BVMS parking lot doubled, will ease drop-off, pick-up
Jill Meier/BV Journal
Expanding the parking lot at Brandon Valley Middle School is expected to ease congestion on Holly Boulevard during the morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up times.
When parents steer their vehicles into Brandon Valley Middle School this school year, they’ll follow a new, longer route in the drop-off/pick-up process. That’s the result of a summertime project that has doubled the amount of parking on the south side of the school.
“With the extension of the parking lot, the pick-up/drop-off line could be longer and is able to pull pressure off of Holly Boulevard,” explained Superintendent Dr. Jarod Larson. “The important thing is folks are going to need to pull into that parking lot and go to what would be east, traveling around the outside of the parking lot.”
BVMS administration is creating a video that will soon be available on the school’s website.
“There’s really no change in terms of the driving aspect of it,” Larson said. “In terms of pedestrian traffic, all kiddos will have to cross at the light and then walk on the sidewalk to the main entrance.”
The expanded parking lot won’t be the only visible change at BVMS. Construction on additions on every side of the building will continue through the 2025-26 school year and is scheduled for completion next summer, opening to students in the fall of the 2026-27 school year. The additions include classrooms on the southeast side of the building, to the school kitchen on the west side of the school, and on the building’s northwest side is a wrestling and multi-purpose room and locker room additions, and HVAC updates. On the northeast corner are more classrooms. In all total, there will be 10 new classrooms.
“The most pressing for us right now is on the west side of the Middle School, getting the concrete pads poured so that we can continue to utilize the west side of our building for Child Nutrition Services deliveries and access,” Larson said.
The primary need to expand the CNS kitchen is for additional freezer/cooler and dry storage, prep space and a CNS office.
Despite construction, Larson said the kitchen will remain operational during through the school year.
“The reality of this addition project is it’s everywhere,” Larson said. “It’s on the southeast side, it’s on the northeast side, it’s on the northwest side, and it’s on the west side. Every corner of that building is being worked on. It’s not isolated to just one little area or one specific area, but rather, it’s all around. The absolute most important thing is that folks stay out of construction zones and pay attention to all construction signage.”
Vision Construction Group is the general contractor for the $6,792,000 project.
On the east side of Brandon, Burkman Valley Elementary continues to take shape, and remains on schedule to be completed in the summer of 2026, also opening that fall. This building project is tagged at $26,000,000.
Every summer, maintenance is done at all of the school buildings throughout the district. One of the more noticeable updates will be the new Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) flooring in the high school commons and at Robert Bennis Elementary.
Brandon Valley Booster Club has also made a significant change to the commons with a new video board to replace the smaller, flat screen TV that was hung above the concession windows. The BV Journal will bring you the story behind the new video board in an upcoming issue.
