Groundbreaking event held at Champlin Park High School as Fit for the Future construction begins
For years, Champlin Park High School (CPHS) Principal Mike George has kept a special spade shovel in his office. The shovel has a gold blade and a green handle and was used at the ceremonial groundbreaking event for the school more than 25 years ago when CPHS was first built.
This week — all these years later — he got the chance to use it himself. A gloomy afternoon cleared and turned into a bright and sunny evening Sept. 17, just in time for a groundbreaking ceremony at CPHS to mark the start of Fit for the Future construction and renovations at the school.
George was joined by Anoka-Hennepin Board Chair Tom Heidemann, Treasurer Bill Harvey, and Director Nicole Hayes, as well as Superintendent David Law, Chief Operations Officer Chuck Holden, Director of Communications Jim Skelly, and others, to commemorate the start of construction at the school. See all the photos from the groundbreaking event.
Already, the horticulture portable classroom has been removed from the site, and fencing has been erected by KUE Contractors, Inc., the construction firm hired to complete the work. When renovations and construction is completed in the fall of 2020, CPHS will have a number of new classrooms, an expanded cafeteria, upgrades to science labs and its media center, and a number of other improvements.
The CPHS project is just one of a number of construction and renovation projects that were backed by voters last November when the community approved a request for new funding to allow Anoka-Hennepin to create safe and secure learning environments by removing all portable classrooms across the district, construct additional schools and classroom space, provide solutions for maintaining quality schools at every building in the district, and address class sizes at all levels.
“All of these projects — it’s huge for the district,” said Holden. “The process to get here has taken a number of years, and we’re very excited.”
In addition to the work being done at CPHS, earlier this year, similar renovation projects have begun at Andover, Anoka, and Blaine high schools, and Coon Rapids High School will be kicking off its own construction work with a groundbreaking ceremony in early October. Also, construction on two new elementary schools — one in Ramsey, located at 17003 Nowthen Blvd. NW, and another in Blaine, located at 12576 Lever St. NE — began in May. The new elementary schools will be ready for the start of the 2019-20 school year.
“The support our community shows for our students and their future is amazing,” said Superintendent Law.
For more information about the construction projects, the history of the Fit for the Future plan, and for updates, visit ahschools.us/construction.