The Washington School Board is starting to look at building options for the middle school. Superintendent Willie Stone tells KCII News that the topic is part of a bigger discussion regarding a five-year building and grounds plan for the district.

He says they’re looking at three options, “One is to renovate the building there. Another option is to have part of the building and tear the rest of the building down. Possibly keep the old gym, tear the rest of the building down and then rebuild there. Or then the third option, I believe, is going to be looking to add on, put a middle school-high school out at the high school. Kind of take back the old middle school or junior high, take that building back, then add on to it and add on to the high school and have a central campus for our 6-12 out there. So, those are the three options that we’re looking at, and we’re really right now we haven’t picked any of them. We’re more so looking into starting to get some community feedback on what we think is best for kids.”

Stone said they’d look to plan to do something in 2023. He said estimates for the project are $20-30 million depending on the project selected. He said what is best for students will be the deciding factor, “I know in the past there’s been some tension over this, but we’re going to try to go at it from a different way. And try to get a lot of support up front so we know what our community wants and try to go that way to try to do what’s best for kids. And like I say, in this whole conversation I keep saying that, and most people know that any decision I make we try to do what’s best for kids and that’s our goal, is no matter what decision we make it’s got to be what’s best for kids.”

Stone encourages community members to share feedback with him or school board members as they begin the process of deciding what to do. He adds there will be open public meetings on the topic.