Building History and Use
Irondale High School in New Brighton, MN, has served the Mounds View Public Schools community since 1967. One of two high schools in District 621, Irondale enrolls more than 1,800 students in grades 9–12 and offers a notably broad academic program, including Minnesota’s first comprehensive Early College program, which allows students to earn college credits while completing their high school requirements. U.S. News and World Report has consistently ranked Irondale among Minnesota’s top high schools.
The school’s size and breadth of programming make it one of the district’s most energy-intensive buildings, and a natural candidate for infrastructure investment that can meaningfully reduce long-term operating costs. With aging HVAC systems across much of the district’s portfolio forcing difficult facility decisions, Mounds View Public Schools identified Irondale as a priority for the kind of generational infrastructure upgrade that geothermal is particularly well suited to deliver.
Why Geothermal?
For a building serving more than 1,800 students across a complex year-round program, the mechanical system is a critical operational asset. The question was not just what system could do the job, but what system could do the job most efficiently for the next 30 years.
Geothermal answered that question on multiple fronts. It reduces dependence on non-renewable fuel sources, improves long-term building performance, and generates ongoing operational savings that compound over time. The system supplements Irondale’s existing heating and cooling infrastructure rather than replacing it outright, allowing the district to improve efficiency at a scale appropriate to the building’s demands without a wholesale mechanical overhaul.
At 1,106 tons of cooling and 2,916 MBH heating delivered through seven wells, the Irondale installation is by far the largest of the three geothermal projects Mounds View Public Schools completed as part of this initiative, alongside Highview Middle School and Pinewood Elementary. The combined savings across all three are significant, and Irondale’s system represents the majority of that capacity, and the majority of what makes this initiative notable.
Design and Construction
The Mounds View School Board approved the Irondale geothermal project in August 2024, with installation beginning that summer and continuing into the fall. Seven wells access the aquifer beneath the Irondale campus, delivering 2,916 MBH heating and 1,106 tons cooling, making the system one of the highest-capacity single-building geothermal installations in Darcy’s portfolio and one of the largest geothermal systems serving any school in Minnesota.
Wold Architects and Engineers provided architectural and engineering services for the project, as they did across all three Mounds View geothermal installations. The geothermal approach at Irondale has firmly positioned the building for decades of efficient, lower-cost operation.
Setting a Standard for K-12 Geothermal
Irondale High School is now one of the largest schools in Minnesota tempered by geothermal energy. That distinction matters not just for the building’s operating costs and environmental footprint, but because it shows that groundwater geothermal is not a niche solution for small or new buildings. It is a proven, scalable technology capable of meeting the heating and cooling demands of a 1,800-student high school with complex programming and year-round facility use.
Mounds View Public Schools is emerging as one of the metro area’s leading districts in geothermal adoption, and Irondale is the clearest proof point yet that the technology belongs in the conversation for any district evaluating its next generation of facility investments.
