BRADENTON — If it all goes to plan, Palmetto High School will be getting a shiny new auditorium, new classrooms and more restrooms.
On Monday, the Manatee County school board approved about $15.8 million to renovate and add to one of the oldest public high schools north of the Manatee River.
The school was built in 1959. After renovations and additions, the most recent in 2003, the school can fit 1,700 students.
In the past two years, the student population at Palmetto High has either reached or surpassed that capacity, evidenced by the eight portables on campus.
Meanwhile, the school’s auditorium was built to fit 352 students, about half the capacity of auditoriums at newer schools such as Lakewood Ranch or Braden River.
As part of the expansion project, Palmetto High will be getting 20 classrooms or labs, restrooms, security fencing, play fields, tennis courts, a larger cafeteria, a renovated field house and auditorium.
That would increase the school’s capacity by 450 students more, and add about 61,000 square feet of facility, said Matt Lethbridge, the project manager from W.G. Mills.
The new classrooms allow for more students, and that justifies a larger auditorium, cafeteria and media center, said Jane Dreger, the district’s assistant director of construction services.
The project seeks to add about 30,000-square-feet of classrooms.
And, at 16,000 square-feet, the auditorium will be able to seat 665 people — more than the one at Braden River High.
School officials will still keep the old auditorium, said Rod Tanner, the project’s architect with Tampa-based Ranon & Partners, Inc.
District officials budgeted $19 million for the project.
On Monday, the school board approved the updated construction portion, at about $15.8 million.
The project will be funded through revenues from a half-penny sales tax, impact fees, the millage rate and bonds.
Officials hope to complete the project by the summer of 2010.
In other news, Superintendent Tim McGonegal said the district plans to hire former school board member Frank Brunner as a career adviser at Manatee High and former county commissioner Jane von Hahmann as a business and industry service liaison.
Brunner, who resigned from the school board and ran an unsuccessful campaign for a seat on the county commission, would replace a long-time career adviser at Manatee High. For a 10-month work year, the position pays $40,594.
Von Hahmann, who lost a reelection last year, would serve as a liaison between the small learning communities in the district’s high schools, Manatee Technical Institute and the business community. For an 11-month work year, the position pays $56,582.
Brunner beat 194 applicants for the job while Von Hahmann was chosen out of a pool of 57 applicants, according to records.
Both positions are funded by a $7.2 million federal Small Learning Communities grant and will sunset after 18 months, McGonegal said.
Both positions will be going to the school board for approval Feb. 23.
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