The former Forks High School Library room  and adjacent classrooms were demolished last week.

The completion of the Forks High School addition buildings has been set back about a month to November due to the heavy rains of the past winter and spring.

OAC construction overseer Kasey Wyatt, who works closely with the project’s architectural firm BLRB of Tacoma, gave a report on the project at the Tuesday, June 28 meeting of the Quillayute Valley School District Board (QVSD).

An update on the project was also given by QVSD Superintendent Diana Reaume at the Wednesday, June 29 meeting of the Forks Chamber of Commerce.

The doors to the new building were originally scheduled to open in October, Wyatt said. She said rainfall averaged about seven inches above normal in many winter months. Problems with existing sewer lines running from the 2000 addition to the high school also caused delays, she said.

Classroom and office furniture and other equipment needed to outfit the new addition are planned to be moved into the new addition in December, with staff moving in in mid-December.

Students will begin attending classes in the new addition in early January following winter break.

This schedule will not “slide unless a catostrophic issue happens,” Wyatt said.

She said the project is running on budget.

Reaume said a new wood Spartan – Forks High School sign is being constructed at the Olympic Corrections Center wood shop. The existing sign, which is a popular sight for photos by visiting Twilight fans, is now relocated at the front of the high school annex building on Spartan Avenue. Reaume said the older sign may be sold to raise funds for the Spartan student body.

Reaume said the Forks Elementary School building is being reroofed as a separate project from the high school construction.

She said a school time capsule is being created and will probably be placed in the wall of the Heritage Hall entrance area of the new school addition. A 2012 cornerstone is being made to match the 1925 cornerstone that was carefully removed from the brick-walled circa 1925 high school entrance building that was recently demolished. Only a faded, crumbling 1926 newspaper was found in the time capsule placed in the old school cornerstone.

Wyatt said work on a replacement parking lot fronting Spartan Avenue also required additional work due to decomposed trees and other organic materials under the soil of the old parking lot area. A “geofabric” layer is being put down and compacting work is underway to avoid sink holes under the new parking lot.

Reaume said music education is seeing a boost within the Forks public schools and promised that a pep band would be performing at football games played at Spartan Stadium this fall.