St. Cloud School Superintendent Explains Ballot Questions
St. Cloud School District 742 will have 2 questions posed to voters on April 8, 2025. St. Cloud School Superintendent Laurie Putnam joined me on WJON. She says the 2 questions approved by the board last week are $50 Million to provide safety upgrades at Apollo High School and a multi purpose athletic facility on the Apollo campus.
Putnam indicates Apollo is the one school in the district that does not have a safe entrance. She explains building codes have changed for new construction and now a storm shelter is required. Putnam says the requirement of a storm shelter adds significant cost to the construction bill. The storm shelter would double as a multi-purpose facility, will have rubber flooring, could be used for physical education classes and adaptive sports. Putnam says this facility would also be available for the community to rent. She says the upgrades to Apollo, if this question passes, will allow Apollo to offer the same or similar learning opportunities to Tech High School. The cost per average home price in St. Cloud would be about $28 a year or $3.33 a month.
Putnam says the reason for question #2 came from the community requesting a multi-purpose indoor athletic facility. This indoor facility could be used for soccer, softball, football, and lacrosse. It would also have an indoor walking track around it. Putnam says the facility would also be available to rent for the community. The cost of this construction would be $15 Million. The cost per average home price in St. Cloud would be $2.81 a year. If passed this athletic facility would be built on the south end of the Apollo campus near Veterans Drive.
If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Laurie Putnam, it is available below.
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