MANKATO — The Mankato Area School Board recently approved the themes for its three new focus schools.
Starting in the 2025-26 school year, Bridges Community School will be a global studies focus school; Jefferson Elementary School will be an outdoor-nature based one; and Rosa Parks Elementary School will be a STEAM school, which stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and math.
Like magnet schools, the Mankato district’s focus schools will offer a specialized theme that is integrated into the curriculum and school experience, Supt. Paul Peterson said.
Rosa Parks and Jefferson were selected to join Bridges as focus schools last spring.
Peterson said this has been a multi-month process that started when the board adopted its new strategic plan.
“Over the last several months now at each of those schools and also with our greater school community, we’ve been gathering input from staff and parents and community members about what innovative education can and should look like (in the district) and once those task forces … identified the must-haves within the school experience, then we started to examine what sort of specialized themes would best meet those big pieces,” he said.
Peterson said the themes have a broad appeal and expand learning opportunities within the elementary system.
He added they’re highly relevant to today’s world and he’s confident they align with the board’s vision for a future-focused system.
Peterson said after last week’s board approval, the next step will be to identify the professional development staff at those three schools will need.
“All of our teachers have a strong command of the Minnesota standards. Now it’s going to be about how do we meet those standards in unique ways.”