Lynette Brower has to fit her entire classroom on a cart.

The Anacortes High School math teacher starts her day in a science classroom upstairs, travels to a social studies room down the hall for second period and then takes the elevator downstairs to an English classroom to end her day.

Brower, in her first year at AHS, is one of seven teachers there who move every period because they don’t have a permanent classroom.

“I lose that positive interaction between student and teacher before and after class because I have to pack up and leave,” she said. “I fear losing students’ work so I tend to be very hyper keeping it organized and turned in.”

It also leaves students and teachers without a sense of home.

“I can’t display student work effectively. Students can’t see their projects up on the board because I don’t have a board,” Brower said.

The high school will get more classrooms for Brower and others if voters pass a 17.5-year $59.8 million bond in the April 24 special election. Other problems the bond addresses at the high school include leaky roofs that need replacing, a worn out auditorium with a lighting system so old parts aren’t available, a cramped library that has just one individual study area, locker areas that spill into showers and 25-year-old bleachers intended to be temporary many repairs ago.

The proposed bond includes $19.5 million for renovation and reconfiguration of the existing high school building; $2.2 million for a pre-manufactured stadium with covered bleachers; $4 million to renovate War Memorial Field; and $1.4 million to improve Rice Field.

The price tags are for the total project construction, including taxes and inflation projections. The projects are planned to be complete within three years.

The last major addition to the high school was in 1976 when there were 746 students. There are now 1,035 students at the high school — a 39 percent increase. While enrollment district-wide is declining, the high school has been overcrowded for some time.

Increasing the number and size of classrooms (some are as small as 600 square feet) are two of the much-needed upgrades, said Donna Zickuhr, AHS principal.

“Those are two hugely important needs,” she said. “We can’t fit enough high school bodies in the classrooms.”

The squeeze makes it hard on Brower, but she said there are some perks that come with moving throughout the day. She shares office space with two other math teachers who don’t have permanent rooms, so they talk and collaborate often. Other teachers use space near the attendance office or the library for their planning periods.

She also gets to see more students and teachers during the day because she has to move through the hallways.

But moving rooms makes it hard to present hands-on math to students.

“It creates such a challenge for student learning,” she said. “If I just had a few moments to spend that would probably help significantly.”

Moving rooms not only impacts the teachers who change rooms, but also the teachers whose classrooms are being used.

“Wandering isn’t good but it’s also not good having teachers removed from their classrooms,” she said. “They can’t be in their classrooms setting up their materials. They’re really displaced from their own classrooms.”

The overhaul at the high school calls for a more inviting commons area for students to gather, 1,000-square-foot classrooms with natural light, updated facilities for science and a new travel pattern to help free the hallways.

“A little bit crowded is an understatement,” Zickuhr said of passing period.

It will be easier for teachers in the same subjects to work together if their classrooms are grouped together, Zickuhr said.

“I think it’s going to be a great opportunity for kids and staff to benefit from some continuity. The environment will be more conducive for high school students.”

Librarian Lynne Webb is looking forward to having nearly double the space in the library as part of the renovation project. The 4,800-square-foot space right now holds the school’s collection of 10,000 books plus 42 student computers and an area for small groups. When the renovation is done, the library will have 8,300 square feet.

The renovated library will have a courtyard outside that connects it to the new parking lot and bleachers. A connection to the student commons area inside will make the library more centrally located in the school, Webb said. She envisions a more inviting space that makes students want to stop by the library.

So far this year, there have been more than 15,300 student visits to the library.

“We have heavy, heavy usage,” she said.

But the library is lacking quiet individual study areas — there’s just one now.

“That’s the most popular spot in the library,” Webb said. “We definitely need more space for small groups, too.”

She said having space for comfortable chairs to encourage reading would also be a plus.

Webb said studies show schools with a strong library program headed by a certified librarian with a full-time aid in an attractive, well-equipped facility helps raise student achievement.

Marty Yates, head of the district maintenance department, said the school has lost about 1,500 square feet of shingles during the wind storms this year. Other areas of the roof are deteriorating and finding the leaks can be nearly impossible.

He said workers spend about three hours a day five days a week just working on the high school’s roof. Complicating the problems are a jumble of different roof types and connections between different additions.

“We spend a lot of time there. We spend probably 50 percent of our time at the high school,” he said.

Brodniak Hall has served its purpose well for 30 years, but teachers who use the space say it’s showing its age.

“It’s a wonderful space and a wonderful community space but it needs upgrades,” said Scott Burnett, AHS drama teacher. “It’s just wearing out.”

The district’s proposed bond would replace the lighting, sound and electrical systems as well as provide new seating.

“We’re thrilled with what we have, but it’ll be nice not to have to patch things together,” Burnett said. “The key components that will serve the community will be there.”

Not everything in the hall is 30 years old. Teachers have been mixing and matching older equipment with newer purchases for years. The sound board was replaced within the last 10 years but the speakers weren’t.

Stagecraft teacher Warren Newton said the lighting system is so old they can’t get parts anymore.

“We beg, borrow and steal parts from wherever we can get them,” he said.

Burnett said it will be nice not to have to worry about the lighting system going out.

“Things are only working now because Warren is good at making it look like they’re working,” Burnett said.

If the district doesn’t do something, he said eventually the community will be without the hall.

The remodel includes rearranging the backstage space to better accommodate the scene shop. The nearby choir and band rooms will be expanded, more practice rooms will be added and there will be better sound proofing and air circulation.

Newton’s stagecraft students build sets on the stage and use the backstage area for storage, which will be expanded to give them more room to work.

Having updated equipment will help stagecraft students by giving them modern equipment to learn on. Students can earn college credit through the class and some go on to work on sets around the county, Newton said.

Burnett said students who are involved in outside activities in school, especially the arts, do better in their core classes.

“The arts enlighten and edify us in ways that are not easily quantifiable,” he said.

Students learn to express themselves, which transfers to business and the private sector, he said.

“We’ll make this theater what it was meant to be 30 years ago,” Burnett said.

Plans for the athletic facilities and fields include adding synthetic turf at War Memorial Field , renovating the locker rooms and making improvements at Rice Field.

The district initially looked at a major addition that would connect the school to a stadium with covered bleachers. That project alone totaled about $15 million. The project being put to voters is smaller. It includes $2.2 million for a pre-manufactured stadium with covered bleachers at War Memorial Field; $4 million to renovate War Memorial Field; and $1.4 million to complete Rice Field — a total of $7.6 million.

Costs for the project include new parking at the south end of War Memorial and an underground storm water detention system.

“We’re not asking for an unreasonable thing. We just want to do good things for our kids and allow more community use,” said Rick Mergenthaler, athletic director.

The upgrade fans should enjoy is a pre-manufactured stadium with covered bleachers. Mergenthaler said it will replace the current bleachers, which were supposed to be temporary when they were installed about 25 years ago. The new stadium will seat 1,500. Visitor bleachers will also be added to seat about 500.

With the field changing to turf and covered bleachers, the school could host playoff games, he said.

Other upgrades at War Memorial include a new press box, replacing the scoreboard, upgrading toilet facilities at the north end of Brodniak Hall and water access on the field for players.

The field is planned to be shifted about 60 feet north and 18 feet east to accommodate an addition to the parking lot.

Mergenthaler said it is common to have two fields and renovating both War Memorial Field and Rice Field will allow more area for practices and community use.

The proposed renovations at Rice Field will complete work done by volunteers in the 1990s. The field will remain grass and the district will add a concession stand, water, a scoreboard, rest rooms, bleachers and lights. More storage will be included at the end of the field.

Other planned renovations — for Williams Gymnasium, the locker rooms and storage — are part of the overall high school renovation project.

Williams gym is part of the roof problem.

“This roof is so old that during practice we have leaks,” Mergenthaler said. “The roof has to be done.”

Mergenthaler said they’ve had students slip during sports practice when they didn’t know the floor was wet.

The locker rooms will be expanded. The district used grant money to redo the boys lockers because they were broken into constantly, Mergenthaler said. But some lockers had to be placed in the shower areas in both the boys and girls locker rooms because that was the only space available.

“We had to put them somewhere,” he said. “You get physical education and athletics and this is not an adequate space for lockers and showers.”

Mergenthaler said the athletics area has about a quarter the storage space other schools have. The training room off Williams gym is being used partially for storage.

“Storage is really a problem. Where do we put out uniforms and our other stuff,” he said.

At least Lynette Brower has a cart.

Other Anacortes school bond articles:
Anacortes school bond would fund $23.9 million career and technology wing at high school
Synthetic turf would allow more field use at same cost, school leaders say
Bond would unsnarl traffic in Mount Erie Elementary School dropoff zone, build new gym
School bond would replace ‘woefully inadequate’ maintenance building
District asking voters to ‘protect our investment’
Q & A: School bond costs, benefits examined
Inside the Anacortes school bond
Largest bond request in county history
School survey shows respondents favor same proposal
Anacortes School District’s $62.9 million bond goes to voters