With a little more than a year to go before renovation of Oak Harbor High School begins, plans for the project are taking shape.

The school district recently released the schematic design for the project that is mostly funded by a voter-approved bond.

The renovation project is expected to take place in several phases beginning in May 2008. Basically the first phase would build new additions and then the next phase would renovate the existing buildings.

The famously round career and technical classroom buildings’ days are numbered. Plans call for building a new career, technical and art building and eventually transforming the round buildings into maintenance facilities.

While the round buildings were visually interesting, they left odd-shaped classrooms that weren’t a good use of space.

“The partitioning of a round building is a pretty tough thing,” said Mitch Romero, project manager for the renovation project.

Another big change students will see is at the field house. Instead of being a secondary gym, it will become the new home for Parker Hall and the music classrooms. The domed building will be divided in half. One half will hold a choir classroom, band classroom and a stage, while the other half will serve as a cafeteria and commons space.

During events where the stage is used, bleachers will retract from the stage. When the stage isn’t in use, the retracted bleachers will separate it from the cafeteria, allowing it to be used as additional teaching space.

“It should be a pretty nice space,” Romero said.

As for the current Parker Hall, it will be converted into classrooms. Plans show the hall’s elevation will be raised to be equal with surrounding buildings, Romero said.

Workers currently have to place sandbags in the doors of the low-lying Parker Hall. That prevents runoff from spilling over into the building.

As for a main classroom wing, several classrooms will be removed to make way for a courtyard. That way every classroom at the high school should have some natural light.

Romero said the wing, with its narrow hallways and small classrooms, poses a usability issue that the renovation will improve. In addition, the infamous rough concrete floor in the hallway will be smoothed out.

Because of the changes to the field house, an auxiliary gym will be constructed north of the current gym. It will provide a more efficient space than the current round field house, Romero said.

Renovation of Oak Harbor High School comes at a time when higher-than-expected construction inflation caused school officials to make cuts to other construction projects on Whidbey Island.

Romero said it looks like the renovation project will be on budget. A large enough inflation rate was added into the budget.

“We’ve been very careful about measuring escalation,” Romeo said.