Oakesdale district seeks $4.2 million to remodel school

Oakesdale School District will ask voters next month to approve a $4.2 million bond to remodel all the buildings on its 78-year-old school campus.

Superintendent Jake Dingman said the school is looking to completely remodel its gymnasium, build a new cafeteria and commons area for students and modernize utilities in the elementary and high schools.

“It’s almost the original work in a lot of places,” said Dingman. “That definitely puts it past the typical 30-year life cycle for school buildings.”

After seeing recent remodels of schools in Freeman, Davenport and Cheney, he said, the Oakesdale School Board directors decided this year was the right time to proceed with the remodeling proposal.

Contractors are quoting competitive prices as they look for jobs, he said. Interest rates, too, are low enough to hold down bond prices.

Overall estimated price of the proposed project will be $8.9 million. Dingman said a match program through the state superintendent’s office will provide a $4.7 million match to the locally approved bond funds.

Remodeling of the gymnasium, which was built in 1948, will put new classrooms and locker rooms on the bottom floor in the present space occupied by the cafeteria.

The gym project will also include a new floor, new bleachers and improving the gym entrance and restroom access to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

A new building for the cafeteria and student common area will be built in the center of the campus on the site of the building which currently houses the district offices. The current district building will be torn down.

The electrical and telecommunication wiring, plumbing system and heating and cooling systems will be replaced in the high school, built in 1933, and the grade school, built in the 1950s.

The bond vote will be decided in the April 26 election. Whitman County Elections Supervisor Debbie Hooper said ballots will be sent out around April 10.