New middle school a big improvement

As the Sisters community dedicated its new high school last week, seven-tenths of a mile down the Old McKenzie Highway (Highway 242) toward town, Middle School Principal Lora Nordquist was busily preparing for the opening of her own "new" school, the remodeled former high school.

And she was as happy as if the building were brand new.

"We were so crowded at the other site (the old middle school on Cascade Avenue in the middle of town)," she said. "We were in five buildings there, you know. Here we are all under one roof. The kids were going outside several times a day in all kinds of weather...So to have a building that's large enough and all under one roof with modern facilities..."

The most visible part of the remodeling at the former high school has been the replacement of what had become noticeably worn carpeting throughout the building. But other things please Nordquist, too, including the installation of a modern computer lab upstairs. In the old middle school "we had a sort of taped-together lab," she said.

She also noted that during the coming year the school will add $50,000 worth of books and other materials for the library.

"We couldn't have them before because we didn't have room to put them anywhere," she said.

Nordquist is not coming to the new middle school as a stranger. She taught there during her first five years in Sisters, when middle as well as high school students occupied the building that was opened in the fall of 1992. She became principal of the middle school three years ago.

Both secondary principals as well as Facilities Manager Bob Martin stressed another feature of their schools.

Speaking of his building, Acting High School Principal Bob Macauley said, "Now we have only seven entrances where at (the former high school) we had 48. So we built it with safety first in mind. Every person coming into the building will be coming in through the main two front doors."

At the middle school, those 48 former entrances have been reduced to half a dozen. As at the high school, during the school day all but the front doors will be on an electronic card-lock system and can be entered only with a card.

And in both schools -- at the middle school through remodeling -- the main offices have been arranged so that those inside can see everyone coming through the front doors.

Even though Nordquist's personal office is toward the rear of the administration complex, she has a direct view of the middle school's front lobby.

So, as school began on September 15, both middle school and high school students are in new, more sophisticated surroundings.