For the last weeks of the previous school year, teachers and students worked to pack entire classrooms into boxes. Those boxes are now stacked in the main gym, allowing construction projects to take place before students arrive back to school Aug. 12.

This summer marks the final phase of the construction projects that began last summer at BVNW. Design and Construction project manager Kent Andersen said this plan includes a major mechanical project, which is anticipated to improve heating and air conditioning systems that have been in place since the building was first constructed. Anderson also said a skylight replacement project is ongoing to ensure safety and prevent leakage.

Principal Amy Murphy answered questions about what is changing at BVNW and how it will impact students.

What is the overlying goal of the building reconstruction?

The biggest project is to do the second phase of the heating and cooling system. The heating and cooling system in the 400 and 500 hallway was replaced last year and in the gym. All of the rest of the building is getting new heating and cooling. The system that they currently have is the original system from when the building was built in 1993. So it’s time for it to be replaced and have a better working system so we can have a more consistent temperature across the building.

What are the specific projects that are being done to accomplish that goal?

In the heating and cooling, taking out the old units and putting in the new units. If you’ve been in the rooms in the 400 and 500 hallway you see those kind of semicircle units in the corners. All of the classrooms will have those, the commons will have those, and all of the different spaces will have those. With this new system the idea is that the air blows out at kid height or people height rather than blowing down on you, which is supposed to be a better one.

What are the smaller projects they are doing?

The other thing they are doing is at the front of the building where the glass kind of angles up; they are redesigning that. Also, they are making a kind of canopy that sticks out at the front of the building and replacing the glass and fixing some of the leakage that we have going on there.  They’re putting in new cameras, they’re taking out all the wiring and fixing that, and putting in LED lights so that hopefully, when you all come back, the commons will be much brighter. In the atrium—[they are] taking out the windows and putting in a solid ceiling there.

What was the reason for the changing the glass in the atrium?

We tried several things to keep kids from climbing out and writing on it, and [those methods] haven’t worked. The easiest way to make sure somebody isn’t crawling out there is just having a solid ceiling.

When will it be completed?

Hopefully, by the time we come back to school. The anticipated completion is the end of July.

What do you think will be the benefits of the reconstruction?

I think if you talk to the teachers who have been in the part finished last summer, more consistency in their temperature. We haven’t had any issues with the system breaking because it is old [in areas done last summer.] You know some of the rooms are cold; some of the rooms are hot. I think it’ll be consistent across the building, which will be nice.

What are some disadvantages?

It’s change, and change is always different. Also, teachers having to pack all their stuff up and then unpack all their stuff and reset up the room. I think the atrium and commons are going to feel a little different when we come back.  Change is hard, but we’ll get used to it and find advantages to the new system. It’s hard to envision what that’s going to look like or feel like until we see it and kind of live in it for a while, but I think it will be great.

How is it affecting students and staff coming to school in the summer?

They are not coming to school in the summer. Right now, the only part of the building that is open is the main office. So any staff that is coming in, they can come to the main office and to the wait room. The whole rest of the building is basically off limits. The teachers had to plan ahead. A lot of the time teachers will do this or that in the summer in their classrooms and they can’t this summer because there is nothing in their classrooms. Everything is in the gym.

What is the plan for unpacking when school starts?

Knowing the teachers, the majority of them will be [unpacked] before you all get there. My plan is that when a  [construction] zone is done, we’ve had our cleaning team clean the area and we’ve moved the furniture back. Then [I let] the teachers know that, ‘Hey those of you who have classrooms in the 100/600 hallway that part of the building has been turned back over to us so you can get access to your rooms again.’ Some of the teachers will come in on their own time because they will want to come back in August with their stuff unpacked. But there are teachers that have pretty full summers planned and will do their unpacking when they come back. They will have four teacher workdays before [students] come back…usually half the [day] is “teacher design time” when they can unpack. It kind of depends on how much they have packed.

How will that impact students?

I think our teachers will want to get busy in the teaching part of it, so you will see a lot of that done before you get back or when you’re not in the room. A lot of teachers had students help pack the stuff, I don’t think we will see that as much…There are kids that have volunteered to help unpack over the summer.