It will be at least a year before Jefferson City School District patrons are asked to approve a bond issue and tax increase to change the public schools' high school operations.
But Superintendent Brian Mitchell told the seven-member school board Monday he's not proposing a second public high school.
"With all of the feedback from our community, from our staff, from our students (and) from you, I believe we need to continue to investigate a single high school campus in its current location," Mitchell said during a 70-minute work session Monday night.
And, although it has not been among the options discussed for most of the last year, Mitchell suggested the district also explore another option, "to look for an alternate purpose for our high school facilities, and to investigate a new location (that) would have an appropriate amount of acreage to develop a brand new facility to serve all of our kids."
Mitchell said the costs of building a completely new complex to house grades 9-12 and the Nichols Career Center would be about the same as the expansion-and-renovation plan for the current high school complex that's been discussed for months.
No site has been identified as a location for a new complex, he said, but "80 to 120 acres would be ideal."