“Once the bond referendum was passed we had a number of different groups that helped in the design and planning of the school,” said Spring Lake Park Schools Director of Communications Bob Noyed. “We had a group starting last summer that did a lot of research. They visited a lot of other schools, other sites in the state, to come up with design principles. Here are the principles we want to plan and follow when we design our sites. Then we had a group of mainly staff focused on the elementary school and their job working with the architects was to really design the school.” The new PreK-4 elementary school will be built on the campus of the National Sports Center under a unique public-public partnership. “We had three sites we were looking at. The NSC site came down for a few reasons. First it was the most economical and the best deal for our tax payers. From the cost of what we’re paying well save around $3 million,” said Noyed. “The school district will be buying 11 acres from the state of Minnesota, so it is a sale not a lease,” said National Sports Center Chief Communications Officer Barclay Kruse. The new school will be located on an existing parking lot at the NSC, as part of the deal a new lot will be constructed. “The school district is going to help us build a new 300 space parking area west of the sports hall and on the field some people may know as U3. It’s tucked south of the velodrome. We will be building a new entrance into the sports hall in the west end. It’s going to be a lot happier solution to traffic and parking,” said Kruse. The school will have an innovative open and flexible layout that is designed to best meet the needs of today’s learners. “The teachers and the staff really thought about what kinds of facilities do we need to best fit the needs of kids and a personalized learning for kids. They were really looking for a space that was flexible that they could use to meet the needs of kids. They’ll have learning studios and in each studio their will be six classrooms but it’s built such that their will be flexibility and walls can be moved and closed and open so you can have larger spaces and smaller spaces,” said Noyed. Both the school district and the NSC are excited about the potential to share space and programming. “Great fit for us. We’re really excited because the students will get to use some of our existing facilities like some of the playing fields and the district gets to put the school on a smaller piece of land because they won’t have to build all the playing fields and things from scratch. They can use some of our facilities and kids will be able to potentially use some of our neat features like the Schwan’s Super Rink or the Victory Links Golf Course,” said Kruse. Their is a lot of corporative programs to share families, to share programs. Their are lots of things we can do together that will both benefit us, the school district and ultimately the community” said Noyed. “We’re going to be fully partnered with the school district. We have an agreement with the school district that the school can be used as a headquarters building for Schwan’s USA Cup July,” said Kruse. Other tenants on the National Sports Center campus are also interested in the partnering with the new school. “We are going to be the training home of Minnesota United FC the MLS soccer team. Manny Lagos, their sporting director, is really interested, Dr. Bill McGuire the owner, their very interested in getting grassroots involvement in the team and what’s happening here at the National Sports Center. The pro players I think you’re going to see will be in the school interacting with students. It’s something the team has sincere interest in doing. They want to be more than just tenants of this facility for training purposes. They want to get involved with the grassroots programming here,” said Kruse. Groundbreaking is set for this spring and the new school will open in September 2018. With a combination of innovative spaces and teaching this school could become a model, that others across the state decide to follow. “At the same time it’s a building. The really powerful work that happens is the teaching. When the teachers get in and are willing to work flexibly with students that’s the real power and that’s what I think is most exciting,” said Noyed.
Spring Lake Park School District to Build New Elementary School
BLAINE, Minn. – (Feb. 23, 2017) – Enrollment has been increasing in the Spring Lake Park School District for the last decade and the growth is showing no signs of slowing down. So last April voters were asked to consider a bond referendum to build a new elementary school and make enhancements and additions at current schools. With the support of the voters the district has moved forward with their plans.
