Construction begins on high-tech school in Winifred

Winifred, Montana, a town of fewer than 200 people, will be the home of a new high-tech K-12 school which began construction in earnest today, a project Montana State University-Northern staff members have been a consultant for.

The school is the brainchild of multi-millionaire Norm Asbjornson, current chairman and co-Founder of Aaon Inc. as well as its former CEO, the namesake of Montana State University's College of Engineering, and a Winifred native.

The designers of the building have tapped into the faculty at Northern's College of Technical Sciences for recommendations on how to design tech parts of the school.

A&E Design CEO and Principal Designer on the project Dusty Eaton and his team, which also worked on the Norm Asbjornson Hall at Montana State University along with Asbjornson, were commissioned for the design of the school and he said it has been an exciting project to work on.

Eaton said the design of Norm Asbjornson Hall was meant to help change the way engineering was taught by creating a multidisciplinary space where people from all different fields of study can collaborate and solve practical problems, instead of working in their own academic bubbles.

He said Asbjornson sees the typical model of everyone learning in silos as detrimental to the teamwork skills they will need later in their careers.

Eaton said Asbjornson would hire MSU and other college of engineering grads all the time for his business in Tulsa, Oklahoma. All of them were brilliant engineers, he said, but they were trained to do one thing and that is be brilliant engineers, so when they're in a room with sales, marketing and executives they didn't really know how to collaborate efficiently.

Bringing multidiscipline style to K-12

Eaton said Asbjornson came to him in 2019 with the idea of bringing the same design philosophy he brought to MSU to Winifred in a K-12 environment.

"'These are brilliant students from hard-working families, and I want to create the kind of space in Winifred that can really start to push the envelop for teaching and learning,'" Eaton said recalling the conversation with Asbjornson, "... and I said, OK, let's do this."

Eaton said the school features a beautifully lit multidisciplinary space similar to Norm Asbjornson Hall which will allow collaboration between students in STEAM - science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics - fields and beyond with an emphasis on furthering vocational and technical training.

A lot of these students grew up on ranches, Eaton said, they know how to weld they know how to build things and the school should be supporting that.

He said the school will have ample lab spaces, areas for woodwork, math, agricultural science, car repair and one of the nicest competitive gyms in the state with a running track around it, as well as a new community fitness space on the upper level with a balcony looking over the astroturf football field, which will be open to the community.

"On a January day when it's difficult to be outside, the community can come in and use that running track," he said.

This public openness is part of Eaton's philosophy that schools should be a hub of community activity not just education, which they already are to some degree in Winifred, he said.

"I've said for a long time that our schools are the most important buildings in any communities at least when it comes to civic buildings," he said.

He said the STEAM wing is the part of the school he's most excited about, with all disciplinary spaces opening into each other in an area called The Assembly Zone, reminiscent of his previous work on Innovation Alley at MSU.

Eaton said the school will be able to accommodate tournament-level sporting events, plays, community gatherings and other events, and he hopes it will be a draw for the community.

He said this is building is part of a larger effort by Asbjornson to improve the town of Winifred and bring more people to it by improving housing, commerce and education.

"He thinks this facility is one of the final pieces," Eaton said.

He said the people of Winifred have been incredible to work with and his team had fun with this unique and challenging opportunity.

He said a priority of the community and Asbjornson has been to improve the community while still preserving its historic essence, which is why the new school is being built around the community's theater, which is becoming the school's new library while preserving the original stage for future use.

Eaton said Asbjornson is offering scholarships to the school's graduates but the details haven't been worked out yet as far as he has heard.

Due to the complexity of the project, he said, it will be about 15 months before the school is up and running.

MSU-Northern's contribution

MSU-Northern Dean of the College of Technical Sciences Dave Krueger said his department have been a consultant on the project with regards to its technical and career education capabilities, which he has been working to facilitate for almost a year.

Part of this, Krueger said, was helping create courses that may act as a pathway to those offered at Northern, as well as talking about dual enrollment between the two institutions.

He said they provided insights on what would be needed in the building to effectively run such courses as well as general advice about the school's welding lab and general layout.

"If they were to create a laboratory to train diesel technicians or auto technicians what would be in the lab, how would we lay that out?" he asked. "Everything from ventilation to drainage to storage ... those were the types of questions we were getting."

Krueger said this is certainly a recruiting opportunity for Northern, but that is ultimately a secondary concern to students getting a good education and going on to higher education regardless of where.

He said no matter what school they end up at, it is win as far as he is concerned, especially if it helps people in career and technical fields.

"The bottom line is it's good for our workforce development, it's good for our communities, it's good for skills trades," he said.

Despite his role facilitating the collaboration, he said, he doesn't want to take too much credit for the work because his faculty members were the driving force behind the collaborative work.

Krueger said their work as consultants is not exclusively open to Winifred and they would be happy to work with any community in these areas.

He said he's seen the designs for Winifred's new school and he is very impressed.

"I think the A&E design team has done a fabulous job," he said. "I think it's going to be one of the best career tech lab facilities in the state."

He said such a facility would be great for any area, but especially for a small town like Winifred, and he's grateful to have been able to work with them.

"We're thrilled to be a consultant to Winifred and this project," he said.