Cardinal School opened its doors on January 20, 1974. It was designed as an open area school, with some self-contained classrooms.

At first it contained three large open areas for grades 1-6 and three self-contained classrooms for kindergarten and students with special education needs. There were two sections of each grade level.

Cardinal Bird mascot designed by first group of sixth graders in 1974 in art class.

In the 1987-88 school year, sixth grade moved to the middle school building. Supplemental Kindergarten was discontinued and replaced by a classroom of pre-first grade. As time went on, more modular partitions were added to create five open areas.

During the 1992-1993 school year an addition was completed, enlarging the LMC and main office, adding more classroom space, creating a computer lab and also replacing the coat and boot cubbies with small meeting/class rooms. Lockers were installed in the hallways.

In the fall of 2001 all district kindergartners started attending classes at the Cardinal building. The third graders attended the Briggs site. Cardinal housed five classes of kindergarten and two of first, second, fourth, fifth grade. Six classes for students with special education needs were also at Cardinal. During the 2001-2002 school year plans were developed for transition of the Cardinal building as the district PK-2 site.

On May 28, 2002, the move was made between buildings – student and teacher desks, filing cabinets, computers, and truckloads of boxes of teaching materials were transported and relocated. Lower-grade teachers and associates settled in their “new” rooms at Cardinal, while upper-grade staff moved into Briggs. Now all public schoolchildren have the opportunity to have “ownership” in all four of our district’s attendance centers.

Thanks to a committed Board of Education and acquisition of a “Harkin Demonstration Construction” Grant, additional classroom spaces and student and staff restrooms were built adjoining the 1992 addition. Occupation of the new wing took place on December 10, 2003.

Mission Statement

Partners in Education…Families, Community, and Staff Developing the Future