During the school board’s study session on Monday night, Superintendent David Krenz shared that timeline for the $11 million update to the Austin High School’s annex that would eventually house the high school’s music programs and create a new music space for the city’s MacPhail Center for Music.

Currently, the details of the project have been undergoing review, and now sometime this fall the district plans to put out drawing bids for the project and for construction to begin in January or February 2019. If the schedule is followed, then the district anticipates a grand opening of the new renovation to open sometime in spring 2020 during the school year.

“The cost has been finalized,” Krenz said. “Pretty much the layout of the interior layout is also on its way.”

Not too many project details have changed significantly since the announcement that was made this past January. The project still features a 13,750 square-foot second floor addition and 17,850 square feet in renovations to the existing annex. The second story won’t incorporate the entire blueprint, and will be found toward the east half of the property, facing Fourth Street Northwest, according to a previous story.

The Hormel Foundation had announced that it would provide $8.7 million to the project, while APS would pay the remaining balance. With interest and other expenditures, the total project would cost about $14.5 million, which remains the same, according to Krenz.

Project designs are still in their infancy stages, and the design renderings of the project weren’t finalized yet for the public to see exactly what the addition would look like, according to Krenz, as details could change before the final look.

The project concept was fostered from a feasibility study done several years ago to gauge the level of interest in music instruction with MacPhail, which found that many people wanted MacPhail to have some association with the Austin Public Schools district. Eventually, a partnership was forged and currently assists the district with different projects.

The MacPhail program will be found in the renovated space and includes 11 music suites and instruction studios of different sizes that would be for individual private lessons and ensemble training, music therapy, early childhood music classes and staff offices. Previously, it was stated that the new center would bring in two administrators and 13 teachers into the fold.

Austin High School’s music space in the project will include areas for the band and orchestra—which Krenz said will be found on the second floor of the addition—and the choir, which is anticipated to be held on the first floor. This addition will also have a music library, practice rooms and storage areas. Both the high school and MacPhail programs plan to share a percussion instruction studio, recording studio and a large performance classroom.

This project will be financed by APS over a 15-year-period, and will come from a lease-purchase agreement levy and capital facilities bonds, and no referendum process would be used.