St. Cloud Superintendent Addresses Incident at Tech Graduation

Tech and Apollo celebrated the graduation of more that 750 students Saturday but a fight that broke out near the end of the Tech ceremony is garnering attention.  St. Cloud School Superintendent Laurie Putnam joined me on WJON.  She says there is video of the incident at the end of the Tech ceremony that she has seen.  St. Cloud Police are investigating the incident and they have indicated to her that the individuals involved were adults in the audience.   Putnam says they take this very seriously and encourage anyone with information about this incident to contact St. Cloud Police.

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Putnam says it is unfortunate that "we're talking about stupid behavior by adults rather than the success and accomplishments of the more than 750 graduates".  She commends the efforts of District 742 Administrators Justin Skaalerud and Joel Heitkamp for their quick actions to help break up the fight.

Putnam Proud of Graduates

Putnam says the student speakers talked about resilience and their challenges with dealing with COVID while they were middle schoolers.  She says she is "really proud of them" in referring to the graduates.

Apollo Referendum Construction Plans

Two Apollo referendum questions passed in April and Putnam says preparations have been underway to move forward with the construction.  She says the storm shelter has to be done first before they can complete the secure entrance.  Putnam says staff is working on securing the specifics and bids before work can get underway.  The plans for the indoor athletic complex, that will be build on the southwest corner of the Apollo campus, is underway.  Putnam says the team went on tours in Mankato and New Ulm to look at similar facilities.  She says the design planning process is underway.

Tech Wins Award

Tech High School was the winner of the Office of Education FAFSA challenge competition.  Tech had the highest overall FAFSA completion rate in the large school category in the state.  Apollo finished 3rd.

Crush Baseball Player Receives Honor

Tech senior baseball player Drew Leiser was named as a player who can participate in the Minnesota Twins community fund All Star Series this summer.

If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Laurie Putnam, click below.