Del Norte School design to be released soon

DEL NORTE—Del Norte School District Superintendent Chris Burr announced Monday, Feb. 26 that the design advising group (DAG) will be releasing the draft design of the school on March 12 or 13.

There was a delay in releasing the school design when plans for the new school proposed by the design company put the budget about $5 million over. “Our plans were delayed due to the fact that the sports facility that was designed for the new school was going to cost more than we anticipated. So we had to reconvene to discuss other options,” said Burr.

Burr continued, stating that the academic portion of the design will remain the same and that the DAG only looked at the sports facilities in order to get the design back on budget. “Our most important part of the design, the academic portion remained the same, but we had to meet with the athletic department to cut $5 million out of our budget in order to get back on track. Now that that has been accomplished, we can resubmit the proposed design to the DAG for approval before going public,” explained Burr.

Plans for the new school have been underway for several months and the community of Del Norte is eager to get a glimpse of the new facility. According to Burr the plans are to have one large building that will house grades kindergarten through 12th, though the different classes will be in separate corridors within the same building. “Even though it will be one big building, the grades will be separate from each other. Once we go public the community will be able to give us input on the design and we will hear from the students as well,” said Burr.

Burr stated that the DAG will meet on March 5 to discuss the design and pick a final date for the public release. “It is possible that we will have a 3D rendering of the design. The design company is planning the public meeting and as soon as the DAG picks a final date, either March 12 or 13, we will have more details to share,” finished Burr.

The school is also still working to repurpose the old buildings which is part of the BEST grant requirements. “We are still working with people who are interested in purchasing one of the old buildings and have several cash offers. We know that head start will be repurposing the Mesa Building where the elementary students are now and that the fire department is interested in the high school field house. We are still open to offers if any organizations are interested,” stated Burr.

Burr also stated that the school has opted to begin a repurposing committee that will handle the sale of the old buildings with Laura Azalone as one of the members.

“We are very excited to be at this point and look forward to sharing the design with the community. We will continue to keep the community up to date on the website and will release the final public meeting date after March 5,” finished Burr. For more information, please visit www.dncsd.org.