Revised Fowler Middle School plans call for taking down old gym, saving baseball field
Published 5:00 am Tuesday, August 25, 2026
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The latest conceptual plan for the future rebuilt Fowler Middle School shows the new school as a white “backwards ‘k'” — as school officials refer to it — to the right of the map with the current school, which is not shown, to its immediate left. The new school will be built on the current running track/football field with the new sports field, shown here, to be located close to Southwest Walnut Street.
(Tigard-Tualatin School District/Contributed)
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Byrom Elementary School Principal Matt Coleman welcomes back kindergarten students at an Aug. 20 kindergarten playdate event, which gave incoming kindergarteners and their families a chance to visit the school, meet one another and get comfortable before the first day of school.
(Tigard-Tualatin School District/Contributed)
As Tigard-Tualatin School District students prepare to return to classes Sept. 1 and 2, the district has revealed updated plans for rebuilding Fowler Middle School
Those include a district decision to not move forward with original plans to retain the school’s large main gym, along with reducing the height of the classroom portion of the building from three stories to two and the purchase of two new pieces of property to accommodate a new running track and football field
“The original design for the Fowler rebuild centered around preserving the large main gym as an anchor point for the new building,” the district said in a statement. “Following completion of soil testing, it was determined that preserving the gym is no longer practical due to the process required to amend the soil.”
Salvaging the main gym would have required mixing concrete into the soil to ensure it remained stable, something school district officials said wasn’t a practical option based on both the work involved and costs
At the same time, the district has decided to reduce the height of the new school, something they said would improve visibility and mobility throughout the facility while helping the structure to “blend more naturally with the surrounding neighborhood.”
Baseball field to be salvaged
The district also is in the process of purchasing two pieces of property adjacent to the southern part of the school near Walnut Street for construction of the new track and football complex. The purchase will use school district acquisition fund money — which can be used only to purchase real estate — without touching any bond funds
“The additional land, combined with the changes to the building design, creates a larger and more flexible campus site,” the district said. “Most notably, the new site design allows us to preserve the Susan McCormick Baseball Field. Because of the field’s large size and the site’s other restrictions, it would not be possible to replicate the field elsewhere on the site or elsewhere in the district.”
Jordan Mills, the district’s director of communications and school relations, said, “the great news is that the building is going to remain the current building but will remain intact until we’re ready to move children over.”
Once the new building opens the old school will be demolished
The changes are expected to delay groundbreaking on the new school building, bumping the timeline from June 2027 to fall 2027. The new building is still tentatively scheduled to open for the 2029-30 school year
Bond paves the way for reconstruction, updates, remodels
In May 2025, voters approved a $421.3 million bond measure to pay for the reconstruction of Fowler, the updating and remodeling of Bridgeport, Byrom, Durham and Mary Woodward elementary schools and more
In preparation for the new year, Byrom Elementary School welcomed its newest students to campus on Aug. 20, with a kindergarten playdate event, which gave incoming kindergarteners and their families a chance to visit the school, meet one another and get comfortable before the first day of school, according to school officials
“I’m so excited to welcome this group of students to Byrom Elementary,” Principal Matt Coleman said. “There’s something really special about watching our kindergarteners discover their new school and begin making friends. We can’t wait to get started!”
