At the school board meeting, district staff provided a progress update on the Dickinson High School (DHS) rebuild, outlining planned square footage, remaining renovation work and near-term construction milestones. The presentation described a mix of new construction and remodels intended to address overcrowding and modernize instructional space.

The update said the rebuild will create roughly 122,000 square feet of new space; an additional roughly 88,000 square feet will be preserved, of which about 40,000 square feet will be moderately or minimally remodeled. Combined with existing and remodeled facilities, the total campus footprint will be about 210,000 square feet; adding the Southwest CTE facility’s roughly 75,000 square feet brings the broader instructional campus close to the 280,000–290,000 square-foot range described in the presentation.

The district told the board it purchased the CTE complex before the current administration and that sale of an older bus barn and other strategic moves helped offset costs for the high school project. District staff said the CTE complex provides about 75,000 square feet of remodeled CTE space at an estimated historical cost of about $80 per square foot.

Plans described in the briefing include an academic wing with approximately 46 brand-new classrooms and roughly 56 total instructional spaces on the main academic levels, flex and collaboration rooms intended for teacher prep and collaboration (described as “hoteling” or shared workspaces), a cafeteria sized for about 400 students, a 600-seat auditorium and a library/media center. The plan also includes band and choir rooms with multiple practice rooms and designated space for an eighth-grade ag/Career and Technical Education area intended to keep younger students on the main campus to reduce transportation costs.

District staff also said the project includes a proposed preschool and daycare, funded in part through an RWIP grant; the preschool/daycare is intended both to provide community child care and to use DHS coursework to help train future childcare providers. The district characterized the preschool/daycare as part of workforce pipeline and student training strategies tied to CTE programming.

On schedule and site work, the presentation said foundations and footings have been poured, structural steel is more than halfway installed and precast panels were expected to arrive imminently. The district briefed the board that precast work will intensify over the coming weeks — described as “precast will begin over the next 20 work days (30 calendar days)” — and that the site will show noticeable daily progress as panels go up and structural framing continues. The presentation noted some existing modular “pods” on campus are scheduled for demolition in January; the year was not specified in the meeting record.

The district flagged one existing building (the “yellow building”) for further evaluation: staff said the building would either be lightly reskinned and modified in the budget or more substantively remodeled, pending architect and engineer recommendations on HVAC and structural feasibility.

Board members asked clarifying questions about the precast schedule and noted that upcoming erection of panels and continued site work will visibly accelerate construction. No formal board action was taken on the rebuild during the meeting; the item was presented as an informational update.

The board will receive weekly and monthly progress documents on BoardDocs, staff said, and architects and construction managers will provide further technical recommendations on remodeling decisions for older buildings.