NATCHEZ — A new Natchez High School building could be built without raising taxes, school board members said this week.

The future of the high school and two other Natchez-Adams school buildings — Frazier Elementary School and the former Washington School — was discussed Monday during a school board work session.

The discussion was the lastest in an ongoing conversation about the future of the district’s aging school buildings.

“(Our consulting firm) just wanted to know if we still planned to renovate those schools or were we going to scrap the idea,” Natchez-Adams School Board President Amos James said. “We decided to continue the talks at this point.”

Under one scenario discussed, t

he majority of the high school’s classrooms would be demolished to create a two-story classroom facility.

Another option discussed in December 2015 was building a completely new high school and using the current structure to consolidate some of the other schools in the district on one campus.

James said all of the options would be discussed in more detail in a work session to be scheduled for later this month or early May.

School board member Phillip West said he has believed for 20 years that Natchez High should be replaced, and that feeling hasn’t changed since being appointed to the board in March.“The building does not provide adequate security or adequate safety, and it is deteriorating,” he said. “It is more than 50 years old.”

West said the campus is too open and if children were stuck in a classroom during a tornado the result would be disastrous because windows make up large portions of the exterior walls of most classrooms.

“In my opinion the construction of this facility is not appropriate for a school,” he said.

An engineering consulting firm the Volkert Group hired by the district has reported the Frazier building is overcapacity, and also has security concerns with the layout.

A renovation of Washington School is being considered because the facility could potentially be used as an elementary school. Volkert officials have said, however, Washington has less classroom space than Frazier.

Interim Superintendent Fred T. Butcher said Monday’s work session was mostly informational, and he didn’t have any opinions for how to proceed at this point.

“They gave me some homework to do,” he said. “I have some work to do to come up to speed.”

West said the Stifel Group, a finance firm, advised the school board that a new high school could be built without raising taxes.

“That’s good news,” West said. “If the numbers they provided are correct, we can build a brand new high school without raising taxes or finding new revenues.”

To renovate Natchez High, the Volkert group previously reported it would cost $23 million, and Frazier would cost $11 million. Building a new high school would cost $42 million while renovating Washington School would cost $5 million, the group reported.