Next Steps for Former Gault MS Campus

TPS regularly reviews its facilities portfolio to seek opportunities for streamlining, right-sizing, and sometimes adding needed facilities to support student and partner programs.

Recent right-sizing efforts include:

• The sale of the former Tacoma Avenue site that previously held the Willie Stewart Academy. That program was moved into the district’s 9^th & Broadway facility alongside SOTA and Tacoma Online.
• The purchase of additional space in SOTA’s downtown Ted Brown building. The added space will replace previously leased office and classroom space and consolidate SOTA programming.
• The sale of Willard and Madison early learning centers. Preschool programming has since been dispersed into elementary schools.

Since the closure of Gault Middle School in 2009, TPS has continuously sought solutions to reactivate the site. After more than a decade of work exploring a variety of solutions with potential buyers, and a significant fire in January 2024, TPS demolished what was left of the building and planned to develop the property.

With the rebuild of IDEA supported in the February 2024 Capital Bond, district staff weighed the benefits of rebuilding the school at its current site with relocation and recommended moving the school to the former Gault site and selling IDEA’s current home at Park Avenue. Students would remain at the Park Avenue site until construction is completed, allowing ample time to market the site for sale.

Gault Middle School, built in 1926 at 1115 East Division Lane in Tacoma, was closed in 2009 due to declining enrollment in the district. Students from McIlvaigh and Gault middle schools were consolidated into a new building, First Creek Middle school. The Gault site was declared surplus, and the district began looking for buyers. McIlvaigh was demolished.

Potential reuses at the Gault site were initially limited by the community pool operated on the site by Metro Parks Tacoma also in partnership with the City of Tacoma and related underlying property use restrictions. The community pool ran at the Gault site until it was replaced by the Eastside Community Center facilities in fall 2018.

Several uses were explored over the years, from veterans housing to potential development by Tacoma Housing Authority to a residential/mixed-use retail property. The pandemic, rising interest rates, rising construction costs, and the continued deterioration of the site and constant vandalism created significant limitations in trying to sell and repurpose the building.

In December 2023, the City of Tacoma approved demolition and the district planned to demolish the former school in February 2024.

Ultimately, Gault was destroyed by arson at the beginning of January 2024.

Park Avenue Elementary, at 6701 S. Park Avenue in Tacoma, was built in 1912. Structural damage in 1982 forced the closure of the auditorium and kitchen. Over the years, the school housed various district offices and programs.

The School of Industrial Design, Engineering and Architecture opened at the Park Avenue location in Fall 2015. Plans to build a new building for IDEA are included in TPS’ February 2024 Capital Bond.

The district currently plans to move IDEA to the former Gault site and begin marketing the former Park Avenue site for sale this year. Students would remain at the Park Avenue location until the new building opens in Fall 2028.