What a night to remember at Jim Gustafson Field! The Albert Lea High School Class of 2025—our 141st graduating class—crossed the stage and stepped boldly into their futures. We are so proud of everything our graduates have achieved and the challenges they’ve overcome. Thank you to our families, staff, and community members for supporting these outstanding students. Congratulations, Class of 2025—your adventure is just beginning!

Miss Sauer's seventh grade art class had the opportunity to learn how to needle felt for the first time this semester. Students designed their character from multiple views before construction began. A huge thank you to the Albert Lea Education Foundation for making this new project at Southwest Middle School possible! Featured student work: Say Nay M., Ferson E., Wendy K., Kiara P., and Ser T..

Thank you to Mr. Munyer who came in today to talk to our 6th grade Minnesota history students about the Civil War. He had many artifacts giving students hands on experience!

🚁 Take Flight with Discover Drones! 🚁 Curious about drones and how they work? Join us for Discover Drones, a hands-on summer camp where students will explore flight technology, build and pilot their own drones, and learn the science behind unmanned aerial systems! 📅 Dates: June 2nd – June 6th 🕘 Time: 9:00 AM – 12:00 Noon 📍 Location: Albert Lea High School, Room F203 This is an exciting opportunity for students to engage with STEM in a fun, dynamic way. Spaces are limited, so don’t wait! 👉 Sign up here: https://bit.ly/4m3SKBn

Come check out Southwest Middle School's spring play, "Murder at the Art Show." Date: Friday, May 2nd Time: 7:30pm Where: Southwest Little Theater Cost: $5 for Students and Adults

Southwest Middle School had their exploratory day pick'em event and fundraiser celebration at the end of the day today. Students met the goal of selling $15,000 worth of items so several teachers agreed to have the top three earners from each team pie them in the face. Since students sold over $22,000 worth of items the top earner from each grade was able to shave Principal Johnson's head.

Purple Day at Southwest Middle School in support of those living with epilepsy.

Great things going on in 6th grade Digital Citizenship and ArtFundamentals in 6th grade!

Southwest's Math Masters teams had a great time at their meet today in Austin! We had a team place 3rd and another place 5th. One student was the overall champion and multiple students placed in different categories. Thank you to Mrs. Hundley & Mrs. Weitzel for coaching our teams!

The blizzard can't stop our spring choir concert! Thank you, Ms. Bissen and the 6th and 7th grade choir groups for putting on a wonderful show!

The Broken Cheems were 1 of 54 middle school teams to compete at the MN State Robotics Competition. They played 8 qualifying rounds where they were ranked 14th out of 54! They were part of the first round of elimination matches, but they were unable to advance further in the competition. Great job to the Broken Cheems, and great job to all of the robotics students for this year as the season comes to a close.

After 1 day of competition at the state tournament, our Broken Cheems robotics team has a record of 1 win and 1 loss , and is currently ranked 9th overall out of 57 teams.  They have 6 more qualification matches today. Good luck!

Our students are watching the Tiger wrestling team at lunches today. Good Luck Wrestlers!

🚨 Exciting News! 🚨 The Southwest Middle School robotics team, The Broken Cheems , is heading to the VEX State Robotics Championship this Thursday and Friday in St. Cloud, Minnesota! 🎉🤖 Congratulations on this amazing achievement, and best of luck at state! We’re cheering you on! ❤️💙 #TigerPride #VEXRobotics #StateBound

We have a great staff at Southwest! Congratulations to all of our teachers who were nominated for Teacher of the Year!

The Broken Cheems punched their ticket to state today!!! They earned the Excellence Award and brought home some hardware for the middle school trophy case! 🎉🙌❤️💙

Southwest student council members went to Sibley elementary today to read in honor of I love to read month. Great opportunity for our students to show positive leadership!

The class of 2030 mural is completed! Thank you to Ms. Sauer and the students for completing this and in record time, it only took them 4 days!

Here are the expectations for the E-Learning day scheduled for tomorrow, January 21st.

Albert Lea Area Schools will be closed Tuesday, January 21st. All buildings will be closed. This is an E-learning day. Watch for messages to be sent by your school principal for e-Learning day instructions. After school activities will proceed as scheduled unless notified by a coach/advisor.