One more summer should complete school renovations

After two straight summers of construction and renovation at the Minneota Public School and Elementary School, there is one summer of construction remaining. According to Minneota Superintendent Dan Deitte, the locker room renovation will start in March of 2019.

“It will last through the summer along with a visitor’s locker room,” according to Deitte. The work will also include painting and acoustical tiles added to the walls in the “newer” gymnasium. The school board has been undergoing removal of asbestos during the current projects and the, “Remaining asbestos will be removed from the first floor classrooms and new flooring will be installed.” Also scheduled to be done next summer will be the building of a vehicle garage across from the elementary school. The board purchased the lot last year and helped a bidder remove the home to another site in the community.

MINNEOTA renovated the high school and gymnasium area plus the front of the building two summers ago. Then last summer they removed some high school rooms and the entire elementary school. One of the big changes in the high school is now called the, “FACS room.”

That’s what was formerly called Home Economics. A room was added and a lot more space is now available. Elementary Principal Jennifer Mahan-Deitte made a presentation to the Minneota Rotary Club last week regarding the latest renovations. Mahan-Deitte indicated one of the toughest parts of the construction had to do with the staff.

“There was a lot up in the air, but all the teachers handled it very well and everything went smoothly,” she said. Some teachers had to wait until the last minute to get into their rooms for the new school year. “But they were excited to have so much more room and everything so nice,” said the principal.

She told the Rotary the “big thing” was the remodeling of the boys and girls bathrooms. “They were horrible and way beyond repair because the plumbing was too old to fix anymore.”

Tiling on the walls and floor in the new bathrooms matches that in the renovated part of the high school building. She also indicated the new kindergarten rooms with LED lights, additional space and built-in bathrooms have been very beneficial to the teachers.

Many areas of the school, including these areas, still have to have carpet put in. While rugs were installed, the official carpeting has to wait until next summer.

“Because construction went so late, we couldn’t get all of that done so we decided to hold up on the carpeting,” said Supt. Deitte. Even a new entrance was added to the elementary school along with new concrete, flagpole, rest area and bike racks outside the school. Additional lighting was installed outside the school in the parking lots. “That’s made it a lot safer for everyone,” said Deitte.

There are new drinking fountains for the kids and the elementary has sinks and cabinets installed in some rooms. Also a new addition is the newly renovated competition gymnasium, with new mural, walls and a re-conditioned floor.

Next summer’s renovation of the locker rooms will complete the athletic facilities renovations.

Currently, visiting teams must dress in one area but take showers in a different area. Once completed, there will be a boys and girls locker room and also a visitors locker room that will be much more convenient for visiting teams.

“This should complete our renovations and we will have a very nice school that will last a long time,” said Supt. Deitte.

Principal Mahan-Deitte indicated this year’s renovations will go a long way toward helping the staff maintaining a good teaching environment for a long time to come.

At the current time, the school board and administration has been discussing the need for “safety measures” in an effort to make the school as safe from a potential “terrorist” attack as possible.

Shootings and other disasters in schools have caused school districts across the country to embark on efforts to make their schools as safe as possible.

Minneota is no different. While change will be made, it’s unlikely they will be announced, in an effort to keep the kids as safe as possible.

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Address: 201 N. Jefferson
Minneota, MN 56264

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