By Arwyn Rice
Peninsula Daily News
FORKS — In only a few months, Forks High School teachers have been able to bring the education of Quillayute Valley School District’s students fully into the 21st century.
“Learning walls” and an additional computer lab is giving students high-tech learning experiences unlike anywhere else on the West End.
Instead of a simple whiteboard — which replaced blackboards more than a decade ago — the entire front of a classroom in a new Forks High School building is devoted to communicating with the students in layers.
Ken VanSickle, a social studies teacher, demonstrated the “learning wall” system in his new classroom last week.
At front and center is a 90-inch interactive computer screen that students can “write on” in color, and their notes can be saved on the classroom computer system.
“They’re jacked about it,” VanSickle said, noting that they sometimes confuse the technology with that of their iPhones and iPads.
Beside the big screen are two big whiteboards, which he slid aside to reveal book and equipment storage behind them.
It greatly expands the space that can be used in a classroom and focuses the learning in one place, he said.
Soon, those same high-tech features will be installed in classrooms that were built during an expansion of the high school in 2001.
It will give all teachers the same opportunities to use the advanced technology in their lesson plans, Superintendent Diana Reaume said.
A full computer lab has
been installed near the library to become the third computer lab in the school.
“There are teachers in here with classes pretty much every day. It’s fully booked,” Reaume said.
One of the labs, to be filled with Apple Macintosh computers, has yet to be set up.
The new school building also features a “publishing hub,” from which students can create newscasts, commercials and videos using industry-standard hardware and software.
“We’re one of the few schools in the state with a state-of-the-art lab,” Reaume said.
A music room was built with dozens of individual instrument lockers and state-of-the-art sound insulation, with the hope of bringing performing arts back to the high school.
Eliminated in 2005 due to budget cuts, the high school’s music program is expected to return this fall.
At first, the band will consist of mostly freshmen students with a few upperclassmen who learned to play instruments at home or at other schools plus some middle school students, Reaume said.
Reaume explained that the district’s plan is to start with a “pep band” for sports events and work back into having a full marching band as the music program grows.
The new building, which replaces a group of disconnected classroom buildings, is integrated with a section that was constructed in 2000.
Reaume pointed out parts of the school where the classrooms and lockers on one side of a hallway are a decade old, while those on the other side are new.
“Those were a wall and windows,” Reaume said.
The oldest portions of Forks High School — made famous in the Twilight series of teen romance novels — were razed after an $11 million school construction bond was approved by Forks area voters to demolish the old school and build new school facilities.
Attempts were made to raise funds to save the historic facade — which had great sentimental value for its generations of graduates and was a popular spot for Twilight fans to have their pictures taken in front of the entrance proclaiming “Quillayute High School.”
The facade was torn down in June 2011 after only a few thousand dollars were raised — a small portion of the $287,000 needed to save the crumbling structure.
Heritage Hall, built using wooden beams, bricks and the original lintel and cornerstone from the 1925 structure, serves as a formal entrance.
It’s described as a way of connecting current students with nearly nine decades of alumni tradition.
Each decade is featured in its own glass case, including trophies, letterman’s jackets, photos and other mementoes.
Students will be in charge of rotating the displays, so if there are more donations than can fit in a case, new items can be seen in turn.
“It’s like a living museum,” Reaume said.
Another section of the original school building can be found in the library, where four overstuffed chairs sit on a large square of 1925 fir flooring.
Near the student commons — a part of the school built in 2001 — photos of the graduating class from each year of the school’s existence will be put on display as soon as they can be formatted and framed, Reaume said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
