PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles High School should be rebuilt and Franklin Elementary School should be sold.
And voters should be asked to pass a bond issue late this year or early next year, a community committee evaluating district buildings told the Port Angeles School Board this week.
The two proposals — with work on the high school at 304 E. Park Ave. the top priority, said Mark Jacobson, director of business and operations — are included in three options for rebuilding the school district’s aging facilities as spelled out in the committee’s report presented to the School Board on Monday.
Bond proposals
And the bond proposal is the first of two.
The first would fund high school work and demolition of the Monroe Elementary building. The school was closed in 2004.
The second bond would be requested to fund elementary and middle school buildings about five years later.
The board took no action at its Monday night meeting, and no date for a decision was set.
The costs of rebuilding district facilities would range between $192.56 million and $197.95 million — with the high school rebuilding estimated at $57.26 million, said the report by the Long Range Facility and Capital Bond Committee, which was formed three years ago to consider what to do with the district buildings.
The committee’s timeline recommends that construction begin in 2010 on the high school buildings — meaning a bond issue proposal for that work would go before voters by the end of this year or early 2010.
The committee did not recommend an amount of either bond. That would be determined later.
Some costs of construction could be offset by state-matching funds and by property sales, said Paul Rising of BLRB Architects, which assisted with a facilities condition report and long-range facilities plan.
All three of the options, which plan for a district capacity of 4,100 students, recommend cutting from five elementary schools to four and include extensive renovations as well as some sales of properties.
Enrollment projections, which show a continuing decline, suggest the district no longer needs five elementary schools, the committee said.
Consolidation to four would minimize operational cost, it said.
Nolan Duce, facilities supervisor, said that many district buildings were built and modernized in 1978, so many of them are coming to the end of their usefulness at the same time.
“This isn’t a case of premature failing of systems,” Duce said. “It is just they are all at their life expectancy.”
Water and electrical systems are failing, some buildings still have the original 1970s roofs and a multitude of issues related to the Americans with Disabilities Act are strewn throughout the district, he told the board.
“We also have many issues in the parking lots,” he said.
“If you go to Roosevelt [Elementary], you’ll see that there are something like 300 pot holes, and that is because we’ll patch one, but then the ground next to it is weakened, so a pot hole shows up there next and so on.”
Franklin Elementary in southeast Port Angeles was found to be in the worst condition.
In all three options, the committee recommended it be sold.
The variances in the options are at the elementary and middle school levels.
Option 1
Option 1 — the preferred option by the committee — would cost an estimated $192.56 million.
It would include new elementary schools at the Stevens Middle School and Monroe Elementary School sites, a new section added to Jefferson Elementary and two classrooms added onto the Dry Creek Elementary building.
Roosevelt Elementary School — which was converted from a middle school in 2007 — would be modernized and become the district’s middle school again.
The option would put up for sale Franklin and Hamilton elementary schools, property at the former Mount Pleasant School site at the corner of Mount Pleasant and Draper roads, the Donahue home at Park Avenue and Peabody Street on the high school campus and portions of the Stevens Middle School site.
Option 2
Option 2 would cost an estimated $194.61 million.
It would include new elementary schools on the Stevens Middle School and the former Fairview Elementary School sites, a new section added onto Jefferson Elementary and two classrooms added onto the Dry Creek Elementary building.
The primary reason for placing the elementary at the Fairview site, which was closed in 2007, as opposed to the Monroe site, which was closed in 2004, anticipates greater population growth on the east side of town, Rising said.
The option would put up for sale Franklin and Hamilton elementary schools, property at the site of the former Mount Pleasant School, the Donahue home and portions of the Stevens Middle School site.
Option 3
Option 3 — the most expensive at $197.95 million — would include a new elementary school at the Hamilton Elementary School site, Roosevelt Elementary School modernization, replacement of Stevens Middle School, a new section added onto Jefferson Elementary and two classrooms added onto the Dry Creek Elementary building.
The third option would have the best distribution for east and west populations but would include the sale of only one large property, and the district would have to maintain seven active sites, Rising said.
The option would put up for sale Franklin Elementary, the property at the former Mount Pleasant School site, the Donahue home and portions of the Stevens Middle School site.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
