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The Bend-La Pine School District has nearly used up the $119 million that voters allocated in a 2006 construction bond on more than 170 expansions, renovations and maintenance projects. The money has not only helped the district improve its infrastructure to serve growing student populations in Central Oregon, but also provided work for area construction companies.

鈥淲e need more bonds because we need more work,鈥� said Mike Taylor, vice president of Bend-based 鈥淭he bonds from Bend-La Pine as well as Redmond and Central Oregon Community College really helped sustain us through first couple years of this recession, and that work is going away and it’s really hard to replace.鈥�

Among the final projects are a renovation to the administrative office building and a sorely needed expansion for a Sunriver school.

When the bond measure passed in 2006, district officials made it clear that their first priority was to add space to the most overcrowded facilities, including Pine Ridge and Westside Village Magnet at Kingston elementary schools. Five years later, district officials’ office spaces are finally receiving improvements.

The Education Center, which holds the district offices, was built in 1924 as a high school and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Even though the center was overdue for a makeover, district officials didn’t attach a high priority to the project.

鈥淲e very intentionally made sure that we committed dollars to projects that touched students first,鈥� said Julianne Repman, the district’s communications manager. 鈥淲e saved this renovation to be one of the last projects in the budget.鈥�

BBT Architects redesigned the conference room, board room and staff聽lounge area, and Griffin Construction started work on the interior in July.

鈥淚 think it’s very admirable,鈥� said Don Stevens of , principal in charge of the renovation. 鈥淓very time things came up short for work on a school, they took money that was set aside for the district offices and put it into school buildings instead, but their own office space was pretty miserable, really.鈥�

A team from Kirby Nagelhout Construction Co. won the contract 鈥� worth slightly more than $1 million 鈥� to replace all of the building’s windows with energy-efficient ones that were historically accurate.

鈥淲e attempted to take it back to some semblance of its past character,鈥� said project manager Kevin Shaver of BBT Architects.

An old yearbook photo was used as reference for restoration of period trim, lighting and carpeting.

鈥淚t had been remodeled many times over the years, but some of the old materials were in pretty bad shape,鈥� Shaver said.

But Repman said the 鈥減iece de resistance鈥� from the construction bond is the expansion of Three Rivers School. The modest school opened in 1989 as three temporary, modular classrooms on a 15-acre site in Sunriver, to serve 39 kindergarten and first-grade students.

In 1992, six more temporary classrooms were added to Three Rivers, which grew to accommodate kindergarten through fifth grades. The next year, two permanent structures went up, and in 2002 and 2004 the school was expanded to make room for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students.

Now, Three Rivers has been separated into elementary and middle schools able to hold 600 students.