School Bond Project Continues Apace

— by Margie Doyle —

Construction as scheduled at the Orcas Island School campus: the Middle School will move into the former library on the left; the cafeteria/home ec building on the right will undergo construction for a remodeled kitchen, cafeteria and library; lunches (prepared at Camp Orkila) will be served in the old gym in the center.

When Orcas Middle School students returned to their classrooms on Monday, they found a brand new situation in their “new” Middle School. Just before winter break, school district staff boxed up and moved their materials from the “1980s” Middle School/cafeteria/home ec/music room building, so that the next phase of the bond construction can begin.

This has been described by former Superintendent Barbara Kline as the most logistically complex phase of the Bond reconstruction plan approved by island voters in 2012. The former library/OASIS building at the center of the district campus will now house the 7th and 8th grade classrooms.Currently, the school library is housed in the modular building behind the Orcas School District offices.

The mural on the old cafeteria-Middle School building,soon to be just a memory, was painted by the Leadership class, with the guidance of the Kiwanis Club’s Peggy Coburn

While the new kitchen and cafeteria are being installed, students will eat their lunches in the “old” gym. Food will be prepared at Camp Orkila and brought to the gym daily.

The December School Board meeting on December 16 concluded with a walk through the “new” Middle School classroom building, which was previously occupied by the Library and by OASIS classrooms.

Later, School District Board President Janet Brownell said, “We are so excited to see these new, warm, bright classrooms. The project is going along beautifully. On time. On budget. We are grateful for the terrific work of Tiger Construction, our own staff, and project manager Liz LeRoy.”

Work is also on target for the replacement Music building and the Career and Technical Education (CTE) buildings, and it is expected that those buildings will be ready to move into on the Martin Luther King Day break mid-January.