As dinosaur-like machines tear at the walls of Sweet Home High School, administrative and office staff are settling into their new homes just a few feet away.
Principal Pat Stineff and Vice Principal Steve Fletcher have taken up residence in Carol Fleenor’s old classroom. Carolyn Wheeler is also there attending the new main high school office.
Murals behind Fletcher and Stineff depict a woodland and a palace balcony (for Romeo and Juliet) used in performing passages from the literature taught in the classroom. The offices are marked by dividers.
Ed Nieman’s classroom is now being used by counseling. Assistant Principal and Athletic Director Steve Emmert, Barbara Weld and attendance are using Dan Thompson’s classroom.
All three classrooms are located in the east wing of the high school, the area closest to the auditorium, sophomore hall.
Other classrooms will have some work, primarily heating and ventilation in this area, done before school starts next month.
“Flexibility’s going to be our middle name,” Stineff said. “We’ll just deal with what we have. I think it’s going to be fine. It’s not the optimum situation.”
Office staff have a couple of rooms available for privacy.
They have been working in the new offices since June 18. From June 19 to June 22, local police used the high school for training exercises. Demolition started with asbestos abatement on June 23.
Right now, the office situation is working all right, Stineff said. When the students start showing up, “that’ll be the telling tale.”
The school is making adjustments all over the place. Registration will be in the new gym. Food will be prepared at Foster School then transported to SHHS for breakfast and lunch.
Stineff expects the construction will be noisy and affect some rooms, like the Huskian and Jon Cohrs’ classroom as well as those along the south side, senior hall, of the high school, which will be remodeled prior to school starting.
“After 50 years, we moved out and got rid of a lot of stuff,” Stineff said. “this is what’s funny. I get attached to things. I was kind of nostalgic about the whole thing. Steve Emmert, who grew up here, is just pumped.”
SHHS has given Stineff “a lot of great memories,” she said, and it’s been a great place to work.
She misses the old building, but she’s looking forward to the completion of the new one.
Wheeler has worked in the school for 10 years. She attended school there, and so did her children.
“You know it’s kind of sad,” Wheeler said. “I think probably watching it go down little by little is not as hard as driving by and it’s all gone.”
Like Fletcher, she retires at the end of the school year, she said, but “I’d really like to work in the new building.”
Hyland Construction is in charge of the $7 million high school reconstruction project. The project is part of an $18.6 million bond approved by Sweet Home area voters two years ago.
The project includes the demolition of the administrative offices, the Career Center, counseling, the cafeteria, the main gym and east and north hallway.
A new library will be built about where the main gym is located. A couple of new high-tech classrooms will be attached to the library.
On the west end will be a commons with the student store and cafeteria. Administrative offices will flank a central entryway.
On the east end of the north hall, Linn-Benton Community College will build a new Sweet Home Center.
The Gateway credit retrieval program will share space with the Career Center in a modular building moved from Hawthorne Elementary. Health classes will be held in he drafting area.
The high school will have room for all but one teacher, who will float to different classrooms in different periods.