By building on to Northview School in Peru, all students, pre-K through fourth grade would be in one building and all of the upgrades that need to be done to the school would be completed. Those are some of the positives Peru Public School Board members are considering as they chose between building a new school and adding on to one they have.
School board members, Superintendent Mark Cross and their architect looked drawings Wednesday night of what could be done with the land they have. They agree they no longer want to use the Washington School building and are leaning towards building an addition at Northview rather than a new building behind Washington, though that could change.
Both options are estimated to cost less than $12 million upfront though over time, Cross believes it would be more efficient to have one school building instead of two. The relatively new Parkside Middle School wouldn’t be affected.
Cross says he hasn’t received complaints about closing Washington but a few people have been curious about how the traffic would be handled at Northview.
Traffic is also a concern for school officials. Discussion of their options will continue at their next meeting. You can see the plans by following a link that’s available at the WLPO AM and FM news page.