Every school gets a few upgrades during the summer, such as a new coat of paint in the hallways, freshly waxed floors or new landscaping work. When students returned to Orem High last week, however, they found much more going on than minor repairs ¬­-- OHS is currently undergoing a complete rebuild that began in early June and is scheduled to be completed in two years, resulting in a brand new school.

The current building is more than 50 years old and student needs have grown beyond what it can handle. The new building, however, will have updated facilities and more space for the growing needs of the community.

Some projects have already been completed, including a new carpool and visitors' parking lot in front of the school, a new driving range and new athletic facilities, including a track, tennis courts and football field with a sprinkler system. Most of the summer construction, however, was intended to prepare the building site for construction and to ensure that all active construction during the school year would take place in designated areas safely away from student activities.

"There's really no interaction between students and construction at this point," Perkins said. "It took us all summer to get to this point, but for now it's business as usual."

The new school is being built on the former site of the A gym, vocational buildings and Little Theater. Losing those facilities has required some adaptations as teachers and administrators work to schedule activities into remaining spaces.

Many practice facilities for sports, drama and band are no longer available, but with careful planning there has been minimal disruption to these extra curricular activities. Drama classes, for example, are held in the auditorium, and different sports are rotating practices to share available space.

"We can still provide quality facilities for all our programs, it just takes a little more coordination on our part," Perkins said.

Even more coordination is necessary to accommodate the school's parking needs since the south parking lot was removed for construction. Assistant principal Joe Jensen has noted that more students are riding bikes and scooters, and the school has begun offering high occupancy vehicle parking permits for drivers with three or more students in the vehicle. Those HOV parking permits are valid for the new parking lot in the front of the school, and Jensen said he has been surprised at how many students have embraced carpooling. The school has sold 90 HOV parking permits, and more than just the students benefit from carpooling.

"It's environmentally friendly and saves on gas prices," Jensen said.

While construction is moving ahead on schedule, the administrators at OHS are being conscientious in preserving the school's past even while they are building its future.

"We don't want to lose the rich tradition and rich history of Orem High," Jensen said.

To help preserve the past, multiple historical displays are being designed to highlight the school's history. The public is urged to donate or loan memorabilia to the school for those displays, and a number of important items are being preserved from the old school, including the iconic tiger and "O" from the old gym floor. Anyone with materials to donate to the school can contact Jensen to make arrangements.

With both the past and future coming together at OHS, Perkins said it is important for parents and the community to understand how beneficial this project will be once it is completed. Even as students see a new school built around them they are able to take ownership of the evolving OHS, and that sense of pride will be especially critical to this year's sophomores. Those tenth-grade students are scheduled to be the first class to graduate from the new facility.

In the meantime, much work remains to be done but it is proceeding on schedule.

"We're hitting the important deadlines," Perkins said. "There could be some inconveniences here and there but we're doing the best we can. The summer has been trying on a lot of our neighbors and we appreciate their patience and understanding."

Updated construction information is available on the school's Web site, www.oremhighschool.com.