010 are Tyee Middle and Spiritridge Elementary.

For more information about these ongoing projects, check out the district's capital improvements Web site.