Portable classrooms to stay at Dothan High for 18-24 months during renovation

By Jim Cook

Published: July 15, 2008

Beautiful downtown Dothan is looking a little more trailer fabulous these days.

This week, Dothan High School is placing 10 portable classrooms in the parking lot facing South Oates Street. The portable classrooms will make up for needed space lost during the renovation of the school’s science and arts building.

“There was really no other place we could put them on that campus,” said Mike Manuel, Dothan City Schools chief financial officer. “We considered the track or practice field and eliminated them for obvious reasons.”

The dilapidated science and arts building is undergoing a multi-million dollar facelift. The project will give the building a new outside facade that will match the design of the main building, create new classrooms by covering a two-story atrium/courtyard in the middle of the building and install an elevator to make the building compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. After the renovation, the building will house a ninth grade mini-academy and the school’s art and consumer science classes. Science classes will be moved to the old vocational building, which is also being renovated. The entire project should cost about $6 million, Manuel said.

The renovation project is expected to last about 18-24 months, during which some Dothan High classes will be relocated to the portable classrooms. Other space within the high school is also being cleared to create classroom space. No science or lab classes will be held in the portables.

According to Manuel, the parking spaces taken up by the portable classrooms will be absorbed by a parking lot facing Selma Street. Manuel said he anticipates the only parking problem created by the portables will be for attendees of Dothan High basketball games, which are held in a gym near the South Oates lot.