Students learning at the alternative AIM High School in Snohomish will have a new home next fall.
The Snohomish School District is planning renovations this summer to the former Parkway Nursing Center, 535 13th St., which it recently purchased.
At 36,315 square feet, the center is more than six times the space the 70-student high school has rented the past two decades.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how excited we are,” said June Shirey, who heads the district’s alternative programs. “This has been a long time coming. Our staff is really excited to see it.”
Students will help generate ideas for remaking the space into a school, she added. “They’re excited to have something that’s their own.”
AIM High School has rented the 86-year-old Garden City Grange, 810 Second St., for 21 years.
The school won’t be alone in its new digs. The building also will house the school district’s parent partnership program and transition services for adult students with special needs.
The parent partnership program also will be happy to have more elbow room.
It has rented rooms at Christ the King Lutheran Church, 1305 Pine St., since it started four years ago with 65 home-schoolers. It now serves 180 home-schooled students who come in once a week to meet with teachers.
The 109-bed Parkway facility, built in 1964, closed in 2004 because of financial losses. An earlier attempt by the school district to buy the 3.25-acre property fell through.
The district closed on a deal last month with Health Care Investors. It paid $1.79 million, using proceeds from mitigation fees, which are paid by developers to help offset the effects of new housing.
Snohomish County property records list the property’s market value at $4.1 million.
There is no estimate yet for renovation costs. The building remains boarded up while school planners evaluate what needs to be done, district spokeswoman Shannon Parthemer said.
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