The vote for a new Owatonna High School has passed on November 5, 2019. The first question asked taxpayers for $104 million to build a new building on the 18th St. Southeast. The vote was  6311 to 5017. The second question was regarding the future of the current building. The second question was contingent on the first, meaning if question one failed, so did question two. The vote on the second question was 5756  to 5420. Both questions passed.

Local businesses including Wenger, Federated Insurance, Mayo Health and Viracon are estimated to donate over $25 million to the construction of the new school.

This donation is the largest amount pledged to a high school in the nation this year.Mr. Kath said, “We will go into planning for a new comprehensive high school for Owatonna.” Many community members took action. Senior Julia Dullenbach said, “The amount of donations and fundraising done is amazing and almost unheard of in other places. The vote yes campaign has brought our community together and has shown the care we have for our schools.”

The taxpayers have come to the conclusion that Owatonna’s nearly 100-year-old high school building is unfit. This nearly 100-year-old building crowded, has on-going maintenance needs, security concerns and inadequate learning spaces. In a previous interview, Mr. Elstad said, “You do start to see the fruits of your labor in a community that really starts to fall in love with these concepts and design.” Moving forward with a new building will benefit the future of Owatonna.