LA GRANDE — Less imagination is now needed to visualize a major addition proposed in the La Grande School District.

The La Grande School District has released artistic renderings of how the exterior and interior of a proposed new athletic and academic center on the grounds of La Grande Middle School would appear if voters approve a $4.845 million bond in May for its construction. The structure would replace the current Annex building, which was built more than eight decades ago, and the adjacent maintenance facility.

Joe Justice, a member of the bond’s political action committee, Citizens for School Renovation, said the renderings will give its campaign a boost.

“People are visual,” he said, noting that a “picture helps people understand” what is being proposed.

The new building, according to preliminary plans, would have two full-size gyms, locker rooms and two classrooms. The current Annex building has a single full-size gym as its primary feature, one used by middle school physical education classes plus other classes and the community.

“That gym has gotten a lot of use. A lot of kids have benefited from the facility. However, we need a more modern building for the future,” Justice said, adding that the current building would not be torn down until the new one was built because it is used so much by the middle school.

Preliminary plans call for the new multi-use building to be near the middle school’s greenhouses.

The proposed athletic and academic center has been a popular topic since Wednesday, Jan. 12, when the La Grande School Board unanimously passed a resolution giving voters a chance to approve or reject a bond for the facility in the May election.

Passage of the proposed bond would not raise the total school taxes paid by property owners, Justice said, because of the recent refinancing of the 20-year $31.5 million bond voters approved in 2014 for capital construction and maintenance.

The building would be a pre-engineered metal structure that would be available for public use and would meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards, which the current Annex building does not.

The aging Annex building is adjacent to the district’s maintenance, facilities and grounds structure — built in 1911 — that would also be torn down if the bond is approved by voters. The district’s maintenance, facilities and grounds services would be moved to a 10,500-square-foot structure the school district would rent on Adams Avenue at the Adams Professional Plaza.

The school district is facing a deadline because in December 2021 it was awarded a $4 million Oregon School Capital Improvement Matching grant from the state for the building of the academic and athletic center.

The school district will receive the $4 million matching grant only if voters approve the new $4.845 million bond. Voters would have to approve the bond in May because this was the election date specified by the school district in its application for the grant.

Joseph Waite, the La Grande School district’s facilities manager, said if voters approve the bond, construction of the new multi-use building could start as early as the spring 2023.