District 742 to Get $15 Million for Improvements to Apollo High School

(KNSI) — Apollo High School is getting around $15 million in improvements after a unanimous vote by the school board on Wednesday night.

District 742 approved bonding for the money and will pay it back over the next 20 years at $1,150,000 annually. The project will cost the owner of a $250,000 home about $25 a year. School Board Vice Chair Al Dahlgren called for the vote and told KNSI news the district chose to borrow the money because “We decided as a board that right now is not the time to come forward looking for a building improvement referendum. So we thought a better way to do this would be to take some of those items that need repair work and issue bonds.”

Dahlgren explained that at some point, the board would need a referendum to bring Apollo into parity with St. Cloud Tech High School, “But in the meantime, we don’t want to let Apollo fall apart. So we want to take care of those maintenance issues that need to be taken care of. And the only way that we can afford to do the larger ones was through the issuance of bonds.”

The district sets aside about $8 million a year for basic maintenance and repairs, but the work at Apollo is far above what is budgeted.

All of the items were in the district’s ten-year long-term improvement plan. The repairs include improvements to the HVAC system, roof repairs, painting, flooring, door and window replacements, new lockers, theater seating, remodeling for single-user restrooms and other long-term repairs.

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