The Klamath County School District and Bonanza Schools celebrated a significant milestone with the grand opening of their new, state-of-the-art gymnasium on Friday, October 4, 2024.

This impressive 16,422-square-foot facility, funded by federal ESSER relief funds, boasts:

  • Two full-size courts
  • Locker rooms
  • Concession area
  • Seating for over 800 spectators

A Project Years in the Making

The project — led by Soderstrom Architects and Kinsman Construction — began in August 2023 and represents a major investment in the community's future.

For Bonanza — a small, rural Klamath County community where the school is more than a school, where it's the gathering point, the celebration space, the place neighbors come together for graduations, basketball games, holiday programs, and emergencies — a new gymnasium is infrastructure in the truest sense.

A Far-Reaching Impact

Jordan Osborn, Principal of Bonanza Jr/Sr High School, emphasized the gym's far-reaching impact:

"This new gym will benefit the whole community. The most powerful part about this project is the increased opportunities it provides our kids for generations to come."

That last part is the key. Federal ESSER funding was a once-in-a-generation infusion of capital into American schools. Districts that used it for lasting facility investments — rather than short-term programmatic spending — are the ones whose kids will benefit for decades to come.

Bonanza chose to invest in something durable. That choice will compound across the next 20+ years of Bonanza kids who grow up playing, practicing, and celebrating in this gym.

Showcasing the Facility

The facility's potential was immediately showcased with its inaugural event — the Antler Classic Volleyball Tournament, held on Saturday, October 5.

The tournament marked the beginning of a new era for Bonanza Schools' athletic programs and community gatherings — and demonstrated that the new facility was ready to host the kind of multi-team, multi-day events that simply weren't possible in Bonanza's previous gym configuration.

What This Means for Bonanza Sports

The two-court layout opens up programming options that didn't exist before:

  • Two simultaneous basketball practices — varsity and JV, or boys and girls, can practice at the same time instead of one team waiting for the other to finish
  • Tournament hosting — multi-team brackets, multi-day events, regional invitationals
  • Volleyball expansion — including the Antler Classic and other tournaments
  • PE class capacity — multiple grades or classes simultaneously
  • Community events — basketball leagues, recreational programs, community celebrations
  • Indoor athletics training for sports beyond basketball and volleyball — winter conditioning for baseball, softball, soccer, track

For students considering Bonanza athletics, the facility is now comparable to or better than what kids would find at larger schools in the Klamath Basin. That's a real recruiting and retention asset for the school.

Beyond Sports

The 800-seat capacity also expands what the school can host beyond athletics:

  • Graduations with full family attendance
  • Community meetings of significant size
  • Concerts and theatrical events with proper seating
  • Emergency-shelter capacity during fires, storms, and other community-impact events
  • Voting locations
  • Health fairs, vaccine clinics, and other community-services events

For a community like Bonanza, that multi-purpose capacity matters as much as the athletic capacity.

A Pattern of Investment

This gym is part of a broader pattern of KCSD investing meaningfully in Bonanza:

  • The new construction-and-carpentry pre-apprenticeship program (launched 2024, backed by ~$500K in BOLI and ODE grants)
  • The shop renovation with state-of-the-art equipment (nine welding booths, CNC plasma machine, laser engraver, ShopBot CNC router)
  • A 100% graduation rate for the 2023 class

Bonanza is making a sustained statement that rural Klamath County kids deserve facilities, programs, and outcomes equal to any school in the state.

The new gym is the most visible piece of that statement. It won't be the last.

Congratulations

To Principal Jordan Osborn, the Bonanza staff and students, Soderstrom Architects, Kinsman Construction, the KCSD facilities team, the KCSD school board, and every parent and community member who voted, advocated, and showed up to make this project possible — congratulations.

To the kids who'll play their first JV basketball game, dance at their first homecoming, and walk across the floor at their high-school graduation in this new space — welcome to your home court.

Make it count.