Riverview Chosen as Name of Sartell Intermediate School

SARTELL --The Sartell-St. Stephen school district has named their new intermediate school.

The school will be called Riverview Intermediate School when classes begin next fall. The name was unveiled at a special ceremony Monday morning with the help of the schools future students.

Zachary Dingmann is the current Assistant Principal at the Sartell Middle School and will be the principal of Riverview. He says with the school now having an identity, his staff will work on building a culture heading into next year.

We are bringing three different schools together as one with the Middle School, Pine Meadow and Oak Ridge. So it's really important that staff gets to know one another and what it's like to work with one another.

Over 2,000 votes were collected during a community wide voting process to name the school. Other choices included Mississippi Mill and Watab River.

Dingmann says there is already an excitement among students and staff heading into this transition.

It's going to be a great place for our third through fifth graders. We are really going to focus on community connections, environmental focus and hands on learning. We already have teachers working on that process and what it will look like not just in the classroom but outdoors as well. It will be a pretty cool school to be at.

The school will be renovated this summer in preparation to accommodate the younger students.

Also part of the school district's restructure will have the former High School as the new Middle School, the current Middle School will become Riverview, Pine Meadow Elementary will have 1st and 2nd graders and Oak Ridge Elementary will house the PreK and Kindergarten programs.