By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
While the summer may mean that students are out and school buildings are quiet, the design team for Northfield High School has been busy creating plans for the renovated building. As part of the project, a significant rework of the transportation system around the building.
Currently, both cars dropping off students and school buses enter the high school off of Division Street/Highway 246, as well as students and staff entering off of Jefferson Parkway to park.
According to Sal Bagely, the lead designer on the project with Wold Architects, stated that this new design will better separate out traffic:
“So you can see that they would come in off Division and be guided into a large queue drop-off Loop, which surrounds students in visitor parking. There will also be visitor parking where the lot just south of the funeral home is today trying to get people to the front door right cuz that’s what we know parents or family members want to do when they’re dropping off a student or picking up a student.” – Sal Bagely, Designer of the Project, at the 5/12/2025 School Board Meeting
Listen to the news:
Learn more about the High School Reimage project:
Podcast: An Update on the High School Reimagine Project
Article: Northfield High School Renovation Design Focuses on Flexible Spaces
In the new system, buses would enter from Jefferson Parkway and drop students off in a new bus loop on the north side of the building.
“But really the intent would be along the west side of the site really to be staff and deliveries and buses only right another way of saying that is you wouldn’t invite parents to come to the west side of the site and go to the north but the big change would be to have a bus loop on the north side of the building to try to create a lot of separation between types of vehicular traffic,” – Sal Bagley, Designer of the Project, at the 5/12/2025 School Board Meeting
She stated that having a loop for the buses to turn around and their own separate drop-off area is among the best practices for safety and traffic flow. Furthermore, they have been conducting a traffic study on the building to help best determine where roads, sidewalks, and bikepaths should go and direct traffic.
You can see the full design on our website in today’s news.
Final designs for the high school are set to come out this fall with construction beginning in phases next year.
Newscasts on KYMN air on weekdays at 6am, 7am, 8:30am, Noon, 3pm, and 5pm. If you miss it live, you can subscribe on your preferred podcast app:
> Click here to listen on Spotify
> Click here to listen on Apple Podcast
Do you have a news tip or press release? Send it to us email: Logan@kymnradio.net
