Construction of La Grande School District's academic, athletic building to start in mid 2023

Dick Mason, The Observer, La Grande, Ore.
Updated ·3 min read

Dec. 9—LA GRANDE — The construction of the La Grande School District's new academic and athletic center building is set to start in about seven months.

Work on the building will begin in early summer 2023, according to Joseph Waite, the La Grande School District's facilities manager. The building is scheduled to be completed by the start of summer 2024.

"This will allow it to be used for camps and other summer activities in 2024," Waite said.

Plans for the multi-purpose building, which will be constructed by Mike Becker General Contractor Inc., call for its primary facilities to include six classrooms, two full-sized gyms and one smaller gym.

The school district originally announced that the building would have two large gyms and four classrooms and that the general contractor would have 420 days after its contract was approved to complete the structure.

Becker, though, later offered to add two classrooms and a smaller gym to the building at no extra expense to the school district if it extended the time his company had to construct the building by about 180 days, Waite said. The school district approved Becker's proposal.

Becker's plans for the new building will be presented to the La Grande School Board when it meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 14, in the boardroom at Willow School, 1305 N. Willow St. The board will be asked to approve the plans at the meeting.

The board will also be presented with artist renderings of the exterior of the future academic and athletic center building at the Dec. 14 meeting.

The new structure will replace the school district's aging Annex gym building, which is just north of La Grande Middle School and is connected to the school district's old shop building, which will also be removed.

The school district's construction budget for the multi-purpose building is $8 million. This money will be provided by a $4.845 million bond levy that voters approved in May, and a $4 million Oregon School Capital Improvement Matching program grant the school district will receive from the state. A portion of the bond and matching grant funds will also be used to pay for the removal of the Annex gym and the shop building. The funds will also pay for the school district's move of its shop facilities to a building on Adams Avenue.

Shorter school week?

Also at the meeting the possibility of having the school district switch to a four-day week will be discussed by the board.

A committee created by the La Grande School District is beginning an investigation to determine the pros and cons of changing the number of days students attend school a week. The committee met for the first time on Nov. 15. La Grande School District Superintendent George Mendoza wants the committee to make a recommendation to the school board in January or February on whether a change should be made.

Mendoza is among the 55 members of the four-day committee, which is composed of school district administrators, faculty, staff, city of La Grande representatives and community members.

La Grande is the only school district in Union and Wallowa counties with a five-day school week. All have four-day school weeks except Imbler, which has a 4-1/2 day week. These districts have longer school days to make up for having Friday or a portion of it off.

A survey will be conducted among community members to determine their feelings about a four-day school week. The survey will be sent out this week, according to Scott Carpenter, La Grande School District's vice superintendent.

Dick Mason is a reporter with The Observer. Contact him at 541-624-6016 or dmason@lagrandeobserver.com.