The Chandler Unified School District governing board voted 5-0 Wednesday to hire an architect to convert Erie Elementary School into a high school preparatory academy.
Initial figures indicate it will cost about $5.8 million, which will be drawn from the bond funds approved by voters in 2006. This summer, the board voted to change boundaries at Erie to transition students to other schools beginning in the 2012-13 school year, the same year the academy will open.
The academy is currently called Hamilton Prep Academy and is located in space the district rents at a Chandler church.
