This fall when KU students flock to classrooms, they will find interactive televisions with synchronous screens have been installed in refurbished and freshly painted classrooms equipped with LED lighting.

“It’s just like your Android touch screen phone,” said Samanthea Totten-Perry, construction project manager for the project, pointing to the screen mounted on the classroom wall. “It’s basically the same thing, it’s just 86 inches.

“Everything about this building is completely state-of-the-art,” Totten-Perry added.

Crews are on schedule to start paving the parking lot in May, and to start moving out ramps for modules which have been used for temporary classrooms. Most of the modules are slated to be gone from the site by mid-June. After that, furniture and equipment will be moved into the school while students are on summer break.

Speaking of state-of-the art capabilities, Herron also pointed out how each classroom is also set up as a satellite learning site, equipped with microphones to facilitate synchronous learning between classrooms at other facilities.

“You could, with that screen, connect with a class taught through Oregon State or University of Oregon,” Herron said.

“You’re interacting like you’re in the same room, only miles away.”

Renovations to the academic building required demolition of much of the front of the structure, leaving the building’s facade and stairwells, and gutting the interior.

The academic building will also have a state-of-the art media center overlooking a stadium-style seating area for impromptu presentations. Most of the campus will have motion-sensor, LED lighting and the whole building will have a security system with access only through a card issued by the school.

“The lighting system – it also will be tied into our security system so for some reason our alarms go off in the middle of the night … police have access to our security systems in their squad vehicles, and when they come to the campus, they’ll know exactly where somebody’s at because of the light on in that area.”

The arts building is yet to be bid for renovations, but it is hoped to be finished in the coming school year, according to Herron.

Long road

While the road to renovations at KU has been a long one, Klamath Falls City Schools District officials believe the results will be well worth the wait.

Dozens of factors pushed the completion of the high school’s $47 million renovation, which began in January 2015, back by about a year and a half. Among them, inclement weather, construction schedules, initially inaccurate cost estimates for materials, and efforts to salvage treasured aspects of the 1928 building.

“You’ve got a building that looks like it’s built in 1928 on the outside but on the inside, it’s one of the most state-of-the-art high schools,” Totten-Perry said.

“It took a lot to get to this point, where we’re at right now,” Totten-Perry added.

The renovations, according to Paul Hillyer, superintendent of city schools, increased by about $15 million from the originally estimated $34.2 million bond measure that voters passed in 2013.

“While this is still a large increase over projections, school districts throughout the state who passed bond issues when we did have had the exact same problem as the construction industry,” Hillyer said in an email. “… It is particularly pronounced in Klamath Falls due to the shortage of construction companies and workers. Many K-Falls companies went out of business during the Great Recession.”

The district scaled back the project and filled the funding gap with state grants and land sales, and plans to request a loan for an unspecified amount from Klamath County Commissioners, Hillyer said.

“We’ve worked really hard to save as much money as we can,” Totten-Perry said.

Totten-Perry said the problem with some original estimates is they were done before bids came in and before design plans were finished.

“I don’t think they were ever really feasible,” she said.

Herron agreed, adding that they may not have been realistic, with increases in material prices and a difficult renovation.

Totten-Perry said officials had to return to the drawing board and “value-engineer” at one point, but that it presented an opportunity to save millions of dollars and keep needed safety and security.

“It’s really going to be beautiful,” Totten-Perry said.

“It’ll make the wait worth it.”

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KU’s Academic Building: Where Modern Meets Nostalgia (H&N)