School building improvements are being made over summer

Published 8:41 am Monday, August 11, 2008

Building computer technicians and student summer help are busy updating technology throughout the district’s seven school buildings. The team is installing new computers according to the technology plan and reloading and updating software on all computers so when school starts in the fall everything runs like new. All old technology is disposed of by following state and federal regulations for disposal of hazardous waste.

Through the summer months many maintenance projects are under way:

A heating and ventilation project started in June 9 at Southwest Middle School on the lower classroom section. Contractors removed the old unit ventilators and installed new units which will heat and ventilate the spaces more efficiently. This project is scheduled for completion in mid- August.

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If you drive by the high school parking lot on Y.H. Hanson Avenue you will notice a new sign being built. The Class of 1958 has donated the entire cost of the sign and surrounding landscaping. The sign will give some much needed identification to the school.

Sibley Elementary will have a new roof by the start of school in the fall. The old roof is being removed, new insulation is being added to meet the new codes and a build up roof installed. Total cost of the replacement is $261,000.

Halverson Elementary and Lakeview Elementary had new parking lot surfaces installed in July. Ulland Bros. Inc. from Albert Lea installed the new black top surfaces.

Students receive credit in combination course

Thirteen students received credit in Neil Chalmers’ combination course of American government, economics and American history completed at the Area Learning Center on July 1.

The students learned about the nation’s founding, including the excessive taxes that led to events such as the Boston Tea Party. Students also explored the backgrounds of such “Founding Fathers” as Samuel Adams, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. They also compared documents such as the “Magna Carta,” the “English Bill of Rights” and the “Virginia Declaration of Rights” with the “Declaration of Independence.” Students then discovered similarities between the “Declaration of Independence” and the “Gettysburg Address,” “The Declaration of the Rights of Man” and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech.

Students also presented the 27 Amendments to the Constitution including the one amendment they would like to have added. Significant time was spent studying the three branches of government, investing in the stock market and other significant historical events.