At their meeting last week, the Washington School Board took the next step toward making district improvement plans a reality. The Board has opened the bid letting process on Phase I Construction for improvements at the Washington High School and Middle School complex. This phase of work includes the construction three new additions to the existing high school. The first, a two-story, 25,100 square feet building, adjacent to the west wing of the high school that provides corridors, classrooms, a culinary arts lab, art room, restrooms offices and a conference room. The second, a 17,100 square foot building at the end of the north wing that provides additional corridors, classrooms, a band room, restrooms, a teacher work room and offices. The third is an 11,000 square foot gym addition built at the southeast corner of the facility next to the existing gyms which would also include restrooms and athletic storage spaces. Site improvements would include a new drive at the northwest corner of the existing lot, a parking lot expansion east of the facility and a small lot within the circle drive to the east. This week, Washington Superintendent Willie Stone spoke with KCII News about the time line, rough dollar estimate and anticipation around the project. “These are the actual plans that go out to bid. Bids will come back on December 7th and then at our next board meeting we’ll open those. Total cost for the project is about $28.3 million, both phases combined. The first phase of it is really a lot of cost because we’re building a lot of new, we’re not renovating. That equals about $22 million. Then we have money set aside for renovations. We’re at an exciting time in our district. We have a lot of great things going on and this is kind of the icing on the cake that our community backed it by at 72%. Now we’re getting to the fun stuff where we’re going to start building this summer!”
The $25 million bond was passed by voters in the Washington District September 14th of 2021 during a special election. Construction for Phase I is slated to start summer of 2023.