MANDAN, ND ( KXNET ) — Today marked an early wakeup call this morning for thousands of kids and teachers, as it was the first day of school in Mandan — and for those at Mandan High School, it was the first full day inside their new building.

Construction of the new 330,000-square-foot school is ongoing. This means that many teachers were acting as tour guides on the first day, reminding students where they needed to go in the three-story complex.

“This is really cool,” states the school’s Principal Mark Andresen. “There’s “OK, I’m lost, I’m scared,” you know, so there’s a lot of mixed emotions when you’re actually looking at the kids — but after the first couple of periods, I think the kids are going to settle down. Our teachers are doing a lot of way-finding with the kids, so they’re walking the building more, getting them acclimated to the facility.”

“Obviously,” states school senior Xavin Condon, “it’s still the same people and teachers, but the building is just so different. I wouldn’t say it feels anything like the old school to me at all. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Both.”

Andresen tells KX News the new shop classrooms aren’t finished just yet. That means shop and career tech students will be bused to the old high school for their classes until the new space is finished.

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