Old school gets new look

Orland High School Principal Jeff Scheele is pleased with the improvements being made at his school these days.

Construction around four new modular buildings continued Friday with crews preparing forms for sidewalks on the day before the holiday break.

These buildings contain eight classrooms and sit on the former tennis courts. They will replace several 30-year-old portable classrooms, which, Scheele said, are due to go despite having a well-kept appearance on the outside.

The new modulars have pitched metal roofs and are finished with faux stucco siding, so they look more like stick built wings. They also sit on ground-level foundations.

A couple of weeks ago, delivery trucks filled the football stadium’s parking lot with the pre-fabricated buildings that were lifted by crane in sections off the trailers and placed on concrete footings. “The next day, they were put together,” Scheele said.

However, interior work is still being completed, so ceilings remain open inside and the floors do not have coverings, but a white board and clock already wait on the walls for a teacher to use them.

Electrical work, plumbing and more are in

progress, but Scheele said the classrooms should be in use by the end of January. They also have restrooms for students and faculty.

The tennis courts have been resurfaced behind the modulars and will have space for six courts instead of four, he said.

Track is redone

But the biggest change so far is the new all-weather track and football field. Scheele took the Press-Register on a tour of the track that is surfaced in a blue rubber material that cushions runners’ feet and will not get muddy. It has the “Orland Trojans” in block letters painted across the surface in front of the bleachers.

A new scoreboard proudly stands at the west end of the field, and a black vinyl chain link fence surrounds the complex.

New restrooms with metal roofs and solid walls stand outside the track and a new concession stand was added as well.

The football field is dormant now, but the grass was planted in sod and should perk up in the spring, Scheele said, since it settled and rooted well.

A new stadium with plenty of seating will be installed this spring along with light poles and lights for night activities and games. The principal said those should be done by summer in time for graduation. A new soccer field also has been put in near the stadium complex that is a joint project with the city. The soccer field is used heavily every weekend, officials said.

All of these projects were done during the summer and fall around student classes with a combination of Measure K school construction bond funds and other funding sources, according to Orland Unified School District Superintendent Chris von Kleist.

New classrooms

In addition, the first four modular classrooms are installed and in use across from Mill Street School for students in the district’s off-campus suspension programs, he said. These were put in during the summer just before school started. Two such classrooms also were added to the North Valley High School campus not far from the main high school.

Von Kleist said OUSD applied for additional state matching funds on the new high school modulars and it looks promising it will receive a 50 percent match in funding on the buildings - saving the district money.

He also said the state is providing a 50 percent match on the Mill Street modulars for the community day school there which amounts to $278,000. Von Kleist expects to get that money within six months, he said.

And the district sought a similar share for the North Valley High modulars, so it would not have to pay for them out of the general fund or Measure K money, he said.

Future projects

Future plans call for a two-story building to go in at Orland High where the old portables are located. This building will contain a science wing, library and media center, von Kleist said.

District officials also have a similar building planned for C.K. Price Middle School and also intend to put in a new gymnasium and cafeteria there, he said.

These projects will kick off when school is out, so there is minimal disruption to students, von Kleist said.

“We involved staff in these plans,” von Kleist said. “We took field trips to two other districts that have similar buildings and talked to people who were using them.”  A school board member and teachers went on these trips.

He added it is less expensive to hire architects and builders who have already done projects like these with modular buildings, and he expects most to be completed by late spring in 2010.

A new iron fence runs across the front of Mill Street School – providing additional safety to students, he said, and plans call for the perimeter fences to be raised higher and gates installed at the openings for better security.

Matson and Isom Technology of Chico was hired to develop a technology master plan for OUSD, von Kleist said. This plan will look at technology needs, costs and existing systems to come up with an analysis for the future.

An old barn was demolished near the Orland High ag department, and state approval obtained for some new barns there to house show animals for FFA students and other animals for study, It will be built near the North Valley campus, von Kleist said.

The district plans to modernize different parts of Mill Street School, install new fencing at Fairview School, put in a new staff room at Fairview and a new cafeteria at MIll Street, von Kleist said.

“I get a lot of questions about why we did the track and football field first or this building there,” he said. “We are working off of the the facilities master plan and working around the weather. We chose areas that have the least impact on teachers and students (during construction).”

Normally, there is a two-month window when school is out for construction to be done, he said, then the schools have to work around it and don’t want to displace students and staff in the meantime.

He added it takes most school district 18 to 24 months complete facilities master plans, but OUSD’s was done in six months. The track was redone in six months as well.

As for the other major buildings, von Kleist said OUSD is working with the city of Orland to form joint-use agreements on a new gym at C.K. Price that would offset the building costs and make state funding available.

Von Kleist is cautiously optimistic about the state funding despite reports the state is broke. There still was money in the state’s joint-use fund as of Dec. 10, he said.