BEND, OR -- Bend's next high school is now officially under construction. "Right now, we're essentially moving earth and taking trees down, getting the site prepped," says Bend-La Pine Schools Assistant Superintendent Lora Nordquist. She says the design phase just ended, "We started work so we could keep to the timeline to have the school be ready to open in 2021. They did a site preparation package so they could get started on that work, even before the design of the school was finished." Nordquist says, to keep to the build schedule, the contractor needs to be chosen soon, "There's a bid package out on the street now. We'll be getting bids to build that high school by mid-June, and the school board will make a decision at their June Board meeting." 

Chris Boyd (pictured), Principal of Bend's Pacific Crest Middle School, was named Principal of the new high school in March. "Chris will start that job in the fall," Nordquist tells KBND News, "Because in starting a high school, there is so much work to be done."

The yet-to-be-named school is being built on SE 15th, near Knott Road, which means another change to school boundary lines, "Families will know ahead of time, Spring of 2020, where their child is slated to go to school in fall of 2021," says Nordquist, "So they'll have over a year's notice about boundary changes, so they can make decisions as a family about what they want and how that might impact them."

Once it opens in the Fall of 2021, Nordquist says the new high school will be the site of the district's Dual Immersion Program, which is currently only offered through middle school.