MARYSVILLE — For nearly 40 years, students have paced Marysville- Pilchuck High School’s open hallways and filled its football stadium on Friday nights.
Now Marysville School District leaders are considering tearing the school down or spending tens of millions of dollars to renovate.
The district’s citizens facilities committee is reviewing several projects that may wind up on the ballot for voters to decide on in February 2010. Renovating or replacing Marysville-Pilchuck, once one of the state’s largest schools, is the costliest item on a list of potential projects that also includes replacing Cascade and Liberty elementaries and building a new middle school, most likely to replace Marysville Middle School.
District officials have considered renovating Marysville-Pilchuck for a while. Though the school is not the district’s oldest building, it is its most populous. The school would need costly work to bring it up to current safety standards for earthquakes, Superintendent Larry Nyland said.
In 2005, voters rejected a $171 million bond measure that included a second large high school, another elementary school and renovation of Marysville-Pilchuck High School and Cascade and Liberty elementaries. In 2006, they approved a slimmed-down $118 million bond measure that included the new high school and a new elementary school, but dropped the renovation work.
With construction under way on the new Marysville Getchell High School, school officials are considering the district’s future needs.
The district hired an engineer to evaluate the Marysville-Pilchuck campus. Nyland was surprised to learn that bringing the school to code could cost about $60 million. Additional renovations to make the school better suited for teaching and for a smaller student body would add millions to the price tag, Nyland said. Early estimates indicate that tearing the school down and rebuilding would cost around $100 million.
“That was sobering,” Nyland said. “I was thinking in terms of remodeling Marysville-Pilchuck — and as we got that information from the committee there were some initial thinking about, ‘Well, if it’s going to cost 60 cents on a dollar, why would we spend all that money and still have, in essence, an old building?’ “
The facilities committee is scheduled to make a recommendation to the school board by June 30. The board should decide which projects to put on the bond by the end of October, Nyland said. More detailed cost estimates for the potential projects are expected in the coming months.
“I don’t really think any of us have enough information to decide which way to go,” school board President Cindy Erickson said. “We do realize that there’s a lot of work to be done at Marysville-Pilchuck. Whether or not it’s rebuilding or remodeling I don’t really have any idea at this point.”
The core of Marysville-Pilchuck High School was built in 1970, but additional buildings have since been added to the campus. The school was built with a California-inspired design that featured many small buildings connected by open-air corridors.
The school board may decide to renovate some buildings, while leaving others alone. That approach appeals to Don Whitfield, who is on the facilities committee and led two failed bond attempts several years ago. He’s waiting for more information before forming a concrete opinion on what should happen to the high school.
“It’s hard to say at this point,” he said. “That’s the question at the moment. Because of the economy, people are so scared. At some point the board’s going to look at that and have to decide.”
One thing Whitfield is sure of is the school’s swimming pool should be saved. Maintaining the pool is expensive and controversial — and the school board will eventually have to decide whether it’s worth the money.
Marysville-Pilchuck sits on an 83-acre plot and the board may opt to ask voters to build a new elementary or middle school next to the high school, Nyland said.
With enrollment dropping at Marysville schools and money tight, Nyland said school leaders are trying to be good stewards of tax dollars and make decisions that will save money in the long run.
“We read the newspapers, too,” he said. “We know that the economic times are tough right now. So we’re doing our work with one eye on how the economy is, as well as trying to be prepared for the return of the economy and the return of growth.”
Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.
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