Oak Harbor High gets makeover

Published 10:19 pm Monday, January 12, 2009

OAK HARBOR — Construction is well under way at Oak Harbor High School.

While students continue to attend classes, they can look out the window and watch new school buildings take shape.

Construction crews lost a few days of work in the winter storms, but Oak Harbor School District Superintendent Rick Schulte expects the new portions of the school to be built on schedule.

The new career and technology building is scheduled to be ready to move in to during spring break in early April.

The second part of the project entails a new cafeteria, commons, performing arts area, and band and chorus rooms. Construction on the building began in November, and Schulte hopes to have it open in September.

Both projects came in under bid, Schulte said.

“We were fortunate that we put it out to bid right about the time when the construction market was slowing down and there was a lot of bidders out there looking for work like this,” he said. “We hit things in the right time frame.”

Including permits and design work, the projects are budgeted at $72 million.

A voter-approved bond is funding the bulk of the work, and the state is paying about $18 million.

During the construction, some freshmen and sophomores attend classes for part of the day at the former Clover Valley Elementary School. The project has resulted in lots of muddy shoes and disrupted traffic, but Schulte said he hasn’t heard many complaints.

“The students are cooperative and understanding that this is a temporary situation and the end result will be a much better school for everybody,” he said. “So they’re pretty enthused.”

Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.