SCHOOL REBUILD?
Members say funding would cover cost to demolish, replace now-closed school
The Newport News School Board is asking the city for $50 million to rebuild the nowclosed historic Huntington Middle School.
NEWPORT NEWS — The Newport News School Board is asking the city for money to rebuild the now-closed historic Huntington Middle School.
The price tag: $50 million, which would cover razing the existing building, constructing a new one for 600 students and furnishing it with modern technology and furniture.
The school board hopes to secure the money for the 2019-20 school year, although school officials have said construction would take longer than that.
Huntington, an oversized building whose exterior walls are crumbling and ceilings flaking, closed to students June 14. Its would-be sixth graders were rezoned to Crittenden and Hines middle schools, and its seventhand eighth-graders now attend their own school-within-a-school inside nearby Heritage High School.
The request for the funds comes as part of a five-year spending plan for capital projects, covering the future fiscal years of 2020 through 2024.
The overall $139.4 million request was unanimously approved by the School Board Tuesday night; the city now has to work parts of it it sees fit into its overall spending plan. Other than Huntington, the approved request calls for $31.8 million across the five years to replace 11 HVAC systems, $19.7 million for 13 roof replacement projects, $6.1 million for six ceiling replacements, and $11 million for 22 paving projects.
There also is a request for $13.9 million over the five years to replace 125 school buses, and $4.9 million in 2024 to build an addition on Riverside Elementary School to replace the seven trailers that are there.
In years past, the board has asked for funding to replace or renovate Huntington but the money has not been included in the final City Council-approved plan.
In most recent years the price has been $36.9 million for a new building. Almost $3 million of that was granted this school year to begin the design process for a new building.
Regardless of whether funding is secured for the 2020 fiscal year, a $150,000 “feasibility study” is underway to determine the future needs of a potential school at the site. A report on those findings, which will involve conversations with the community and alumni of what was the all-black Huntington High School, should be given to the board in November.
Superintendent George Parker III is also required per a board resolution passed last year to make a recommendation about what should happen to the building and site by March 1, 2019. Parker said last month that he anticipated the rising would-be Huntington eighth-graders should know their fate before then.
As for this year, Huntington’s ground floor windows are set to be boarded up by a contractor starting next week, said Keith Webb, director of plant services, in keeping with code regulating vacant buildings. All useful furniture and other items have been removed. Utilities to the site will be shut off once the contractor wraps up his work.
“We’re done with the building for all practical purposes,” Webb said.