This 30-foot long wall decoration is one of the very visible upgrades in the library, with more improvements to follow.
By Trevor Lenort
Panther Press
The high school library is in the process of receiving a facelift which was planned last summer and has been proceeding gradually as each step could be scheduled.
One very obvious change is the new carpeting, installed over the holiday break after the walls had been given a fresh coat of paint last fall. Equally obvious is a 30-foot wall graphic which says “Empowering students with knowledge and skills to succeed.” More subtle, but perhaps equally important is some new lighting. Even more, a total of a dozen or so overall, are scheduled in the near future, including some new furniture and additional school-spirit-centered decorations.
According to superintendent Michael Meihak, school board members decided on a facelift for a number of reasons. One was that the space was looking kind of tough after social distancing rules from COVID caused the district to use the media center for student dining; the extra traffic, busy seating arrangement and food service practices took a toll.
Since school board meetings and other public events take place in the media center, and since it has so many important resources for student use, there were many reasons it needed to be inviting and welcoming. Said Meihak, ”We want to have an area that is warm and welcoming for students to go to and to be proud of. I am very optimistic that once the project is finished, students will use the area more and take pride in our school and facilities.”
In addition to the facelift, media center manager Carma Pederson has added over 500 new books to the library since she started in September. She has also withdrawn many books that have not been checked out for some time.