Sanford’s spirit soars

BY KRISTOPHER BISHOP

Sanford Middle School students look out their classroom windows and see mountains of dirt piled outside. They have seen and heard the construction for a year and a half. Despite a rocky road along the way, the school has had a renaissance in the last few years owing to recent successes in many of its programs, and the student body has grown considerably. Soon the building itself will have grown to accommodate the larger numbers of students.
With over 800 students the new space is desperately needed. There are five elementary schools that feed Sanford Middle School and those schools also have growing student bodies. Rather than give up some of those schools, Sanford decided to expand.
Before walking around with me to show the work that has been done since the 2015 groundbreaking, Principal Emily Palmer changed shoes in her cramped office. She explained that her former office had been given over to the school nurse. “Every room is full right now,” She said.
“We have the most racially diverse student body in the metro,” Palmer stated proudly. “Sanford reflects the demographics of our neighborhood.” The diversity is present on all the walls of the school, in every crack in the concrete, every locker we pass, and kids giggling at each other as they finish their school day.
Palmer’s excitement over the expansion was apparent throughout the tour. The plans include 14 new classrooms, a new gymnasium with a separate event entrance, six new science labs, a new drama room, band room, an expanded cafeteria, and full air conditioning throughout the building. The older part of the school will also be remodeled in some ways, such as converting old bathrooms into small classrooms.
As we visited the upper floors Palmer quipped, “We flipped coins to see who got which room, because they are so cool.” Every room she showed was airy and well lit with floor to ceiling windows. She stopped and pointed out a stairwell, noting that the skylight would allow natural sunlight to fill the cafeteria.
Although the proposal was approved in December 2013, the work didn’t begin until January 2015; the funding was competing with the new Vikings Stadium and it stalled the plans. Completion is scheduled for July 2016 and the entire facility will be fully functional by August 2016. The new structure was all paid for by capital dollars according to Palmer. Funding for the $19 million expansion was drawn from specifically allocated state funds.
The plans are on display on the school’s website sanford.mpls.k12.mn.us. Other features of the new building include a roof that will allow expansion at a later time should the need and funding be available. Although Palmer couldn’t be more pleased, she does hope to get another project started as soon as possible. “We want to build an indoor recess area, but that isn’t currently funded.” Donations are a method for the school to accomplish this upcoming goal. Donations can be made online at https://www.givemn.org/organization/Sanford-Middle-School-7860908.
As we walked through the halls, music spontaneously blared from the intercom. Palmer laughed, “Have you heard of the Running Man challenge?” I shook my head, “It’s huge with the kids here.” According to the internet the running man challenge is the newest internet craze. The  challenge is to do a variation on the classic running man dance to the tune of “My Boo” by Ghost Town DJs. The phenomenon repeated itself as we neared the end of the tour. Several teachers, who planned to participate in the challenge the following school day, were dancing along to the music. The goal was to make the stunt appear spontaneous and unrehearsed. As they were discussing the execution of this school wide stunt, one of the teachers declared, “This is what school spirit looks like.”