MONROE — Just under 100 people were in attendance Jan. 24 in Monroe High School’s Performing Arts Center as School District of Monroe administrators and board members, along with their team of architects and site planning contractors, publicly shared in-depth information on the new MHS campus.

The meeting was broadcast live on YouTube through the district’s channel. The video, along with the slideshow of budget information and digital renderings, is available on the school’s website in the MHS Building Project section. Also available is a 5-minute video of various flythroughs both inside and outside of the school, created by Michael Brush of Plunkett Raysich Architects (PRA), the lead architect.

Jesse Duff of Fehr Graham and Brush spent most of the 90-minute presentation showing off the layout of the campus and the building. Dan Chovanec of CG Schmidt discussed the budgeting process and how interest earned on bonds allowed the budget to grow from $88 million to $95 million. He also shared a near line-by-line breakdown of the budget, which is available to be viewed in the slideshow.

Much of the information shared at the community presentation was similar to what the same team showed the school board just two days earlier in an open public meeting.

Among the newest informational items was Monroe Superintendent Rodney Figueroa acknowledging that the district is having continued talks with B&S, the land owners, about the possible main access road to the property. When the original deal was struck, B&S promised $100,000 to help with the cost of a road that would connect the new school to County KK. That road is projected to be nearly a mile long and will traverse through a wooded area and wetland to the east of the property parallel to Wis. 11/81. 

Recently, B&S came to terms to purchase the farmland directly north of the new MHS property, and there is a potential chance of the road instead connecting with 8 1/2 Street, thus dramatically shrinking the length — and cost — to all parties.

Figueroa said those talks are in the preliminary stages right now, as a further traffic study and soil testing would have to be completed before taking the plan on further. He also said that only one main access road would be built — either from KK or 8 1/2 Street. The secondary access along 31st Avenue — the furthest east road in Monroe — will be put in no matter what. When construction gets going in full later this spring, the 31st Avenue entrance will be the one crews will use, which gives the district and B&S more time to evaluate a potential connection from 8 1/2 Street to the northern edge of the campus.

When the presentation ended, school board president Rich Deprez read off questions from members of the public that were in attendance. 

Some of the questions were in regards to the safety of the students due to the ample use of glass, specifically in the two north-facing stairwells. Fears of a visual target for an active shooter or vulnerability during a tornado were among the concerns. Brush and other contractors said that with the building made of mostly concrete, there will be many safe areas to shelter from a tornado, be it the field house, interior restrooms, the kitchen and storage facility in the center of the building or practice rooms in the music wing. 

As far as security for an active shooter, a double-secured access will be housed at the main entry into the building. Various wings of the building will be able to quickly be “shut down” and closed off from a threat, Brush said, though getting into specifics with how the security system would work was intentionally left out in order to not broadcast what all systems the building might entail. Brush did say that it would be “state-of-the-art” for a high school.

There were questions from the public about accessibility for the elderly and handicapped for various sporting and arts events. The team said there will be multiple locations for handicap parking, as well as easily accessible drop-off points, and that there is room to potentially expand further on that.

The building will also have two elevators, which is the same as the current middle school. This allows every classroom in the building to be handicap accessible.

The team fielded questions in regards to the building’s size, how many students it is designed to hold, and what opportunities there are for potential expansion — either because of a population boom or a potential future move of grade levels from the middle school.

The team responded that many of the classrooms are designed for about 24 students per room, but that they could accommodate 30. The school itself, at just over 235,000 square feet, is built to house about 700 students. This year, the high school has around 720 students on campus, but following the 2024 graduating class, the numbers per grade level begin to drop off. By the time the school is ready to open in 2026, the high school is projected to have well less than 700 students for the foreseeable future.

However, if things change and expansion is needed, there are plans already laid out to accommodate that change. Each wing of the building has expansion opportunities. 

There is also room for solar panels to potentially be added to the campus someday, though likely with panels installed into the ground, rather than on the roof.

While there were complaints about building colors featured in the renderings, others in attendance talked glowingly afterward of the bright spaces within the school, the simplistic and efficient style of the building, the look of the commons and the potential the site has to house “legacy” items from the current school.

The design of the athletic complexes is incomplete at the moment, and many of the “fancy” items other new high schools have flaunted with their facilities aren’t expected to all be installed, like lights and turf on the four baseball and softball diamonds. The football stadium also does not currently have the press box rendered, and concessions and restrooms are currently planned to be made available in the commons, which Brush continually called “the heart of the building” for the community.

The project team encouraged the community to remain engaged throughout the process. There will potentially be another public informational meeting later this spring once more concrete design is completed in the interior of the building. 

To ask further questions or comment about the new school to the project team, email monroehsproject@monroe.k12.wi.us.