By Aaron Vehling

While the focus lately has been on the North Branch School Districtís new Sunrise River School, there stands near downtown North Branch a district building which has stood for at least 100 years - Main Street School.

Last year, Main Street School housed 600 students in kindergarten and fourth grade. On top of that were administrative offices, Early Childhood and Family Education, Community Education and day care.

The venerable old building was stretched to the brink and sometimes the situation was chaotic.

Kerry Moberg, director of the ECFE program, said last year her department was spread out all over the school. Offices and one classroom were on the west side of the school and the rest were on the east side. She called that setup ìdisjointed.î

That changes this year as some district programs move into old classrooms.

With kindergartners at the Primary School and fourth graders at Sunrise, the ECFE and Community Ed programs have had a chance to expand. In addition, a new program has entered the fray - a full-day program for Kindergarten students on their off days.

The new program allows for Kindergarten students to have learning and enriching experiences on days they are not in class. There is space for physical play, in addition to kiosks setup for challenging a studentís brain. A few classrooms are dedicated to this program.

Early Childhood has more space
More space has allowed ECFE to expand its programs.

ìAll our classrooms are bigger,î Moberg said.

There is now a separate room for birth to age 2 programming. In addition, there are three classrooms for ages 3 to 5. The classrooms are all in one area now. This gives the ECFE area more of a ìcenterî feel, Moberg said. It will also help with organization, she said.

ìThere wonít be as much chaos (this year) when families are coming to pick up their children,î she said.

There is also enough room for ECFE to have a large library with literature for children and parents alike. Another room the program has is what Moberg calls a ìlarge muscle space,î which is essentially a room designed for physical activity.

Community Ed expansion
Community Education is another program which has benefited from the added space.

School-aged care, which is a before and after school day care program designed for grades K through 6, is now one unit in the Main Street School. Prior to this year, grades K through 3 were at the Primary School and grades 4 through 6 were at the Middle School.

Community Ed director Jeanne Leland said students in the school-aged care program will be able to use the Main Street School gym.
ìKids need recreation and physical activity after school,î she said.

The expanded space will also allow Community Ed to hold daytime community courses and a senior citizen exercise class. Other district buildings will still be used for community ed classes.

Leland said change is great for her.

ìI have designated space to help pay for operating costs of the building,î she said. ìWe can set up fun learning stations and reading and game areas without having to take them down and set them up every day.î

Community ed offices are now located where the principalsí offices were. Leland said community ed is looking into expanding security for the new space.

More space means more resources to train district staff
Donna Yetter is the head of teacher development for the district. Her department is responsible for holding classes designed to develop staff membersí skills. Some classes taught include lesson design, classroom management, educational research and dissemination, and core class foundation.

Teacher development now has a dedicated space. Before this year, classes were held at various buildings in various spaces throughout the district.

ìEverything is now in a core location,î Yetter said. ìResources are stored in one area. Theyíre all set and ready to go.î

The classrooms, while set up with desks surrounding a blackboard, are different than the rooms designed for students. They resemble classrooms at a college. Yetter said teacher development has different needs than students.

ìIn a district of about 450 staff, there are a variety of training and in-service needs that go on for development throughout the year,î Yetter said. ìNow there wonít be any confusion.î

In addition to educating district staff, the space will be used for satellite courses for the Cambridge Campus of the Anoka-Ramsey Community College.

ìThe staff and I are happy,î Yetter said.

Board meetings leaving Media Center
The former Media Center in the Main Street School is now home to a loud, rumbling print shop. While currently the space for school board meetings, the old media center will not serve this purpose much longer.

Superintendent Rodney Reisnouer said the meetings will be moved into a conference room on the second floor. He said in October the board will start meeting in that conference room.

The print shop has schedules that do not match the boardís, he said, and as a result some meetings are spent trying to talk over the loud sounds of the print shop equipment.

The future: A return of students?
Demographer Hazel Reinhardt gave a presentation to the school board in March about the possibilities for growth in the district.
She said that future growth in North Branch is uncertain and if there is to be growth, it will be slow. Even slow growth could mean a need for the space in Main Street School once again.

Should that happen, the new identity of Main Street School could give way and it would again become a place to alleviate crowding.

For now, though, employees of the districtís periphery programs are pleased with their new situation.

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