“Today is the day we’ve all been dreaming about, talking about and working toward for a very long time,” YME superintendent Rich Schneider said. “Standing here, on the brink of breaking ground for our new school building, I am filled with an overwhelming sense of pride and immense gratitude.”

The Granite Falls community strongly voted to pass a $74.395 million bond referendum last August with a large marginal passing rate of 70.6%. The bond will essentially support a remodel of campus that will address necessary aging infrastructure and accessibility.

The current school buildings have infrastructure that is nearly a century old. The original middle and high school building dates back to 1930, while the Bert Raney Elementary building was constructed in the 1950s.

“This dirt we are about to move represents a massive promise to the next generation of Sting,” Schneider said. “This new building will be more than just bricks, mortar and seal. It will be a place where curiosity is sparked, friendships are forged and the future leaders are shaped.”

Photo by Samantha Davis: Yellow Medicine East band students welcome people in at the school's groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday in Granite Falls.

Construction officially began on Wednesday, and will work in phases until an estimated completion date of January 2029.

YME staff and faculty, and community members, showcased excitement at the groundbreaking for what’s to come. The nearly-entire revamp of the district will bring the two schools buildings together as one for operational sufficiency, with separate wings.

“What strikes me, standing here, is how many people said yes to get us to this point,” YME School Board Chair Jeremy LeBlanc said. “The voters said yes, parents said yes, teachers and staff said yes, local leaders said yes. That kind of collective belief doesn’t happen on accident. It happens when an entire community decides that they’re investing in something bigger than themselves.”

Detailed by building renderings, the new main building entrance will sit directly off of 7th Avenue which will house district, middle, high and elementary school offices with a large commons space. The high school wing will sit on the east wing of the main entrance and the elementary wing will sit to the west, where there will also be an entrance for a new daycare and early childhood learning center.

The auditorium, music spaces and fitness center will also be redone, along with a new elementary gym and a new Career and Technology Education building for the high school. The current auxiliary and Espeland gyms will remain, and sit on the backside of the high school wing.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Yellow Medicine East Superintendent Rich Schneider addresses the crowd at the groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday in Granite Falls.

“Our students deserve spaces that match their potential. They deserve facilities that signal to them every single day that their community believes in them, and takes their education seriously,” LeBlanc said. “That’s what this building will say before a single lesson is taught inside of it.”

The new school buildings will also fix pressing issues that include failing electric and plumbing systems, small classroom and support spaces, cracked sidewalks, leaking roofs and windows, broken student lockers and will also heighten security at school entrances.

Additionally to what will be fixed, the current elementary students are required to walk outside at least twice a day in all weather conditions to travel to the middle and high school building for meals and indoor recess. The accessibility also lacks in the current buildings, as those with physical challenges have to use two elevators and multiple ramps to travel end-to-end in the middle and high school building.

The track will also be redone, as YME cannot currently host meets due to excessive cracks and erosion, which has caused Sting athletes to only compete at away meets.

“This process involved several meetings and much deliberation by all of the members. During the process, we had a healthy amount of dissension. How do we honor the past and move forward?” Schneider said. “But, we eventually came to a consensus that this plan that we landed on was best for our community — Balancing the need to be fiscally responsible, with the need to provide the best facility for our students, staff and community.”

Photo by Samantha Davis: Yellow Medicine East school administration help to break ground at the groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday in Granite Falls.

Notably, over half of the entire project is being paid for by the State of Minnesota through the Ag2School tax credit program. The program offers a 70% tax credit to all agricultural property owners, and is an automatic reduction of property taxes paid. The program was passed by the legislature in 2017.

The Ag2School program is set to pay approximately 53%, $40 million, of the complete $74-million construction project. Schneider also mentioned to the Independent on Tuesday that the project is tracking right on budget.

“Projects like this don’t just happen because a superintendent, or even a school board, wants them to. They happen because an entire community decides that our kids, staff and our future are worth investing in,” Schneider said. “Thank you for trusting us, for believing in the power of public education, and for investing in a facility that will serve our families for decades to come.”

The project timeline states that the construction of the middle and high school addition will take place this spring through September 2027. The elementary addition will be worked on from Spring 2027 to September 2028, and the CTE has a goal to be completed by December 2028. As it currently stands, the entire project is to reach a final completion by January 2029.

At the end of the ceremony, to officially begin the new era of “Reviving the Hive,” several groups took turns in breaking ground on site with shovels atop of a dirt hill, which will become a new parking lot, across the street from where the main building entrance will be.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Community members view floor plans on the new Yellow Medicine East school campus at the groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday in Granite Falls.

“To the students here today, and to those who will come after you, this is for you. We hope you carry that with you,” LeBlanc said. “The future of Yellow Medicine East starts right here, right now.”

Photo by Samantha Davis: The Yellow Medicine East school mascot, Thunder, greets kids at the groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday in Granite Falls.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Members of the Yellow Medicine East Say Yes voting committee help to break ground at the groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday in Granite Falls.