The new high school American Canyon city officials, parents and community leaders have anticipated for years is on track to break ground in the spring, according to the architect working on the project.

Construction will take two years, Santa Rosa-based architect Mark Quattrocchi told the American Canyon City Council Tuesday. The school is scheduled to open in 2010.

About 1,000 American Canyon teens commute to Napa to attend Vintage High School, contributing to overcrowded classrooms at Vintage and making the new south county high school a necessity, according to Napa Valley Unified School District officials.

The district’s $129 million campus — possibly American Canyon biggest public facility — will be built at the corner of American Canyon Road and Newell Drive. The high school, designed to house 2,200 students, is funded by Measure G, the $183 million school bond voters passed in November.

The high school will be built using green techniques, with solar energy panels and windows that can open to take advantage of the area’s cool breezes, according to Quattrocchi.

The school will have four small learning centers and four academies — all within the main campus, designed to offer more student-teacher interaction.

The academies will offer classes with emphasis in global studies, visual and performing arts, engineering and sciences or hospitality, according to Quattrocchi, unlike the small learning centers, which will offer traditional curricula.

The campus will feature one- and two-story buildings. Two of the main buildings will be a 400-seat theater and a two-story indoor gymnasium, Quattrocchi said.

The campus features a host of athletic areas, including a football/soccer field with artificial turf; an all-weather track; a swimming pool; varsity baseball and softball fields; junior varsity softball and baseball fields and a second soccer field, the plans show.

There will also be tennis and basketball courts.

On Thursday, American Canyon City Councilman Don Callison said the campus will build American Canyon’s sense of community.

“It’s going to be a nice campus,” he said.

Quattrocchi said his firm could soon forward architectural plans to state officials for review. At the same time, the Napa Valley Unified School District on Aug. 23 released the first in a series of documents required under the state environmental laws.

The future high school will occupy about 62 acres near 317 acres of open space the Napa Valley Unified School District purchased in December for $4.6 million to mitigate construction impacts on the red-legged frog, an animal protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The 62-page “Notice of Preparation,” prepared by Benson Lee Consulting of Berkeley, spells out what the in-depth study of the impacts of the high school construction on traffic, the environment, public services and more.

The environmental documents will include studies on the impact of a 2 million gallon steel tank the city wants to build on 1.5 acres on the 317-acre property to supply extra water to the east side of American Canyon, according to the city and the notice of preparation.

On Thursday, Geoff Monk, the consultant hired to analyze the impacts on biological resources, explained the district needs permits from a host of agencies. Permit applications have been filed with U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to mitigate the impacts on the red-legged frog, he said.

According to Don Evans, NVUSD’s general services and facilities director, American Canyon will eventually need a fourth elementary school and a second middle school. The site for the second middle school is next to the future high school.