The future of the new OHS: The Groundbreaking Ceremony

Lauryn Bateman

Representatives from the first four classes that will be attending the new high school, get ready to dig at the groundbreaking ceremony.

Thursday, May 6, 2021 is a day that the Owatonna, Minnesota community will never forget. At 3:30 p.m., a beautiful sunny afternoon, the Owatonna community gathered together for the Groundbreaking of the new Owatonna High School. Many leaders such as Jeff Elstad, Owatonna’s Superintendent, Kory Kath, OHS’s principal, Mayor Thomas Kuntz, Mark Sebring, Chair of the Owatonna School Board, and Todd Andrix, a current teacher at OHS and President of Owatonna Education Association, all attended this momentous ceremony. Many collaborators and community supporters within Owatonna also attended including: Federated Insurance, Wenger Corporation and Wenger Foundation, Viracon, Gopher Sports, Cybex, Life Fitness, Mayo Clinic Health Systems of Owatonna, city council members, members of chamber of commerce and county commissioners.

Being able to collaborate with classmates and work individually, comfortably, will give students more learning experiences and better education opportunities. In an interview on Wednesday, May 5, 2021, Elstad stated, “I’m so excited about the opportunities that our students will have. You know student voices have been really critical to the design of our building and it’s the students building we are just lucky enough to work in it and be able to work with our students in it. I think for me it’s just the numerous opportunities that will be available, the spaces that will provide a great balance of new technology but also time for collaboration with one another.” Freshman, and one of our first graduates that will be attending the new OHS in 2023, Vanessa Gonzalez, would agree. “What I’m looking forward to the most about the new high school is just having the new and improved learning spaces.” 

The Class of 2023 is looking forward to the new building and the features that will be included. Freshman, Donte Miller stated, “I’m looking forward to the new high school itself, the air conditioning, it won’t be as hot. I’m also really excited for how big it’s going to be and all the classrooms that we’ll have.” The new high school’s student capacity will reach 1600 students, as of right now OHS is sitting with around 1400-1450 students. Hoping for more growth, the new building will be large enough for expansion. 

The students of OHS are the main reason for the new building.  Mr. Kath addressed the crowd. He said, “To our students that want career and technical education opportunities in the areas of manufacturing, agriculture, health science, culinary sciences, and business, we see your future and your future is here. To our students, we know you need flexible spaces that promise cross-content collaboration and individualized learning opportunities, we see you and your future is right here. To our students, I know that social and emotional learning and connections to the whole student takes space that requires gathering, reflection, de-escalation spaces, and intervention strategies, we see you and your future is right here. To our students that are not able to access spaces in our current building or do not identify with spaces within our current building, we see you and your future is right here. And to our athletes, actors, musicians, and artists with incredible talents, we see you and your future is right here. To the community of Owatonna I know you want a space of pride that carries a tradition of education and excellence, we see you and your future is here as well. Thank you for your trust in this project and I know our staff is excited to make it come alive in two short years, we see this vision and are honored to carry it forward.” 

Completion and opening of the new high school are scheduled for the ‘23-24 school year. The future is looking bright for the students of Owatonna.