The Wake County Public School System is considering demolishing and replacing part of the Cary High School campus.

The demolition plans include “the three oldest buildings on our campus, which were built in 1960,” said school principal Doug Thilman.

While they may have a bit of old-school charm, the aging cafeteria and classroom buildings have been plagued by heating and cooling issues, poor Internet connectivity and general obsolescence, according to Thilman.

If the plans move ahead, the school system would replace the old structures with one three-story building to house classrooms and a cafeteria. The school’s first major construction in four years would slightly expand student capacity, but the focus is more on updating than growing.

“Those upgrades will do wonders,” Thilman said.

The blueprints would only become reality if voters approve a school construction bond next fall or in the spring of 2014, according to Assistant Superintendent Joe Desormeaux.

However, the project is obviously high on the school system’s list – staff already have submitted plans to the town of Cary, and the Wake County Board of Education was set to consider the plans on Tuesday.

“It’s an actual full design being done,” Desormeaux said.

Staff haven’t disclosed a budget or a construction timeline.

Cary High School’s last major construction was a three-story classroom building four years ago, Thilman said.

The school saw plenty of change before that too: Cary High first opened as the private Cary Academy as early as 1870, then took its current name in 1896. In 1907, the school became one of the first, or the very first, public high school in the state, according to its official history.

The campus moved about a mile down the road in 1960, and its original home became the Cary Arts Center in 2011. Now more construction awaits the central Cary school.

The coming project, if undertaken, would be scheduled to minimize impact on students – the cafeteria, for example, wouldn’t be demolished until the gleaming new lunch lines are ready to go.