The Dubuque School District has stated that if the new school isn't built, an option would be to move the 8th graders to high school, which no one wants. 

What they're not talking about is going back to the junior high model: elementary students (Grades 1-6). 

• This option would surely reduce the student population at Washington. 
• District officials would probably still close Jefferson, as enrollment would be less than 250 students. 
• The District also has Hoover School, which they still own. [They could probably move district lines around utilizing the Hoover building as before.]
• There would be no need to build a new school.
• There would be no need for a large, substantial addition to Washington.
• They could just add air conditioning to the school. 
• They could also probably freshen Wash up a bit, and still have plenty of money left over. 

I'm not sure how this would look district-wide, but they have not mentioned it as an option. 

In my view, officials seem to be laser-focused on the new school.

Given the 800+ students that Washington housed before, it would appear that if they did a small addition to the school:

• it could house 1,000 students pretty easily.
• air conditioning could be added at a much smaller price tag than Senior's cost at the $64 million.