St. Cloud District 742 Working on Timeline For Apollo Projects

Earlier this month voters approved a pair of referendum questions. Question #1 asked for $50 million to make updates to Apollo High School including a safe and secure entrance, a storm shelter/gymnasium, fire safety upgrades, science labs, fine arts programming, among other improvements. Question #2 asked for $15 million to build an indoor multipurpose athletic facility on the Apollo campus with a full-size turf field and a walking track.

St. Cloud School Superintendent Laurie Putnam joined me on WJON.  She says they are excited to move ahead with the construction of both projects.  Putnam indicates numerous meetings will take place to bring together Apollo staff, St. Cloud police, and the community.  She says they don't want to waste anytime so they are starting this process immediately.

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Putnam says they don't have a date for breaking ground on either project but did expect the process to construct the multipurpose athletic facility would start either this fall or winter.  She says construction crews could continue work through the winter with a possible opening in the summer of 2026.  Putnam expects parking to be added to the facility to the east of where the facility will be built on the southside of the Apollo campus near Veterans Drive.  She says permits need to be pulled for these construction projects and that process can be lengthy.  Putnam says a team from District 742 will be visiting the multipurpose facility in Rogers, that's about to open to learn more about what they could construct here.

Putnam acknowledges when the work begins on the question 1 construction, there will be impacts on students/staff while school is in session.  She doesn't have a firm date as to when that work will begin.  Putnam expects to know more about construction timelines within the next few weeks.

If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Laurie Putnam, it is available below.