This spring and summer, renovations will be made to increase the size of the Blue Valley Northwest music department in order to accommodate the growing number of students enrolled in music programs.

These renovations will entail a 2,685 square foot addition on the northeast corner of the school that will serve as the choir room next school year, as well as 5,000 square feet of renovations to the existing choir and band room. The interior renovations will include an increase in storage space for instrumental music and the addition of practice rooms. The renovations are scheduled to be completed before the start of the 2017-2018 academic school year.

Director of Orchestra Mike Arbucci said he noticed a definite need for more space within the music department about two years ago.

“[The music department] realized the orchestra was growing, and the band was growing and the choir was growing, and we realized we’d outgrown our facilities,” Arbucci said. “We spoke with [the administration] and were like, ‘hey, we’ve got a problem here; we’ve got a lot of students and not enough places to put them or put our equipment.’”

Principal Amy Murphy agreed that each performance art has been growing. After analyzing enrollment in music programs at BVNW feeder schools, the administration realized the number of students would continue to increase to amounts that would not fit within the current spaces.

“[In the next few years,] we could easily be looking at close to 300 kids in marching band,” Murphy said. “Orchestra numbers are growing and choir numbers have skyrocketed and are staying steady. We’ll be in a situation where we can’t have all the music classes in the two music rooms that we have.”

Because of this, a new choir room will be added to the northeast corner of the building; this addition will double as a storm shelter for the students and staff near this part of the building. The shelter will be able to withstand up to 250 mph winds.

The current choir room will become the orchestra room and the current instrumental music room will be dedicated to band. The offices and rooms between the two current music rooms will be consolidated, creating more space. Practice rooms and more storage will also be added, including a mezzanine level of storage.

Blue Valley School District Design and Construction Manager Jake Slobodnik is working as the facilitator for the project. Slobodnik said he helped to oversee the architecture firm, DLR Group, as well as the design team and the structural team. He also managed the construction and the contracts and will make sure the contractor, Champion Builders, will build what is designed in the plans. Slobodnik said he expects the contractors to begin work within the next couple of weeks. He added that although construction will begin while students are in school, it will not interfere with day-to-day operations.

“Right now we’re waiting on the city to provide us with the permit,” Slobodnik said. “They had some questions on the fire ratings and really minor things, things that we always anticipate. The trailer and the fencing is up; the contractor’s ready to come anytime.”

According to Slobodnik, this project is being funded by the district through unallocated interest accrued by bonds from 2005 and 2012.

BVNW Director of Bands Adam Lundine said the project designers were very attentive to the needs of the music department.

“It’s been a pretty complicated process for designers,” Lundine said, “but the great part about it is that they’ve asked us questions every step of the way: ‘What’s best for us? What’s best for our students?’”

Lundine and Arbucci agreed that one of the music program’s biggest needs is an increase in storage space.

“Right now we have a major storage shortage in the instrumental music area,” Arbucci said. “To be able to keep band stuff in the band room and orchestra stuff in the orchestra room will make the spaces a lot easier to navigate.”

Arbucci said that although the music department has gotten very good at sharing the current space, he is excited for each program to have their own room.

“I’m most looking forward to having dedicated space,” Arbucci said. “I think it’s great for the kids to know that there is a space for the thing that they invest their time in; having your own dedicated space, your own classroom, your own rehearsal space is a pretty big deal.”

Junior Allison Policky is a member of both Symphonic Band and Chambers. She said this additional classroom will also make it easier for students to fit music into their schedule.

“To add an entire other music room will open up schedule change opportunities,” Policky said. “It will also make it able to take more music classes and have more classes going on at the same time, it just has a lot of benefits to it.”

Murphy said she knows how big of a role the music programs play at BVNW and the effects music can have on those who participate in it. She wants to make sure music students have the appropriate accommodations.

“I feel like we’ve got the right people…to make kids want to stay involved in music,” Murphy said. “There’s all kinds of research out there that talks about the benefit of students being involved in music, and what it does with brain memory, and performance on standardized assessments…so I think that anything we can do to get kids involved in [music] is great.

Lundine expressed how grateful he was for the district to choose to invest money to help improve their music program.

“It’s been pretty exciting for all of us,” Lundine said. “I think [the district] can see that our programs are very successful because of the number of students within our programs, so they are willing to devote a large sum of money to keep our programs in great shape.”

Policky said when she heard about the renovations she was also very excited and knew it would be great for the music program.

“Music builds on so many things and it can really shape people,” Policky said. “To know the district cares about the certain groups of students in the school centered around that and are passionate about that…is really special.”