School District Reimagines Underutilized Areas to Create Collaborative Spaces to Support Student Achievement

Feb 26, 2024   |   ODP Business Solutions
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The Farmington School District in Farmington, Michigan, wanted to set students up for success by creating more collaborative workspaces in their schools. ODP Business Solutions™ Workspace Interiors helped the district take full advantage of the unused spaces, transforming them into special areas for everything from teamwork to quiet reading.

Like many organizations, the Farmington School District aims to make the most of the facilities they have. With some of the district’s buildings dating back to the 1940s, the administrators try to optimize areas that are underutilized.

The district prioritizes supporting student achievement by making the best use of their spaces, often  in ways that provide new areas for teachers and students to work. Recently, that meant embarking on a project to turn underused locations at other schools into collaborative workspaces. 

Administrators chose Warner Middle School as the first facility for the new collaborative spaces. Particularly for this school, the new spaces would give students and staff additional working areas, empowering everyone to gather in new places. 

New workspaces help the district meet its objectives

Until the project, students gathered in circles in underutilized areas, such as hallways, T-junctions, and the front of the gym.

The school district administrators established three goals when they began the project.

  1. Efficiency: Foster imagination and creativity in spaces where students and teachers can collaborate more effectively than in traditional classroom settings.
  2. Control: Enhance the school’s interior environment to energize teachers and students and yield greater learning integration.
  3. Cost savings: Maximize each school’s real estate by doing more with the spaces they have.


The district enjoys an ongoing relationship with the Workspace Interiors team. Workspace Interiors has provided furniture for offices, cafeterias, meeting rooms, classroom storage, and more. With all that successful collaboration, it was natural that Workspace Interiors and the administrators would work together on the new spaces.

The principal and assistant superintendent were enthusiastic and welcomed ideas from Workspace Interiors.

The team proposed the design, along with suggested furniture solutions to support the new design. After minor adjustments to the storage height and number of tables, the district’s team gladly approved the plan.

Workspace Interiors transformed different spaces, including:

  • An empty space in the hallway, which now has soft seating, modular tables, and storage
  • A hallway recording space where students record videos on a new curved green wall for computer-generated backgrounds
  • Added soft seating and tables along the walls
  • The gym hallway, which had minimal seating and a large underused space and is now one of the most prized areas for gathering before events or in breakout groups

Workspace Interiors leveraged the Region 4 cooperative contract to provide strategic value and time savings to the district. The cooperative contract is the result of a bid from this lead agency and includes language that enables the school district to use compliant bidding processes that meet the procurement standard. It provided significant time efficiencies and reduced the cost of goods and services for this project. 

 

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ODP_Business_Solutions_Warner_Middle_School
ODP_Business_Solutions_Warner_Middle_School

Effective collaboration delivers for the school community.

Warner Middle School was ideal for new collaborative spaces, so it was the first of the schools where the district will create them. Workspace Interiors team members are already visiting other schools to begin planning. At Workspace Interiors, we have the unique ability to offer OMNIA Partners members increased purchasing power through our partnership. Alongside OMNIA Partners and our key manufacturing partners, Workspace Interiors delivered excellent value overall by providing innovative product solutions and exceptional service, all under the OMNIA Region 4 contract.

"ODP Business Solutions™ Workspace Interiors provided us with flexible, warmth, and welcoming spaces for our students to be comfortable in their learning," said by Kelly Kaminski, Principal of Warner Middle School, "which allows teachers to be innovative with their collaborative groups." 
 

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ODP Business Solutions Warner Middle School Success Story

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ODP Business Solutions & OMNIA Partners

The Workspace Interiors team at ODP Business Solutions understands that education is critical to the foundation of a child’s journey. We want to help you create spaces for children to learn and grow, and we also know how important it is to provide areas for faculty and staff to collaborate and unwind. Together with top education-focused manufacturers, Workspace Interiors can provide you with an extensive portfolio of products and a comprehensive menu of services.

We offer pricing value that you would expect from numerous publicly solicited cooperative contracts and programs through OMNIA Partners. Count on us to work alongside you to help you achieve — and exceed — your expectations. Find out how we can help you save and support collaboration throughout your organization.

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