By Megan Kelley
Staff Writer
LAKE ORION — The Lake Orion Community Schools Board of Education approved several bids related to the school bond during its meeting on Sept. 28.
GMB Architects Tom Van DeGriend and Mitchell Duyser — the school district’s architects for the bond projects — presented bond design plans for secure entry ways at Oakview Middle School, Waldon Middle School and the Pine Tree Center.
The district is currently about midway through the second series of their three series, $160 million school bond that passed in 2018.
At present, LOCS has several projects under construction, with the new Blanche Sims Elementary facility expected to reach completion in the fall of 2023, and the new secure entry way at Scripps Middle School expected to be completed later this year.
As other projects continue to progress, the district also continues to move forward with plans for several other projects.
Pine Tree Center
The Pine Tree Center has roughly the same building format as Stadium Drive Elementary where the entry leads directly into the lobby with the main offices set further back, giving visitors immediate access to the rest of the building.
Because of this, building a secure entryway is a bit trickier than it is at other district buildings, the architects said.
To remedy this, rather than build an entire new entry, GMB design plans show the lobby area being transformed into office space.
“The intervention we’re doing here is to create that lobby as the secure space. So, we’re adding some doors and some separation so that when people are buzzed in, through the same buzz-in process that we’ve established at all of the buildings, they are contained and controlled in the lobby until the administration staff can determine if they should be allowed into the rest of the building,” Duyser said.
Plans also show the addition of a conference room where current offices are.
Waldon Middle School
The existing layout at Waldon Middle School has an entryway that leads directly into the main hallway where visitors instantly have access to the rest of the building.
Plans for creating the secure entry at Waldon are similar to that of other schools within the district, like Carpenter and Webber Elementary Schools with the addition of some doors to create a vestibule. Once inside the building, visitors can be buzzed into the office and then allowed into the rest of the building through another set of doors.
“The standard is, when you’re outside the building, there’s a camera that connects to the reception desk where you’ll be buzzed in through the exterior set of doors. From there, the other set of vestibule doors are locked so that requires visitors to come into the office area where you can be greeted and checked in and then from there you are buzzed into the rest of the school. So, there are multiple levels of security and control at these entries,” said Duyser.
The offices will also receive upgrades with reception desks being moved closer for a better view of the parking lot.
Oakview Middle School
Currently, at Oakview Middle School, the office is located right off of the entry.
Because of this, the secure entry will look similar to that of the one at Waldon with the addition of doors to create a vestibule and direct visitors into the main office before they can be granted entry to the rest of the school.
There will also be some reorganization of the office with a workroom up front being removed.
Also in the meeting
The board approved several bid awards for new furniture in the administrative offices and media center at Scripps Middle School.
The awards went to Custer Inc., in the amount of $75,098.88, Dew-El Corporation in the amount of $4,780.00, Great Lake Furniture Supply in the amount of $18,666.00, and ISCG, Inc., in the amount of $67,074.06 for a total award of $165,618.94.
Funding for this work will come from the 2022 bond series 2.