MVMS expansion near completion

BY STEVE DEDUAL

For the Bremerton Patriot

As the construction projects were continuing Tuesday at the Mountain View Middle School’s new sixth grade building, school board members took a tour of the new facility.

With the odor of glue in the air and loose tiles strewn around the floor, MVMS principal Jerry Wilson and Martin Newhard, project manager for Heery International, the company charged with making the sixth-grade building a reality, led the small group from room to room and hall to hall showing off the $15.3 million edifice.

The overall design of the new school has been carefully planned to match the existing building inside and out including the separation of the counseling offices from the administrative offices to remove student’s fear of going to see a guidance counselor.

The building is state-of-the-art and includes the same types of technological advances found at Bremerton’s Olympic College. A voice enhancement device worn around the neck will help teachers amplify their voices and overhead projectors have been replaced by document cameras and ceiling-mounted video projectors. The classroom lights are also motion activated which should yield savings on power bills.

Bremerton school board member Cynthia Galloway said that she was impressed with what she saw of the school.

“It’s really nice,” Galloway said. “There’s lots of space.”

The tour continued into the existing middle school building where Wilson was excited to show the board a space that is being altered into a fitness center for students and some changes made in the library to give students more working room. Both of these additional projects were able to be completed under their projected budgets, Wilson said.

Vicki Collins, Bremerton school board member, said the changes in the library made a huge difference in the learning environment.

“They have more room now,” Collins said. “And chairs that rock.”

The nearly 400 sixth-grade students attending the Bremerton junior high school will make the transition to the new building sometime before the winter break and teachers are expected to begin moving Monday, Wilson said.

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