SAUK RAPIDS -- It's out with the old and in with the new at Pleasantview Elementary in Sauk Rapids.

Superintendent Brad Bergstrom says during the first full week of this month the staff spent time removing everything from the old building. They are in the abatement process right now before the actual teardown can begin.

It's not like you sometimes see on TV where there's dynamite and the big building falls down.  This is going to be much more simplistic, it'll be a backhoe knocking walls down and then hauling the brick and materials away.

Bergstrom says the demolition is scheduled to be completed before the end of this month. They will be putting a Go-Pro camera on the new building and creating a time-lapse video.

The first layer of blacktop where the current Pleasantview sits will be laid down on August 15th.

New Pleasantview, photo by WJON.com's Sarah Mueller
New Pleasantview, photo by WJON.com's Sarah Mueller
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Bergstrom says they've been doing some landscaping and grass seeding recently.

He says later this summer they'll be taking some videos inside the new building to share with the district residents.

We're going to take the building in chunks.  So we're going to start in the north part which is the academic wing and we'll show people what a classroom looks like, what a small and medium-sized workspace looks like, and what those enhanced learning areas look like.  So people are going to be able to not just see a drawing of it but the actual space.  We're very excited to be able to show it to the community.

The old Pleasantview had a much more open classroom concept, while Bergstrom says the new school is more traditional. However, he says there are some removable walls for when teachers want to collaborate with other classrooms.

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