(Lake Park)– The public will get a firsthand look at the new Harris-Lake Park Elementary School tomorrow (Sat.) as part of Farmer Appreciation Days in Lake Park. Superintendent Mike Thompson says they’ll be holding a dedication and a ribbon cutting followed by an open house. He says everything gets started at 1:00 pm at the new school, immediately adjacent to the Middle School-High School building in Lake Park…
“We just want the public to come and see what their investment has made possible, so whether you have children in the district or you graduated from Harris-Lake Park years ago, this building kind of belongs to the entire community. We encourage everyone to come and walk through, ask questions, and celebrate with us.”
Thompson says another special event will be taking place as well during the festivities tomorrow (Sat.)…
“Another cool thing is we invited the class of 1976 for their 50th class reunion to open up their time capsule as part of our. So that will be a neat thing as well that we’ll be doing during that same time.”
Thompson says the event will mark a major milestone for the Harris-Lake Park Community Schools…
“So this started back in 2023, the conversations, and back in August of ’23 the board decided to move forward with a bond, an $18.6 million referendum, and, you know, in Iowa most people know that it takes a super majority now to pass a bond issue. It was a two question issue for us and we got north of 70 percent on both of those questions so that just goes to show you just the level of commitment our parents and community have for H-LP schools.”
Thompson adds tomorrow’s (Sat.) event will also give them an opportunity to thank the district’s residents for their support of the project.
Students started attending classes in the new facility in March of this year, earlier than first planned after a boiler malfunction at the old school. The start of classes in a few weeks will mark the beginning of the first entire school year in the new facility.
