New school for MCW on track
“To actually see the dream starting to come alive is so exciting,” — Superintendent Cori Reynolds
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SHERBURN-- The new K-12 Martin County West (MCW) school building in Sherburn has taken shape and is on track. The building, which had its groundbreaking in May of 2025, is expected to be occupied for the 2027-28 school year.
"I think we're over halfway," said Superintendent Cori Reynolds.
She went through the building this week with Michael Beach, the site construction manager with R.A. Morton. Reynolds said she had not been in the building since May when she went through with a group of seniors.
"It's wild how quickly it's changed," Reynolds said. "We were getting rained on because the roof wasn't totally on yet. Things have really changed in 9 or 10 weeks."
She acknowledged that it's a very active construction site so they've been careful about who and how many people they've brought through.
"It's been really fun, the times we've been able to take students through there," she said.
The 167,000 sq. foot building is basically being done in sections, of which there are many spread across the two levels.
"They're very much going by wings. Elementary is A, early childhood is B, and they're not necessarily going in A, B, C order," Reynolds explained.
While work began right after the groundbreaking at the start of last summer, it was mostly underground work. Then in December of 2025, the first exterior wall panel went up and the building started to take shape. There have been crews working nonstop since then to bring the building to where it is at now and Beach confirmed that so far, they are on track.
"The dirt and concrete foundations last year finished exactly on the correct day and pre-cast started one month late," Beach said. "Then we asked the pre-cast company to bring in a second crew, which they did. They delivered the pre-cast on the correct day."
He said everything else has been going really well but that plumbing was behind so they came up with a game plan and came up with a second plumbing crew as well.
"Looks like early next week the plumbing will be fairly wrapped up, at least below grade, which is our goal because then we can pour concrete," Beach said.
He said the concrete company has been "Johnny on the spot" and has done nice work.
"Finishing level, finishing flat, which is really important like in the gym that's two things to consider-- flatness and levelness," Beach said.
He acknowledged that something could come up, which it's been known to do with construction projects, but that they will problem solve to address it.
In addition to working on the actual building, Beach said they're also working on the football field. He said all of the drainage tile is in, piping is in and that the cushion is being put on.
"We're scheduled for the 17th to start post-tension track, which is concrete, that will take approximately three weeks and then have the first week in September scheduled for the grass," Beach explained.
He added that that will include a week of sewing the fabric, another week of mowing it and adding in the letters and numbers and then another week of putting the sand into place.
"Then you have to do things like scoreboards, goal posts and press box, bleachers, that sort of thing,"
While it won't be ready for this coming season, it will be ready for the following season.
Reynolds is kept up-to-date on the progress and monthly updates are also given to the MCW School Board.
"Right now they really want to get it weather-tight so that they can heat it with natural gas rather than with propane like they did last year. It's just cleaner and cheaper," Reynolds said
She added that the big focus is to get everything done that needs to be done before the ground freezes and then go from there.
The finishes, like the light fixtures, will likely be installed during the winter time. The soft materials, like chairs and tables and desks, will come even later.
After this next school year, which will be the last in the building for the high school students, things will really ramp up.
"That's why our calendar is so wonky. We have to get out of that building as quickly as possible and get it emptied because they have to tear it down. That will be a big project next summer because they need it down and out of the way to finish parking lots and things like that," Reynolds explained.
School will start slightly earlier than normal this year with high school students beginning Aug. 20 and all students starting Aug. 24. It will then let out for the year on May 7, 2027.
"It's so exciting. So many people worked so hard to get us to this point and to actually see the dream starting to come alive is so exciting," Reynolds said.
She explained that R.A. Morton set up the bid process but the district has contracted with the contracts, which R.A. Morton helps manage.
Reynolds said it has been interesting to see where all of the contractors come from as there's been a good mix of both local contractors and some from further away.
There are 40 bid packets, which Reynolds described as a scope of work. Of those 40, she had stats on 37 of them.
"The average distance of our contractors as a whole group is 136 miles away," she said. "We have at least one contractor from 15 miles away. That is Fairmont Glass and Sign."
A few other local contractors include Kingdom Builders Masonry from Fairmont and Tri-State General Contracting out of Jackson.
"We have 11 who are from closer than 100 miles or less than an hour away and we have 26 contractors who are further than 100 miles and more than an hour away," Reynolds said.
She pointed out that it's not just a project for the town or immediate area but a project for families in neighboring communities.
"These are creating jobs for people right here in our neck of the wood and I'm pretty proud of that," Reynolds said.
While the district has worked to keep the public abreast of the $64.7 million project, which passed in a referendum vote in May of 2024, Reynolds said they will work even harder at that soon as work concludes on the exterior and is more focused on the interior where it is hard to see from the road.
More information and updates on the project can be found online at martin.k12.mn.us.