PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles School Board is expected to discuss Thursday the date it will put a bond before voters to replace the high school.
The date Superintendent Jane Pryne is recommending is February 2015.
The board will consider setting a timeline for a high school bond vote when it meets in regular session at 7 p.m. at Roosevelt Elementary School, 106 Monroe Road. An executive session will begin at 6 p.m.
No amount has been set for the proposed bond.
“I anticipate taking a recommendation to the board” about the extent of the project and the estimated cost “no later than the end of June,” Pryne said Tuesday.
The Long Range Facilities Task Force recommended in December that the School Board ask voters to pass a bond up to the district’s bonding capacity to build a new high school.
If they decide to go ahead with a bond measure, board members Thursday will consider soliciting proposals from qualified architectural and engineering firms to provide pre-bond planning services — including investigating costs of replacing the school.
“After we have selected a architectural team, we will put together a committee of community and school staff who, along with the team, will start looking at the scope of the project,” Pryne said.
Oldest in district
Parts of the school are 60 years old, making those the oldest of the district’s school buildings now in use, the board was told in December.
The sprawling 10-building campus that overlooks Park Avenue and much of Port Angeles also has security problems, Kyle Cronk, co-spokesman for the task force — and chief executive officer of the YMCA — said then.
A 2007 state inspection determined that Port Angeles High’s eight classroom buildings, gymnasiums and the auditorium scored between 25.5 percent and 56.4 percent out of a 100-point grading system.
All of the buildings fell below state standards for electrical and plumbing systems, seismic stability, roofing, window and energy efficiency, and fire protection and detection.
They also don’t meet federal laws for the disabled. Steep staircases lead up and down three distinct terraces, and several buildings are grouped on each terrace.
If voters pass a bond, the firm selected for pre-election services may be expected to provide full architectural and engineering services for development of the projects “and possibly other Port Angeles School District capital project efforts,” the agenda for Thursday’s meeting says.
Task force
The 60-member task force will continue to meet through June 30 to consider options for replacing other aging schools, such as Stevens Middle School and Franklin and Hamilton elementary schools, and for structuring kindergarten-through-eighth-grade schools.
About half of the task force members are school district employees, and about half are parents or members of the community.
Some are working on organization of the lower grades, while others have asked to join a bond committee to work toward a rebuilt high school, Pryne has said.
