On Feb. 1, 2018, Brookings-Harbor School District will move its district office a short distance in order to start a series of renovations and program improvements across the district.
It’s the first step in a plan approved by the School Board of Directors on Dec. 6 to shift several facilities in order to create an opportunity to grow the existing Career Technical Education Facilities and the district’s partnership with Southwestern Oregon Community College. The plan will also lead to the eventual relocation of the school-based health center in partnership with Curry Community Health.
The new location for the district office will be 564 Fern Ave. The district office can be visited or contacted by phone (541-469-7443) or fax (541-469-6599) during the hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday.
The new district office space at 564 Fern Ave., was most recently the O.P.T.I.O.N.S program facility. However, it was the original location of the district office and was slated to resume that use in the 2002 district architectural plan drawings. With small internal modifications, this facility will be able to house the entire district office staff including Special Programs Administration and support personnel that had been in a separate building in recent years.
The alternative education programs have been consolidated to fully comply with state standards (Division 22) and now occupies the facility on the corner of Easy Street and Fern Avenue (580 Fern Ave.) adjacent to the new district office. This program was renamed Community Bridges at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year.
The Brookings-Harbor High School Career Technical Education facilities were in need of expansion to keep up with student demand, state mandates such as the recently passed “High School Graduation and College and Career Readiness Act” (Measure 98) and district-level goals about increased graduation rates and access to vocational and career pathway classes. Planned changes will include expanding the metals and welding shop, as well as construction trades area. These are growing programs — two more sections of welding and one more section of Construction Trades were added for the 2017-18 school year. With the additional sections, this allows more students to take these classes and access these programs.
Due to various facilities decisions over the years, the metal shop area was reduced to a space that is too small to accommodate the needs of the existing program. In order to expand the welding shop area, the high school will move the school-based health center, which is currently housed in the CTE area. This will allow for a cascade of classroom shifts to maximize the space, with Digital Graphics moving into the former health center space, while the Ceramics Lab in turn shifts into the space, leaving room for the welding and metals shops to expand into the current ceramics classroom. A plan is also in place to add space to the wood shop area in the 2018-19 school year. Over the last three years, the district has added four more programs and two additional instructors to the space that formerly housed one instructor and one class – including IT Essentials, Computer Science and Digital Manufacturing.
The school-based health center will remain at the school district but will move to the more accessible location vacated by the district staff in the modular building in the high school parking lot at 629 Easy St. Costs of moving the school-based health center will be split between Curry Community Health and the school district. The health center will use half of the building space, and the other half will become flexible classroom space.
These are the first steps in a vision to create a true Career Technical Education Center at the high school that will serve larger numbers of students to help them graduate with technical skills and certifications, as well as allow for community classes in the evening for college credit in partnership with Southwestern Oregon Community College.
Across the state, students who participate in Career Technical Education (CTE) classes have a significantly higher graduation success rate than their peers, underscoring the importance and impact of the Brookings-Harbor School District’s current investments in growing and improving its CTE program and career pathway opportunities.
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