SARTELL - The Sartell-St. Stephen school district is launching a study on how to upgrade its buildings in order to accommodate continued enrollment growth.

The school board approved the hiring of architects to study district needs during their board meeting on Monday night. Sartell-St. Stephen Superintendent Jeff Schwiebert says the architects will work together with a community group to plan for the future.

The group is expected to have between 50-100 community members. The architects hired for the study are IIW Minnesota and the Cuningham Group. It's the same team working on potentially building a new Tech High School and upgrades to Apollo High School in St. Cloud. The study will cost the district around $62,000. If the study turns out well and if the district keeps the architect group, almost $50,000 would be given back to the district.

Schwiebert says the district may decide to remodel facilities or add more buildings. If buildings need to be added, it would require a public referendum vote.

Sartell has seen its enrollment nearly double over the last 10 years. Schwiebert says the district had around 2,000 students in 1999 and is now approaching the 3,800-4,000 student range.

All four of the schools in the district are dealing with shortages in space, including the middle and high school, and Oak Ridge and Pine Meadow Elementary.

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