School buildings in the district have greatly evolved over time. Many buildings have had major changes, were rebuilt or changed slightly due to school-related changes or current trends.
The main change recently was when 9th graders came to the high school and 6th graders went to the middle school. This caused a massive increase in the number of students at the high school, increasing the need for renovations to account for more students.
“We added almost 700 students, which meant that we had to build brand new classrooms and bring in additional staff and we had to do the whole construction project,” Principal Rob Bach said.
Schools are being redesigned to adapt to new technology and better match how students are currently learning. At the same time, they are placing a stronger focus on maintaining and creating a safe environment for all students.
“The biggest shift has been moving toward modern learning environments that reflect the many ways students learn today. Classrooms are designed to support collaboration, flexibility, and personalized learning for every student. Along with that, there’s been an emphasis on safety and security in how we design and operate our schools,” Mark Drommerhausen, Executive Director of Operations said.
Old school buildings have been repurposed for other uses. Marine Elementary, Withrow Elementary and Oak Park Elementary closed and now they serve as a district office for district administrators.
“That’s where they hold school board meetings and a lot of district office type people like teaching and learning,” Bach said.
School buildings have served as community hubs beyond education. Older buildings have been used for many community programs and events like community education to make sure that people get programming for learning and all kinds of things that a traditional school most likely doesn’t cover.
Community education is  “from birth to death,” and they run classes for younger children to start before elementary school, and they also “run programs for older, retired people from the community,” Bach said.
The main reasons and factors that contributed to the renovations were due to the reconfiguration throughout the district. Besides the extra room needed for the high school with more students coming in, the elementary schools lost students, which created more room in them, so they started adding early childhood programming to get kids in a school setting earlier.
“A major factor has been growth, especially in the southern part of our district in the Lake Elmo and Woodbury areas. Schools like Lake Elmo Elementary were reaching capacity and we needed additional space both there and at Oak-Land Middle School. At the same time, Andersen Elementary and the current Lake Elmo Elementary are over 100 years old and in need of significant upgrades. So it came down to balancing growth with the need to modernize our facilities and create better learning environments for students,” Drommerhausen said.
There are many trends that are influencing current and future construction in the school district, especially with a big emphasis on flexible learning spaces. Furthermore, school construction is also trying to serve the broader community as well, with spaces like gyms and cafeterias for different activities.
There is a huge focus on designing schools that are adaptable, forward-thinking and a place where students feel at home, not just for now, but for the next 50 years, Drommerhausen explained.
Over the decades, school buildings across the district have been replaced, built and expanded. Together, they all show how our community and education have changed and grown over time.
