Coos Bay gets a long-awaited look at Eastside School

Sep. 24—Two years after it first opened for students, the new Eastside School opened its doors to the public during an open house Tuesday.

The open house was an opportunity for parents and the community to get a look at the school that was built with bond funds after voters in Coos Bay approved a $60 million bond.

The bond money built Eastside on time and under budget and has also been used to build the new Marshfield Junior High and renovate Madison Elementary School.

Principal Kara Davidson greeted guests as they entered the school, which sits directly next to Millicoma Middle School. Davidson said with the two schools on the same parcel of land, they often work as one.

"We consider ourselves a K-6 campus, and we share employees," Davidson said.

Eastside was built to hold up to 400 students and currently has 310 to 315 enrolled, giving it room to grow.

"Our taxpayers, thank you for the building," Davidson said. "We're in our third year, and things are going smoother than ever."

Superintendent Charis McGaughy said she was thrilled to finally open the doors to the community after COVID restrictions limited on-campus activities the last two years.

"We're so excited to share with you this incredible learning space," McGaughy said. "Because of the pandemic, we haven't been able to have an open house."

McGaughy praised her predecessor Bryan Trendell and the school district staff that managed the money and the construction process for getting so much done with the bond money, not only at Eastside, but at every school in the district.

"I'm so proud to be part of Coos Bay School District," she said. "This school symbolizes how much this community values public education and our students."

Arnie Roblan, a member of the Coos Bay School District Board of Directors, said the bond that paid for Eastside is an unusual occurrence in the district.

"I have now been in Coos Bay School District for 50 years and had the opportunity to be the principal at Marshfield High for a number of those," Roblan said. "We got to build a new building, that was Pirate Hall. That was the first new building since Bunker Hill, and that was 50 years ago."

And Pirate Hall was built without bond funds, Roblan said.

It took two votes before the current bond was approved, and Roblan said the district has used the money from taxpayers very well.

"We thought we'd get two buildings out of it," Roblan said. "We're going to get all of the buildings except the high school because the people in the district used the money wisely. We have been extremely fortunate. I can't say how impressed I've been."

Nancy Giggy, with Integrity Management Solutions, explained the building process at Eastside, saying keeping the building on budget and on schedule was not an easy task.

"This one was particularly fun," Giggy said. "Every construction project has challenges; this one was a particular challenge. This is not a real hill. It's made of dredgings. How do you build a three-story building on that?"

To accomplish that, the contractors had to take 126 steel pilings and drive them 60 feet into the ground to establish a secure foundation. And the end result is a building designed to be used as an emergency shelter in case of an earthquake. And, it's also a school the students and the community can be proud of.

Once Davidson opened the school for tours, students grabbed their parents and rushed to their classrooms, while others leisurely toured the building that still looks almost brand new more than two years after it opened.

Coos Bay School District is planning to host similar open houses in the coming months at Marshfield Junior High and Madison.