The new Louis L. Redding Middle School will be built directly in front of the exiting building. This is the view facing the front entrance. (Rendering courtesy of the Appoquinimink School District)

The Appoquinimink School District in Delaware has updated its plans for the Louis L. Redding Middle School renovation project, the next in a series of new learning sites for area students.

The Delaware News Journal in Wilmington reported that the $57.1 million effort, funded both by the district and the state, will now be constructed in front of the existing Redding Middle School facility.

When the district passed the referendum last December to renovate the historic 69-year-old building, a main part of the project's timeline included moving students to the newly constructed Crystal Run Elementary School.

District officials had planned to have Redding students remain at Crystal Run for three years, with full use of the facility until the Redding construction is completed in the fall of 2026.

At a community meeting in late October, though, the district unveiled plans for the updated project, with details on new additions to the building and a timeline for renovations.

New Redding Middle Plans for 2026 Opening

The new 122,812-sq.-ft. building will house 1,000 students and 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 for them to use.

Once construction on the middle school begins next spring, students will stay at Redding with access to the gym, cafeteria, auditorium and band and chorus rooms.

During the construction's second phase of work, which is due to run during the summer of 2023, the school bus areas, parent drop-off loops and student-walker paths will be altered near the front of the building. Students entering Redding Middle School through the band room area or a connector leading to the auditorium will use the same route when dismissed from classes.

The third phase will see the new building completed and students officially moved into the facility. Following that, in the summer and fall of 2025, the demolition of the old Redding building will take place.

The site where the old Redding building sits will then be redeveloped into an outdoor classroom, with new additions such as a park, athletic areas fields and parking spaces.

Final work on the middle school is scheduled to be concluded and open in time for the fall semester of 2026, according to the Wilmington news source.

Elementary School First K-12 Summit Campus

With Crystal Run Elementary School no longer needed for Redding students, construction on that facility will finish next August in time for the 2023-2024 school year.

A new principal for Crystal Run should be named this winter, the News Journal noted, and families with the school as their feeder-pattern choice have already been notified.

The 840-student facility is the first installment for the K-12 Summit Campus, the newest learning community in the Appoquinimink area. Other projects coming include the district's fifth middle school and fourth high school, details of which have not been announced.

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