The design of Little Butte Elementary School's replacement building will reflect the style of some of downtown Eagle Point's other architecture, especially West Main Street's covered bridge, says the new school's architect.

The Eagle Point School Board on Wednesday approved the school's schematic design by BBT Architects of Bend.

The school, which will be called Hillside Elementary School, will be about 54,000 square feet with 22 to 24 classrooms arranged into what is known in education as learning communities, shared spaces with skylights and gabled roof reminiscent of the nearby covered bridge on West Main between North Shasta and North Royal avenues. The school will stand next to the current Little Butte School, 12 N. Shasta Ave.

"We tried to make it connect with the fabric of Eagle Point," says architect Todd Turner of BBT.

The school district is using $12 million of insurance proceeds to build the new school, which is needed to address crowding and aging facilities at the nearly 80-year-old Little Butte, district officials say.

The $12 million came from a settlement with New York-based Great American Insurance Co. over a fire at Eagle Point Junior High eight years ago.

Construction will begin in late February or early March, Whitman says.

Students are expected to move in by winter 2012.

— Paris Achen