It took 35 years to get a public school back in Victoria.   It's a significant breakthrough.  It's an achievement that permits further progress in building identity for the community, not to mention educational opportunities on our very own front stoop.
On Thursday, June 3rd, 2004, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the newest elementary school to be built in District #112.  The Victoria Elementary School will be located just south of Deer Run and Lake Wasserman. 
The open site is impressive and expansive.  Its horizon is lined today as far as the eye can see with mature trees and ponds, even a couple barns.  Tomorrow it will also be lined with hundreds of homes and big orange school buses.
Important people with megaphones and titles took turns saying important things to other important people at the groundbreaking event.  Many of them were propped with shovels and hardhats.  The sunglasses were not for stage and show, however, on this bright day as groundbreakers basked in the glory and story of a new school.
One may have thought the story ended long ago for Victoria, like around 1970.  Prior to 1970 the city had a bustling Main Street and two schools.  Then the schools became ghosts and Main Street became full of chuckholes. 
The old St. Victoria School, a brick two-story building, was located adjacent to the Catholic church on Victoria Drive.  Benedictine sisters taught the eight grades and supplied music for Sunday Mass.  It took 30 years to get a Catholic school back in Victoria.
The old Victoria Public School, a wood two-story structure, is still a landmark at 1600 Arboretum Boulevard.  In its very early years, women teachers were not allowed to be married.  For a while it included two years of high school as well as the elementary grades.
Both Victoria schools and most downtown businesses (including grocery store, meat market, hardware stores, blacksmith shop, equipment dealership, repair shops, creamery, feedmill) vanished with the sale of 3,300 acres of populated farmland that were subsequently devel-oped into Carver Park.  The City of Victoria became, almost literally, a town of three bars and two churches.
Who could have predicted that three decades later there would be a resurgence of energy and vitality in Victoria!  Who would have predicted this rebirth of both schools and business?
Holy Family Catholic High School arrived at Diethelm Park in 2000.  Main Street Victoria got dressed up in 2003.  Victoria Elementary School will arrive in 2005.  It is a significant and magnificent breakthrough for the people of Victoria.

If there are roughly 1,700 families in Victoria today, then there are roughly 3,000 kids in Victoria today.  Says Gina Holman, three-year resident at Allegheny Grove, "I bet there are 300 kids in our neighborhood alone!"
Gina and husband Dave have three children:  Victoria, 7; Mitchell, 4; and Joey, 16 months.  Getting a school close to home was so important for their family that Gina served as co-chair last fall of the Citizens Campaign for the District 112 Referendum.
That successful referendum meant there would be close to $55 million for new school space in the large district, a district that encompasses Chanhassen, Chaska, Carver, and East Union as well as Victoria. 
Roughly $40 million is for a new wing at the Chaska High School, while $14 to $15 million will build the Victoria Elementary School, the fifth elementary school in District 112.  It was a lot of money to ask for, but 4,000 district voters approved the request.  There were 2,000 voters who cast their ballots against the referendum.
"Our committee worked from June, 2003, until November, 2003," said Gina.  "It was an incredible group.  Our biggest job was keeping everyone organized and on task and getting information out there so people would vote."

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