Cheney High School’s staff room gets remodel from students

Ashley Mobley’s interior design class at Cheney High School has been getting a little real-world experience this semester as students created teams to redesign the school’s staff room.

The class includes freshmen to seniors, Mobley said. “We pick different projects the students are interested in,” she said.

This year has been all about construction as a new wing has been added to the school and a new administration area is being built. “There’s lot of areas under construction in our school,” she said. “The staff room is part of the remodel.”

The nine student teams were told they had a budget of $5,000. They came up with ideas, designed the space and presented their proposals to school administrators. The top three designs were selected and will be presented to the teachers in the next couple of weeks, Mobley said.

“We will pick, ultimately, the one we like,” she said. “It was a really, really cool program.”

Mobley said it was hard to narrow it down to the top three proposals. Many were similar and had only one or two features that were unique. Many teams incorporated the school colors and the school logo into their designs.

Not all groups were successful at coming in under budget, however. “Some groups went a little crazy,” she said. “Mainly that’s because they were finding flooring was expensive and painting is expensive.”

The students were also dealing with several challenges in the existing space. Mobley said there’s not a lot of seating available in the staff room and there’s no dishwasher. The counter space is limited. One group suggested adding a long wooden table with bench seating.

Some teams tried to completely remodel the kitchen area and add a dishwasher. “That’s where some groups went a little over on the budget,” she said.

The staff room isn’t part of the new construction, so students were told they had to fit whatever they designed into the current available space. “When you are an interior designer, you don’t always have the luxury of making a room larger,” she said. “They kept the walls the same and just rearranged the furniture.”

Mobley said she’s pleased with the students’ plans. “They spent close to two months on this project,” she said. “They’re all very excited.”

Other teachers are looking forward to having their space remodeled. “Lots of staff have come up to me and they’re excited to see what they came up with,” she said. “I’m excited to see which one gets picked.”

Whichever plan the teachers pick, Mobley said she expects the work to be done this spring and also expects her winning design team to be a part of the process. “They get to help, at some point, lead their design,” she said. “I want them to be a part of that.”

Mobley said she tries to incorporate real-world projects into her semesterlong class whenever she can. She said she’d like to be able to expand the popular class and make it a year long.

“There’s so many different things I can do,” she said. “A semester is just so short.”