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DALLAS TWP. — For a decade or more, when Dallas School District officials talked about the fate Dallas Elementary School, someone almost always pointed out it was always supposed to be a temporary building. On Wednesday that fate was accomplished, as walls and roofing turned steadily into rubble.
Built in 1972 on a concrete slab, the school was a pre-fabricated response to a surge in student enrollment following the devastation along both banks of the Susquehanna River by Tropical Storm Agnes. Many who had made Wyoming Valley their home only to see those homes swept away opted not merely to leave, but to never return.
The school underwent renovations in 1977 and expansion in 1990 and 1997, but as the building aged it became problematic. As far back as 2006, bricks were pulling from the steel frame, the roof blistered and windows jammed. Major work was ultimately deferred as the district opted in 2008 to replace the overcrowded and outdated high school. Over the years, repair and upgrade estimates for Dallas Elementary ran from $11 million to more than $15 million.
The district ultimately opted for a new building, and in the process changed grade configurations — something that had been discussed as far back as 2003. Dallas and Wycallis Elementary schools both housed kindergarten through fifth grade. When the new Intermediate School opened earlier this month, it took in grades 3-5, with K-2 in Wycallis.
The Intermediate School cost $16.8 million. Superintendent Thomas Duffy said razing the old school and site work after the debris is removed is included in the overall contracts for the Intermediate Center. There was a “slight delay on the timetable” because of “necessary work that needed to be done in partnership with utilities,” Duffy said, but he predicted the work will be “largely complete up to and including seeding during this growing season.”
The plan is to build another access road, some parking, and a replacement of Cleary Field, which was used for the site of the new school. First Lt. Michael J. Cleary, a 1999 Dallas graduate, was killed in December 2005 at the age of 24 during an ambush Iraq. Duffy said the new field will be rededicated to Cleary with a new scoreboard.