Sartell High School | Projects Origin Design

Incorporating the vision of the community, staff and administrators into the design.

High school students in Sartell and St. Stephen have a new collaborative learning environment equipped with more flexible project and science labs, career and technical education spaces and inventive learning areas.

At the heart of the school is a two-story commons area that features a learning stair and a black box theater, creating the possibility of a theater in the round at the heart of the building. In addition to school functions, the large space is intended to be used as a pre-event space for the performing arts center and the activities spaces, as well as for community events.

project overview

Sartell-St. Stephen School District’s new 294,000-square-foot Sartell High School opened in the fall of 2019. The new school, designed through a partnership with Origin Design and Cuningham Group Architects, accommodates 1,350 students in grades 9-12 and includes six learning communities on two levels. The facility’s new collaborative approach aims to help meet the district’s goal to be adaptable for the future and to support a variety of learning styles and foster global preparedness.

Origin Design had been working with the Cuningham Group and the district since 2014 when they facilitated a group of nearly 100 community members, staff and administrators to envision the future of the Sartell-Stephen School District.

The District built the new high school on land that was acquired adjacent to Oak Ridge Elementary when that school was built in 2004. The site design takes care to separate the student and vehicular traffic of the two schools for safety and to reduce congestion.

The high school is part of a multi-phase facilities project that also includes remodeling the current high school to a middle school, transforming the existing middle school into an intermediate school for grades 3-5 students, and remodeling two elementary schools.

The site features soccer and lacrosse fields, baseball and softball fields, and practice areas for football. Design of the site allows for the addition of a stadium in the future.

A two-story commons area that features learning stairs and a black box theater, creating the possibility of a theater in the round at the heart of the building