Prior Lake-Savage school board talks preliminary design plans for new elementary school

Prior Lake American

Now that the land has been secured for a new elementary school in the Prior Lake-Savage Area School District, work is underway on what that elementary school could look like.

Assistant Superintendent Jeff Holmberg presented two potential concept plans for the school’s design to the Prior Lake-Savage Area School Board during a regular meeting on Monday — though nothing is set in stone.

“The path is wide open right now but as we go down the path, it will start to get narrower,” Holmberg said.

The goal of the design is to create flexible and multi-purpose spaces, promote student-centered learning, create a safe and fun environment, optimize natural daylight and stay within budget, according to the “guiding principles” draft presented to the board on Monday.

The first concept for the building for the main floor has a gymnasium and cafeteria to the left of the main entry, a cafeteria and learning commons in the middle of the space, a main office immediately past the entry and three learning studios to the back and right of the building.

The learning studios are large classrooms with sliding doors to divide the classrooms or keep them open as needed.

“It gives the teachers versatility and gives them the ability to plan learning environments and learning spaces for the kids,” Holmberg said.

The upper level of the first building concept included three learning studios with stairs to the downstairs learning studios in each of the rooms as well as an art and music area.

For the second building concept on the main level, the building would be more horizontal with a gymnasium, kitchen and cafeteria to the left and a main office and art and music spaces to the right and front of the building. The three learning studios would be at the back of the building and more centered, with a learning commons space between the learning studios and the main office.

Each of the learning studios would jut out of the building, according to the concept plan.

“One of the benefits of having these areas separated is we’re able to get windows around all of these for lighting,” Holmberg said. “We’re minimizing the number of internal classrooms.”

The second level concept plan had three learning studios with stairs leading down to the main level.

A concept plan for the entire building put a baseball field and basketball court outside near to where the gymnasium would be.

The elementary school will be in the Big Sky Estates development in Savage. The district purchased more than 17 acres of land for the school from Prior Lake Aggregates at $60,000 per acre, or more than $1 million in total, according to the agreement.

Prior Lake Aggregates is mining $6 million worth of materials from the site before the district will claim the land. According to the agreement, the closing date for the land is May 2019. Prior Lake Aggregates will reclaim and fill the mining area to the district’s wishes and the compaction will be tested by Braun Intertec, an environment consulting and testing firm, as per the terms of the agreement.

The elementary school was a project included in the $109.3 million referendum approved by voters in November 2017. The referendum also included a new building for the Bridges Area Learning Center and additions to Prior Lake High School and six other schools.

The estimated opening for the elementary school is fall 2020.

More detailed plans will be brought to the board in November. Design plans would be finalized and put before the board for approval in December.