Nearly a decade after Redmond became a two-high school town, the Redmond School District is considering if it should consolidate Redmond High and Ridgeview.

The district is facing millions of dollars in repairs at asbestos-laden Redmond High, where “pink goo” seeps out of the walls and its boilers cannot be turned off. Some of the school’s wings have not been updated since the building opened in the 1970s.

Superintendent Charan Cline told school board members Dec. 14 that, while its just one of many options on the table, the board should consider the feasibility of closing the school and relocating students to the more spacious and newer Ridgeview campus.

The consolidation would be contingent on board approval as well as a taxpayer-funded bond that the district is planning to put before voters in November 2024. The proposed bond would also plan to make much-needed upgrades to M.A. Lynch Elementary and add seventh and eighth grades to fast-growing Tumalo Community School.

The district said whether the district-wide reconfiguration happens or not, the Redmond High building will have to undergo significant repairs to avoid a catastrophic failure.

According to district officials, combining the two high schools in the current Ridgeview building could lead to long term cost savings and leave the district with enough room to offer more educational and athletic opportunities, and bring it in line with projected enrollment and staffing. It would avoid duplicated classes, allow all students to access those classes, and reduce operation costs and water use.

According to the district, Ridgeview has the space necessary to house current Redmond High students. It was built in 2012 to serve roughly 1,600 students, but there are currently only 800 enrolled — roughly the same number currently attending Redmond High.

Combining Redmond and Ridgeview, if it goes forward, would not begin until 2026 or be fully integrated until 2027.

Micheal Summers, chair of the Redmond school board, said there are still many hurdles moving forward before any real decisions are made on the matter, but he thought the idea was worth considering.

“The more we have looked into it, the more I am actually very excited about it,” said Summers. “I think there are some really great opportunities for it. But we don’t have cost estimates. We don’t have plans drawn up for potential new buildings that would potentially take place at Ridgeview if we did combine the schools. But (there are) some very exciting opportunities if that is something that — one — moves out of committee and — two — gets approved by the voters.”

Cline said projections show the district adding about 500 children at the elementary level in the next decade, but losing about 2 percent of its high school population over that same time period.

“That doesn’t make sense to anyone in this room, because we’re growing like crazy as a town,” Cline told the Redmond School Board on Dec. 14. “But we have a lot of retired folks moving to this area and demographically we’re not having as many kids — across the United States and across the world.”

The biggest issue facing the district is the condition of Redmond High, which was built in the early 1970s and housed students starting in 1971. Cline and assistant superintendent Tony Pupo said the building is in urgent need of a new HVAC system, which could cost up to $10 million and construction could take up to a year to complete. Students could not be in the building during the year of construction.

Cline said that currently, the boilers at Redmond High have to be on all the time in order for the school to function. It costs $120,000 to run that system each year, double the normal energy costs according to Cline.

“If you turn off the boilers at any one time and cool off the system, all of the fittings on the pipes start shrinking and they leak. And it starts leaking water with a rust inhibitor in it, and it kind of looks like a pink goo, and it leaks all over the place because the system itself is in bad shape,” Cline said. “And we know it was a problem. And we have $5 million from our last bond and we started getting in there to start working on it. And as they started taking things apart they noticed a couple things.”

Cline said the district learned the pipes in the ceiling at Redmond High were basically crumbling into pieces. The ceiling is covered in a fire retardant made with asbestos. The asbestos, a highly dangerous material once commonly used in construction, will have to be removed once renovations begin, said Cline.

“Meaning we would have a hard time having kids in that space for a year,” he said. “That is the big problem.”

Cline said that it renovated about half of Redmond High School in 2008, after the district passed an earlier bond. The other side of the building — which includes the theater, music space and career technical education area — wasn’t modernized.

“So that place has not been touched in a long time,” Cline said. “We need to do some major renovations at Redmond High either way.”

Given the circumstances, Cline said there are three possibilities for moving forward.

“First option: We don’t close it and we just continue to Band-Aid the current system together. That has a time-limited solution and at some point we will experience a catastrophic failure. We don’t think that is a good idea, but we could continue to patch it together. Option two: We purchase a whole bunch of portable classrooms and put them out on the green space, we set up a big circus tent that we have and we eat lunches out there.”

Cline said both of those options would be expensive, either when the failure occurs or in purchasing or renting the portable classrooms and operating out of them. He said that got district officials considering something more drastic.

“Option three: We move all the students to Ridgeview for academic programs and we bus them back (to Redmond High) for our CTE (Career Technical Education) and athletic programs,” said Cline. “And if we do that for the CTE and athletics we actually have the room over there.”

Liz Goodrich, vice chair of the Redmond School Board, said the three options presented to the board last week were unexpected but that she believes they were well thought out. She also said she is still forming an opinion on the matter.

“Passing a bond is never easy and this is an emotional issue. We are talking about people’s school,” Goodrich said. “But I think there are some practical reasons that inform all three options. And I don’t think we know everything yet, but I think the community deserves to know as much as we know as soon as we know it.”

As part of the reconfiguration, a new Career and Technology Education building could be built on 16 acres of district-owned land near Ridgeview High School property. That project could begin in 2025 and take about a year to complete.

RSD is also considering moving the district office to current Redmond High, after students are out and repairs have been made.

Cline said, were the district to officially propose combining the schools, it would first require lots of community input. He also said no teachers would lose their jobs. Reached Tuesday, the Redmond Education Association, the labor union that represents Redmond School District teachers, said it had no comment on the possible closure of Redmond High and said it was a “district matter.”

Cline noted that, if a new school was formed, it would absorb the history of Redmond High. That includes its trophies, records and banners.

“None of that stuff would be lost if we combined these things together. And we’d pull together a community group, including students, to rename the school, choose a new mascot, colors and all that kind of stuff,” Cline said. “We are kind of leaning towards the idea of the Redmond Union High School … if we were to go there. Simply because, obviously, you are combining the two of them together and the Redmond Union was the name of the high school in the distant past. That is a nod to the past really.”

Board chair Summers said he viewed the proposal as a way to create better opportunities for students. He said the reconfiguration would allow the district to expand athletic and educational offerings.

“It is very much not a reduction for students or for the area, it is actually consolidating and expanding the amazing facility that we have at Ridgeview and really making it to where our Redmond students have a campus that would rival any in Bend and better career technical ed,” Summers said.

He said that while the board is not fully invested in the idea yet, bringing the community together at one high school would benefit Redmond.

“We are a little thinned out in Redmond right now with two high schools that are essentially about half full,” Summers said.

Goodrich agreed that communication is key. She also noted that waiting for a catastrophic failure of Redmond High’s infrastructure is not the way to go.

“That would not be the path that I would pick,” said Goodrich. “I think we have to get ahead of it … there is wear and tear on buildings and sometimes repairing them costs more than doing something different.”

Amanda Page, a member of the Redmond School board elected last year, said she and her colleagues were just recently presented with the proposal and the board has not had a formal meeting or discussion on the matter. Page said at this point she is still considering what the proposed changed would mean for students and the community.

“I think we would all have a better idea of what we are feeling or what we are leaning towards after some time,” Page said. “Because there are some real obvious pros and some real obvious cons and it is going to be as much an emotional decision for our community as it is going to be a logical one. So I think we are all trying to wrap our minds around it because it would be a huge change.”