Sartell-St. Stephen Changing Grade Structure for Elementaries

SARTELL -- As construction continues on the brand new Sartell-St. Stephen high school, big changes are coming for the students at all grade levels in the district.

Assistant Superintendent Kay Nelson says, starting in the fall of 2020, they're going to turn one elementary building into an early learning center for Pre-K and kindergarteners and the other elementary building into a primary school for 1st and 2nd graders. However, she says they haven't determined which is which yet.

We did our first walk through at Pine Meadow last night and our team is looking at opportunities and challenges for each site, and then they'll give a recommendation to the school board based on their study.

Nelson says some of the things they'll need to consider is playground equipment, bathrooms and water fountains that may need to be retrofitted for the appropriate grade levels.

The school board is planning on making a decision by the end of this school year.

Sartell-St. Stephen will also be moving all of their 3rd through 5th graders into the current middle school - calling it the intermediate building, the 6th through 8th graders will move to the current high school - which will be the new middle school, and the 9th through 12th graders will move out to the new high school this fall.