BEND, OR -- Bend Senior High could get a near-complete overhaul, starting as early as next summer. Bend-La Pine Schools Assistant Superintendent Lora Nordquist says Bend High was originally built in 1955 and has undergone 19 renovations, "Bend Senior High School is our oldest high school by far, and the school has a number of pretty significant issues in terms of heating and cooling, in terms of classroom size. The district has spent quite a bit of money on Bend Senior High over the years, and sometimes not really thinking about how each addition fit into the whole plan of the school."

Part of the work will be paid for through a bond approved by voters in 2017, "We decided that it would be a really good use of some of the money to devote that to a serious Master Plan that, essentially, would ultimately rebuild the vast majority of the existing school." She tells KBND News, "Everybody who's seen the Master Plan has been really excited about it. And, even if it takes one bond, or two bonds or three bonds to get it fully realized, we know where we want to go."  

Nordquist says it's important to upgrade, but to maintain what makes Bend High unique, "I think a key signature of this Master Plan is there will be five different buildings; the largest being a multi-story classroom building with kind of central campus, open-air campus like feel, running through the middle of it."

The project is expected to take the better part of the next decade. When it's finished, every building will have been replaced except the auditorium, production kitchen, and technology building. The football field would also remain.