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Nearly two and a half years after fire damaged portions of Woodburn High School, the Woodburn School District has reached a settlement with its insurance company that will allow it to move forward with reconstruction plans.

The district will receive a total of $9.7 million from its insurance company, Property and Casualty Coverage for Education, for damage to the school that resulted from a four-alarm fire set by three students in May 2012. With an eye toward possibly starting construction next year, the district expects to issue a request for proposals for design services 鈥渨ithin the next few months,鈥� Chuck Ransom, district superintendent, said.

The district originally planned to have construction on some of the school’s damaged portions begin just a few months after the fire. The Portland office of the architectural firm now known as DOWA-IBI Group and Portland-based engineering firm Nishkian Dean were hired to work on preliminary plans for the project.

But the claims process became tangled 鈥� and all work being done on the project stopped 鈥� when the district’s $11.8 million estimate turned out to be more than PACE thought it was obligated to cover.

The insurance company agreed to pay $7.1 million in damages for reconstruction. But it balked at reimbursing the district for incidental costs, including rentals of trailers used as portable classrooms since the fire and $1.5 million to install a sprinkler system in the school.

鈥淭here was some controversy over (the sprinklers) soon after the designs started coming in for the rebuild back in 2012,鈥� Ransom said. 鈥淚nitially the city said rebuilding would require sprinklers. That was disputed by the insurer, and that took a long time to resolve.鈥�

Eventually, the issue ended up at the state level. The state sided with PACE, determining that the damaged portion of the school could be rebuilt without sprinklers by keeping the design true to original plans.

Like many of the district schools, Woodburn High School was designed in the 1970s at a time when sprinklers weren’t required in schools. That law has changed, though, as has the way that schools use space to best serve students. Rebuilding the high school following a design that was roughly four decades old wasn’t feasible for the district, nor was creating a school without sprinklers.

The district could have pressed the sprinkler issue in court, Ransom said. But that would have required starting construction without any money in hand.

鈥淚n a lawsuit, you have to go after costs actually incurred, versus having money in hand (through a settlement),鈥� he said.

In the end, the district and PACE spent two months in mediation, finally agreeing that the district should receive $2.6 million in addition to the money it already had received.

鈥淥ne of the advantages 鈥� with the settlement is that it allows us to 鈥� proceed with construction of the building,鈥� Ransom said. 鈥淲e intend to sprinkle the building; it’s the right thing to do for the community and for kids. And, it allows us some flexibility with what we can do with the design.鈥�

The district will begin holding community sessions to brainstorm what a rebuild of the damaged portion of the school might look like. In addition, there’s a good chance it will place a bond measure on the ballot next May to try to drum up money for school expansions and improvements that would include a sprinkler system.

District officials are hoping to receive enough RFP responses to allow them to select a design firm for the high school project as well as build a pool of qualified firms to handle future work for the district, Ransom said.

鈥淚t’s not that unusual for a district to have a pool of two or three architects,鈥� he said. 鈥淚’m not saying we wouldn’t use DOWA (for the high school project), but we would like to expand the pool.鈥�