By Ken Jackson
Staff Writer

School staff could probably hang two banners at the St. Cloud High School entrance when classes start Monday.

“Welcome Back Bulldogs” would be as appropriate as “Pardon the Dust and Watch Your Step.”

A new school is rising from the ground, as is the case at Osceola High School. Preliminary site work began at both schools last winter, so St. Cloud High students should be used to being slightly inconvenienced.

Phase I at St. Cloud High, which centered around the gymnasium building, is almost done, with that facility slated to be ready in mid-September. Other new buildings on the campus nearing completion as part of the $55 million project are the three-story instructional building, which will house language arts and math classes, computer labs and the media center on the top floor, and the cafeteria, which has been built with conservation-minded attributes like a styrofoam compactor that can recycle the product into other materials.

“The maroon and gold is going green,” Assistant Principal Michael Hague said.

New classrooms will feature Windows-based Smartboards, interactive tools that replace yesteryear’s dry-erase boards.

A few of the campus’ older buildings are being retrofitted and re-used in the new campus footprint — meaning that much of the campus is ringed with chain-link fencing and the drone of bulldozers and other equipment will go on throughout the year. (Note to students: open-toed sandals are out this year.)

Space is now at a premium — most classrooms will start the year in an area of portables on the east side of the campus that some enterprising students have already dubbed “Portable City,” with its downtown (the administration buildings), midtown and uptown.

Parking — or, lack of it — is the next issue in the domino effect, as the portables and construction have taken up nearly all open space. After setting aside parking spaces for staff and teachers, only about 100 spaces will be available to students, with those having high GPAs and dual-enrollment needs high on the priority list.

Parking for events like football games also will be a challenge, said St. Cloud Athletic Director (and Bulldog alumnus) Chad Ansbaugh.

“We need people to be patient this year. I ordered 20 signs from the print shop, because the route might be different every night,” he said. “People just need to follow the signs.”

Ansbaugh beams about the gymnasium building. Built directly behind Tom Gannarelli Field, it will house nearly the entire Bulldog athletic program under one roof. It includes football locker rooms, weight and wrestling rooms, coaches offices and a training room. The corridors, locker rooms and training areas feature motion-sensor lightning.

The 2,500-seat gym features an upper level on one side with seating and a corridor area where teams can do pre-game work or shoot free throws into temporary baskets that have been ordered.

A cabling system is in place, so a curtain can run the length of the floor to partition multiple playing surfaces for concurrent play.

Ansbaugh said the entire Bulldog coaching staff had input that was incorporated into the building.

“This building will be buzzing year-round. The construction guys have been incredible doing the little nuances for us. Pam (Tapley, St. Cloud principal) has trusted me and the coaches to do this right,” he said. “We can hold three volleyball practices at a time and roll right from that into open gym basketball.”

Ansbaugh likened the school project to when he was at Harmony High School when it opened in 2004, and when Neptune Middle School opened a new gym.

“But here, we get the fresh paint of a new school, with the tradition of St. Cloud,” he said.

That’s not the only reason he’s a bit more giddy than a typical athletic director overseeing a new job like this — he’s coaching the girls basketball team this winter.

“Everybody thinks I ordered some of the equipment for me, but it was for Mac (boys coach Tim McMullen) and Shanel (Davidson, former girls coach),” he said. “This is the third time I’m opening a new gym.”