 With growing school enrollment across the Bemidji area, St. Philip's School is looking to meet to expand to meet the growing demand. Josh Peterson shows us how the school's campus will complement the neighborhood. For a school that has stood the test of time, the neighborhood that surrounds St. Philip's School in Bemidji has seen many changes. And now more changes are just around the corner as the school looks to expand. When we look back historically, our school has always had between 5 and 5.2 percent of what the public school system has in the same grade level. And so knowing that Bemidji is growing, we have to anticipate that for ourselves also. Four new classrooms will provide more than just classroom space. The design will allow the new structure to be multi-use, helping both the school and the church. This plan to add on four classrooms, which should take us seven to ten years into the future before something else may have to be done. And by then, who knows how big Bemidji will be. While the staff is excited to have more teaching space, the students who will be using the new classrooms are equally excited. Our kids are very excited. Our third and fourth grade is the classrooms that are going to be going out into the new building. And they are very excited about that opportunity to have new classrooms. The plan is to use the current storage building and expand the structure for the new classroom space. But it will have a different look than its neighboring structure. As St. Philip's school grows and develops into a campus, its new structures will be designed to complement the surrounding neighborhood. The exterior of the new classroom space and its new storage buildings will look similar to St. Philip's clothing depot across the street, so that it can continue to blend in to the neighborhood. We're very aware that we're downtown. We're very aware that we're in a neighborhood. And we want to make sure that the neighborhood can be very comfortable with us as good neighbors. With only the weather holding up the project, third and fourth grade students at St. Philip's are expected to attend class in their new space next school year. In Bemidji, Josh Peterson, Lakeland News. School staff hopes to break ground for the expansion in early May, and the new building is expected to be completed in late August, just in time for the school year. If all goes well. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.