Monday, August 20, 2018

Newly Remodeled Collaborative Learning Spaces at Minnetonka High School


Summer is a time in schools when construction projects and renovations can take place. In the past I’ve written about some of our media center remodels as well as our Design for Learning initiative. This summer we have a few remodeling and construction projects underway in Minnetonka. 

One of the big renovation projects is at our high school. In analyzing the existing space and looking at needs we realized we had multiple locker rooms that were underutilized. Specifically, on the second floor of our high school near the gyms we had old varsity team locker rooms that weren’t really used much. Newer locker rooms had been built in the lower level of the building back in 1996 and were the main space in use. So the existing 7,000 square feet of old locker room space was available to be reclaimed for instructional purposes.

This remodeled space has been designed to be provide flexible options for classes to meet and groups to collaborate. Five new classrooms will be available as well as more restrooms. This remodel was done with existing resources to cover the costs and no new bond had to be issued. As you can see from the pictures above, things are shaping up nicely and looking more and more like the architects' renderings. This new space will be called "The Loft" and should be completed in time for the first day of school on Tuesday, September 4.


As part of the remodel, windows were added to the outside letting it a lot of natural light. Numerous flatscreen monitors will be mounted on the walls in many of the rooms for both large group presentations and smaller group meetings. There are walls of glass and other walls covered with whiteboards for writeable space. Some of our high school computer science classes will now be taught in this area. It will be exciting to see how this new space gets used in the coming school year!


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