For years students have learned practical skills that lead to jobs by taking career and technical classes out of a pair of circular buildings in the back of Oak Harbor High School.

While they provide an unusual shape, teachers haven’t found the building to be very practical. School officials are also saying that it would be more expensive to renovate those two buildings than to replace them.

Because of that, architects are designing the massive school renovation project to include new career and technical classrooms.

“We’re going to build new space instead of remodeling C and D wings,” Superintendent Rick Schulte said during Monday’s school board meeting.

He said the new structure would give classrooms a more practical space, which will make it easier to teach courses.

“The square footage they’re going to get a more functional, usable space,” Schulte said.

Gary Goltz, construction manager for the Oak Harbor School District, said the school district would save between $3 million and $5 million by building new facilities.

Even if C and D wings were remodeled, the classrooms would still be in a shape that isn’t suitable for classes.

“We’d still end up with pie-shaped rooms, which is inefficient,” Goltz said.

Building new technical facilities has come up in the past. That option was a proposal when the school district ran an unsuccessful bond for in 2003.

“I think we’ve always though it’s a better idea,” Schulte said. “This is at least the third time we’ve given this a good solid look.”

When staff and teachers discussed the option of building new technical class spaces, they seemed open to the new facility.

“Everybody moved on from C and D wings like that,” Schulte said as he snapped his finger.

Building the new facilities will help limit classroom interruption and will save money that would have to go toward renting portable classrooms.

Goltz said programs such as auto shop, wood working and metal shop would have to be temporarily shut down during the renovation if the rooms weren’t replaced, because there wouldn’t be a suitable alternative spot for those classes.

“We don’t want to do that. It’s a very popular program,” Goltz said.

Plans call for building the new career and technical classrooms first. That would free up C and D wings for temporary classroom use during the main school renovation. Otherwise the school district would have to rent about a dozen portables, which would cost approximately $50,000 each, Goltz said.

Once the renovation is complete, the two round buildings will no longer be used for classroom purposes. Rather, they will be used by maintenance personnel, who are currently working out of a dilapidated facility on Midway Boulevard.

The high school renovation is funded by a $54 million bond approved by voters last May.

Architects have about eight months to go before renovation designs are finalized. However, early plans provide a glimpse of the appearance of the future high school.

These plans show the cafeteria being moved from Parker Hall to the field house. The building would be divided between the cafeteria and a music/choir facility.

That will provide more space to serve lunches to students while preserving the domed building as a hangout place for students. Parker Hall would then be converted to classroom space.

Plans call for construction of a drama space/lecture hall and an auxiliary gym. The auxiliary gym would be constructed next to the main gym. The wall separating the two gyms would open up and allow for enough seating for the entire student body during assemblies.

Once the renovation is complete, the size of the high school will increase from 200,000 square feet to 243,000 square feet.