Mandan High School Paves Way For New Beginnings

— Cambry Fyllesvold, Feature Editor

Mandan High School will be looking a little different in the fall of 2024. With construction underway, the progress is moving along at a solid rate for the new High School.

To start, the new school will be about 300,000 square feet making it one of the biggest schools in North Dakota topping Legacy High School that was built in 2015.

“I think the new building will give us a better learning space,” Sophomore Ethan Benham said.

The new building will include five common areas for students, a cafeteria with an upper and lower deck to maximize seating, over 1,200 parking spots, and much more.

“I am looking forward to more parking spots and to just be able to say we go to a new school,” Benham said.

The new school also is giving electives more room to grow. The musical arts wing being one to expand the most. The band and choir rooms will be gaining more square feet and will connect to the auditorium where there will be upper and lower seating and will hold up to 800 people.

“Growing the electives will give students more opportunities to learn,” sophomore Camdyn Engelhard said.

Along with the musical arts expanding, other electives like CTE and FACS classes will also have more space for more hands-on learning whether it be in shops, labs or the kitchen.

Overall, the biggest change from the existing school to the new school will be security. Everyone will have to go through the front doors during the school day. This will help keep everyone in the building safe and limit the amount of traffic through scattered doors throughout the school.

“Every other door will be electronically locked throughout the building during the day,” Andresen said. “This is to keep everyone safe and maximize security.”

Currently, the building is in the process of getting walls of concrete poured near the auditorium and CTE wing. The academic wing’s footings are finished and are awaiting walls to go up. This is on track to happen this winter or spring time.

Having a new high school with more space and better ways of teaching will benefit the student’s future learning opportunities and can better prepare them for life outside of high school.