Watson Chapel School District board members voted Monday to demolish the old junior high gymnasium along with other buildings rather than wait at a later date.
Demolition of the campus, which opened in 1945, began Monday with the price tag of $927,602 to include the gym, WCSD Superintendent Tom Wilson said. It would have cost the district $36,200 more for the company to come back just to take down the gymnasium, which board members originally voted to use for storage.
Instead, in Monday’s special meeting, the board voted 6-0, with one absent, to save the extra funds and have Baldwin & Shell Construction Co. begin demolishing the gym Nov. 20.
Watson Chapel Junior High as pictured July 13, 2023. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)Demolition of the entire campus is expected to be complete in January, with foundation work on the new Watson Chapel High School campus to begin immediately after. Some of the classroom wings and the old superintendent’s building, which was recently used for special services, have been torn down.
Wilson added facilities and maintenance director John Hayden would announce a date for a sale of furniture and items inside the gym. The money saved and proceeds from the sale will be used for new items at the new high school.
The old junior high closed after the 2022-23 school year, and sixth- through eighth-graders now attend the former L.L. Owen Elementary campus. Ninth-graders now attend the high school.