Cassie Coltrane can't wait to go back to school.

She knows it sounds a little strange. As summer winds down, many high school students begin to dread the halls and the homework, the pop quizzes and the class projects.

Not this year. Not at the bright, shiny and new West Valley High School.

"I'm pumped to go to school," says Coltrane, a senior. "I'm excited about the skywalk. I'm excited because I heard the gym is like three full courts. And the commons is like three times as big. We'll have so much space to do activities in."

Seniors get to go first. When school starts Aug. 25, they'll get the whole place to themselves. And that's cool with Coltrane.

"I'm excited to be the first class that's in there," the 17-year-old says.

The class of 2010 will be followed by the juniors Aug. 26 and sophomores Aug. 27. On Friday of next week, Aug. 28, all three high school classes will attend on the same day for the first time.

West Valley High includes grades 10 through 12. Incoming freshmen attend the junior high campus.

The staggered start dates gives students --as well as teachers and staff -- a chance to learn their way around their new digs with fewer high-schoolers crowding the halls.

Not that the halls will be crowded. The new school encompasses 237,000 square feet and can accommodate 1,500 students.

This year's enrollment is expected to hover around 1,100, according to Tom Fleming, the West Valley School District's assistant superintendent of business and finance.

"We do have room to grow," Fleming says. "This is a big improvement to what we had before."

The new school, financed by a bond measure approved by voters in 2006, is next door to the old campus on Zier Road. Construction cost about $48 million.

But the entire project -- everything from clearing and leveling the land to purchasing new equipment and furniture, including 1,600 new desks and 2,100 new chairs -- has a total price tag of about $60 million, Fleming said.

Concrete was poured for the foundation in fall 2007, and students, teachers and staff at the old school next door have been watching and waiting for its grand opening ever since.

New high schools have been a rare find in Yakima County in recent years.

The last public high school built in the county was Highland High School in 2001. Prior to that, Selah High School was built in 1988.

Two neighboring counties built new high schools in 2006: Ellensburg High School in Kittitas County and Wahluke High School in Grant County.

The new school has 50 classrooms, eight science labs, seven computer labs, an indoor running track and 500-seat auditorium. The gymnasium seats about 2,200 people and features an image of a Ram, the school mascot, breaking through the floorboards.

"It's going to be really exciting," says 18-year-old Samantha Chandler, another senior who's looking forward to going back to school. "I don't think there's any one kid (at WVHS) that's dreading going back to school. It's going to be nice to have the fresh, new everything."

There campus also features motion-detected lights throughout the entire building and power strips running along the walls of all classrooms, which feature integrated blinds in the windows and are built around a central landscaped courtyard.

There's also heightened security. Cameras keep an eye on all of the common areas, including the hallways and parking lots. The push of a button locks all exterior doors.

Two weeks before the start of school, workers were still completing "punch list" items -- adding molding, painting and installing flooring and electrical equipment, among other finishing touches.

Teachers were getting antsy; they were ready to start moving in and setting up their classrooms. "It's going to be nice to have just a better learning environment," says Tom Robinson, who teaches business and marketing and oversees the student store.

The store -- adjacent to Robinson's new classroom overlooking the courtyard -- is on the perimeter of the commons, the gathering place just inside the main doors that also serves as a dining area.

The commons features a skywalk, or second-floor balcony, as well as a small stage. A radial pattern on the floor featuring the school colors -- white, scarlet and Columbia blue -- emanates from it.

"It's very open," says architect Jim Christensen of the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho-based Architects West, the company that designed the building. "The commons is really the hub of the school. Everything feeds back to this space."

Down the street, plans are under way to remodel the old high school into a ninth-grade center. That remodel will cost about $10 million.

Older buildings on the campus, built between 1955 and 1965, will be torn down, Fleming says. Ninth-graders, who currently attend the junior high, are slated to move into the center next fall, for the 2010-11 academic year.

Meantime, teachers and staff at WVHS are still learning their way around the new building.

"I love it. It's amazing," says counselor Bernie Snow, who was among the first to move into the new school. "I think anybody who walks into the building will be impressed with what's here.

"To me, it has almost a collegiate feel. I feel fortunate to be able to work in a place like this."