The Appoquinimink School District has updated plans for the Louis L. Redding Middle School renovation project.
The $57.1 million project, funded both by the district and the state, plans to build the new Redding Middle School facility in front of the existing building.
When the district passed the referendum last December to renovate the 69-year-old historic building, a main portion of the project’s timeline included relocating students to the newly constructed Crystal Run Elementary School.
Background on RMS renovations:Louis L. Redding Middle School referendum is passed in Appoquinimink School District
Redding Middle School students were previously expected to remain at Crystal Run for three years, with full use of the facility until the Redding construction is completed in the fall of 2026. Redding students would return to their original building while Crystal Run would officially open as a new elementary school.
At a community meeting in late October, the district unveiled plans for the updated project, with details on new additions to the building and a timeline for renovations.
Redding Middle School’s latest plans
The new 122,812-square-foot building will house 1,000 students and will be located on the site of the existing sports field/green space currently used by the school.
Although Redding only has one fall sport using this space, the girl’s field hockey team, plans are to find another location
Once construction begins next spring, students will stay at Redding Middle School will remain there with access to the gym, cafeteria, auditorium and band and chorus rooms.
During phase two of construction, which runs from spring of 2023 to summer of 2023, school bus areas, parent drop-off loops and student-walker paths will be altered during construction near the front of the building.
Students will enter Redding Middle School through the band room area or a connector leading to the auditorium that will also be used for dismissal.
The third phase will see the new Redding Middle School building completed and students officially moved into the facility. From the summer of 2025 to the fall of 2025, the demolition of the old Redding building will take place.
Fall of 2025 to the summer of 2025 marks the fourth phase of the project, where smaller construction areas of old Redding will be worked on.
The site where the old Redding building sits will be redeveloped into an outdoor classroom, with new additions such as a park, athletic areas and fields and parking spaces.
By fall of 2026, the project will conclude.
With Crystal Run Elementary School no longer needed for Redding students, construction will still finish in August in time for the 2023-2024 school year.
A principal for Crystal Run is expected to be appointed this winter, and families with the school as their feeder-pattern choice have already been notified of the school as an option.
The 840-student elementary school is the first installment for the K-12 Summit Campus, the newest learning community in the area. Other projects coming to the site include the district’s fifth middle school and fourth high school, details of which have yet to be announced.
Appoquinimink education growth:Appoquinimink School District continues to grow. Several new and renovated schools underway.
