District Working Toward Referendum for Apollo Remodel

ST. CLOUD -- Apollo High School could soon be getting a bit of a face-lift.

On Wednesday night, the St. Cloud Area School District 742 school board approved preliminary contracts with JLG Architects and ICS Consulting to begin work on project proposals for renovations to the high school. Both companies worked on the construction of the new Tech High School.

Executive Director of Finance and Business Services Amy Skaalerud says the two contracts work differently.

The architect is a percent-based contract and so it’s based on a percent of construction costs. The proposal that’s up for approval tonight equates to 5.5 percent. The second is for the construction manager. That is a fixed fee, so it’s not a percentage. We don’t want that tied to construction costs.

The district is looking to get a referendum on the ballot in November, but the final cost is still up in the air. Skaalerud says getting the school updated has been a concern for a number of years, and the goal is to make the high school experience more uniform across the district.

To be able to have the same access and opportunity for 21st-century learning, flexible learning, CTE spaces, all of that so that we have those resources available and those benefits available to all of our students.

Project proposals are expected to be completed in early 2020, and the board will then be bringing them to the community for their input.

Apollo was built in 1970 and had additions built on in 1984 and 1990. Previous referendums to renovate the school failed in 2015 and 2016.