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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Ely school facility committee gets down to work

Keith Vandervort
Posted 2/14/19

ELY – Members of the Ely School District’s Community Task Force held an inaugural meeting this week to begin planning a way forward on renovations to the school campus.

The district has hired …

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Ely school facility committee gets down to work

Posted

ELY – Members of the Ely School District’s Community Task Force held an inaugural meeting this week to begin planning a way forward on renovations to the school campus.

The district has hired Architectural Resources, Inc. of Hibbing, to consult on the planning effort and a possible eventual project that could connect the three campus buildings here and provide for safe and secure school-day access.

School Board members brought in members of the community to help with the planning process, which could be funded in part by a school bond referendum this fall. The school district has also received a $500,000 state school safety grant which would be earmarked for the work. The building connection and secure entrance project could be just part of a facilities plan that could include infrastructure upgrades, learning space and cafeteria/kitchen renovations, the addition of a new gymnasium, and other improvements.

“We are here to review the existing school facilities and use the community to help direct any improvements and what would be an outcome that we would like to look at as far as educational delivery in this facility,” said ARI designer Katie Hildenbrand who is working on the Ely school project with ARI architect Kevin Piron.

Members of the Ely community task force who attended the meeting on Monday include, Paul Ivancich, Warren Nikkola, Paul Maki, Celia Domisch, David Wigdahl, Misty Merhar Ross Petersen, Mary Groeninger, Ely teacher Chelsea Blomberg, school facilities director Tim Leeson, Ely schools principals Anne Oelke and Megan Anderson, and Ely school board members Tom Omerza and Heidi Mann.

Hildenbrand recapped the outcome of a recent all-day listening session with teachers and staff and listed some strengths and challenges from that stakeholders’ input.

“The strengths identified include the quality and dedicated teachers and staff, fantastic students, small school atmosphere, a very supportive community, the updated heating plant successfully completed through a referendum in 2011, and the auditorium space and the arts community is very popular,” she said.

The list of challenges include: next-century learning and changing education delivery not present in Ely schools. Others indicated that existing cafeteria space is small, noisy and in a poor location, the facility is aging, and more STEM (science, technology, engineering math) space is needed. In addition, the facility is not secured during the school day and travel between buildings requires going outside. Insufficient gymnasium space and an unused, vacant pool were also raised as concerns.

“The task force is here to identify a vision for the school’s future,” Hildenbrand said. “This is your school and your community and it really needs to support how you guys are educating your kids. We are here to listen and to present opportunities and ideas. We will help guide you through an assessment of your existing space, and identify options for putting a plan together and then help you come to a consensus to bring back to the school board on the wants and needs of the district.”

She put the whole process of the task force into a one sentence objective, “We are here to develop a thoughtful, cost effective long-term solution for the Ely School District that the taxpayers and residents will support.”

Following a quick history of the Ely school buildings and their improvement and maintenance over time and an assessment of the existing facility conditions by the architect, task force members broke into small groups to begin to prioritize their vision of a functional school campus.

Subsequent meetings will be held on the following schedule: Feb. 25, Scheme and Dream; March 11, Plan Development; and April 1, Reaching a Consensus. A fifth meeting may be held in early April if needed.

Meetings are scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Memorial school library. They are open to the public.