St. Cloud (Minn.) district begins construction of replacement high school

The St. Cloud (Minn.) Area district has begun construction of a 324,000-square-foot campus to replace its existing Technical High School.

The St. Cloud Times reports that the $104.5 million facility will accommodate about 1,600 students in grades nine to 12 when it is completed in 2019.

The school is celebrating its 100-year anniversary this year.

Officials with St. Cloud District 742 say the new Tech High will be divided into six integrated learning communities on two levels and will feature flexible learning spaces. At the heart of the school is a two-story commons area with glass walls that overlook the landscape. The site includes woodlands, granite outcroppings and a trout stream.

Voters approved funding for the project in November. In making its case for a new school, the district said last year that the existing Tech High had potential health and safety risks that urgently need to be addressed.

Renovating the existing campus to provide equivalent facilities of a newly constructed building would have cost about $149 million—about 43 percent higher than the $104.5 million price tag for the new facility, according to the district.

The architects for the new school are Cuningham Group Architecture and IIW Minnesota.