Productive Summer: Construction Projects, Other Jobs Completed
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The new Henley High School is nearly complete.
Klamath County School District construction crews finish Peterson classrooms; projects at other schools
Stephanie Hull, a fifth-grader teacher at Peterson Elementary School, moves into a classroom last month in the new fifth-sixth grade building.
Before school started last week, six fifth- and sixth-grade teachers at Peterson Elementary School spent at least a week moving supplies, books and other curriculum materials from modulars and the main school building to classrooms in a new building on campus. Students were greeted with new desks, SMART technology, painted concrete floors and bright windows.
Stephanie Hull, who teachers fifth grade, said moving a classroom takes time, but she was pleased with the new space. “Not every teacher is lucky enough to have a new room,” she said. Hull, a Mazama High School graduate, has taught in the district for 27 years.
The new building features six classrooms, restrooms and a small break room area for teachers. Plans include doubling the size of the parking lot adjacent to new building, and workers before school started Sept. 4 leveled and graveled the area along Clinton Avenue. Future plans include paving the area to create permanent parking. Peterson, with 600 students, is one of the largest elementary schools in the district.
The Peterson Elementary School classroom building was just one of a dozen projects the district’s maintenance crew took on this summer. The 13-member crew includes plumbers, electricians and carpenters.
“This has been our busiest summer ever,” said Justin Azevedo, KCSD maintenance supervisor and project manager. “There were a lot of projects to get done in a 2-1/2 month period.”
The projects were done in addition to maintaining the usual summer work order requests, maintenance of HVAC systems and other smaller jobs for the district’s 23 schools.
Here’s a roundup of some of the summer’s projects:
Classroom with new desks, chairs and SMART technology.
Henley Middle School: The district completed seismic upgrades on Henley Middle School’s cafeteria, and the space has new walls and a new roof. The rest of the building will be upgraded next summer. Meanwhile, construction starts this fall on a four-classroom building in the field south of the cafeteria. Those classrooms – which will be similar to Peterson Elementary School’s fifth-sixth grade building – will replace current modular classrooms and be ready for students by the time school starts in fall 2019.
Another four-classroom building will be constructed at Stearns Elementary School next year for occupancy in fall 2020. The school board approved a $4.1 million, 20-year debt issuance for the three-school project in December 2016.
Merrill Elementary: District workers installed a new boiler and HVAC system using funds from the 2013 voter-approved bond.
Henley High School: Contractors replaced the 17-year-old track at the high school this summer. The new 400-meter track is red with an asphalt base, a half-inch thick black base mat – made from recycled tires mixed with a urethane binder - and two layers of red rubber granules. Future plans include building a concession stand near the track entrance.
Henley’s track was the fifth county high school track to get either updated or totally redone in the last four years. The district currently is evaluating what needs to be done at Chiloquin Junior-Senior High School to get its track in good condition.
Henley High also has an outdoor extension to its agriculture-technical education shop. The extension is a paved area that will be partially covered and used for technical education projects. The extension as well as new equipment and a new filtering system for the ag shop was paid for with a Career Technical Education (CTE) revitalization grant. Plans also include refurbishing a modular at Bonanza Junior-Senior High School for agriculture classes.
Justin Azevedo, maintenance supervisor and project manager for Klamath County School District, shows school board members the new classrooms at Peterson Elementary School.
Mazama High School: District crews installed LED lights in all common areas including hallways and the cafeteria. Next year, plans are to install LED lightings in all classrooms. By doing so, the district is saving about $45,000 annual in electric costs at the high school, Azevedo said.
This fall, workers will start remodeling the former Baby Viking’s building for use as a student health clinic. The larger building, across from the school entrance, was remodeled this summer and opened Sept. 5 for the Baby Vikings day care program. The remodeling projects are funded by a $100,000 grant from the Cascade Health Alliance. The health clinic should be opened by late October.
Shasta Elementary School: New heating controls will be installed by November and the HVAC system will be upgraded.
KCSD Central Office: The school district installed solar lights in the transportation-busing parking lot at its Central Office on Greensprings Drive.
“We’re utilizing our natural resources to light our walkways in our parking lot,” Azevedo said. “We’re going to play around with those kinds of lights and see how they work in the winter. If they work, it’s something we can do throughout the district down the road.”
Press release provided from the Marcia Scholttman, Public Relations, Klamath County School District.