Lawson is the first new school to open in the district in eight years, Jeremy Nishihara, communications manager for the district, said. Other districts in the area are closing schools.

Some 550 sixth- and seventh-graders will come from feeder elementary schools Garden Gate, Collins, Eaton, and Lincoln, with some also coming from Kennedy and Hyde Middle Schools.

As they gather for their school's grand opening ceremony on Aug. 26, the students will participate in the first assembly in the gymnasium and will include what will be the first class to graduate from Lawson--in 2007.

More than $27 million of Measure C bond money got the project off the ground. That included moving the Cupertino Language Immersion Program, the teacher resource center and the KIT Stop science program to other locations to make way for the new middle school.

The opening of Lawson marks the end of the renovation and improvements approved by the 2001 bond measure. The district is keeping in reserve some $20 million for facilities projects.

Jay Lawson, the son of the school's namesake, will be at the opening ceremony, which Nishihara said is geared to the new students.

Though the school is a new middle school in the district, only a portion of the buildings on the site (formerly the site of Collins School) are newly constructed--those include the administration building, gymnasium/theater complex and the only two-story building in the district, which houses science classrooms. Lawson is actually returning to its early roots as a middle school--before it was Collins.

Also new are the school colors and mascot, which have been painted on the gymnasium floor, Nishihara said.

Representatives from each of the feeder schools gathered suggestions for color combinations and mascot names, narrowed the field to three and the students voted on their favorites: maroon with dark blue and a silver accent for the color scheme, and Lawson Lightning for the mascot name.