Auditorium and Pool Updates

June 2020 

The referendum approved $9.5 million dollars to build a pool at Century High School, make upgrades to Mayo High School Pool and the closing of the three middle school pools to repurpose the space. The District hired WSN Architects to design the projects and had several meetings with community groups and District groups to gather input on the Century pool design.  Additionally, Knutson Construction was hired as the Construction Manager Agent representing the district in these projects and they manage the budget for them. 

A design was brought forth utilizing the input from several community and District groups. Knutson Construction was able to establish costs based on the design.  The costs for the initial design of the Century pool was well in excess of the $9.5 total pool budgets, somewhere near 15 million dollars.  WSN was tasked with reducing costs and after various changes the budget was still estimated at $11.5 million dollars for Century pool. 

The District has decided to temporarily suspend the design of the Century project, based on budget.  Additionally, the District has set a budget for the new school buildings. The pool projects will continue, but the District wants to be able to apply a true value to the projects and build the best pools that our overall referendum budget allows.  The District's plan is to have both the Mayo and Century High School pools completed by Fall 2022.

On January 28, 2020 the Rochester Public School Board approved the hiring of Widseth, Smith, Nolting and Associates (WSN) for architectural design services.

The second question of the referendum was to repair the Mayo High School swimming pool, build a new swimming pool at Century High School, and to close the three middle school pools to repurpose the space for other school and District needs. The District will approach this in phases.

First, the District will hire  a Construction Manager as Agent (CMA) to oversee this project. The CMA will assist with hiring one designer and architect to close all three middle school pools, as well as build/repair the two high school pools. The District will also have conversations with the middle school physical education teachers to determine whether the 2-week water safety courses will continue for middle school students. These courses can continue at the students' respective high schools. There will be more discussion on this topic. Additionally, the District will have conversations with middle school building teams regarding the repurposing of the middle school spaces. We have identified District needs, such as a gymnastics gymnasium, but none of those decisions have been made at this time. The District will engage with our staff and students on this topic in the future.