By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
Ortonville — During the Monday night meeting, the Brandon Board of Education voted unanimously to purchase furniture for Harvey-Swanson elementary from Interior Image inc. and School Specialty inc. The furniture purchases are part of the current bond projects.
“Bid pack three for Harvey-Swanson was awarded a couple weeks ago for the remodeling project,” said Brian Smilnak, project architect. “With the cooperative process, we are able to go directly to furniture vendors. It gives the district a better financial position and you are able to pick furniture individually.”
The committee for the project went to each room to see what was needed, not including the early childhood wing, and to assess the needs of students and teachers.
“The big thing the committee wanted to achieve was flexibility in seating, keeping desks and chairs easily moved,” he said. “We really haven’t had the opportunity to buy all new furniture before.”
The 1-5 grade classrooms would receive new teacher’s desks, chairs, new mobile cubbies for students, mailbox cubbies, student desks and chairs, reading tables and a teacher reading chair. The desks do not have storage, hence the need for cubbies and mailboxes for necessary items. Ancilary items include a lateral filing cabinet, bookshelf, book display, seating for the reading table, portable easel unit, 2 area rungs and cushions for floor seating during work or study time. The only addition item that would be needed for junior kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms would be a mobile toy cart.
“All of the staff will have the exact same desks for their rooms,” he said.
There would be different furniture for art and STEM rooms, as well as a revamp to media center furniture and the circulation desk as part of the Harvey-Swanson remodel. The full project would also include new paint, flooring, doors, cabinetry, new entrance signage and a partial roof remodel.
Part of the bond will also remodel the Harvey-Swanson parking lot, which has been the subject of ire among parents due to traffic back-ups. There are over 500 students at Harvey-Swanson, not counting preschool and early childhood students, whose parents have to park when dropping off their students and walk them to the school.
“There’s a whole bunch of safety concerns as well as the actual parking spaces,” said Smilnak. “We took a look at it and came up with the idea of separating the buses and creating a separate cul-de-sac road. Now we have total separation of bus vs. car and the cars would still come in and use the current bus drop-off lane, and then the parents would exit out.”
The parking lot remodel would also add parking spaces, going from 221 spaces to 288. There would also be decorative fencing added to direct parents, students and staff to the two crosswalks, making it easier for staff to manage drop-off and pick-up and keep students safe.
“This was the best compromise to pick out safety features, add parking spaces, and improve the safety with two crosswalks,” said Smilnak.