juneau's empty school just got claimed

and it's not students moving back in.

The Marie Drake building downtown has been sitting empty since the school closed back in 2024. Two years of nothing, right in the middle of town. Now the city's park crews are moving in this October.

Picture the hallways that used to hold lockers and lunch lines filling up with tools, mowers, and work gear instead. That's thirteen parks and rec staff coming over from the old gym building on Douglas Island. Their classrooms are getting turned into offices, and the old cafeteria becomes one big workshop.

The whole move runs about a hundred fifty thousand dollars, including a new gravel parking lot outside. Here's the part most of us actually care about. The gym inside reopens for community programs right after Labor Day weekend.

That means pickleball is coming back downtown, and so is the preschool open gym for the little ones. And if you went to school there, don't worry, the planetarium isn't going anywhere. The city says more programming is coming once the crews settle in.

For downtown Juneau, an empty building turning back into a busy one is a win all by itself. And for every parent who's been hunting for a place to burn off toddler energy on a rainy morning, the wait is almost over.