The Red Oak Community School District will build a $13 million new facility either as an addition to its existing high school or adjacent to it as part of the same campus complex. Superintendent Terry Schmidt told the Omaha World-Herald the school board decided Monday, in a 3-2 vote, to approve the first phase of Tiger Vision, the district’s facilities plan that seeks to eventually move all district schools to two nearby campuses.

Several community members spoke at the meeting, he said. The school board had already postponed a decision to seek an additional public hearing and community members were invited to participate in the Tiger Vision planning process. Schmidt said the plan will be to close Red Oak Community Middle School, which is more than 100 years old and has been temporarily shuttered since the Labor Day weekend because of flooding but will reopen its doors in early January.

The existing high school will be renovated for middle-schoolers, which is a common use for older high school buildings, he said. Grades six through 12 would be housed at the expanded campus, with fifth-graders possibly traveling to the new middle school location as well, depending on enrollment, Schmidt said.

Money for the project is being raised using the district’s physical plant and equipment levy and state sales tax proceeds. A general obligation bond is expected to be needed for the second phase, which would bring together elementary students into one renovated campus. Total estimated costs for the Tiger Vision projects are between $23 million and $27 million. Schmidt said work on the first phase will begin this summer, which was why the board needed to make a decision as soon as possible.