Vote now for new school name

By Tanner Kent

MANKATO — Those wanting to weigh in on the name for the new elementary in Mankato Area Public Schools better do so fast.

The Mankato Area School Board is expected to approve a name for the $23 million facility located near the Minnesota State University campus during its June 15 meeting. Feedback will be collected until June 1 and the district naming committee will meet June 3 to form their recommendation.

Those wishing to cast their votes can do so by following the link on the district’s home page — isd77.org — or by calling 507-345-4285.

Mankato is one of the few public school districts in the state that has not constructed a new elementary in the past 40 years.

The last two elementaries to be built — Hoover and Kennedy — were constructed in 1966 and followed a decades-old Mankato tradition of naming elementaries after former United States presidents.

Eagle Lake Elementary, which was constructed in 1964, and Bridges Elementary, which is leased, have not followed the district pattern. Dakota Meadows, which is a middle school, was built in 1993. The school is so named because it represents the site where Native Americans camped on their way to Mankato to face the largest mass execution in United States history in 1862.

Mankato’s first school opened in 1853 and was taught by Sara Jane Hanna (one of the new school name options) in a warehouse at the end of Walnut Street.

In 1855, Mankato built a log schoolhouse, which was torn down in 1867 to make room for Union School. Union School was built, then rebuilt, and now exists as an office complex known as Union Square.

Pleasant Grove Elementary opened in 1871 at the corner of Byron and Pleasant Streets and Franklin School followed in 1875.

Mankato High School was built in 1891 and added more room in 1911. In 1941, the school burned down and a new high school was not built until 1944.

In 1923, Lincoln School started the presidential trend when it replaced Pleasant Grove Elementary. Roosevelt Elementary followed in 1927.

New school name options:

— Adams Elementary: Second president John Adams and wife Abigail, an advocate for women’s

voting rights.

— Anthony Elementary: Susan B. Anthony, suffragist and first woman on U.S. coins.

— Eisenhower Elementary: Thirty-fourth president Dwight Eisenhower.

— Hanna Elementary: First school teacher in Mankato.

— Humphrey Elementary: Senator, mayor and presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey.

— Lincoln Elementary: Sixteenth president Abraham Lincoln.

— Parks Elementary: Famed civil rights activist Rosa Parks.

— Prairie Ridge Elementary: In reference to the new school’s location.

— Mondale Elementary: Senator and presidential candidate Walter Mondale.

— Stevens Elementary: First female superintendent of Blue Earth County in 1890, Sarah Christie Stevens.

— Two Rivers Elementary: Mankato’s location at the confluence of Blue Earth and Minnesota Rivers.