By Megan Kelley

Review Writer

Lake Orion Community Schools broke ground on their highly anticipated and long-awaited Blanche Sims Elementary school construction project last week.

District administration, school board members and representatives from GMB Architects and Frank Rewold and Sons joined Blanche Sims staff and students in the current Blanche Sims cafeteria for the ceremony.

Blanche Sims is currently the oldest building in the Lake Orion school district. Built in 1950, the facility is about 72 years old.

“This is certainly a great day in the history of Lake Orion as we move from our district’s oldest school to becoming our newest school,” said school board President Jim Weidman. “It’s been some years since we’ve built a new building as an elementary or middle school, so this is an exciting day for us. We are looking forward to continuing with our stewardship of the bond and this is the next step in that process.”

During the district’s bond campaign in 2018, Blanche Sims was notably one of the biggest projects LOCS had included. Original bond documents showed the projected cost of the build to be about $26.5 million.

“The commitment to the community when the bond was passed was for us to build safer, smarter and stronger facilities and this certainly is an example of that,” said Superintendent Ben Kirby. “We’ll continue to focus on the extended learning spaces and the secured spaces and the vestibules and the other things that we can do to keep our students safe.”

In recent meetings, Lake Orion’s Board of Education has approved bid awards for both part one and part two of the new facility construction.

The five bid awards included in part one were earthwork and site utilities, fencing, foundations, masonry and structural steel, which were approved unanimously by the board in a total amount of $9,791,916 (contracts presented in the amount of $8,871,097 with $920,819 in allocated contingency and allowances).

LOCS had 29 contracts issued in part two, which amounted to $14,544,251 ($13,473,725 with an allocated contingency and allowance in the amount of $1,070,526).

A highlight in the groundbreaking ceremony was the presence of grade-level representatives, students that were chosen by Blanche Sims teachers and principal Ken Nuss to represent their entire grade.

“This is what it’s all about, preparing them for the best future possible so their lives can lead to great things,” Nuss said. “They’re a representation of, hopefully, the thousands and thousands of students that are going to be impacted by this tremendous project.”

Nuss noted the learning opportunity that such close construction provides to not just the Blanche Sims students but also the staff.

“This is an amazing and exciting time for both students and staff at Blanche Sims. Getting to see the actual reality of our new school being built right before our eyes each day is quite the real-world experience that the kids are going through,” Nuss said. “Having them just staring out in the playground and everything is quite a learning experience and I’m an adult and I love watching the dump trucks and the excavators just like the kids. I’m just spellbound for how they do things. Right now, they’re pushing a lot of dirt around, but I know something magical is happening in there.”

As construction continues, the excitement among both students and staff seems to be nearly off the charts.

“They’re very excited, they talk about it every day and they talk about what’s going on out there every day and so there’s a lot of excitement,” said Nuss. “I think there’s just as much excitement, if not more, from the staff because the staff has been in this building for a while and they love it, it’s comfortable, it feels like home, but it does lack a lot of the amenities of a ‘new’ school.”

Over the past few years, the Blanche Sims design team has traveled to other facilities and made decisions based on what will best set up students, staff and the district as a whole for the future.

“The actual facility itself is going to reflect on a lot of the best practices across the entire state and nation with our techs and different visits that we had, we were able to glean some of the great things that are happening in school builds and we’ve been able to implement and a lot of it has to do with using the spaces more creatively, to allow students to experience things,” Kirby said. “It will help us inspire our kids to get them to really work with the things that are of interest to them and I think it will be fantastic as we move forward.”

As LOCS heads into series two of their three series bond initiative, there is still a good deal of work to be done. Upcoming projects include furniture replacement at the secondary level and main office and secure entry construction at Scripps Middle School.

“Thanks to the entire community, the neighbors around us, I know that progress can be painful at times and we are really thankful for your patience and your partnership as we continue to improve this facility and our school district one scoop of dirt at a time,” Kirby said.

Blanche Sims currently sits on the far south end of the site; the new building is being constructed on the large space behind the building in the northeastern part of the land.

Where the previous transportation building and the current playground sit will become the parking lot, which will include the parent drop-off and bus loops. The space where the current building is will become the playground area.

The facility will feature three classroom wings and 19 total classrooms. Each wing will have its own extended learning spaces and all the common spaces will be included in the main “L” shaped building which includes the cafeteria, gymnasium, STEM room, media center and the main office.

Construction officially began on the site on March 7 of this year and is expected to be completed by the start of the 2023-24 school year.