The Sonora Union High School District Board of Trustees has rejected the plan submitted by the Historic Dome Preservation Group (HDPG) and have offered no alternative plan to the HDPG. The plan submitted by the HDPG was designed to transfer ownership of the Dome from the District to the HDPG in phases, as renovation milestones … Read more
The Historic Dome Preservation Group has submitted a Letter of Intent to the Sonora Unified High School District Board of Trustees. This document outlines a pathway to the acquisition of the Dome building by the Group. The District is to respond to this proposed pathway by the middle of April. They may request some modifications … Read more
There is some new movement in Sonora High School’s efforts to find a suitor for the historic dome property on Barretta Road. The former elementary school site was built in 1909 and no longer meets the state’s legal standards to house students. In 2019, the Sonora High School District formed a committee to review the … Read more
The Sonora Union High School District Board of Trustees has received a report from superintendent Ed Pelfrey about actions needed to develop and pass a bond measure to provide funds to renovate the Dome building and fund other needed projects. The Board decided not to pursue a bond measure. Mr. Pelfrey also presented four options … Read more
The Historic Dome Preservation Group has been eager to attain the historic building from the Sonora Union High School District since December of 2018, however the District has been preoccupied with several other more immediate issues. However, recently the District has placed the disposition of the building at a higher priority and has made several … Read more
High atop the hill looking over downtown Sonora, the historic Sonora Dome building has been a feature of the city’s skyline since it was erected in 1909. Once home to Sonora Elementary School, the building was vacated in 1967 when it was deemed unsafe to house students under new California state mandates for earthquake preparedness, … Read more
The Historic Dome Preservation Group, a 501c3 non-profit, is hoping to develop a regional art and cultural center at the Sonora Dome property. The dome, which was previously an elementary school, is currently owned by the Sonora Union High School District. The non-profit group was formed in hopes of acquiring the facility, renovating it, and … Read more
After nearly two years, an advisory committee has approved a recommendation to the Sonora Union High School District Board of Trustees in support of selling or donating the historic Sonora Dome, two adjacent former classroom buildings used by Tuolumne County Arts in recent years, and Lions Park. The committee, which was formed in 2019, met … Read more
The Sonora Lions Club plans to contest a non-binding recommendation from an advisory committee to the Sonora Union High School District Board of Trustees that the small Sonora Lions Park at the Cassina High School campus on Barretta Street be declared surplus property as a part of an overall effort to sell the historic Sonora … Read more
As it will save the Sonora High School District about $20,000 a year, the move makes financial sense. School trustees in April voted to move the district office from the stately and historic Sonora Dome to a far smaller building on Sonora High’s Shaws Flat Road campus. Nobody challenged the plan, rightfully reasoning that every … Read more