APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – On Monday, the Appleton school district broke ground on its newest school. Sandy Slope Elementary will open in 2025 on the city’s north side. The building will be home to 600 students between 5K through fifth grade. When it opens, it will help address overpopulation at the elementary school level.
It will be the Appleton School District’s 17th elementary school, and the newest school in 30 years. For school officials, it also couldn’t have come at a better time.
“Significant growth here in the northeast section of our district,” Superintendent Greg Hartjes said. “Across all of our elementaries, we have a lot of capacity challenges.”
Discussions for a new school started years ago when a study showed that the nearby Huntley elementary school was 160 students above capacity. Talks stalled at the start of the pandemic, but resumed as the district prepared its $130 million referendum last fall.
“We’re just finally able to rectify those situations,” Hartjes said.
11 months later, the district broke ground on Sandy Slope Elementary. But it’s not the first school on the site to have that name.
“We’re really excited to honor the wishes of Rich VanHandel,” Hartjes said. “Sandy Slope elementary, which is the one room schoolhouse that he attended.”
VanHandel sold the school district the land in 1999. But the purchase came with a caveat.
“My dad took over the farm after he completed his eight years,” VanHandel’s daughter, Sue Siebers said. “He never lived anywhere else but the area was important to him. So he wanted that in the agreement to name the school Sandy Slope Elementary.”
Siebers has seen the renderings of the school. She believes it’s a design that will honor the name for future generations.
“It’s just very comforting knowing that the economy and the situation the world is such that they could actually build a school and whether it was named Sandy Slope or not, we’re just very happy everything’s moving forward. But of course we’re thrilled that it is Sandy Slope.”
Hartjes said community input like that is exactly what the district is looking for.
“We want to get more feedback on the aesthetics, on the outside, perhaps on the playground,” Hartjes said. “We’ll be using whatever input we receive in just finishing off the design.”
The district asked for $36 million for the project. They say the project will cost $36 to $38 million to complete.
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