Pleasant Grove High School is close to a new beginning.

Speaking at a community meeting at the school on Wednesday night, Alpine School District officials said they are close to a final design for the first phase of a remodel for the school, and it will include the city's new recreation center.

"We've been working on it now for what seems like forever," said Rob Smith of Alpine School District, who noted the designs for the remodel had changed again only hours before the meeting, but the changes are believed to be the last.

The district hopes to break ground on the remodel in June, he said. It has budgeted $12.5 million for the work but costs could come in higher. There will be two more phases of the remodeling project, but there is no money for those phases now.

The remodel will make the high school one of the premier high school athletic sites in the state, Smith said. There will be a new athletic facility, new track and stadium, and the front of the school will be extended with classroom and office spaces. The bus drop-off will be moved to the west side of the building for safety and traffic reasons.

There have been some compromises, he said. A new wrestling room is on hold, but there will be a state-of-the-art weight room. The weight room will take the space now used for dance classes, and the district may bring a trailer to the school where dance classes would be held.

The district will provide land for the recreation center on the high school campus, but the city will pay for the building. In June, Pleasant Grove residents approved a $5 million bond issue to build a new recreation center. City officials have said they have another $2 million saved for the project.

Smith said Pleasant Grove had originally planned to build its recreation center on the high school campus, but had then decided to move it.

"The [district] board had a meeting with the Pleasant Grove council and mayor and resurrected that idea," he said, noting the center, if built on the high school campus, would be used by both students and residents.

With the addition of the recreation center, the remodel now includes more than 500 new parking stalls, he said. "I'm excited," he said of the plan. "We want to get as much as we can for our money."

Superintendent Vern Henshaw said the district had taken much public input on the project, and could continue taking public input "forever," but the project needs to now move forward.

"Someone has got to take the bull by the horns and move it along and make it happen," he said. "Now we need to get it done and bring it in within as close to a reasonable budget as we can."

District board member Guy Fugal said Pleasant Grove has been patient in waiting for the high school to be remodeled and should not have to wait any longer. The school opened in 1959.

"Pleasant Grove High School has the support of the board, and they know Pleasant Grove waited a while, so we are going to make sure this first phase happens, kind of no matter what the cost," Fugal said. "It is going to change the whole look and concept of the school. It will be the beginning of a new Pleasant Grove High School."

In October, Pleasant Grove officials announced they would build the recreation center in the city's Gateway area, now called The Grove, along the freeway. But in March, city officials said they had reconsidered that plan.

On Tuesday, Councilwoman Cindy Boyd said the city is "90 percent" of the way to an agreement with the school district on the location of the recreation center.

"It is coming along really well," she said. "We are planning in that direction."

Caleb Warnock can be reached at 443-3263 or cwarnock@heraldextra.com.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page C1.