Chris Cook – Forks Forum photos

Forks High School math teacher Tim Douglas leads a study hall class in the new Career Technology building at Forks High School. The classroom still needs flooring and other finish detailing, but will be used this fall allowing the Quillayute Valley School District to fore go using a portable classroom for the classes. QVSD Superintendent Diana Reaume (right) stopped in Thursday afternoon, Sept. 8 – the first day of the 2011-2012 school year. Reaume told the Forks Forum that a $98,000 grant for the state Department of Education has recently been approved and will pay for a new walkway to connect the Career Tech building with the main new high school addition building.

The new addition to Forks High School is scheduled to be open in January 2012 following the school’s winter break.

Reaume said Forks Elementary School’s new music teacher Joe Osbourne, led the elementary school student body in a rhythem exercise on the first day of school. She said a school band is being formed and will be playing at the Forks High School homecoming game against Montesano High School in October.

Primo Construction workers and subcontractors are moving along with exterior work on the new high school addition. The new parking lots for the addition were paved over the past few weeks. Here Spartan high school students found parking (see photo below) spaces ready to go for the first day of school. In the background a painter is applying a rubbery sealant that is being applied to exterior walls prior to the installation of wooden siding. Reaume said windows have been randomly tested with water spray in the new buildings and have proven to be well sealed off from the elements.