After over 100 years of intense learning at Lake Elmo Elementary, the building is no longer able to support its growing community. Last year, the Community Design Team proposed a $175,000,000 bond referendum, and on Nov. 7 voters will decide if the district will see these improvements.
The entire bond package seeks to provide more space for the growing enrollment in schools, replace 100-year-old buildings, and improve safety and security in the schools. This includes the project for a new Lake Elmo Elementary on a 47-acre site located on the northwest corner of Lake Elmo Avenue and 10th Street.
The current Lake Elmo Elementary is at maximum capacity and in poor condition. With Lake Elmo being the fastest-growing city in the state, and 1,000 students projected to join the district in the next 10 years, the space to grow is desperately needed.
“If we don’t get this done this time around, we’re ultimately going to probably have to come back again because ultimately we do need space for kids and so it is pretty urgent,” Carissa Kiester, Chief of Staff, said.
Unfortunately, Lake Elmo intervention specialists have no choice but to teach on carts in the hallway due to the lack of space. The new school would have classrooms with pods, and within them, collaborative learning spaces, and specialized rooms designated for their specialist.
“The only space we have to do that is a converted computer lab and the media center,” Stephen Gorde, Principal at Lake Elmo Elementary School, said.
The classrooms at Lake Elmo are far from modern. The new school will feature a pod system that separates each grade, similar to Brookview Elementary. It will also include flexible learning spaces like common areas for student and teacher collaboration.
Kelly Hoskins, a 5th-grade teacher, stated that a new building “would really help improve teachers’ ability to plan appropriately for their students and give our kids the education they deserve.”
Furthermore, safety is also an issue in the old buildings with little considered other than severe weather when it was built. Doors and windows are constantly needing replacement.
Gorde said that in the new building, there are a lot of doors people could get in and out of, and the new building would be “designed to protect children and maintain a high degree of safety”.
There are many struggles with having limited space. Teachers do not have room to collaborate and students are packed into the building each and every day.
“Just the size of the space available in some of the classrooms is small. We’re putting a lot of students in probably some of our smallest classrooms. Then that is a call for teachers to then teach in that space,” Gorde said.
Distance between the lunchroom and the playground poses a challenge to teachers. Students must walk all the way through the school from recess to the cafeteria.
“It could take a child five minutes to get from recess to lunch,” Gorde said.
“With the growth in the community, there is a desperate need for space in our schools. I’m excited to see this go to the voters and I’m hopeful that the voters can see the need too,” Hoskins said.
