'New' middle school opens in Hartley

An old school building in Hartley is ready to host a new group of students.

Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn Middle School moved 11 miles east to the old elementary in the City With a Heart. With the former middle school in Sanborn demolished and the new elementary school slated to open this month, 5-8 grade students will now make their home in the former PK-4 building on First Street Southeast.

Middle school Principal Mark Dorhout said the transition was eased after classes dismissed in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Elementary staff members were able to move out earlier than planned, subsequently allowing 5-8 grade teachers to head eastward.

"If there is any positive to the COVID situation for the school district, that was it for us," said Dorhout. "It pushed us to get out of the middle school because there was some asbestos removal that needed to be done and kind of an unknown plan when that was going to be done. We knew the sooner we got out of there, the better it would be."

Grades 5-6 will be housed on the first floor, while 7-8 will be upstairs. A special education room and the library are housed in the former kindergarten wing, and the band room is located in the former media center upstairs.

"We try to keep the kids as close as they can be to try to minimize the transition time [between classes]," said Dorhout. "It's very similar to what we did back in Sanborn."

The old 5-8 grade building in Sanborn was demolished in July to make way for a mostly-new school with modern learning facilities, which is slated to open in 2021. Only a portion of the facility built in the early 1990s was kept.

If the construction project faces delays, Dorhout said he and his staff will be perfectly fine waiting it out in the old elementary building.

"The end date is still somewhat of a question mark," he said. "We're going to reside here until everything is ready to move into that space."

A majority of middle school athletic practices and events will be held at the high school this year. Dorhout said most of the classrooms are set up, with a few minor adjustments to be completed before the opening bell rings Aug. 24.

"We basically busted a hump to get things organized as quick as we could," he said.

Dorhout, in his 17th year at H-M-S, looked forward to welcoming students later this month. The last time he saw them all in the same place was March 13.

"With all the difficulty and stress of this year, the one thing I cannot wait for is to see these kids back around here," he said. "That was a crushing blow to not see kids on a regular basis because for 29 years of my life, that's what I'm used to and it's where I get my energy from. That's one thing I'm really looking forward to."