NEWPORT NEWS — After a 2016 assessment concluded Huntington Middle School was in “poor condition” and the cost to renovate the school would be $25.9 million, the acting superintendent and School Board recommended relocating the students and building a new school, according to the school district’s PowerPoint.
The school, built in 1936, closed in June and during the summer months. Grimm and Parker Architects conducted a feasibility study and gathered input from teachers, parents, alumni and the community to design a new school.
City Council approved $2.8 million from the city’s fiscal 2019 capital improvement plan to pay for the design fees of the new school, said Kim Lee, the city’s communications manager.
The study’s conclusion: The cost to renovate is usually more than replacing the building.
“And oftentimes, during renovation, there are other issues that arise,” Michelle Price, Newport News Public School’s director of public information, wrote in a text message.
The new school would accommodate 600 students with a 24-to-1 student to teacher ratio and include a flex auditorium theater, teaching kitchen and community wing. The photos below were shown at the joint School Board and City Council Nov. 20 meeting. See the full PowerPoint here.
Construction of the project was not included in the five-year plan and over the next work sessions, the City Council will figure out what projects should be prioritized in the next CIP and if Huntington Middle School is one of them, Lee said.
Students are currently dispersed at three schools, with sixth-graders at Crittenden and Hines Middle Schools and the seventh- and eight-graders at Heritage High School.
