By Megan Kelley

Review Writer

As the end of the 2020 calendar year approaches, Lake Orion Community School’s pushes forward with series two of the district’s bond projects.

The school board and administration received site plan presentation from GMB Architects and Engineering on Stadium Drive and Paint Creek Elementary Schools during their Nov. 19 regular meeting.

Tom Van DeGriend and Mitch Duyser from GMB joined the virtual session for what is the second site plan presentation the board has received since the beginning of bond implementation.

“We’re at another exciting milestone in the district, in terms of projects. The drawings are substantially complete for Paint Creek and Stadium Drive and they’re ready to go out to bids real soon here,” Van DeGriend said.

“Basically, if you recall, this phase is primarily secure entry only for these two buildings. They both have two phases to them in terms of design and construction.”

Paint Creek Elementary

Because of the location of Paint Creek’s main office, secure entry on that building, in particular, is “relatively easy,” Van DeGriend said.

“The office is in the right location, we just have to do some reorganizing to make all those standards we’re after for security implemented,” said Van DeGriend.

Paint Creek’s secure entry site plan is relatively similar to that of other buildings beginning with a vestibule entryway that would direct guests into the main office where they would then have to be buzzed into the rest of the building.

The office renovation includes a remodeled reception and waiting area, principal’s office, work/mail room, two bathrooms, health room, conference room and an additional office.

Off to the side of the main office are two resource classrooms that will each have a restroom installed.

Paint Creek’s second phase is expected to include a majority of the renovation and will take place in series three with its completion anticipated for 2025.

“The main reason was cash flow,” Van DeGriend said. “We had the three series; cash is only available so much for each one of these series and we needed to push some projects back.”

Stadium Drive Elementary

“Stadium Drive – a little more complex project, primarily, two main reasons:

“To get the security components into it that are the standards we developed in your district, we have a buried office that doesn’t have access to meet those standards. Not unlike what we had at Orion Oaks, we had to move the office upfront to get access to it so that it could have controlled guests without them entering the building,” said Van DeGriend.

“The other component that was even more difficult here at Stadium Drive is a two-story building. It made the solution a little more complex, not unsolvable, as you’ll see, but those two things made this a fairly complex project.”

Because of this, Stadium’s main office renovation will be in the form of an addition in the front of the building, near the visitor’s drop-off. Similar to Orion Oaks, the area where the main office is currently located will be reconfigured to become part of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) space.

Stadium Drive’s office will also have a vestibule directing visitors into the main office where they can then be buzzed into the rest of the building.

The office renovation includes a remodeled reception and waiting area, principal’s office, two bathrooms, health room, conference room and an additional office.

Stairs off of the main office lead to a smaller upper level that includes two breakout rooms, as well as a restroom.

The Stadium Drive renovation is expected to be completed in 2022 (a one-year lag) with the remainder of the renovation happening at around the same time as Scripps Middle School’s renovation, Van DeGriend said.

Other aspects

Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Heidi Mercer gave an extended update on other, more specific aspects of the bond.

Elementary level furniture pilot tests have continued, Mercer explained, and it is expected that decisions on furniture at that level will be made in the next few months.

The district, as well as design teams, have begun working with a designer who is putting together two pilot packages for furniture at the secondary level (middle and high school), Mercer said.

This furniture is expected to be delivered over the holiday break in December.

Mercer also announced that Orion Oaks Elementary staff had moved into their new main office that week.

Both Orion Oaks and Carpenter Elementary are in the process of having the finishing touches installed on those projects.