Jackson board votes to demolish high school building if bond issue passes

The Jackson School District now has a plan for renovations and construction if a proposed $22 million bond issue passes in April.

Aaron Harte, senior associate with Incite Design Studio LLC, laid out his company’s design proposal during the school board’s meeting Tuesday night.

While the plan would affect buildings across the district, the biggest unsettled aspect of the plan was the question of what to do with the high school, Harte said.

To achieve the district’s objective of moving the ninth-grade class to the high school, he said there were three basic options.

The board chose the first option, which would entail the demolition of the existing “Old A” building and constructing a new facility in its place.

Though the figures are tentative at this point, he said such a plan would cost about $10.9 million for a 48,000-square-foot building.

Nearly all board members expressed sadness at voting for the structure’s demolition because the building holds meaningful memories for many Jackson graduates, but the consensus favored replacement.

“I’ll go up against anyone for nostalgia,” board member Kelly Waller said. “But it’s time.”

He said the high school already has facilities of differing ages, and he argued teachers in the older portions likely would prefer to be in newer ones.

The other two options were renovating the “Old A” building or a combination of renovations and new construction.

Harte’s presentation outlined the difficulties of the former option.

“Old A” has been found to have excessive mold-spore counts on the lowest level, and it would be impossible to bring into compliance with seismic code.

The latter combination option was considerably more expensive.

The design included upgrades to the Jackson Middle School, North Elementary and West Lane Elementary.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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