by Logan Gruber
operations@thenewsleaders.com
Voters rejected the St. Cloud Area School District’s $167 million bond referendum Nov. 3.
In unofficial results, with 13 out of 17 polling places reporting, the bond was defeated 8,289 to 7,261 votes, or 53.31 percent to 46.69 percent as of press time on Wednesday morning. Locally, voters at Colts Academy defeated the bond 784 to 685 votes, while at St. John’s University the bond was favored 74 to 45.
At a town hall meeting on the issue, it was noted if the referendum did not pass, Technical High School will need some extensive repairs. The biggest repairs needed at Tech, if the referendum were not to pass, would be the HVAC system, plumbing, the roof, the electrical system and accessibility or the distance between classes. It was noted the cost to bring Tech up to code, not to upgrade anything would be $140 million which could be spread over 10 years.
Tech is currently 98 years old, while Apollo is 45 years old. The average building age in the district is 40.
If the vote had been approved, the referendum would have funded:
- Acquisition of land and construction of a new Tech High School on 33rd Street S. in St. Cloud, totaling $113.8 million.
- Renovation of Apollo High School and site upgrades, totaling $46.5 million.
- Upgrades for safe entrances and enhanced security at all schools in the district, totaling $2.5 million.
- Upgrades to technology infrastructure and devices for anytime/anywhere access to learning, totaling $4.2 million.
This is Technical High School as it stands currently.
