RALSTON, Neb. (KMTV) — Stacey Stoffel has been teaching 5th graders from the same classroom at Mockingbird Elementary School for 19 years, but soon that's about to change.
The Ralston School District is building a brand new building for Mockingbird Elementary from the ground up, it sits next door to the existing building, right outside Stoffel’s classroom.
“We've been watching the construction slowly for the past year and a half,” said Stoffel.
Recently, she got to tour the new construction, she's looking forward to a bigger classroom and improved technology.
“The teachers will wear a microphone and it'll pick up with the box light and the speakers in the classroom,” said Stoffel.
This is just one of the many upgrades happening in the district. Every school in the district will see some sort of update. All of it was made possible by more than $80 million bond voters passed in 2021.
At Ralston High School, an over $5.5 million Multi-use Sports Complex is almost complete, featuring a new baseball and softball field, a first for the district.
“We have not had a varsity-level competition field for baseball ever at our high school. We have not had a softball field even on campus varsity or not," said Jason Buckingham, Superintendent of Ralston Public Schools.
The baseball field can be modified to accommodate players of all ages, there's also a youth football practice field and places for other sports like discus throwing and shot put.
All of these changes have people like Stoffel excited for the future of the district.
“This is awesome for our students and our families,” said Stoffel. “They'll have a great new building and a great new space to learn in, we're getting pretty big so it meets the needs of our students.”
“To have that commitment that our taxpayers and our board made to fund projects like this just shows how much Ralston cares,” said Buckingham.
The Multi-sport Complex is set to be complete by the end of 2023, Mockingbird Elementary’s new building should be ready to go by the 2024-2025 school year.
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