Clover Valley changes identity

For some freshmen and sophomores, the start of the school year will seem like a step into the past.

With the bulk of the renovation of Oak Harbor High School starting this fall, the freshmen and sophomores in the high school will spend half of their days in a former elementary school.

They will be taking their core classes at the old Clover Valley Elementary School, which officials closed in 2006 due to declining enrollment throughout the district. Freshmen will take math, science and English and sophomores will take math, social studies and English at the school. Once half of their school day is over, they will be bused to the main campus.

Underclassmen can expect to attend the former campus, now known as the high school’s North Campus, for the next two years while the $72 million renovation project is completed. Construction on the new career and technical building is under way and the bid for the main building renovation is scheduled to be awarded in September.

Workers spruced up the new North Campus by painting walls, switching out furniture and transforming the space where the school’s library once was into a computer lab.

“We’re trying to make it work like an existing wing of the high school, only there’s just two miles between the two wings,” High School Principal Dwight Lundstrom said.

The teachers’ materials have already been moved over into the North Campus classrooms and two teachers will be splitting time between the two campuses. Lundstrom said this was because those particular teachers wanted to stay connected with programs that are offered at the main campus.

He said the biggest issue surrounding the North Campus is simply letting people and students know about the change.

A family meeting takes place Tuesday, Aug. 26, in the main gym at Oak Harbor High School beginning at 7 p.m. The first half of the meeting will show how the two high school campuses will work and explain the bus schedule and bell schedule. During the second half of the meeting, counselors will explain the expectation of high school and there will also be a tour of the campus.

There are some changes to how students will be bused to school. Students who walk or drive to the main campus will be bused to the North Campus. Lundstrom said that students won’t be able to drive to the North Campus because of the limited parking that’s available.

At the end of the day, students at the North Campus will board one of three buses. One heads to the main campus where students can participate in after-school activities or walk home, and the other two head to the middle schools where students can transfer to buses to get home.

Lundstrom said much work has been done to make the students as comfortable as possible. He noted the young students’ uncanny ability to thrive when conditions change.

“Through all of this, we underestimate the resilience of kids,” Lundstrom said.