MINOT – Construction on the city’s newest high school is on track for a scheduled opening of the school season in 2024. The Dakotan had an opportunity to tour the Sentinel High School facility this past week.
“In just a matter of days you’ll see an incredible change in this 115,000 square foot addition to this building,” said Mark Vollmer, Minot Public Schools superintendent. “We had some supply chain issues along the way but, in general, we’re in really good shape right now with our steel coming in and our walls ready to come in.”
MPS acquired the former Cognizant Building in the northwest corner of city for $10. Funding to refurbish the building into a grades 9-12 high school was approved by voters. Sentinel High is expected to be able to accommodate up to 1,200 students. Total cost of the project, which includes upgrades at existing Magic City and Central campuses, said Vollmer, is $140,000.
The addition referred to by Vollmer, which will be connected to the Cognizant Building, will house Sentinel High’s 600 seat theater, orchestra, band, and drama departments. Also, it will include some classrooms, commons area and kitchen, gymnasium and wrestling room, and swimming pool with seating for 800. The addition will be among the last construction completed at the site.
“We know in the fall of 2024 our theater won’t be open right away,” said Vollmer. “There’s a lot of acoustical work to be done there. Also, the pool may not be ready right away, but it will be ready by November.”
Renovation to the existing building has reached the point where it is easy to envision the finished product. Vollmer, who has been involved in education for more than 30 years, spoke in glowing terms about what will become the second 9-12 comprehensive high school in the MPS system.
“We have a very open classroom setting with lots of windows, lots of outside views,” said Vollmer while walking in one of the large hallways in the building. “Here we’ll have, essentially, all our core classes – math, language arts, social studies, and science on the far end. Each classroom has their own pods, so they have shared workspace and office space for teachers as well. We’re excited to get in here.”
A library and media center are included in the facility too. Construction on the new high school reflects changes in education that have occurred in the past several years.
“We’re building schools differently than we used to,” remarked Vollmer. “We don’t have nearly as many lockers in this building as we have seen in previous years. Kids don’t use them like they used to. Technology is a huge part of this. We ask what do we do to make sure we have technological capacity?”
The need for a second MPS high school has increased as the student population continued to grow. In 2007, said Vollmer, there were just over 6,000 kids enrolled in MPS. This year that number climbed to 7,560.
“Our numbers have just continued to go up,” stated Vollmer.
Minot Public Schools has 680 teachers and about 1,700 other employees consisting of maintenance staff, bus drivers, and the like.
A football field, track, and other athletic practice facilities are included in the high school project, some of which may be ready for use as early as this fall. Sentinel High boasts a very large parking area, which will easily accommodate staff and students, as well as crowds for extracurricular activities. Resurfacing the parking lots will mark one of the final phases of the project.
Included on the school grounds is a large pond that is expected to have a dual use.
“It will be a training area for our biology classes as well as gather wastewater,” explained Vollmer. “All together we have 250,000 square feet of roof, and pavement too. When it rains that water will flow into our pond. That's our plan.”
Magic City Campus, which is nearing its 50th anniversary, is receiving considerable upgrades as it transitions from a two-year to four-year high school. Vollmer characterized Magic City Campus as “well maintained and a great academic area as well.”
