District Breaks Ground on Lincoln School | Video

Kristin Clouston | 9/24/2012

When the Bismarck School superintendent said she wanted to get started on the new schools right away, she wasn`t kidding. The school bond election was less than a week ago, and today administrators and board members broke ground for a new elementary school in Lincoln.

It makes sense they would do this one first. In Lincoln, 93.3 percent of the votes cast were in favor of building the school.

The Lincoln precinct drew the most votes in the district and residents say it`s because they`ve been waiting for a school for a very long time.

There was no way four year old Mason Reeves was going to miss this, in fact he even brought his own shovel.

His mon Sheryl explained, "Ever since the vote passed, every time we drove by he said, `Why aren`t they out there building my school yet?` So he was really excited to come today and watch the start of his school."

Mason starts Kindergarten in the fall, and his mom and dad thought he was going to have to go to school at Will-Moore.

Sheryl added, "We`ve lived in Lincoln for 12 years and we always hoped there would be a school out here for our child to go to and then when he was born it wasn`t really looking like it was going to happen."

City Council member Karen Daly says she`s been trying to get a school out there for 40 years and has a whole scrap book full of newspaper articles related to busing issues and building a school. She says waiting for a school took a lot of patience.

"I`m not sure why, some of the reasons the school board had. Of course there was always the money issue and the other areas were growing faster at that time so the schools were probably more in demand in other areas."

More than 400 children will go to classes here, but Daly says this school belongs to everyone.

"It`s very exciting to see a pride growing in the community already that we`re finally going to have a school."

Now they just need to find a name for the school slated to open next fall.

The groundbreaking for the elementary school on the north side of town will be on Wednesday, and tonight school board members will discuss a possible location for the high school during an executive session.

Mandan is having it`s $12.5 million school bond election tomorrow. Mandan residents can vote at any elementary school, the middle school or the Braves Center.

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