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Central Medford HS to move, expand By Kevin Opsahl Oct 21, 2022 12:45 AM A A Jessi Eaton-Shields works with students during an Art and Communications class at Central Medford High School Thursday. Central Medford High School is moving to 501 Airport Road. [Jamie Lusch / Mail Tribune] Central Medford High School is going to move to this site on Airport Road. [Jamie Lusch / Mail Tribune] Central Medford High School, one of Medford School District’s four high schools, will expand its footprint by moving north after an extensive remodel of its future building is complete. Central Principal Cass Thonstad and Brad Earl, assistant superintendent of operations for Medford schools, said Thursday that Central Medford will move from its 18,000-square-foot home at 650 Royal Ave., to the 70,000-square-foot warehouse at 501 Airport Road, the site Columbia Distributing now occupies. The move will give Central Medford an additional 52,000 square feet of space. “A lot of people talk about, ‘We want to do something different,’ but there’s not the action behind it,” Thonstad said. “This is a real commitment. That’s what the staff saw, when we went and got to see it.” Earl, who once worked in the Airport Road building before he joined Medford School District, said the district bought the property for $8.4 million, but it will take another $8 million to complete the remodel. “The current tenant will not be out for at least a year, and we hope to be able to start some of our projects prior to them leaving the building, but that may not be possible,” Earl said. “They have a business to run until they relocate. So they’ll just pay us lease payments for a year. And then, as soon as we can get in there, we plan on building it to suit Cass’ programs and needs.” The new building will include a gym, “flexible project-based learning labs,” a career and technical education-based “shop” and a “potential welding area,” according to site plans provided by the district. Thonstad, who came to Medford from Newberg earlier this summer, was intrigued by the project. “When I was hired, one of the conversations was, ‘Where you’re at is going to be a temporary home,’” she said. “The day that I got to come down and actually go through the (new) building, it was like, ‘OK, I’m in. We’re really moving toward this.’” That’s why she invited staff and students to the future site to take a walk-through. “They understand we need to shift to project-based learning this year,” Thonstad said. “There’s a lot of shifts in education. That’s a common thing — ‘We’re going to try this, and it’s going to go away’ — but this is a real clear indicator that this district has bought into ‘No, we’re changing for real.’ I moved here because of the things that we get to do to help kids graduate who need things to work a little bit differently than a traditional school.” Central Medford’s current campus has no gym nor cafeteria. Breakfast and lunch are brought in each day from another school, while a nearby church and field is the outlet for physical activity. “We’re making it work; that’s the reality,” Thonstad said. The current school building, at 650 Royal Ave., is under the first of three 1-year lease options while the property is up for sale, Earl noted. “We have the option to extend our lease at Royal Avenue, even if the property sells,” he said. “Our ideal timeline would have us opening CMHS at the new location in the fall of 2024. If we miss that deadline, we could do a midschool year move.“ Thonstad said she believes the move will be better for students, who have already had thoughts of building a food truck inside the new building. “There’s not a physical space to do that here,” Thonstad said. “The idea that we would have all of these different spaces that we could rotate projects through that are not assigned to be a specific kind of space, that is what drives me to think this is a really good opportunity for us.” Reach reporter Kevin Opsahl at 541-776-4476 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @KevJourno.