Hayes Freedom High School opens

The Hayes Freedom Renegades are finally home.

After temporary stays in four different buildings in the past six years, the students at the alternative Camas high school finally have a permanent place to call their own.

“It’s just crazy that we actually have a home,” senior Javon Ingram said. “People know what Hayes is now.”

Classes began Tuesday at the new 20,500-square-foot Hayes Freedom High School at 1919 N.E. Ione St. For the first time, the students have their own school with six classrooms, offices, a computer room, resource rooms, a small library, a kitchen and a cafeteria.

The school also boasts numerous features that promote sustainability and energy conservation, such as a radiant floor heating system, solar panels on the roof and a rain garden. The new school will reduce annual energy use by 78 percent per square foot compared with the average high school and is capable of functioning solely on the energy it produces, according to school officials.

The unassuming brick building is tucked among the Jack, Will and Rob Boys & Girls Club, Helen Baller Elementary and Liberty Middle School. The school is just blocks from its former location at the old J.D. Zellerbach Elementary School.

As the school’s 138 students attended classes in the building for the first time, several expressed relief in making the latest move from JDZ.

“It felt like we were in elementary school because we were there in sixth-grade,” senior Shelby Lehman said.

The new building also makes explaining what Hayes Freedom is and where it’s located easier, senior Kurtis Moody said. Rather than being a high school in a former elementary school, Hayes Freedom is a high school in a cutting-edge building.

The students also praised the school’s energy-efficient features.

“I think it’s pretty cool because we can call ourselves eco-friendly,” Moody said.

“It makes us different than other schools,” Lehman added.

Lehman and senior Bryan Butler said they liked the concrete floors with radiant heating, as opposed to carpeted floors. The inside of the building is also equipped with numerous other features. Each room has digital temperature monitors displaying how many watts of energy have been used, how much the energy costs and when it’s OK to open classroom windows to allow fresh air inside. Signs throughout the building identify the water, materials, air and energy features that make Hayes Freedom green.

“It’s just awesome,” Principal Amy Holmes said. “They just did such a beautiful job.”

“Even though it’s new, it’s definitely Hayes Freedom,” she added.

The school is named for Camas native Denis Hayes, who helped organize the first Earth Day. The school caters to students who opted out of the traditional program offered at Camas High School.

When talking about the new building, Holmes paraphrases a quote that she feels describes the spirit of Hayes Freedom: “Not all places that are true can be found on a map.” While Hayes Freedom teachers, staff and students have moved from one temporary location to another throughout the years, the school has always had an identity. The new building makes that identity tangible.

As students and visitors enter the building, they are greeted with a sign on the cafeteria wall. The white sign with green and black letters and the school’s crest summarizes the feelings of most on the first day at the new school.

The sign simply reads: Welcome home Hayes Freedom Renegades.

Marissa Harshman: 360-735-4546 or marissa.harshman@columbian.com.