Architect selected for school facility study

With work beginning soon on the massive Oak Harbor High School renovation, the school district is looking ahead to future projects.

The school board took a step forward Monday night by hiring Tacoma-based, BLRB Architects to conduct a study and survey of school district facilities. That survey will help identify construction projects the school district may have to undertake in the future.

The district selected five survey applicants for interviews, and two were finalists before the board settled on BLRB.

“We were really quite impressed with the services BLRB could provide,” Superintendent Rick Schulte said during the Monday’s school board meeting.

The board unanimously approved the hiring, but didn’t place a dollar amount on the work. That will come to the board for approval at a later date.

Schulte said the school district will negotiate with the architecture firm over the scope of work and the fee involved for the work.

The school district performs such a study every six years and it receives matching money from the state to help pay for the work. The district is expecting to receive between $16,000 and $18,000 in state money.

Construction Manager Gary Goltz said architects will focus on the school district’s maintenance facilities, transportation and information systems.

The school district recently renovated most of its elementary schools and Oak Harbor Middle School, then built North Whidbey Middle School. Renovation of Oak Harbor High School is funded by a $42 million voter-approved bond.

Schulte said that the new study could also focus on the south wing at Oak Harbor Elementary School, which was last modernized in the 1980s.

He hopes the work will be done by the middle of January. Any future construction projects would probably have to be funded through either a bond or a capital projects levy. Schulte said he didn’t know yet when the school district would bring such a proposal to the voters. He wants to see the renovation project finished first.

“I don’t want to undertake another project until the high school is complete,” Schulte said.

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