With its windows boarded up, the old Dover High is nearing demolition. (Delaware State News/Andrew West)

DOVER — The old Dover High School is not long for this world.

Demolition is moving forward at the 49-year-old school on Pat Lynn Drive in Dover, said Elliot Hardin, the supervisor of buildings and grounds for Capital School District.

In fact, he’s set to take the first piece out of the high school with a demolition grabber when exterior demolition starts Monday.

“It’s going to be a slow process,” he said. Crews will rip the high school down section by section, he said, and sift through debris for scraps.

“Some people think a couple of days it will be down, it may be a few weeks,” Mr. Hardin said.

Crews already started interior demolition at the school in early May, Mr. Hardin said, which includes ripping up walls, ceilings and floors.

Asbestos abatement already wrapped up in the building earlier in the year.

The plan is to start blocking off sections of the entrance this week, and demolition is set today for the “relocatable,” Mr. Hardin said, a building on the right side of the high school that housed ROTC classrooms.

Neuber Demolition & Environmental Services, from Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, is handling the demolition.

District officials have said public safety is a priority throughout the demolition process.

There could be some dust when the high school topples, Mr. Hardin said, but the demolition company is ready to handle dust control.

Razing the building was part of the agreement the school district made with the state Department of Education to build the new, $114 million Dover High School off of Del. 8, which opened in August.

In the fall, students from Kent County Community School made the old school their temporary home while its main building on Carver Road underwent renovations. The high school has been empty since the project wrapped up in December.

District officials have mentioned the possibility of one day building a new school on the property.

In the meantime, the district has an agreement with the city to host summer sports programs on the school’s fields this summer. And in the future, Central Middle School teams will practice on the fields, Mr. Hardin said.

At the Capital School Board’s May meeting, board member Sean Christiansen said that he’d gotten word there were two time capsules on the property.

If anyone knows where they are, he said, contact Mr. Hardin at the district office.