KFCS has been planning for the future of Ponderosa Middle School for several years now. It might be brand new information to some but in about three to five years, Ponderosa will need to be replaced with its location being on an active fault line.
The city school district is now doing what it can to let the public and community know about the planning and outlook regarding the future of Ponderosa.
KFCS held a facility tour at the middle school Thursday, Nov. 8, to show the current state the building is in and answer any questions anyone may have.
KFCS Superintendent, Keith A. Brown, Director of Operations, Daymond Monteith and Maintenance Director, Jared Thompson, were at hand in the effort to raise community awareness regarding Ponderosa.
"I have a rule of communication on things like this that if you guys will tell 10 people what we talked about then we are going to get the word out pretty well; if they tell 10 people then it works," Brown said. "When I arrived (as KFCS Superintendent ) in July of 2021, one of the notes on my desk was there is monitoring of the condition of Ponderosa and it being on a fault line; it has been moving for sometime."
Brown shared the district's efforts in planning for a new middle school.
In 2021, an architect was already under contract
Created a physical feasibility study
School board work session, October 3, 2022, to begin talking more about the future of Ponderosa
KFCS has met several times with PIVOT Architecture since 2021
Held another school board work session, July 24th, 2023 and completed hardwood training, teaching people how to gain civic trust
KFCS submitted a long range facility plan to the Oregon Department of Education, December 1, 2023.
In attendance were several KFCS parents and several Ponderosa teachers, Ponderosa Principal, Brett Lemieux and Assistant Principal, Liza Butler, as well as staff from MyBasin.com and Herald and News.
Thompson led the tour, which showed cracks in the interior walls and floors at Ponderosa due to the fault line shifting.
"Here in the girls bathroom upstairs, through the cracks on the walls and the floor, I can see a little bit of daylight and the sun come through during certain times of the day," Thompson said.
Thompson and his maintenance staff also highlighted how several doors of classrooms are misaligned, having to temporarily fix the doors on multiple occasions and do so in the summer time.
Continue reading with a note from Superintendent Brown regarding community awareness information about Ponderosa here: https://www.kfalls.k12.or.us/article/1850371
