Cave Spring Middle School will be demolished next summer and completely rebuilt, the Roanoke County School Board decided Thursday.

Renovating the 54-year-old school was on the division's list of capital improvements, but the deterioration of the facility and the favorable market for new construction make the school better suited for a complete replacement, school officials said.

What has not been determined is where the approximately 600 students will be housed during the 2011-12 school year. Superintendent Lorraine Lange said she plans to meet with parents and students and come up with a solution by early fall.

At a meeting Thursday, the school board unanimously voted to appropriate more than $1.4 million for the architectural and engineering design of the new school. The design services will include Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification work, kitchen consultants and testing for the viability of geothermal wells to heat and cool the new building.

Marty Misicko, the division's director of operations, said a budget for the total project has not been set.

Because of the current economic conditions, "we are going to be able to build a new school at Cave Spring Middle for much less than we did the renovation at Northside High School," said Hollins District school board representative Jerry Canada. The Northside High project, completed in 2008, cost $28 million.

A new school's life span is a minimum of 50 years, significantly longer than that of a renovation, Lange said.

Tara Nepper, a Southwest Roanoke County parent, lauded the school board for their plans to rebuild Cave Spring Middle. She asked the board members to be prudent in the design of the new school and to forgo an "award winning design or nice looking atrium" and to spend dollars in ways that will enhance learning, such as interchangeable labs and classrooms.

"I would love to see the wow factor inside those walls," Nepper said.

Construction of the new school is slated to begin in June 2011 and be completed in time for the start of the 2012-13 academic year.