Stephanie Bowen, The North Wasco County School District 21 communications director poses in front of The Dalles High School. A bond measure is slated for the November ballot.
Stephanie Bowen, The North Wasco County School District 21 communications director poses in front of The Dalles High School. A bond measure is slated for the November ballot.
THE DALLES — Response to the Aug. 2 article, “Time takes a toll: A closer look at The Dalles High School disrepair,” garnered several questions from the community regarding the school bond measure slated to appear on the Nov. 7 ballot. Columbia Gorge News reached out to district officials for further information. Below is part 3 of their responses.
Columbia Gorge News: Can you explain why the district is choosing to build a new campus instead of renovating the current TDHS building for regular school use?
Stephanie Bowen, district communications director: The district looked closely at the potential of renovating the current High School building and found that a rebuild/remodel would not address many of the problems of the existing site including:
• Site is too small to support a full athletics program on campus.
• Site is too small to support the required parking for a comprehensive High School.
• There is no room for site expansion. Some alternative learning and CTE/Vocational programs are remotely located.
• Would still require major ADA accessibility improvements.
In addition to not meeting these needs, the total cost of renovating the current building was estimated to be $129 million, just to bring the building up to current standards. It would also require the demolition of a historic structure.
The district also analyzed the facilities assessments of all D21 buildings. When looking at overall facilities assessments there are two big factors. First, the overall building condition, measured by the Facilities Condition Index (FCI), and second, the programming and operational deficiencies of the building, measured by the Educational Adequacy Score. Both scores for the current TDHS building indicated the building was in need of replacement.
By building a new school we can address all educational, program, and operational deficiencies as well as other physical characteristics limited by the current campus.
CGN: Has it been decided whether the old Wahtonka building will be demolished if the bond passes this November?
SB: Yes, the current plan is to demolish the Wahtonka Building to make room for future campus and athletic upgrades.
We’ve seen some suggestions that we should just transfer students over to the existing Wahtonka building. This won’t work for several reasons. First, the Wahtonka School was built with a much smaller student body in mind, with a maximum capacity of 450. Our current high school enrollment at the TDHS campus is over 860, with another 70-80 high schoolers at Innovations Academy.
The Wahtonka building also has a number of significant structural issues, such as severe water damage on both the roof and internal structure of the building. Inside, the plumbing, finishes and flooring show extreme amounts of wear.
By demolishing the Wahtonka Building we have the opportunity to expand the High School Campus and create an all-encompassing, 21st-century learning environment with additional onsite athletics. This will allow for a safer, more secure school with more equitable opportunities for all of our students.
Practically speaking, this will also decrease the need to bus students to and from sporting practices/games. This will relieve some of the transportation burden on the district, as well as keep student athletes in class. Currently, athletes are often released early to allow for travel time, even for our home games, which cuts into educational learning time.
CGN: What is the plan for Innovations Academy, should the bond pass this November?
SB: We have several options for relocating Innovations Academy. First, we have ensured that the future TDHS Campus will have the capacity for these students onsite. We are exploring having a separate entrance and classroom spaces set aside for IA programming, but sharing the other school resources with The Dalles High School, such as CTE spaces. As a second option, we could potentially relocate the Innovations Academy into the West Wing/Whittier Wing of the current TDHS campus. This is the newest portion of The Dalles High School and is already set up to be separated with the current fire door. This portion of the TDHS school also has the best heating/cooling and ventilation systems, which is why we now house our summer school programming in this wing.
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