Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 7, Issue 1, January 2003

Copyright 2002 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article and photos below in your research. Be sure to quote the Seattle Sun as your source.

Hamilton to move to Lincoln building in '09

By LEAH WEATHERSBY

The Seattle Public School District is planning to move Hamilton Middle School to the old Lincoln High School building at 4400 Interlake Ave. N. in 2009.

Kathy Johnson, a spokesperson for the School District, said the move will give the middle school better facilities such as music rooms, larger gyms, and modern science labs.

The Lincoln property is 240,000 square feet more than twice the size of Hamilton. Whatever space at the Lincoln property that Hamilton doesn't need could be leased to a nonprofit community service group, Johnson said.

Johnson added that the old Hamilton building will likely be offered to the District's Bilingual Orientation Program, currently located on Queen Anne Hill.

Before Hamilton moves, however, the Lincoln site will become the temporary home of Roosevelt High School in 2004 and Garfield High School in 200, while the buildings for those schools are being renovated.

The Lincoln building will close for renovation in 2008, and reopen as Hamilton the next year. The renovation project is estimated to cost $18.4 million.

The budgets for the aforementioned projects will likely not be affected by the recently discovered School District budget deficit because money raised through taxpayer-approved levies for capital improvements can't be used to cover other expenses.

Lincoln closed as a high school in 1981, but in recent years has been used by the School District to temporarily house other schools while their buildings are being renovated.

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Hamilton Middle School is currently located at 1610 N. 41st St. For details regarding Hamilton's relocation plans, call Kathy Johnson at 252-0653.