The Steilacoom Historical School District board is reviewing a draft that outlines the possibilities for the school complex, based on public input and reports from engineers and contractors.

The 42-page document details actions the school district could take – from remodeling the central building for district offices, selling the complex to a private developer, or remodeling it to create a youth activity center. French Wetmore, chairman of the Citizens Advisory Committee for Surplus School Property that wrote the report, said there was overwhelming support for keeping the structure.

“I am amazed by, every time you turn around, how many people went to the school,” Wetmore said last week. “The community has a very strong historic preservation orientation.”

But that preservation comes at a price. Remodeling the building for school district offices would cost approximately $1.5 million, according to the report. The amount would jump by $4.9 million if the building were to change from the school district’s hands to commercial use.

“We are dealing with a building that is 100 years old in some places,” said Al Lawrence, School Board president. “We could tear down some walls, and who knows what is behind those walls?”

The most popular options for the complex were to either convert the structures to a youth activity center or move the school district offices into the main building, Lawrence said.

Steilacoom Town Administrator Paul Loveless said the town has considered using the school for a youth center, mostly because the classrooms and the cafeteria would be a good fit, but said the city has only $4 million for capital construction per year.

The cost of upgrading the building would be a “significant investment for the mayor and the council,” Loveless said.

The least popular possibility was selling the structure to a private developer for possible real estate or commercial use. But this wouldn’t ensure that the building would remain standing for years to come.

“There was opposition to (selling) it … but we were more after people’s positive ideas, not what they didn’t like,” Wetmore said. “The biggest fear of the ideas was that it would lose the incentive, the public interest in preserving the historic building.”

Other options for the complex include demolishing the eighth-grade wing to create a parking lot, destroying or selling the seventh-grade wing, and selling or leveling the sixth-grade wing.

The complex is made up of the historic building, a cafeteria, a gymnasium and the three classroom wings.

The draft was presented to the School Board on June 11.

The board will review it and suggest changes before the final report is presented Aug. 14. Although the plan is not binding, it will serve as a basis for the board’s decision on what to do with the building.

“The report has weight to it,” Lawrence said. “I wouldn’t say it has great weight to it because we have a duty to represent the entire school district.”

Until a resolution is reached, the building sits as surplus district property. The decision likely won’t come for a couple of months, Lawrence said.

“We are not in the business of managing property, and we are not in the business of being a landlord,” Lawrence said. “We educate kids.”

Brian Everstine: 253-597-8374