It is the house that Lakewood built.

Lakes High School debuted the third and final phase of its three-year renovation on Sept. 15 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house.

Hundreds of Lancer families along with Clover Park School District faculty and staff and Lakewood government officials were on hand.

Construction began in March 2008, and work was completed in three phases while students remained on campus, which Principal Karen Mauer-Smith compared to "building the plane while flying it." Funding for the new high school came from a $65 million bond, which was approved by Lakewood-area voters in 2006, along with $23 million from the state.

Phase I, completed in 2009, included classrooms, a new library and a new Performing Arts Center. Phase II, completed last January, featured more classrooms along with a new cafeteria, gymnasium, pool and administrative offices. The third and final phase includes new athletic fields, tennis courts, site work, parking lots, sidewalks and landscaping.

Last week's ceremony marked the complete transition into the new facilities, which have gradually replaced the old buildings. Those buildings, opened in 1962, were demolished as new buildings were completed.

The school is home to about 1,400 students, nearly half of them from military families, including those living on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, said Mauer-Smith.

The students are excited about the new facility, she said, and see it as an investment in themselves. "They want to be here. They want to be a part of it."