DE PERE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A study committee is recommending the construction of a new De Pere High School, with a total project price tag of $206 million.
According to the report from the Community Facilities Task Force Steering Committee, the district’s “intermediate school and middle school are over the recommended capacity and the high school is within 40 students of reaching its recommended capacity. Dickinson and Heritage Elementary Schools cannot add any more class sections and Altmayer Elementary has limited remaining space for enrollment growth.”
As a result, the committee recommends building a new high school on the greenspace between the current high school and Dickinson Elementary. With that, several other changes would be made at other grade levels.
“The new high school for grades 9-12 will have the capacity for 1800 students with the ability for expansion. The new high school will include an 800-person performing arts center (auditorium) and include an indoor multi-use facility (50 yd. turf field). The current high school will transition to becoming a grades 7-8 middle school and will also continue housing the District Office, as well as a renovation to house an Early Learning Center for the District that houses all Early Childhood services and 4-year-old kindergarten classrooms. One baseball field will need to be relocated to another site within the school district. The current middle school would transition to becoming a second intermediate school for the District. Both Foxview Intermediate School and the New Intermediate School would house grades 4, 5 and 6. By moving fourth-grade students to the intermediate school and 4-year-old kindergarten students to the new Early Childhood Center, the three elementary schools would also have freed up classroom space for future enrollment growth,” the report states.
The total cost for the projects would be $206.6 million, requiring a referendum either spring or fall of 2024. The mill rate would increase by $2.84 per thousand of value.
Separately, the district is considering an operating referendum in spring. The proposal is for the district to ask for an additional $4.75 million in revenue each year for five years. It would add between $1.09 and $1.35 per thousand to the mill rate.
