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Prince George school board hears feasibility study proposing new high school and conversions of existing campuses
Summary
Architects presented options to convert JJ Moore to an elementary school, convert the existing high school into a middle school and build a new high school; preliminary planning estimates ranged from tens of millions for renovations to roughly $205 million for a turnkey new high school, and the board asked for narrower options before the county CIP deadline.
Mosley architects returned to the Prince George County School Board on Sept. 8 with a high‑level feasibility study that lays out three principal options for the division’s aging facilities: convert JJ Moore Middle School into an elementary school, convert the existing Prince George High School into a middle school and build a new high school on a site to be determined.
“This is really the first step in a multi step sequence in arriving at what planning budgets might be,” the lead architect said, describing the team’s review of existing systems, ADA compliance, instructional programming and enrollment projections from the 2023 FutureThink study.
The study framed planning capacities and rough square‑foot benchmarks: roughly 1,500 students for a middle school and about 2,000 students for a new high school. The conversion of JJ Moore to an elementary program generated a planning construction cost the firm estimated in the $41 million–$42 million range and an all‑in project figure near $54 million when temporary classroom and phasing expenses are included. A comprehensive renovation to adapt the existing high school to a middle school was estimated at about $73.5 million. Building a new, turnkey high school, with athletics and site work on a generic 75‑acre site, produced an all‑in planning budget of roughly $205 million.
Board members pressed the architect on sequencing, minimum viable options and potential savings from targeted additions or phased renovations. The architect said building a new high school first would create “swing space” that could reduce the need for temporary classrooms and lower some phasing costs, but cautioned that site choice and off‑site utility work would materially change cost estimates.
Several trustees expressed alarm at the aggregate estimates and asked for a narrower set of options. One board member summarized the division’s dilemma as a question of appetite and affordability, saying the full $333 million scenario was unlikely to be supported and requesting “options in between” that focus on core needs.
Next steps: the architect agreed to produce a focused set of alternative scenarios and cost ranges for the board and superintendent to review ahead of the county’s capital improvements (CIP) submission deadline; the board tentatively scheduled a work session to consider those options.
The presentation included discussion of program implications — classroom right‑sizing for kindergarten and first grade at Moore, consolidating exploratory spaces, and potential reuses for surplus square footage — and emphasized that all cost figures are planning‑level estimates subject to change as site, scope and market conditions are refined.
