by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Should a new St. Cloud high school be constructed? Should the current Apollo High School undergo major improvements?
Those are two related ballot questions voters in the St. Cloud School District will be asked to decide in the Tuesday, Nov. 8, general election. An informational meeting about the proposals will be discussed at a public meeting from 7-8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1, at Apollo High School’s Resource Center. A building tour of the school will follow the presentation.
A new high school, if approved, would accommodate up to 1,600 students and would be built at a site along 33rd Street S. in St. Cloud.
It will be the second time in two years voters have been asked to approve school referendums. The last one proposed was defeated in November. It called for a new high school and other projects for a total of $160 million, but voters rejected it on a vote of 8,460 to 7,393.
Planning groups and the school board then re-examined options. In late July of this year, the school board approved placing another referendum on the ballot for Nov. 8. This one involves two questions. The first calls for $104.5 million for a new high school. The second asks for $38.8 million for major renovation projects at Apollo High School.
For the second question to become a reality, voters must approve the first question. However, voters could still approve Question 1 but not Question 2, and Question 1 (building of a new high school) could still happen.
The total cost of both questions is $143.3 million, which is about $16.7 million less than the 2015 bond proposal that was rejected.
Here are the two referendum questions as they will appear, word for word, on the Nov. 8 election ballot:
Question 1:
Shall the school board of Independent School District No. 742 (St. Cloud Area Public Schools) be authorized to issue its general-obligation school-building bonds in an amount not to exceed $104,500,000 to provide funds for the acquisition and betterment of a school site and school facilities, including reimbursement for the acquisition of land previously purchased for the school site, and the construction and equipping of a new Tech High School facility?
Question 2:
If School District Question 1 is approved, shall the school board of Independent School District No. 742 (St. Cloud Area Public Schools) also be authorized to issue its general-obligation school-building bonds in an amount not to exceed $38,750,000 to provide funds for the repair, renovation, equipping, upgrading and construction of improvements to the existing Apollo High School site and facility?
Tax impact
According to calculations by the referendum organizers, approval of the referendum would mean, on average, a homeowner who has a house worth $150,000 would see a property-tax increase of $12.99 per month until the bond is paid off – or $155.88 per year.
Why?
Advocates of the bond issue have long said Tech High School in south St. Cloud, built in 1917, has many health-and-safety risks to students and staff, besides structural problems that would have to be fixed at considerable costs. Renovating Tech up to standards would cost more than building a new high school, advocates maintain.
If the referendum is approved, Tech High School could be used for school-district offices and a welcome center, as well as for some additional learning spaces for Apollo students.
Apollo High School, built in 1969, is inadequate for the kinds of flexible learning that has become – and continues to be – so different from the learning modes of years ago, back in the 20th century, according to the referendum backers. That is why, they say, Apollo is badly in need of repairs, renovations, new equipment, upgrading and structural improvements.
For more about the bond proposal, see the St. Cloud School District website at isd742.org.
