Polk County school board members voted March 11 to hire John Walters to create the design for an estimated $100,000 expansion to the Sunny View media center.

“It’s really a pretty simple thing, but it will just about double the space,” said Superintendent Bill Miller.

Initial plans call for the space to be between 1,000 and 1,200 square feet. The exact dimensions, Miller said, depend on what the board can afford and what will fit in the available space.

A local man, who Miller said spent years donating his time reading to kids at Sunny View, left money in his estate for the library. Miller said Stanley Modzelesky’s  almost $40,000 donation would go a long way to giving students more room to learn.

Principal Kevin Weis said he’s excited to know that Sunny View’s students will be given ample room to experience the adventures reading opens up for them.

“Our librarian has done a tremendous job of keeping our collection updated, but we simply don’t have enough room for all of the books,” Weis said. “We are very avid readers out here – kids are in and out of there all day long – but sometimes it’s just not easy for kids to find all the books they want.”

Weis said librarian Angela Hall does the best she can with the space available, but said there is limited room for instruction of entire classes. He said he would also like the space allotted for technology to grow.

“The kids are excited too obviously as we hope to maybe add a few more computers in the media center when the expansion is complete,” he said.

No actual costs for the project are currently known but Miller said he hopes all details will be settled in time to start construction in the summer.

Board members said they want the work completed before start of the 2013-2014 school year.