area education

With a $167 million referendum fast approaching, more details are emerging for a new Tech and updated Apollo High School in St. Cloud. The most recent updated plans of both buildings were presented on Wednesday afternoon. The proposed new Tech High School would be 360,000 square feet and would hold up to 1,800 students.

Area Catholic schools are using Pope Francis' visit to the United States this week as an opportunity to teach their students about him and his messages. Both Cathedral High School in St. Cloud and Saint Johns Prep have been showing students video clips of the Pope speaking during classes.

Several weeks into the new school year, the St. Cloud area school district is still experiencing a shortage of school bus drivers. There are around 9,000 students that the district buses to and from school every day. Four independent school bus operators serve the district.

A St. Cloud State building is celebrating a big birthday this year. For the past 100 years, Shoemaker Hall has been home for students at the University. Dan Pedersen, director of residential life, says current and former students and employees will gather together to celebrate the birthday on Saturday.

The St. Cloud area school district is budgeting just over $66 million over the next 10 years for health, safety and maintenance. The plan included expenditures for district health and safety projects, totaling $66,300,000 for the next 10 years.

Fifth grade students at Talahi Community School took part in a kindness and leadership retreat on Friday. Youth Frontiers is a nonprofit organization that led the retreat. Jean Culp is a retreat staff member and says the goal was to create a more positive school community.

This week, WJON is featuring several area superintendents to highlight their school district before the 2015-2016 school year kicks off. Today, we highlight Willie Jett, superintendent of St. Cloud area schools. Jett became superintendent in 2013.

With classes starting on Monday, the St. Cloud area school district recently launched a more user friendly website for students and their families. District 742 director of community engagement and communications Tami DeLand says they revamped the site after community complaints about the previous version being difficult to navigate.

This week, WJON is featuring several area superintendents to highlight their school district before the 2015-2016 school year kicks off. Today, we highlight Jeff Schwiebert, superintendent of Sartell-St. Stephen schools. Schwiebert became superintendent last year.

This week, WJON is featuring several area superintendents to highlight their school district before the 2015-2016 school year kicks off. Today, we highlight Dan Bittman, superintendent of Sauk Rapids-Rice schools. Bittman became superintendent back in 2010.