St. Cloud district unveils $50 million plan to remodel Apollo High School, add storm shelter and CTE spaces

Apollo High School leaders and architects presented the board with detailed plans for what they described as a roughly $50,000,000 investment in the 55‑year‑old building, emphasizing flexible, future‑ready learning spaces intended to serve students for decades.

"It is our honor to be here today and this is a culmination of a lot of time and planning and work," Apollo Principal Justin Scalarude said at the start of the presentation, which the architects framed around keeping the learner at the center of decisions.

Architects from JLG outlined a multi‑part project that includes a new, more visible main entry and welcome center, infilling the existing courtyard to expand the commons, an activities entrance, and an addition to raise the canopy and provide warmer interior materials and natural daylight. The team proposed suspending and displaying the Apollo capsule in the new entry as a brand element and adding a monument sign and wayfinding on 4th Street NW to clarify vehicular and visitor circulation.

The site plan also calls for athletic reconfiguration: reorienting and upgrading fields (converting the existing junior varsity facilities to appropriately fitted varsity and JV fields), adding dugouts, bullpens and batting cages, and reconfiguring some south‑side fields to support a multipurpose athletic center.

Inside the building, the design replaces fixed, sloped lecture halls and poured‑in seating in band and choir rooms with level floors and movable risers; adds an ensemble practice room, instrument storage and a dedicated scene shop; and reconfigures the media center into flexible labs. Proposed flex spaces include culinary, communications (yearbook/photo/video), computer science and maker labs oriented with glazing so student work is visible to passersby.

The Career and Technical Education (CTE) wing would be reworked to increase visibility and industry relevance: a CNA (certified nursing assistant) lab, an EMT/EMR lab with an exterior ambulance bay suitable for mock response drills, an adjacent demo lab for presentations and employer events, and a makerspace that could house 3‑D printers and prototyping equipment. Architects said the ambulance may need modification to enter service bays and that some door heights and mechanical elevations constrain certain equipment, but they proposed workarounds.

A new, single‑court gym designed as a FEMA‑type multipurpose storm shelter was described in detail: the shelter is a self‑contained box with toilets and independent plumbing and is designed to remain operational for at least two hours if the surrounding building is damaged. Architects explained the shelter's exterior massing will be scaled and finished to match the campus palette while preserving its code‑mandated robustness.

Other program changes include an expanded food‑service operation with four serving lines, relocated concessions to relieve the main entrance, expanded locker rooms (reconfiguring three existing locker rooms into four independently accessed locker rooms with individual showers), an improved training room and expanded Eagle Pantry space for student supports. The music and theater spaces completed last summer will be further upgraded with more storage, practice rooms, and improved acoustics and safety.

Board members questioned operational details: how exterior doors and restroom vestibules will be controlled during school hours, alarm options to detect unauthorized exits, and how the storm‑shelter toilets and ventilation will function independently. Architects and administration explained electronic door controls, alarm triggers, and design measures to allow limited public access to the gym and restrooms without admitting people to the rest of the school.

During public and board Q&A, members raised design and programming questions, including exterior concrete staining/appearance, opportunities to use the district pond and outdoor spaces for experiential learning, and whether veterinary, dental or allied health pathways could be accommodated in future iterations. District officials said pathway decisions would be coordinated with post‑secondary and industry partners and that some flex labs are being roughed in with utilities so future sinks or equipment can be added.

What happens next: the presentation was informational; architects said user‑group input and finance committee feedback had already shaped current drawings. The board did not take formal action on the project at the Oct. 1 meeting; staff noted prior design committee and finance committee reviews and that final scopes will depend on budget and board decisions to follow.