Work session to update Renfroe, Decatur High construction

Decatur’s school board has a work session to update the current construction at Renfroe Middle and Decatur High School, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Central Office/Beacon Municipal Center, 125 Electric Ave.

Construction on Renfroe’s 14-room classroom building is still on track to open next August according to Chief Operating Officer Noel Maloof. Decatur High construction, he added, is trickier, given the sloping topography and the fact it’s surrounded by the high school and its record 1,157 students. The DHS structure will include a new kitchen/cafeteria and 18 classrooms, and Maloof thinks it will also open next August.

This phase one construction is financed through COPS funding, which comes to $18.3 million. Future phases hinge on a $75 million general obligation bond getting passed by voters in November. If completely built out, the DHS addition will be an L-shape, three-story structure contiguous to the three surrounding buildings—the arena, the career academy center and the main high school.