Charter school at Fort Snelling opening interim site
A charter school planned for a historic site near Fort Snelling State Park will open in a interim location next month.
The Upper Mississippi Academy will teach 275 sixth- and ninth-graders in temporary classrooms near the site. By next fall the school plans to open grades K through 10 in a renovated historic building at Fort Snelling's Upper Post.
The school will incorporate its setting near the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers into student learning, said Brad Blue, one of the charter's founding board members.
"Our kids will be on the river, in the river, at least two days a month," Blue said. "Ultimately, we'll have a boat launch and a fleet of canoes and be doing research right there."
The school has brought together people interested in education and preservation of historic sites, Blue said.
"This is a coalescence of a lot of people who care about it and many of them care for different reasons," he said, "but they all have a common goal of doing something good for the community."
The charter school must get final approval on lease terms and renovation plans from the state and the National Park Service before it can begin renovating buildings at the Upper Post.
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