(KNSI) — A tired but thrilled St. Cloud Area School District Superintendent, Dr. Laurie Putnam, expressed relief and excitement Wednesday morning over the 62% voter approval for renovating Apollo High School.
“It still gives me chills because I know that this is something that people in the community have been working on for over a decade now, and so I just was so grateful that these pieces can finally be put into place for our community on the north side. And truly, with the addition of question two, there are pieces of this for everybody in the community.”
Fifty million dollars will be used for safety improvements such as fire suppression upgrades and secure entrances. Putnam tells KNSI News she feels very responsible for the safety of every student and staff member and is relieved that Apollo will be as safe and secure as the rest of the district. With the build out, the offices, school resource officer, athletic director and principals will be up front. “About 90 to 95% of all guest business can be done right in that area, and they don’t even have to go into the learning community.”
Once cleared for entry, those who do need to be inside will be greeted with natural light rather than the 1970s concrete structure. Plans call for a courtyard with elevated ceilings. Putnam says they won’t have full glass like St. Cloud Tech, but there will be some glass for improved visibility.
The referendum would allow the district to expand its career and technology education courses and add advanced career pathway classes as it prepares the next generation of workers for in-demand career fields. “I would not have guessed that generative AI would be as an emerging and important career field as it is today, so in ten years, we’ll be able to adjust without having to come back to the voters, because the facility will be designed flexibly.”
The science labs will be updated for the first time since 1969 because some learning couldn’t happen due to the outdated gas hookups and electricity infrastructure. Technical education classrooms would be beefed up for automotive and mechanics programming, computer stations, and a health care lab.
A new storm shelter was also needed for the building after the code changed for our area. The shelter will be large enough to hold the entire 1,600 person school population, but most of the time, it will function as a space for phy ed classes. Putnam explains, “We’ll have a rubberized mat so that it can be used for wrestling, dance, and this will be lined for pickleball and tennis, which, again, will be not only useful to our students but to the community, because we know that those are high demand activities. Now our community will be able to at least have access to a couple indoor courts that are relatively affordable compared to some other facilities.”
The second question on the ballot was for $15 million to build a new indoor multipurpose athletic facility. Fifty four percent of voters said yes to that. Dr. Putnam says the exciting part is figuring out what exactly will be included. “Now we get to work with our community, students and staff and families to build out from the conceptual designs what it will really look like. We do know that that will include a full size turf soccer field, and it’ll be lined for lacrosse, and softball. We’ll be able to have two whole games of softball in there at the same time, which is incredible to me. It’ll have a walking track around the outside. There will be golf simulators that will be accessible to our student athletes and the community. It’ll have some changing rooms, storage, [and] a secure check in area. So those are things we’re certain about, but what seating looks like and how big that walking track is; those are some things that have yet to get decided in partnership with our community.”
Aside from her excitement and gratitude, she says the students on the north and south sides were thrilled about the renovations and that they would be coming to fruition.
Next comes the groundbreaking, which will happen at a date to be announced later.
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