Musical schools, anyone? After a few years of building new schools and making major renovations to existing ones, the Indian River School District is getting close to completion of its major renovation phase. But they are not quite done with renovations yet. There is still some shuffling to do this year.
Both the Southern Delaware School of the Arts and the district’s offices will be moving back to Selbyville at the end of the summer, to their location on Hoosier Street. SDSA will likely be moving back in August, and the district offices will move after that. Both will be back in Selbyville by the start of the 2008-2009 school year, according to Dave Maull, public relations chief for the district.
“Once we have left,” Maull said of the district offices’ departure from the old Indian River High School building — now known as the John M. Clayton Building, “Philip C. Showell will move up here for a year.” He noted that, while some renovations have already been done at Showell, it will be easier to finish with the building empty for the year.
According to the district, planned renovations at Showell include air conditioning; HVAC upgrades; roof repairs; plumbing and electrical upgrades; health, safety and accessibility improvements; fire alarm system improvements and site upgrades. The renovations will allow for the buildings to be brought into ADA, fire and building-code compliance. They will also no longer be required to use outdoor classrooms because of a lack of space.
In Millsboro and Georgetown area, there will be some big changes as well.
For one, “Sussex Central Middle School” will cease to exist, according to Maull. Two years ago, Sussex Central Middle School, which had been located on State Street, moved to the old Sussex Central High School building, which had also been completely renovated. Now that the State Street renovation has been completed, Sussex Central Middle School will be split into two schools — Georgetown Middle School and Millsboro Middle School.
Millsboro Middle School will now be located in the renovated building on State Street, and Georgetown Middle School will be in the old Sussex Central High School on Market Street in Georgetown.
“That will allow each of the middle schools to have about 550 students,” said Maull, noting the change as an improvement over the combined middle school that had taught about 1,000 students in a single building. “Instead of one school, they’ll benefit from the smaller school environment.”
Maull said placement at the two new middle schools will be based on residency and, in general, students from the Millsboro area will attend Millsboro Middle School and students from the Georgetown area will attend Georgetown Middle School. Parents were to be informed of all changes.
Renovations in the district are expected to continue through 2010.
For more information on current and future projects, visit the district’s Web site at www.irsd.net and click on “construction.