001safe and caring climate and culture in which we engage, inspire, educate, prepare, and empower all learners in partnership with their surrounding community to be successful in today's and tomorrow's society. Heather, can you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance of the stands nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. And then when you're ready, can you please call roll? >> The following board members are present at the district administration office. Gina >> here. Scott Andre >> here. >> Natalie Copeland here. >> Zack Dorhalt >> here. >> Diana Fenton >> here. >> Shannon Haw here. Heather Williams here. >> The following cabinet members and staff are present at the district administration office. Assistant superintendent of secondary education Dr. J. Jason Harris. Assistant superintendent of E5 Learning Nikki Hansen. Ex
002Executive Director of Community Education and Community Partnerships Shannon Avenson. Executive Director of Finance and Business Services Amy Scallarude. Executive Director of Innovation and Technology Services Katie Herbalt. Executive Director of Operations Matthew Buchet. Executive Director of Special Education Danny Mayer. Media Technicians Paul Novak and Gordy Scott. And the custodian on site is Em Emerson Beamer. >> Thank you. Then I'm looking for a motion to approve tonight's board of education meeting agenda. >> So move. >> Have a motion by Scott, a second by Natalie. Heather, can you call vote? >> Zack Dorhalt. Yes. >> Natalie Copeland. >> Yes. >> Diana Fenton. >> Yes. >> Shannon Hos. >> Yes. >> Scott Andre. >> Yes. >> Gina Evito. >> Yes. >> Heather Williams. Yes. >> And then we have the consent agenda. The consent agenda consists of non-controversial items
003the board adopts routinely without debate. Any single member may remove an item from the consent agenda by requesting removal at the time the consent agenda is moved for adoption. On tonight's consent agenda, item A, approval of board minutes, board meeting minutes from February 4th, 2026 and February 18th, 2026. Item B, approval of bills and other financial transactions in the grand total amount of 3,269,42210. Item C, approval of personnel staff changes. Item D, acceptance of grant awards and donations. Then item E, joint purchasing contract award, South Track resurfacing. At this time, does any board member wish to remove an item from the consent agenda? Okay, seeing no removal. Looking for a motion to approve the consent agenda as read. >> So move. >> Have a motion by Scott, a second by Natalie. Heather, can you call
004vote? >> Heather Williams, yes. Shannon Hos, >> yes. >> Diana Fenton, >> yes. Zack Dorhold, >> yes. >> Natalie Copeland, >> yes. >> Scott Andre, >> yes. Gina Aso. >> Yes. >> All right. Thank you. Uh first up we are information items tonight. We have an Apollo building project update. Um here to present this is David Leupold and Whitney Lockheed with JLG Architects and Justin Scallerude Apollo High School principal. Welcome. We're excited to hear what's going on. just once. Okay. Yeah, I think. >> All right. Good evening, Assistant Superintendent Hansen, board chair Hos, members of the board. Uh, thank you for the introduction. I'm Justin Sculler, principal at Apollo High School. Um, really tonight, we're excited to share our construction updates and where we are with the project. Uh, it's really hard to believe that,
005uh, here we are March 18th. A year ago, we were talking about the the referendum election that was happening on April 8th and the work that's been accomplished in less than a year uh to get us to the point to show a lot of new images tonight and and really start to get a picture of where we're going with the future of Apollo and what the future of education can look like for the students of IC742. So, I'm going to turn it over to David and Whitney and uh we can go ahead and get started. The first slide is actually mine. um you've seen this before and I think it's important to start uh our conversation tonight with talking about this and and talking about future ready learning because that's really what everything we share
006tonight is all about. Um what this opportunity uh to create a space at Apollo that will be utilized for our students for uh opportunities for students at tech and opportunity opportunities for our community members. Thank you and what we can do with this great opportunity. So when we're talking about future ready learning, we want to look at how we can take knowledge uh how we can transmit knowledge, students can gain knowledge and look at a modern learner today, but also think about what that might look like in the future. um working with our community partners, working with our state standards, working with our teachers and our curriculum directors to talk about the skills that students need and then also inserting character development and what a future workforce or someone that's going to be part of
007that needs to be um you know when they graduate from Apollo or Tech or from McKinley or adult basic education. uh what are those skills that they need uh when they go out and get those jobs in our community hopefully in our community and uh giving back um to St. Cloud area. Our instructional vision and this is the same at Apollo this is the same at tech is student center learning focusing on the learner focusing on um what they need and what they need to be able to learn at the highest level possible. When we're doing that, we want to think about what that's going to look like, as I mentioned, today, but also taking this opportunity we have to do this renovation and what we can do to create a space that can be
008used for many, many, many years to come. And then in that space, what does assessment look like? We've had some changes in assessment at the high school. We talk about 8020 grading and really wanting to make sure that a grade reflects what a student knows, but what are the ways that we're assessing what that looks like? Our students really want to learn with their hands. Students want the ability to show what they know in different ways. And one way that we can do that is provide spaces that makes that possible for our students. >> So where are we now? Um most of you know that we have started construction on the EMR EMT lab. Um we started some >> You're on. >> Am I on? Okay. Should I talk closer? >> Um okay, that's better.
009It says four to 6 in though. Um so the EMT EMR lab has started construction. Um we've awarded uh contracts to the pre-cast supplier and as a reminder we had to do that so that we can get um permitting and plan review underway for the storm shelter and meet our starting um timeline of August of 26. Um the design team is continuing to review our construction documents um completing those for the remainder of the project so that we can issue that here um towards the end of the month. We did choose to um put a future bid package out there for the site specifically related to the activities and fields. We've been doing some site programming districtwide to determine how to best utilize resources across both tech and Apollo. And so we're still working through
010that. Um, we've also started identifying furniture and equipment as part of the programming process. Um, Apollo has purchased a lot of that, but we are creating new spaces that require different furniture and new equipment. So, we're starting that process and we'll pick that up heavily in the fall once um staff is back in the building. Um, David, >> we went over some of this the last time we were in front of you and we talked about one of the challenges with the Apollo site is um creating wayfinding. How do you find the right way to get into the site? And with the with the stoplight there, a lot of times people think this is where I should enter. And if a visitor enters there, they're in trouble because now they have to go against the
011grain to get back to the front door. Plus, the front door is a little hard to find. So part of what we've done is as you approach the building, you're generally going to be approaching it from veterans on 44th from the south or you're going to be approaching it from the intersection between 15 and 44th. And so working with the city, we're adding some signage around the building that helps direct visitors to the right place. It's takes them from when they get onto the site, they see, okay, go forward, go straight, go turn. When they get to the light, it tells them where to go. The other thing that is complicating things a little bit at Apollo is the entrance is set so far back. You've actually got building out front. The entrance is back.
012And you'll see later how we're trying to work with that problem with a monument sign. So once people get to the site, then they can see where they're going to go. They can tell where they're going to turn. This is further complicated by Apex being added to the site because now where do you want to enter for Apex? Where do you park for that? So we'll have signage that will help people when they get to the site. plenty of advanced notice because of the street signs that are going to be added by the city. And then once we get onto the site, we are also having a couple of new monument signs being added at each of the two entrances that will direct people once they get to the site. So you've now found your
013way to the right entrance. You pulled on the right entrance. Now what do you do? Well, if you come to that entrance that's on the south side off 44th, you go straight ahead for Apex or you turn left to go to the main entrance. And the parking is relatively obvious at that point. As you get approached to the building or even as you're at the stoplight, you can see this sign that says Apollo High School that is pulled out away from the building. It's farther out. It's a monument sign. It's large. It's similar to what's on the building at Tech. And it tells you, okay, that must be where that front entrance is. And you can see that easily once you get onto the site, once you get to the parking and you turn and
014you start walking towards the building. And we believe also that the sidewalk and that new higher entrance also kind of instructs people to say there must be something important going on there. As you get closer to the building, it becomes even more obvious where you enter because we've got a canopy that you enter under. And this is where I think we talked about this last time where we're suspending the capsule above the entry. So rather than the capsule being set on the ground outside, the capsule is doing what capsules should do. It's flying and it's above you as you enter. and you walk underneath a capsule and we're going to use some LED lighting to be able to light that differently and maybe do some dramatic effects with that, you know, as you enter the
015building in the canopy above that. It's a little hard to see in the image, you know, at the scale we're looking here, but we're using some pin lights and we're working with the district to figure out what that might look like, but it's going to be some constellations that allow us to light that up. And you should be able to recognize a constellation in that lighting that's over that entry. So, kind of leaning into that space theme a little bit here as we come into the building and the new the new entrance with, you know, being taller and creating that and Whitney will show some images later where we're trying to give this building just a little bit more room. Uh the advant the disadvantage of Apollo is everything is at 8'4 and it feels
016a little down and so we're creating an entrance, you know, that has a a little greater has bigger shoulders. Um, also because another main entrance that we're going to direct people to is the Apollo activities entrance. We wanted this to look similar to the entrance that's at the front. It's not quite as grand. We don't want to confuse people that this is the main entrance, but also it has some of those warmer wood materials that you saw on the other. So, we're warming things up. And you will see that theme throughout as we go to the interior of the building where we're using some wood tones and some colors to kind of warm the building up as you go through it as well. The last thing that um I'll highlight here is we're adding a
017storm shelter onto the building and that is acting also as another gym. The building, it needs to tie into the building. And so you see these pre-cast panels actually have the brick on the bottom and then we have the the colored concrete up above. And Whitney, if you wouldn't mind backing up to that first monument, that one I meant to mention that in the background you see the building looks a little different than it does today. Uh we are looking at staining the brick that that color that you see similar to that color that you see there and then also staining the concrete to get it more uniform and doing it in a way that it'll be easy to clean. It's not going to stay clean forever all by itself, but at least the material
018we're using on it will be easily cleaned. So giving that building kind of a fresh updated look as well. Next slide. When I saw the when I showed you the first slide for the site, you noticed that there was this kind of grayed out area. That's what Whitney was referring to earlier. Um, we are working on a district-wide program with district representatives, tech representatives, and Apollo representatives to think about how can we complement the facilities that are at Tech and provide more opportunities for students for activities across the district. So, we're in the middle of that process right now and that'll be that last bid package that Whitney was talking about earlier as well. So, just high level to recap what's happening inside the building. Um, we are adding the I'm going to try and
019lean and point at the same time here. Um, we're adding a controlled entrance along that front and then that welcome center that we've talked about, a place to um, display student work, to have activities. Um, that's that high volume that we were looking at on the outside. We're infilling that current courtyard to expand our common seating area to serve for that cafeteria and then also for students who are doing independent work to have a place to come. We're enhancing the current cafeteria. Um upgrading some of the finishes. We're adding and relocating the dishwashing concessions and allocart. And we're doing all of that so we can expand that much needed space in the kitchen and serving area. Um I think we're doubling the square footage. Um so that is going to be be welcomed. We're also
020doing work in the music area. So again, the band room and the choir room. also finishing the spaces behind the stage. We had done work on the theater um a couple years ago and did the inside of the theater and this will go and support the green room storage space and the scene shop and set construction that will happen there. In the activities, we have the storm shelter um which is like David mentioned serving as that um multi-purpose space, expanding the wait room area. We're going to be updating some of the finishes in the pool and we're also going to create some better accessibility onto the pool deck from the primary corridor. And then the four, excuse me, the three locker rooms are going to get converted to four locker rooms on the north side.
021As we move into the remainder of the building here, the guidance suite um will have a little bit of work. We're going to be adding an eagle's nest similar to the tiger's den um as well as um fronting the guidance reception area off that primary corridor to give it better access. As we move into the media center, the big space on the north side is going to be converted into four CTE labs. Um we have a flex lab, we have the culinary, uh computer science, and then also the communications and graphics lab. All of those will have glass fronting that primary corridor that we're creating through that space to really put that learning on display. Everything that's happening in the north media is just shifting to the south media because we have lots of square
022footage there. Um so we're able to capitalize on that space um and still have lots of space for growth there. Um as we move further down into the building, we are creating some staff space. again, staff collaboration for staff that's working in the building, but also staff collaboration space for the CMVA program. Um, creating recording rooms for them so that they have the ability to do their online lessons and recording in a safe or in a space that will keep um sound at bay. On the south side of the building, we have the science area. A lot of that's going to just be a refresh. Um, but we are making two of the labs a little more robust, creating some fixed labs for some of those um, higher chemistry classes and things like that that
023need that space. The other thing that we're doing is we have a little bit of um footprint infill, I'll say, and we're creating a grow zone where we can put hydroponic plants um and displays for our them the opportunity to store them there and put them on display as people then also be able to roll those carts into classrooms for teaching purposes. We have preparation space that we are carving out uh giving us some relief on the for spaces in the CTE programming down here into the um corridor and community space. We have um a FCS or a fax room and then we also have the nails space. The art rooms are staying in the same spot, but we are going to clean them up with all those little rooms, and we're going to give
024them some nice large space to actually do their teaching in. Um, and then relocate the kiln, so it's next to the art room and not across the hall and down the way. In the CTE space here, we um this is the EMT lab that's currently under construction. And then we have the CNA lab that will be going adjacent to it, a maker space, and then the auto lab down here is getting a little bit of work because we need to create a garage door that is big enough to bring the ambulance in. Um, so that's the work that's happening inside the building. This is this image that you saw last time. This is standing in the courtyard infill and looking out to the west into that new welcome space. And then you can also see
025the controlled entrance and then the new reception area and then the capsule right there. If you turn around, this is the look you get as you walk into the building. So again, that volume that David was talking about really helps um create that breathing room that that people need as they navigate through this building. And you can see the additional seating capacity that we have in here. This area also serves as the pre-function space to the theater and the gym. So, a lot of community use as well as we um we explore the space. >> Um before you go on, Whitney, one of the things I mentioned earlier is is you could see in here the use of some of those warmer tones, the wood tones and things. Again, you'll see that throughout the presentation
026where we're trying to warm the inside of the building up a little bit with those tones. They're good materials or materials that won't, >> you know, get damaged like perhaps just straight old wood would, but it is a material that is going to give us a little bit more warmth in the building. This is the new image. Um the last time we presented it was black and white. This is looking into the current CTE um portion of the building which right now you walk through is like 6 foot wide door and then you turn a corner and then you walk around and there's no glass and no visibility. So we are really bringing all of these um spaces onto display here to really highlight the programs that are happening at Apollo. Um the space right
027to the left here is the CNA lab and then further down is that EMT lab. So just to orient you and you can see that we are bringing wood down here, right? We're creating a portal, an entry into this space, an inviting way to bring you into these experiences. We have collaboration spaces in here that allow breakout to happen. And then this is what is currently dubbed, I think, the fishbowl. Um it's the maker space that again we're creating um a more impactful space to use for our programming. So this is a new slide. Um I'm going to just dip my set here. Uh so one of the things that we have done since we last presented um to you is to talk about safety and security at Apollo. A big part of the referendum,
028it's one of the items that is probably going to change from what Apollo is used to doing. um as part of this project from the building code perspective, we have to compartmentalize the building. We don't get a choice. We're mandated to do it. Um which is what all of those big thick red lines are on the screen. So that's where we have to break the building up with firewalls. What we can do with that though is we can leverage that into how to break up the building from a safety and security perspective. We create compartments that allow students and staff to leave the building in active threat situations. Right? an empty classroom is the safest classroom and so how do we get people out of the building quickly? We work with the building code which
029acts as asks us to do that already. Um and then we lean into that. The other thing we joked about is all of the doors at Apollo. Um and while there are a lot of doors at Apollo that's really helpful in this situation because that means there's lots of exits out of those compartments to get students out safely. It also means on the flip side that there are actually a lot of exits for our law enforcement and first responders to enter quickly, right? Time is of the essence in situations like this. And so we're leaning into that to create a safety and security plan that works with the time. Um we shared this plan. Uh we had a really large meeting and we actually got everyone into a room at one time. um law enforcement
030officers, um safety and security people from the district, from Apollo, um IT folks, and we shared this plan and we talked through what are the, you know, what are the issues with it, what are the successes of it. We got some great feedback that we were able to implement and make changes to to really help support long-term um a safety and security plan for Apollo. Um, we learned a lot about what the district is looking to do and that was really helpful for us to be able to implement it here as we move forward in this longer construction timeline. But fret not, safety and security does not mean that you can't look out. Um, so this is standing in the new controlled entrance. So we're looking out to the west. the new reception um administration
031areas to our left. You can see the new reception desk and it feels inviting, right? It feels like you want to come and you want to see the school um and everyone can see out, but yet this glass here is security glass. So again, we're creating levels of protection that help but also create environments that people want to engage in. And if you're inside that reception area, again, great visibility for the staff to see out to see what's coming and to just see what's going on on the dayto-day basis. >> So, just to add on a little bit to what Whitney was talking about, by compartmentalizing the building, we also are allowed to we we slow down a threat. Um, and if we can identify where that threat is, then it gives people in the
032rest of the building a chance to leave. But we also have card readers on the outside door so we know if somebody's opened a door >> that shouldn't open a door and that gets notified. And we also have card readers, you know, if you're traveling against the flow in the building for those compartments. There's card readers on those as well that allows administration and law enforcement to get into those compare compartments if they need to. So there's there's a lot going on in here, but it's all geared around making the building as safe as we can as a part of the, you know, using the building code and the things we're doing to make this building as safe as we can at the same time. Um, the other thing I talked about wayfinding on the
033outside of the building once we get inside Apollo, wfinding is kind of necessary, too. While it's a simple plan with cross corridors, it's the 400, the 500, the 600, the 700, the 800, the 900 wing. and where are those wings and how do you get to those and how do you find your way through the building? One of the things we talked about is creating a larger pattern. Take a look at the overall plan and say, "How do we create a pattern that helps people move through the building?" The darker gray lines represented a a carpeting, a gray carpeting that helps lead you through those main corridors or those main cross quarters that take you to each of these areas. And you see the little red stripes as you look through there. We'll talk about
034those a little bit more later, but they're also in key locations that give you a cue about what's happening when you get to that part of the building. The blue represents areas off of the corridors that are either for breakout spaces or there are spaces where there's something else happening there and a corridor where you cross. But just trying to create some cues through the building as you move through. And what does that look like? You start to see it when you look at this here. This is on the right are those new CTE labs that Whitney was talking about, culinary, communications, and the computer science. On the left is the lower media. And this is a new corridor that comes through here. And at the end of the quarter, you see a number four
035on a on a red background. That's ties into that red that you saw on the floor. And that represents the 400 wing and access to the 400 wing. If you take a look at what that looks like going down the corridor, you walk towards that four, you look left, you see, oh, I would just left the 500 wing, there's another red stripe down there and another red stripe down there. And that again represents something's happening at each of those locations. You also see the opening there that is is what we've called a portal. When Whitney talked about the fire areas, we have to have doors that automatically close when the alarm goes off or when we have a threat. Those larger slabs right there are actually doors and they will automatically close. But we took
036that as an opportunity to also create a portal into each of these areas. When Whitney was showing the image of the CTE area, you may have seen that portal kind of sneaking out of the corner. So even going into that, we're trying to use that language. When you go into a new space, there's a portal that you walk through and looking straight on at that portal, you see something like this. These are special doors that sort of disappear. We cheat a little bit. We made them look really disappeary here. They actually have tiny little, you know, push pads on them so you can exit out, but they will look pretty uniform in the way or pretty monolithic in the way that we're showing them. >> The intent was to try to hide them so that
037you didn't walk past a door all the time because they're really not going to be closed most of the time. And so, how do you create intentionality with big fire doors? And again, you see that little bit of blue carpet. That's okay, we have our red, then we have this, we have the blue carpet that leads us into our new space. One of the things I didn't talk about is as you go down and you cross that red thing, that still doesn't get you. If you're walking down the right side, it doesn't get you to the 600 wing. So, when you get to that red stripe, you say, "Okay, it's here. There's signage on the wall and it says 600's this way or 700's this way." So, there'll be some additional way finding that'll help
038you find your way. Um, when we get to the when we get to the activity side of thing, we could put a one and a two there. It wouldn't really help people very much. They want to know where's the performing arts center, where's the gym. So, we're using the same language of the red panels, but now we're spelling it out to help people find that. So, we've got that. We've got those warmer materials. And then, if you recall, you've seen those Merurls that have been installed on either side of the theater. This is all tied into that as well. This is the gym side. And when we're looking at this image, one of the things we wanted to point out, that area back there where that little skinny opening used to be for the kitchen,
039that's our new serving area. So that's got multiple venues there. I think there's five I think it is. It's five there's five different venues there for for service. And the kids will be going through and coming back out through this way. But that has a much better opening, a better appearance, and there's going to be less congestion, which means less trouble for Justin and his team. So, how are we going to do this? All right, that's probably the question. Um, this is a pretty big undertaking. It is a continuous two-year process for us to make all of this work. Um, there's multiple phases throughout the school year. Um, six right now with probably a few subsets in between there. Um, we've worked with Justin and his team to make sure that as we're doing this
040that we're not disrupting student learning and that we're maintaining that safety and security plan throughout that process. Um, a lot of this goes to a lot of great communication that we're having and going to continue to have to make sure that he and his staff are updated and that we are aware of things that we need to help manage on the construction side. Um, obviously there are certain spaces that can only be done in summer months which helps drive how we set that basing up. Um I have attached the QR code. This should take you to the district website if interested where the phasing plan is broken down more specifically into what's happening in each phase. Um but again two years so in 2028 we will have a refresh to Apollo. Um and at that
041point we'll just leave it open for questions if anybody has anything. First, I have to say, wow, this is very exciting. And does anybody have any questions or comments at all? We're all stunned. Okay, well, that must be good. We're thrilled. We're excited. Um, this is amazing work. So, thank you everybody for getting us to this point and for you guys to I think in the beginning I I was sorry to be doubtful but like but does it have that wow factor like tech does and you guys just this is impressive. Yeah. I I couldn't have imagine that's not my talent but how you guys came up with this. You you had me at the constellations up there. It just kept on getting better. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. It's been a
042it's been a collaboration of a lot of folks. I mean, we have our consultants that work with us and also Justin and his team, the district people, um the construction manager, Bradberry Stam. It's been a really great collaboration. Things like this don't happen unless everybody's on the same page. And uh it's really been a wonderful project to work through with everyone. >> It's exciting. Okay. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> We'll see you I don't know half a year. Not sure. Thank you guys. We have one more information item tonight. We have the immersion program update. So, welcoming tonight Anna Wilhight, director of E12 education and Katherine Samek, curriculum or K5 curriculum instruction and immersion lead. Thank you for joining us tonight.