SEE PG A10
SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 40, NO. 24
SECTION A
MARCH 15, 2019
$1.00
Bracing for
MHS campus will
become 14-month
construction site
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
The McNary High School
campus is about to get a lot
busier.
Beginning later this month
or April, Salem-Keizer School
district offi cials are expected
to start staging a multimillion
dollar expansion of the Celtic’s
school.
“Now that we’ve purchased
the [church] property, we’ll
start the mobilization. You’ll
see the trailers and putting
the longer lead-time materials
like pipes hanging out in the
area,” said Mike Wolfe, chief
operations offi cer at the district.
The district recently came to
a $2.26 million agreement with
St. Edward Catholic Church
to purchase six acres of land
it needed to proceed with
the expansion. The purchase
and the new development
project is being funded by a
bond voters passed in 2018.
McNary is one of fi ve area high
schools scheduled to expand
with the goal of absorbing 200
additional students over the
next decade.
Over the next 14 months, a
new wing on the north end
of the building will be home
to 14 classrooms and a new
construction-focused, career-
technical education space
and the front entrance of the
building will be expanded and
remodeled.
The day after staff leaves
for the summer will mark the
beginning of the most visible
work on the existing campus.
“The whole north end of the
building will be demolished,”
said Erik Jespersen, McNary
principal. “That will take
out the tennis courts, the
current music studio, a video
production, a graphic design
room and a computer lab.”
At the same time, seven
new portable buildings, with
two classrooms each, will be
placed on the fields at the
south end of the campus. A
quadruple-wide portable unit
will serve as temporary home
to the weight room.
change
The cam-
TO RIVER RD 
pus will be an
LOCKHAVEN DR N
PHASE ZERO
Z
active con-
late April/early May
through early June 2019
struction site
PHASE ONE
• Staging for construction
throughout
1
June through August 2019
•
Set
up
construction
staging
t h e e n t i re
•
Campus
closed
for
summer
area on land recently
2019-2020
• Demolition of existing tennis courts and
purchased from St. Edward
academic year
construction of replacement tennis courts
(construction offi ce,
• Demolition of a portion of the northwest
as the new
materials storage area)
corner of the building that currently houses
wing in con-
• Start construction of
JV
auto shop, digital arts, weight room.
replacement
softball
fi
eld
Baseball
structed and
Also, an area outside the front entry in
Field
with the goal
preparation for Phase 2.
of opening at
• Seismic work in the gym, selected walls
the beginning of the 2020-
• Install temporary portable classrooms
Varsity
Football
2021 academic year.
Baseball
Field
“The disruption will be
Field
& Track
the students going out to the
portables. The logistics of how
that will work is big and still a
work in progress,” Wolfe said.
Students in the graphic
design and media production
N
programs will be some of the
most impacted. The current
graphic design program serves
as a computer lab, screen
The
printing shop and photo studio
Arbor
all-in-one. The media space
at
Avamere
also serves multiple functions.
Existing Building
CLAGGETT ST
“We will have to be creative
1st fl oor
with some programs,” Jespersen
said.
To help smooth out the
rough patches, the district
C
enlisted on-site design teams
Map created by CANDACE JOHNSON, ANDREW JACKSON
with the goal of troubleshooting
before problems rear their heads.
“Working with the architects
THREE
3 PHASE
has been a godsend and mar-
June through August 2020
velous. They asked really good
• Campus closed for summer
questions and recognized that
• Construct replacement soccer
P
and varsity softball fi elds
we are obligated to do certain
(current fi elds will become
things the
parking)
Existing Building
bond pays
• Complete the parking lot
2nd fl oor
for. There’s
refurbishment and drive
PHASE TWO
2
still a lot
pathways
September 2019
of creative
• Complete two-story addition
through May 2020
and front administration area
decisions
• Construct new two-story
• Remove temporary portable
classroom addition on
we were
classrooms
north side of existing
able to
building
make in
• Construct front
the pro-
administration area
cess,” Jes-
and media classroom
MAP LEGEND
persen said.
The new
P New student parking
Two-story addition
Existing elements
classrooms
will not decrease class sizes, but
New admin. area
New softball fi elds
C New entry courtyard
might give some larger classes
New soccer fi eld
New tennis courts
more breathing room.
Sometime between Septem-
ber of this year and May 2020,
Celt spring
sports
previews
SECTION C
ELVIS has
VANISHED
PAGE B1
Growing pains
hit hard at
manufactured
home park
PAGE DI
CHEMAWA RD N
Please see CHANGE, Page A8
Sports impact will set in this summer
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
The McNary softball program will have to do away with the
brand new dugouts they installed two years ago as they will
begin playing on their new fi eld by Saint Edward Catholic
Church in 2021.
BY MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
With construction on the
expansion of McNary High
School getting set to take
place this summer, the pro-
tocol for Celtic sports — as
well as other Keizer athletic
programs — will be a little bit
different over the course of
the upcoming year.
While all the short-term
plans haven’t been set in stone
yet, McNary athletic director
Scott Gragg is confi dent of
the game plan that the school
is putting into place.
“We’re going to be impact-
ed and there’s going to be
inconveniences, but we feel
like we identifi ed the gaps of
where we need to put people,”
Gragg said.
The softball and soccer
fi elds, which are currently in
the space next to Chemawa es, camps and games — both
Road, are being moved to summer programs typically
the purchased space by Saint end in late-June.
While programs directly re-
Edward Catholic Church to
make room for the school lated to McNary High School
will have ac-
expansion that
cess to the
will include
football and
14 new class- “ We need a
baseball fi elds
rooms.
plan for soccer, this summer,
Phase
1
the
campus
of the three-
we just don’t
will likely not
phase
con-
know what
be available to
struction
outside groups.
process
will
that is yet.”
“Nothing is
begin this June,
— Scott Gragg,
really fi nalized,
meaning that
Athletic Director, McNary
but the gen-
the McNary
eral message
gym will be
is that outside
complete-
ly off-limits as it will be go- user groups for the time be-
ing through seismic upgrades, ing, until we fi gure out all our
meaning that the McNary bases covered, they’re going to
summer volleyball and bas- have to fi nd another place for
ketball programs will have to a facility,” Gragg said.
fi nd other options for practic- Please see SPORTS, Page A9
Check out
kids’ pages
PAGE