Come next school year, the SM North library and media center will have a brand new look that Shawnee Mission officials anticipate will become the model for the rest of the district’s high schools.
The Board of Education at its last meeting approved a $269,000 contract with Phillco Construction to revamp the SM North library into a space that allows for more flexible uses, including collaborative work and study areas as well as easier access to online resources and wireless connectivity.
Based in part on the Pryor Learning Commons project at William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo., the project is part of a trend throughout the district to create spaces that more closely mirror the work and study environments common in higher education and business settings. Here’s a look at a rendering of that project:
The same guiding principles that factored heavily into the design and layout of the SM North project have been used in mapping out the libraries and media centers at the new elementary schools the district is building. A similar renovation had been planned for the SM East library, but the retirement of the school’s librarian last year led to the decision to postpone that project for the time being.
Deputy Superintendent Kenny Southwick told the Board of Education he anticipated the SM North project would have its hiccups, being the first transition to a learning commons model the district has undertaken.
“We going to have some lessons learned,” Southwick said. “We’re going to get some of it right, and some of it will have to be corrected. But it is a plan for us to move forward in our other media centers.”
In addition to the $269,000 the district will spend with Phillco, the board is likely to consider a contract for the purchase of new furniture for the space over the summer.
The layout for the new library is embedded below:
