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Fast facts

Rosa Parks

  • $19.94 million school includes more than 100,000 square feet and 24 classrooms for a capacity of 700 students;
  • Earned LEED certification for environmentally friendly design features, including a geothermal heating/cooling system;
  • Exterior features split-faced and smooth Kasota stone;
  • Bus areas and parent pick-up/drop-off areas are separated to improve traffic flow and student safety;
  • Six-field baseball complex located adjacent to the school;
  • First school district in the state, and 18th in the country, to name a school after Rosa Parks, the civil rights activist who famously refused to give up her bus seat.

Eagle Lake

  • Built in 1964, with renovations and additions in 1988, 1992 and 2005;
  • $4.78 million construction included six new classrooms to replace 20-year old temporary rooms, increasing capacity to 450 students;
  • Also added were an early childhood room, expanded cafeteria, new changing rooms, commons area with skylight and a second computer lab.

Bond referendum

  • Voters approved the $33.3 million bond in April 2008;
  • Also included in the bond were a land purchase for a future elementary in North Mankato, a handicapped-accessible elevator at Mankato East and new science rooms at Mankato West;
  • Due to favorable market conditions and lower-than-expected construction bids, the district also utilized more than $3 million in excess funds to complete maintenance projects at several facilities.

Related Photos

  • Heavy rains on the first day of school at Rosa Parks Elementary did little to dampen spirits as students and parents assembled in the gymnasium for a morning greeting from Principal Rick Lund. John Cross

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  • For the first time on Thursday, students and parents gathered en masse inside Rosa Parks Elementary, the K-5 school that opened this year after taxpayers approved a 2008 bond referendum. Pictured are Supt. Sheri Allen and School Board member Judi Brandon cutting the ceremonial ribbon. John Cross

    rosa 4.jpg

  • Rosa Parks third-grade teacher Amy Metcalf addresses her students during the first day of school. Classrooms at Rosa Parks are grouped by grade and share additional spaces for small-group and individual work. John Cross

    rosa 2.jpg

  • Media specialist Shelly Weckwerth gives Eagle Lake students a SMART Board lesson on the first day of school. As part of its expansion, Eagle Lake received another computer lab as well as additional classrooms, a bigger cafeteria and a new main entrance. John Cross

    eagle lake 2.jpg

September 10, 2010

New elementary school opens

Mankato opens Rosa Parks, addition to Eagle Lake

By Tanner Kent Free Press Staff Writer

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.”

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