As she has in the past, Secondary Academy for Success (SAS) Principal Holly Call talked about creating “a building that teaches.”

As a new school year gets under way in the Northshore School District Sept. 1, officials say some of the biggest changes will affect those who used to attend, in one way or another, the old Anderson school building on Bothell Way Northeast.

Probably most notably, the district has moved its alternative high school — SAS — from the Anderson school to a converted office/warehouse space on 23rd Drive Southeast in the Canyon Park area.

Elsewhere, according to Northshore Superintendent Larry Francois, students and parents can look forward to a renovated Pop Keeney Field, as well as several smaller renovation programs at various schools around the district.

On the academic side, Francois said staffers plan this year to place an emphasis on literacy at the elementary level, on science in junior-high classes.

Regarding the Anderson building, besides SAS, the historic school also used to serve as headquarters for the renamed Northshore Networks, essentially a homeschooling network. Also overseen by Call, those offices have been relocated to the district administration building on Monte Villa Parkway in Bothell.

Both SAS and the Northshore Network had to vacate since, as has been well advertised, the Anderson building was part of the district’s sale of several acres along Bothell Way Northeast to the city of Bothell. The Anderson school now is slated to become home to a McMenamins brew pub, restaurant and hotel complex.

In the meantime, Call said the new, $6.1 million SAS has come together well.

“It has really played out to be the facility we wanted it to be,” she said.

In revamping the school’s new space, the Northshore district entered into an extensive relationship with the national green building/energy efficiency corporation McKinstry.

During a tour of the new SAS site while it was under construction early this spring, Call said ties already existed between the Seattle-based firm and her school, but those ties were to be greatly strengthened in the new SAS facility.

For example, with the cooperation of McKinstry, the building has features allowing students to monitor the building’s various systems and green enhancements such as solar panels and rainwater collectors. And all of that will tie into new, two-period, green-building courses to be offered at SAS, but available to any high-school student in the Northshore district.

Cascadia Community College also is involved with the new program.

“It’s sort of a triad,” Call said regarding the new curriculum. The college actually will receive the same raw data on the SAS building’s status as students in the Northshore school.

As for Northshore Networks, Call said about 225 students are involved with the program’s “contract learning.” Though they mostly study on their own at home, students meet with a program teacher once a month. Francois said seeing students in the hallways of the administration offices might be a good thing, reminding staffers of why they do what they do.

Returning to the subject of renovations around the district, Francois said the work at Pop Keeney was perhaps the most extensive. He said the plan is to have the work completed in time for the first school sporting events of the fall.

“It’s going to be close,” he said, but added officials are “reasonably confident” there are no major impediments to completing the project on time.

The work includes a new stand of seats, locker rooms, a new entrance and additional parking.