For Owatonna, a stunning new high school is a bet on the future of its kids and itself

New high schools are rare, sometimes built just once a century. When they are, a town has to make them count.

Owatonna sure has.

Its stunning new high school is a $120 million-plus bet not just on the future of Owatonna's kids but on the town and its biggest businesses.

Its opening two months ago was the climax of years of discussion and multiple rejected referendums to replace a school that was built in 1921.

In a sign of how difficult economic and community development can be, it took a push from Owatonna's business leaders to get the new school built. And, for a moment in 2019, even that didn't look like enough.

"They said, 'We really have to be able to attract and retain employees here.' And they all knew that education was key to that," said Julie Rethemeier, a vice president at Federated Insurance Cos., the business insurer that started in Owatonna in 1904.

The southern Minnesota community of 26,000 is known for its striking collection of early 20th-century buildings, including the old high school. Owatonna's entire downtown, anchored by one of Louis Sullivan's jewel box banks, is a National Register Historic District.

The new school is appealing in a different way. Owatonnans got not just a modern building with all the amenities, but one that allowed educators to introduce new courses, like nursing and hydroponics, that matter to local employers such as Mayo Clinic and Revol Greens.

"We've always been about preparing kids for after high school," Principal Kory Kath told me on a tour earlier this month. "But when you actually have the opportunity to design a space for that transition, it blurs the lines of where a student enters and exits their career exploration. That's really what this was intended, and is allowing us, to do."

Since the 1990s, Owatonna had been rejecting referendums for a new high school. In 2017, Federated executives got board approval to offer the community $20 million for the new school, Rethemeier said.

Other local companies pledged another $5 million. Wenger Corp., maker of performing arts products, said it would build the auditorium and performing arts spaces. Life Fitness, maker of gym equipment, said it would kit out weight rooms. Viracon, maker of skyscraper glass, said it would provide some big windows.

Even with those offers, Owatonna voters in May 2019 rejected a referendum by 120 votes. School planners reduced the size of the new building slightly and a then-new state law sweetened bond terms for farmers. In November that year, a $104 million referendum for the new school passed with a 1,300-vote margin.

The average household in Owatonna is paying about $200 more per year in school-related taxes, as a result.

For their money, Owatonnans got the high school equivalent of U.S. Bank Stadium — a glassy behemoth with flashes of style that don't go over the top or feel extravagant.

In a big departure from the bunker-like school design of the 1960s, classrooms at the new OHS are walled by floor-to-ceiling glass, making everything visible. While teachers can draw blinds, most leave them wide open, a concept that educators call "learning on display."

"If you're working in a large office situation, you're going to see people working and independently having to focus on tasks," Kath said.

Around the three-story common area, classroom windows are framed with one-word imperatives — the nursing classroom with the word "Care," journalism classroom with "Publish" and vocational shop with "Innovate" — that signal life is about doing.

Some of the biggest changes are in the technical and vocational part of the school. In addition to the typical wood, metal and engine shops, there is a full commercial kitchen and a nursing lab with equipment chosen and paid for by Mayo Clinic. An OHS grad will have enough training to trim the path to licensed practical nurse certification by a semester.

"We look forward to having 100% of our students graduate," Kath said. "But we ask 'What else are you going to do on top of that? What certifications can we get you? What college credits can we obtain for you? What types of internships and experiences will enhance that possibility for you to be career-ready?'"

It will take a few years to know whether Owatonna's new school attracts more people to the town. Executives at Federated and other firms knew the bet had to be made.

"People weren't going to come if we just had promises or told them 'Hey, we're thinking about this,'" Rethemeier said.