Educators, construction crews and architects gathered Thursday in east Pasco for the ceremonial installation of Orion High School ’s final steel beam, marking an important milestone in the Pasco School District’s new career and college academy.
About a quarter complete, Orion remains on-time and on-budget, administrators say.
When it opens in fall 2025, the $38 million choice school will serve 600 in-district students, who will graduate with workforce-ready credentials, industry certifications and a hands-on learning experience.
School Superintendent Michelle Whitney called it a “great celebration” with labor partners and tradesman, who have been hard at work since construction began in the spring at 1815 E. Salt Lake St .
“We’re incredibly proud of the project and so grateful to our community for their investment,” she said. “We just continue to stay focused on being good stewards of that investment — not only in building the building, but in making sure the academic programming we’re offering kids meets the need of our students in a way that helps us be good partners in building a thriving community.”
Over the summer, Pasco and its construction partners lifted the final steel beam into Sageview High School , the district’s third comprehensive high school, at 6091 Burns Road.
That 300,000-square-foot building also will open fall 2025 , and serve 2,000 students living in neighborhoods north of Interstate 182.
Orion is the first high school to be built in east Pasco, a Tri-Cities community that for generations lacked capital investment and economic opportunity because of racial segregation.
But the area east of the BNSF railyard has been booming in recent years, especially with the recent opening of a huge Amazon package and the growing food processing industry.
Thursday’s ceremony also included plenty of symbolism and recognition of personal accomplishment.
Those involved plastered their signatures onto the large, white-painted beam in permanent ink before it was raised. An American flag and evergreen sapling were adorned on each side of the metal piece, paying homage to the achievement of the workers and a symbol that construction has reached the sky without loss of life or injury. The tree offers good luck to future occupants.
Whitney signed the beam twice — once for herself and a second time with a special message for her father-in-law, Jerry Whitney, whom she never met. The union ironworker died years ago while on the job, and his name on the beam paid respects to his life and those of other fallen workers.
Volcanic ash layer
Work on Orion’s foundation and steel structure — the building’s bones — is complete, says John Weatherby, Pasco School District’s capital projects manager.
Crews with Richland-based Fowler General Construction have begun closing the building in and pouring cement on the second floor. Plumbing and electrical work are the next focus, followed by internal heating and air systems.
The only hiccup so far has been the discovery of a wide vein of Mount Mazama ash that originally blanketed the region during an eruption 7,700 years ago.
It was hard to compact and build on, so construction crews had to excavate and float the foundation over the top of it.
Health sciences & engineering-manufacturing
Once finished, the 65,000-square-foot Orion High School will feature 24 classrooms with collaboration spaces, a library-media center, space for an esports program and laboratories for the school’s two signature programs: Health sciences and engineering-manufacturing.
The building won’t include any space for WIAA-sanctioned sports or activities. That means no gymnasiums or athletic fields; students will instead participate in their boundary school’s athletic programs, either at Pasco High School, Chiawana High School or Sageview High School.
Planning Principal Seth Johnson says it’s been an “awesome experience” to watch the building and its programs take root and grow throughout this process. He says it’s been a real collaboration with community members and industry experts.
“What I really like about the signature pathways that we’ve chosen is they’re broad enough where you could earn industry certifications as a high school student, graduate and go straight to work, and work in a high-demand, livable-wage job. You could also go to college and pursue advance degrees, and everything in between,” he said.
Freshmen and sophomores will dive deeply into career fields they’re interested in while exploring post-high school pathways, Johnson said.
Then, as juniors and seniors, those students would expand their learning outside of the classroom by getting involved with hands-on certification, courses, internships, pre-apprenticeships and even employment opportunities.
Johnson says there’s no plans to expand outside of their two signature programs. His staff wants to focus on “doing those two really, really well.”
2023 bond measure
Construction of Orion and Sageview are made possible through a 21-year, $195.5 million capital bond measure passed by district voters in February 2023.
Revenue from those school district bonds also paid for upgrades to athletic facilities at Pasco High School, improvements to career and technical education classes at Pasco and Chiawana, and future land purchases.
These projects aim to relieve overcrowding at high schools and reduce the number of portables at schools. Chiawana High School and Pasco High School are, respectively, the first and sixth largest schools in the state of Washington.
In Washington state, bonds are for building schools and facilities while levies pay for learning and education programs.
Unlike levies, which require a simple majority of voters to pass, bond measures require a 60% “super majority” of voters in the district for approval. Local school districts share the burden of paying for the construction of new schools with the state, which provides matching dollars.
Pasco and South Whidbey School District were the only districts out of more than a dozen across Washington to pass school construction funding last year.
Orion will not receive any matching state dollars through the School Construction Assistance Program, but Sageview will to the tune of $45 million.
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