Jul. 16—MITCHELL — Curious chatter filled the air as members of the public filed through the front door to the new Mitchell High School building Wednesday afternoon.
Necks craned upward to take in the high ceilings, and eyes squinted as natural light poured in from the windows.
It was all a new experience at the MHS open house, which was held to give the public a firsthand look at the community’s first new high school since 1962.
“My thoughts are that it’s really big,” said Logan Her Many Horses, a senior-to-be at Mitchell High School who was preparing to give walking tours of the facility. “I really like the new gyms, and I think it’s really nice that we’re all together in one area instead of all over and congested. I really like it.”
There was plenty to take in at the $62 million, 212,000-square-foot space that was designed to comfortably accommodate 800 students and their day-to-day activities. The dual classroom wings, each two stories high, wowed visitors and current and former teachers with their spacious confines. The athletic section of the building, which contains the competition and practice gymnasium spaces, were of great interest to the visitors, as was the two-story library.
Joe Childs, superintendent for the Mitchell School District, said the open house is the latest step toward securing a solid future for Mitchell’s students. And for that, he was grateful.
“Right now, it’s hard to put into words what this means to me and to the entire community, I suspect. But after 30 months of meetings with construction crews and planning, I think I have to begin with just gratitude,” Childs said.
He singled out crews with Schemmer and Puetz for their hours of work getting the building ready, the Vote Yes for Kids group who stumped for a yes vote during the crucial bond election in 2023 and former superintendent Joe Graves, who planted the seeds of the project by kicking off its capital campaign in 2015.
Brittni Flood, the most recent president of the Mitchell Board of Education, told the assembled crowd that the new building is an example of why South Dakota communities look to Mitchell when it comes to staying abreast of educational trends and supporting its overall education infrastructure.
It also reminded her of a simple adage — that children are the future.
“When they push us, they help us grow to be better parents, better teachers, better role models, and better mentors,” Flood said. “The new high school is the result of that effort, (but) the true value is not what the structure is itself, but what will take place inside of it.”
Students were already looking forward to the amenities the new building will provide, some of them major, some mundane.
Taylor DeJong, a senior at Mitchell High School, said the biggest difference between the old and new high school was a rather obvious one — space — but it is also a more comfortable environment for athletic competitions and practice.
“I think it’s pretty big. It’s cool, and it will have a bunch of different places to make learning fun,” said DeJong, who said she takes part in activities such as wrestling, track, FFA and SkillsUSA. “(The most exciting part is) definitely the big gym. It will definitely create more airflow in there so it will be cooler.
The athletic facilities, which were made possible after the public approved a $17 million bond vote in 2023, were a common point of excitement for those in attendance.
Avery Kaus, who will also be a senior this coming school year, agreed that the spacious feeling of the building will be a nice change. Even something as ordinary as the stairwells, which are considerably wider than those at the old school, stand out.
“I think it’s really nice. It’s definitely an upgrade from our last one, but I think I might get lost around here,” Kaus joked when asked about his thoughts on the new building. “I like the space out here in the commons, and the stairs are definitely a lot bigger, so it’s not crowded. The ones back there, you could barely get two people going up and down, so these are definitely an upgrade.”
Deb Everson, now a member of the Mitchell Board of Education, is a graduate of the old Mitchell High School and also taught at the school for many years.
Thinking back on her days as a student, she said she said the girl who graduated from MHS in 1978 would have spent a lot of time in the new library, but the whole of the building would have been a wonder at the time.
“The library. Of course, that’s a reader for you. But the gymnasiums are absolutely amazing, they’re so huge and so close to the kitchen and concessions,” Everson said. “I think some of the classrooms are humongous compared to some of the ones at the old high school, and as far as special education goes, the classrooms are conveniently located right off the lobby. They have bathrooms and facilities for special ed students that we would have only dreamed of until now.”
The building is expected to be complete in time to welcome its first batch of students, with the first day of school set for Aug. 20. There is plenty of work to do and materials yet to move, but students, staff and members of the public all appear ready to embrace the new Mitchell High School.
Justin Siemsen, principal for Mitchell High School, agreed that now is the perfect time to look to the future.
“The fact that we’re going to such a top-notch facility, our students are going to be pleasantly surprised with all the opportunities that the facility is going to provide, as well as other amenities for the community as well. I’m really excited about our education wings, the state-of-the-art classrooms, all of those things,” Siemsen said. “It will be excellent.”