Herron reported on the building’s progress with the Klamath Falls City School Board on Monday, June 11, saying that teachers and students are excited to move in completely by fall.

“If you’re this year’s juniors, you have a great deal of excitement about getting to be a senior in the new building,” Herron said.

School originals

When Herron talks with alumni who tour the project, he tells them there are only two things they’ll recognize when the academic building is finished:

“And that’s the two stairwells on the end,” Herron said.“That’s about the only thing that’s original.

“(Alumni) they love the fact that we kept the old brick facade because that’s what feels like KU to a person who graduated in 1956, and it still looks like KU when you stand out there, and the bell will still be there.”

Paul Hillyer, superintendent of Klamath Falls City Schools, shares that excitement as he sees the project approaching the finish line.

“It almost feels like you have to pinch yourself because you’ve been waiting so long for the finishes to be in,” Hillyer said.

“Halfway through, you think, this is never going to happen,” Hillyer added. “It’s almost like graduating from high school.”

Loan request

The project is paid for through a $36 million bond approved by voters in 2013, which resulted in a total $45 million project to date. The school district anticipates requesting an unspecified loan amount from the county to finish the project with construction of the arts building, the final piece to be renovated.

“We won’t know till we get the bids in for the arts center, which we won’t have till July,” Hillyer said. “That’s when we’ll know what type of loan we’re going to need to get. I am really not sure at this point what it’s going to be.”

Open, college feel

Walking through the newly renovated academic building, Herron points out open study spaces, a student area known as a “think tank” meeting space for group projects, and an overall campus more akin to a college feel in terms of layout.

From a modernized media center, to all synchronous classrooms for beaming classes between the high school and universities, the building’s interior is a fresh take on high school.

“It’s kind of amazing,” Herron said. “Early on we were planning for three of these, and then our IT guy said we think we can put components together that will work as a synchronous lab, and be a little bit less expensive.”

Not to mention, the campus is flooded with natural light from numerous new, large-scale window panes on the three-level building.

“This building — it did not feel connected vertically,” Herron said, of the original building. “(Now) I can stand on the first floor and look up and talk to somebody on the third floor. You could never do that.”

Counting down

Herron expressed excitement as the count-down to move-in day edges closer.

“We will start with those top floors,” Herron said, adding that new desks will be brought in to replace the old.

“The old desks we will try to put in a clearinghouse,” Herron said. “It’s less about making money and more about just not wasting something.”

Once closer to opening the building, Herron said some of the items found during the renovation will be on display.

Crews found several items, including a 1930s rowing machine, a pair of shoes in a crawl space, a 1916 typewriter, a rollback desk and a library card belonging to Clara Redkey, a sister of Ella Redkey, for whom the city’s pool is named.

“What we’re hoping to do is set up shadow boxes and things like that, and a little bit of the history of the school,” Herron said.

“We’re in a brand new school, but you know what, it’s come a long ways, it’s been here for 90 years, and here’s some of the history of it.”

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Moving Day at Klamath Union (H&N)