Spring 2008

Monroe Achievement Plus Community School Decades Of Learning:
Preserved and Improved
Monroe Achievement Plus Community School, built in 1924, was in good shape and it had an interesting historical character. Those factors were reason enough for the St. Paul Public Schools in Minnesota to discard the thought of abandoning it and, instead, update it to meet the educational needs of today’s students.

ATS&R Principal-In-Charge and Project Architect, worked with other ATS&R staff including Interior Design, Specifications, and Construction Administration to update the building and yet maintain the character and features that has endeared Monroe to its neighborhood for decades of learning.

Originally, the building was a high school and today it serves grades K – 8. Students can begin their school career as kindergartners at Monroe and have the advantage of spending nine years in the same stable setting.

However, that conversion meant the spaces needed to change in order to support the K-8 program. Shop areas and some locker rooms that were no longer needed were demolished. Underutilized spaces were reconfigured. Those courses of action made room for appropriately appointed kindergarten rooms and spaces that could be used for both school programs and for community purposes.

The age and the numerous wall heights and levels of the building presented many challenges to the project as did the fact that sequencing of all work had to be done around the school schedule. Monroe Achievement Plus Community School held classes as usual during the construction and while teachers expressed willingness to move to some flex spaces, the better option was to remain in the regular classrooms to provide consistency in the educational program.

ATS&R Project Architect stated, “The most satisfying part of this project was studying the old drawings to piece together the building’s history in order to find an affordable way to maintain Monroe’s character and at the same time make it a building that would enhance its educational programs.”

St. Paul School District officials, Trinh Tranberg, Pat Quinn, Kevin Umidon and the building principal, James Eaton led the planning of the “new” Monroe Achievement Plus Community School and provided the students and community alike with a building that will serve education well for future generations in the neighborhood.