QUILCENE – Old and outdated school facilities are forcing Quilcene School District representatives to make a difficult decision: renovate or replace?
David Andersen, who wears the hats of both superintendent and principal at the district, boiled the issues the district is facing down to a simple analogy.
“It’s like if you have a 40-year-old car,” Andersen said.
“You’ve got to either keep fixing it or replace it.”
The analogy doesn’t quite hold true, because the high school building, one of three school district-owned buildings caught in the replace or fix-up dilemma, is more than 70 years old – built in 1935.
The school district commissioned a facilities cost analysis in 2006.
The analysis, completed in September, estimated that constructing modifications to the high school building would cost about $2.03 million.
Replacing the facility was estimated at $2.73 million.
Andersen said because the analysis was preliminary and took only a very broad look at the facilities, the final cost will most likely be higher.
