New, permanent classroom buildings at Oakdale Junior High School are taking shape as Diede Construction workers continue to hammer away at the project with an expected completion date of March 2010.

Oakdale Joint Unified School District construction consultant Ron Holcombe gave a construction update to the OJUSD Board of Trustees recently and noted that the junior high construction, so far, was ahead of schedule and under budget.

This project is being paid for with 2002 bond money, matching funds from the state, and developer fees. The total cost for the project is $4.2 million.

There will be three new buildings totaling 23,372 square feet and consisting of 21 standard classrooms and an oversized music/band room, as well as some offices, student restrooms, staff restrooms, and janitorial and storage rooms.

These permanent structures will replace 22 relocatable classroom and restroom buildings on the campus that were moved and currently reside on the asphalt court areas of the campus, in order to make room for the construction.

Oakdale resident Gary Gery of WWCOT Architects Modesto office is the project architect. The new OJHS classroom buildings will be finished with stucco and metal roofs with entry elements of each building.

“The buildings will be placed around a plaza space that maintains most of the existing trees and provides for both asphalt and concrete pavement features,” Gery said in a previous interview with The Leader. “The project is located on the hill behind the new (Learning Resource Center, a.k.a. library) building.”

Another Oakdale resident, Bill Morris of Morris Engineering and Surveying of Oakdale, is the civil engineer. Diede Construction, Inc. out of Stockton is doing the general construction.

The Oakdale High School swimming pool project is progressing as well.

“We will be asking the board to be able to go to bid on the high school pool project in July,” reported Assistant Superintendent for Business Tim Hern.