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Learning even before the school's ready Photo by Jim Craven Adroit Construction site foreman Chris Brown points out some of the joints used to hold wood beams together as students Ken Hyland, left, and Colt Hoeptner pay close attention. The future students of the Lake Creek Learning Center were touring the building site Tuesday where workers are constructing the Eagle Point School District's first new school in 20 years. Kids get early look at Lake Creek Learning Center By VICKI GUARINO LAKE CREEK -- First day at school, and the class was brimming with questions. "Where's the front door?" one boy wanted to know. "Where are the classrooms?" "Are we going to be able to play out here?" At a school where it's still hard to tell the walls from the windows, Eagle Point grade schoolers Thursday stared wide-eyed at the studs and rafters. The 17 students from kindergarten to fifth grade were getting their first look at what will be their new school. The three-classroom Lake Creek Learning Center, some 20 miles east of Eagle Point, is to open in January. The $1 million project will enable students to attend classes close to home. It is the 4,000-student Eagle Point district's first building project in 20 years. The Learning Center's first class now attends school in a modular room at Glenn D. Hale School in Eagle Point. Although most students live near Lake Creek, they hadn't seen the new school before. "I like it because it's made of wood," said fourth-grader Kathy Pelican. "It smells good." Classmate Tamra Hunt, a fifth-grader, said she was looking forward to going to a small school. "I like all the kids in the class," she said. Youngsters arrived ready with questions for the construction crew. "These are the men who are building the building," said teacher Georgina Kennedy, inviting youngsters' questions. Third-grader Ken Hyland wanted to know how workers set up the timber posts that support the beams. Second-grader Jonna Robertson and first-grader Emma Sanders wanted to know how contractors fashioned the smooth expanse of concrete for the floor. Youngsters stepped over cables and hoses, gripped bolts, and imagined doors and desks as they checked on the building project. "You'll come in right here," Kennedy told her class, waving her arms through a wide gap in the studs. Construction began in August on donated ranch land a short distance from the Highway 140 Lake Creek intersection. Classes are to begin after Christmas break. Students initially will fill just one room, but schools Superintendent Bill Jones said interest in the new school has been high and enrollment eventually will fill all three classrooms. The project has relied heavily on community support, donations and free labor. Volunteers include Kennedy, who lives in the area. Work has been financed by a combination of loans and state funding that, in the end, balances all expenses and makes the project self-sufficient. A special state allotment, due the Lake Creek community because of its distance from local schools, will pay off the construction loan. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA