REDMOND, OR -- Crews are taking advantage of empty school parking lots and classrooms in Redmond to work on safety and security upgrades. The projects are paid for by a $27.5 million bond approved by voters in 2020.

Superintendent Dr. Charan Cline says several projects are close to completion, "By the time school starts, we’ll have the outside security systems completely done. So, the ability to lock a building down electronically and let people in, that should be ‘done, done.’ Security cameras won’t all be mounted yet. Security vestibules we’ll be working on really, pretty much all year, but hopefully we’ll get those done relatively soon."

He tells KBND News Tom McCall and Vern Patrick elementaries are each getting six new classrooms, "Those buildings are virtually done, they’re basically getting the heating and air conditioning systems finished - kind of working through that. They call that ‘balancing and commissioning.’ Still a little bit of clean-up, some punch list sort of stuff, but it’s getting there. A little site work still to do on the outside of those buildings, but that’s going well." He says he walked through Vern Patrick on Monday, "It looks pretty good. Also at Vern Patrick, we tore out the parking lot because it had completely collapsed and failed. We re-graded that. We’ll be doing a paving project in early August, as soon as we can get on the schedule of the paving companies."

For more on the projects covered by the 2020 bond, click HERE. 

Photos of Vern Patrick construction, courtesy HMK Company