St. Edmond's School now has one site
By TAVIA MALONE
Globe staff writer
Posted May 30, 2002

FORT DODGE - St. Edmond School here has become a one-site school, with grades kindergarten through 12 at the same location.

Marked with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 20, the Fort Dodge Chamber of Commerce presented the new school to the community. St. Edmond High School is now connected to the new St. Edmond Elementary Center.

Tom Miklo, development director for St. Edmond School, explained that the $7.3 million project was nearly two years in the making. The construction, which began in the fall of 2000, added 89,000 square feet of school space to St. Edmond's campus.

The new addition to St. Edmond's is a two-story pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade elementary center. It includes two pre-kindergarten classrooms and three classrooms each for kindergarten through fifth-grade, as well as a new gymnasium with seating and a new elementary school cafeteria.

"The building is handicapped accessible, with an elevator that makes not only the new elementary accessible, but it is also connected with St. Edmond High School, which also makes the second floor handicapped accessible,," said Miklo.

Additionally, the new school has a science lab, computer lab with 26 new Dell computers, and rooms for vocal music, band, art, TAG program, Title 1 reading, special needs as well as a multi-purpose room. The new school has restrooms for students and teachers, offices, nurses station, two locker rooms and coaches offices, as well as equipment storage and the kitchen was expanded in the high school.

Several areas in the original building were also remodeled such as those that house vocal music and art. A new weight training facility was added.

New playground equipment will be installed over the summer and students will begin to use the new building for the 2002-2003 school year. Some general grounds work will also be completed over the summer.

In addition to the ribbon-cutting ceremony, an open house was held on May 20. The public was invited to take tours of the new school to see what St. Edmond's has to offer. Also, Fort Dodge chamber members made remarks and congratulated the school on its success.

"The open house was very well-received," said Miklo. "Several hundred people went through the building, including some students and families."

Many people in the Fort Dodge and Webster County area helped to finance the project. In addition, there were some donations from around the country to the capital campaign. All of the $7.3 million came from the capital campaign.

The value in having a one-site school is beneficial and economical for the schools.

"Catholic community is of tremendous value to the school," explained Miklo. "We are all now at the same location so it makes the sense of community that much stronger."

Father Patrick R. Walsh, president of St. Edmond Schools, is also pleased about the prospects of the one-site school.

"It is easier because it enables us to have faculty meetings together and it makes our work of long-range planning much easier," Father Walsh explained.

He also cited potential financial savings of having a single-site school.

"We don't have to have duplicate libraries, duplicate computer labs and other such items," said Father Walsh. "It also provides great opportunity for our students. They have access to more things."

Miklo mentioned the fact that the one-site school will provide more opportunities for everyone to worship together, as well as build a stronger spirit academically and religiously.