Community celebrates Berg Middle School groundbreaking

On a warm, sunny morning at Berg Middle School, dozens of Newtonians gathered Friday to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new Berg building.

Newton Community School District administrative staff and board members, city leaders, elected officials, construction and bond committee members, and more showed up for the ceremony. Todd Berg, who is the grandson of the school's namesake B.C. Berg, journeyed from Wisconsin to be part of the groundbreaking.

B.C. began his 37-year career as superintendent for Newton's schools in 1922, according to the Newton Alumni Association. His grandson said it was great to be at the groundbreaking. B.C. strongly believed in education, Todd said, and the family is happy the name will remain.

FRK Architects and Engineers, which designed the new building was represented in addition to Hansen Company, Inc., which is taking on the construction project.

Before ceremonious shovels dug into the earth just north of the current Berg building, Superintendent Bob Callaghan introduced many of the influential people who made the project possible. The future of Newton's educational process is going to be in good hands inside the new Berg, he said.

“This building is going to be futuristic,” Callaghan said. “There's a learning environment that's a cooperative learning environment outside of all the classrooms. It's going to have light, airy spaces.”

Callaghan also thanked the community. Last September, about 2,900 residents voted in a school election, and 66 percent of voters supported a bond measure of nearly $27 million to fund the new Berg.

“Congratulations to our community,” Callaghan said. “We believe this building will be able to take care of our most precious resource for the next 50 to 100 years to come.”

Contact Justin Jagler at 641-792-3121 ext 6532 or jjagler@newtondailynews.com