Young adults attending Oak Harbor’s alternative high school have a new, convenient location for classes with the start of the school year in September.

The 80 or so Midway School students will attend classes in a leased building at 1299 Dock St., situated right next to the Island Transit transportation hub.

Oak Harbor School District leased the building as a cost-effective way to free up space for Broad View Elementary School students, which will be dispersed throughout the district while that campus is remodeled. The Midway School has been operating out of two classrooms in a portable building near the old district office across Midway Blvd. from Oak Harbor Elementary School.

Broad View students will occupy the portable, as well as a second portable building already set up at the same site, for the 2002—2003 school year.

The cost of securing two other portable classrooms for Broad View students would have cost the district about $140,000, said Rick Schulte, superintendent of schools. Freeing up the existing portable space by leasing the building for the Midway School will cost the district about $20,000 for the next 12 months.

Schulte signed a lease agreement with Island Property Management for the new space, after getting the OK from the school board at its meeting Monday night.

The 3,500 square foot space is located on the first floor of a two-story tan building with green trim, which has an airy front porch and a great view of the harbor. The space is accessible for the disabled, with a ramp leading up to the porch and wide doorways.

The building will be ready to open with the start of the new school year on Sept. 5. The only major renovation required to the space, Schulte said, is the installation of two bathrooms. The owner of the property is paying for the remodeling.

“They have to install a couple bathrooms. That’s the main thing. Anything else is pretty minor.” Schulte said on Thursday.

By Thursday afternoon a crew from Scottie’s Plumbing and Repair had already completed the plumbing work for the two bathrooms. Finish work for the bathrooms and the addition of a wall creating a hallway is being completed by Island Construction.