Boys Town is looking forward to a brand-new school for its students.
The cinder-block walls of the former school building, which was built in the 1940s, were so thick that Wi-Fi wouldn’t work. The building had outlived its useful life and needed to be leveled, said Lindsay Meier, Boys Town’s school superintendent.
The groundbreaking for the new school building took place on the site of the old one in September 2021. This July, Meier will get the keys to the school, and teachers will start to familiarize themselves with the building soon thereafter.
The 120,000-square-foot Boys Town Education Center will serve up to 600 students in grades 4 through 12. Private donors generously provided the majority of funds for the $46.5 million project. An additional $10 million came from the Nebraska Department of Economic Development (DED) through the State of Nebraska’s Building Mental Health Treatment Facilities Program. The Nebraska Legislature appropriated a total of $40 million for the Treatment Facilities program, which is funded by the Coronavirus Fiscal Recovery Fund authorized by the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
“Boys Town is a haven of care and beacon of hope for youth who’ve dealt with adversity,” said Trevon Brooks, DED’s chief strategy officer. “The team at Boys Town deserves first-class facilities to carry out their noble work of inspiring students to reach their full potential. It’s gratifying to see donors generously support Boys Town’s new building, and DED is grateful to contribute to its construction.”
MCL Construction is the project’s general contractor. Omaha-based architecture firm DLR, which designed the building, “shadowed kids and actually went through what a day in the life looks like for a kid that goes to school at Boys Town,” Meier said. “They really wanted to make sure that they were taking into account all of the specific needs that our kiddos come to us with here.”
Sixty percent of the students on Boys Town’s home campus near 144th Street and West Dodge Road receive special education services through Individualized Education Plans. “It could be because they’re behind because they have had something that’s impacted them and not allowed them to access their education, it could be moving from foster care to foster care to foster care,” Meier said.
The new school building will include extra space within classrooms as well as dedicated areas for small group learning and one-on-one instruction. The building also is equipped with some respite rooms for teachers. Meier said the rooms will allow teachers to “regain their composure, and make sure that they’re taking care of themselves” before they return to the classroom to deal with challenging situations.
The building will have lots of natural light, Meier said, but it also will have lights that can be dimmed and lights that can change color for students who may have sensory disorders.
Meier, who came to Omaha from Denver Public Schools, noted that Boys Town educates youths who’ve experienced significant life challenges. “We’re serving kiddos who have just not had opportunities in the past,” she said. “And so I think for them to see that we as the adults on this campus are invested in them through this brand new building, through all these pieces, you know, I think that that’s a big deal.”