Crumbling down

The scene Monday morning at 509 Main Street in Sanborn was decidedly bittersweet for the onlookers who gathered on nearby sidewalks.

With cellphone cameras recording, they watched the Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn Middle School get reduced to rubble as an excavator methodically tore through the south entrance. The building's demise had been planned for nearly two years, but many in the crowd found the sight tough to absorb.

"It's pretty sad," said Candice Lyman, a 1973 graduate of Sanborn High School. "There are a lot of good memories, but we've got to look out for the kids and their needs now."

Construction crews were finally able to start the demolition portion of the multi-million dollar improvement project following extensive dirt work this spring and summer. Once completed, H-M-S will have a mostly new single-story middle school capable of supporting a modern learning environment.

Middle school science teacher Cheryl Kroese spent all 26 years of her career at H-M-S in the same second floor classroom. She made countless memories in the building, but looked forward to the future.

"It's bittersweet," she said. "I'm really excited about having a new place to work in, but there's a lot of history in that building."

The fate of the middle school was sealed in April 2018 when H-M-S patrons passed an $18.9 million bond issue to update facilities within the district. In addition to the improvements in Sanborn, a new elementary is being built onto the existing high school in Hartley and updates are also underway at the high school itself.

Middle school Principal Mark Dorhout joined the crowd Monday to watch the demolition. Like Kroese, Dorhout admitted the moment was a bittersweet cocktail of old memories and future optimism.

"I'm just really excited," he said. "There's a little bit of nostalgia, but I'm just looking forward to the opportunities that the new building is going to have. It's going to be great."

Dorhout was quick to commend the building's maintenance and custodial staff for keeping the middle school operational after all these years. The largest portions were built in the 1930s and 1950s, and much of the internal infrastructure like plumbing and the boiler heating system were starting to deteriorate. A lack of handicap accessibility was also a big problem.

"We worked hard at taking care of this building," he said. "I've always been proud during my tenure of Russ Meyer and his care of this building. We saw it through and always took good care of it. I'm proud that we did that."

Meyer was also on hand Monday to watch the building fall. He spent more than 25 years overseeing its upkeep and found it hard to describe his emotions while watching it hit the ground.

"It's good to see the change, but it's also kind of heartbreaking," he said. "It's good to see it go down to one floor. That was the tough part – keeping everything clean on the two floors, and then the heating issues."

Meyer said the gym was his favorite part of the building while the boiler room was his nemesis.

"You always worried about the boiler in the wintertime if it was working," he said. "If things went wrong with it, I would be thinking about how I could fix it to keep things running for the next day."

Dorhout, who's in his 17th year as middle school principal, also said the gym was his favorite part of the Sanborn building.

"When I gave tours to people considering coming to school here, I'd prep them before walking into the gym by saying, 'If you ever seen the movie Hoosiers, there's a little bit of that to this,' " he said. "I just try to imagine high school basketball going on in this gymnasium and those big bodies running around. That really would be something else."

Sanborn High School alumnus Tammy Ginger also held fond memories of the gym.

"It was just a nice gathering place. Graduation was held in there, sports were there and it was just special," she said. "We had our all-school reunions there. Those were really fun and people really liked that."

The memories will remain, but seeing the building go was still incredibly hard for Ginger. The 1983 SHS graduate attended kindergarten through 12th grade in the building and said it was "like you're losing your home."

"It's heartbreaking, it really is," she said. "It was my home. You knew every room, you knew every teacher, you had all your friends here and you knew where everybody's locker was."

Demolition was slated to wrap up by the middle of the week. With the new elementary school slated to open this fall, all middle school students will be housed in the old PK-4 building in Hartley. Dorhout said the building is already set up for junior high students to move in next month.

Though teachers and students will have to wait until 2021 to settle into their new digs in Sanborn, Kroese was already counting down the days.

"I'm excited for the whole atmosphere and the newness of the surroundings," she said. "Not having to worry about space will be nice. You put 28 kids in my room right now, we're on top of each other."

Putting on her activities director cap, Kroese pointed out another perk to the upgrades.

"I'm excited to actually have space in the new gym so we don't have to ship kids off to Hartley to have practices," she said.