MANKATO — "Good morning students!”

With those words, Principal Rick Lund greeted 350 children and their parents for the first time at Rosa Parks Elementary, Mankato Area Public Schools’ $20 million jewel of elementary education.

“Today,” he continued, “we mark a special moment in history.”

And not just at Rosa Parks.

Thursday — which was back-to-school day for elementary and junior high students — signified the unveiling of Mankato’s first new elementary school since 1966 as well as a $4.8 million expansion to turn Eagle Lake Elementary into a three-section school.

Both projects were part of a $33 million bond referendum passed in April 2008 that also included a handicapped-accessible elevator at Mankato East and several new science rooms at Mankato West.

To celebrate the occasion, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in the morning at Rosa Parks (moved indoors after the morning deluge) with a similar ceremony held at Eagle Lake.

“It’s an exciting process and journey,” Supt. Sheri Allen said, later offering gratitude for the referendum’s passage, which was brought forward because of the district’s burgeoning enrollment and held just months before the economy began its tailspin.

“Thank you to voters.”

Both schools now boast a long list of forward-thinking and environmentally conscious design features, and that’s to say nothing of the potential impacts on student learning.

At Eagle Lake, for instance, the school no longer has to share one room for both art and music. Students no longer  share one bathroom facility and classrooms no longer  share one computer lab. The school also added an early childhood room and built a new main entrance that features a marketplace atmosphere with a skylight and street-window style showcases for student work.

The cafeteria was expanded and a total of six classrooms were constructed to replace the decades-old temporary classrooms placed on the site in 1988.

“Lots of things have changed,” Principal Ginnette Kearney said. “We have lots of wonderful learning spaces. ... We’re very excited.”

Located near the Minnesota State University campus, Rosa Parks’ spacious classrooms are grouped by grade, with each grouping centered around additional learning spaces for small-group and individual work. Parking is separated into bus and parent pick-up/drop-off zones for safety.

Southern Minnesota’s signature Kasota stone marks the exterior of the building, while energy efficient fixtures and windows adorn the interior. The building is heated and cooled through a closed-loop geothermal system that plunges a liquid akin to antifreeze more than 250 feet into the ground before being re-circulated through the facility.

Adjacent to the school, the city of Mankato spent $1.35 million to construct six baseball fields. To accommodate community use of the school, Rosa Parks offers changing rooms, a kitchen, gymnasium and storage space that can be kept open after hours while the rest of the building remains secured.

In Lund’s words, students now have the opportunity to receive an education in a building that’s “environmentally friendly, energy efficient and technologically advanced.”

And with hundreds of students clamoring for the end of his remarks so they could scamper off to their new classrooms, Lund closed the morning’s events by opening the next chapter of the school’s future.

“Now,” he said, “it’s time for the Rosa Parks education journey to begin.”