PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles School District voters will be asked to decide on a bond for a new high school in a special election next year.
On Thursday night, School Board members voted 4-1, with member Sarah Methner opposed, to place a bond to fund a replacement for the aging Port Angeles High School, at 304 E. Park Ave., on the February 2015 ballot.
The amount of the bond has not been determined yet.
Methner said she would like to see the bond put to voters sooner rather than later.
“I would like to shoot for November 4 [2014],” Methner said at the meeting.
“That high school needs to be replaced and we need to get moving.”
The district’s Long Range Facilities Task Force recommended in December that the School Board ask voters to pass a bond to build a new high school.
Board member Lonnie Linn said architectural design work won’t be completed until the fall.
“To even know what we’re going to ask for would be October,” Linn said.
The board also voted 5-0 to issue a request for quotations from qualified architectural and engineering firms to provide pre-bond planning services.
This firm, once chosen by the board, would develop the scope and costs of construction of a new high school, said Kelly Pearson, district director of finance and operations.
Parts of the high school are 60 years old, the board was told in December, making those the oldest of the district’s school buildings currently in use.
A 2007 state inspection determined the high school fell below state standards for electric and plumbing systems, seismic stability, roofing window and energy efficiency, and fire protection and detection.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
