Maple River Schools unveiling new building Monday

Holly Marie Moore, The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.
·2 min read

Aug. 20—MAPLETON — For Maple River teachers such as Cory Roeker, it's been a long time coming.

Maple River Schools is unveiling its new pre-K-12 building at an open house Monday, two years after the district passed a referendum in an effort to consolidate the three-building district under one roof.

Up until now, the district was spread across three different towns with West Elementary in Good Thunder, East Elementary in Minnesota Lake and the secondary school in Mapleton.

Now, Roeker said, being under one roof will make it easier to work with other members of the staff.

"It'll make us better teachers, because simply we can collaborate on a daily basis. We can go across the hall, and I'm a fifth grade teacher, I can talk to a fourth grade teacher and ask him or her, 'Hey, what worked best for you to reach this student last year?'" he said.

Voters approved the $63.3 million project in February 2020 after it failed in three previous elections.

In addition to hosting all of its students under one roof, Supt. Dan Anderson said one of the biggest factors driving the construction of the building was mechanical issues at the school's other sites.

"Especially in the Mapleton building," he said. "Heating systems were not very good. If you were to walk that building, any student that has any physical handicap of any sort or even just a temporary one on crutches, it's very difficult to get around because there's lots of steps. And the learning environment wasn't what we need."

Anderson said the district was able to maintain and even increase enrollment levels during the process and said the state-of-the-art building will bring many benefits to the 1,000 or so students expected in the fall.

"We have added a (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) program over the few years, but it's kind of been piecemeal throughout our district, and we will be able to run our elementary through middle school, and then that middle school STEAM program will go into our ag program in the high school, so it'll be a nice transition for kids learning project-learning," Anderson said.

The building will also provide students with upgraded technology and additional spaces for kids who need one-on-one instruction.

As for the future of the current buildings, Anderson said the district is selling the Minnesota Lake site.

"The Mapleton one is likely being torn down. The Good Thunder one, there's potential to sell that one as well," he said.

The school district is having an open house at the new location, 801 Central Avenue South, in Mapleton, at 6 p.m. Monday.