HANCOCK COUNTY — After deciding earlier this year that a new elementary school is needed, it’s now time for Mt. Vernon to determine whether it should go in a redesigned existing property or built from scratch.
Those are two potential paths that both come with various other proposed building projects throughout the district, all to accommodate about 2,000 new students expected over the next several years.
Whichever direction is chosen, the expansion effort is estimated to cost more than $120 million.
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With careful planning, along with expected growth generating more taxes in the district, school officials and their consultants think it can all be funded without raising the local tax rate. Mt. Vernon and its advisory team made up of members working in architecture, construction, finance and other fields plan to present their work and invite feedback from the community at two virtual meetings, including one tonight (Thursday, Dec. 3).
The district’s growth plan calls for the additional elementary school either by constructing a new building or by redesigning Mt. Vernon’s administration building on the campus it shares with Mt. Vernon High School, Mt. Vernon Middle School and Fortville Elementary School.
Also under the growth plan, Fortville Elementary School would become an intermediate school, which was the intention when it was built. That intermediate school would serve grades five and six, creating room by siphoning off fifth grade from the district’s elementary schools and sixth grade from its middle school.
Mt. Vernon currently has 4,300 students, and is forecast to reach 6,235 by the 2028-29 school year. It is on the verge of becoming the county’s largest district by enrollment.
The timeline of the future growth plan currently estimates having a new elementary school and intermediate school for the 2023-24 school year.
Jack Parker, Mt. Vernon superintendent, emphasized that while the growth plan identifies certain building projects at certain times, it’s flexible and contingent on the expected growth occurring.
“We’re not going to recommend building anything until we see the whites of their eyes,” he said at a school board meeting earlier last month.
Lancer + Beebe, an Indianapolis-based architecture firm assisting Mt. Vernon, worked with Fortville Elementary School staff on plans for a new elementary school, both new and adapted from the existing administration building.
At the recent school board meeting, Misha Belyayev of Lancer + Beebe presented a layout for a redesigned and added-onto administration building showing grade communities around open collaboration spaces. The layout features a major corridor leading from a main entrance and nearby administrative suite on the east side of the building to a riser extending up to a second-floor media center. Also close by would be spaces for art; science, technology, engineering and math (STEM); and large-group instruction.
“It really becomes the heart of the school,” Belyayev said.
The layout calls for expanding cafeteria space, building a new gymnasium and creating a preschool area with its own entry and pickup/drop-off area as well.
If the administration building becomes an elementary school, the district’s administrative offices would go in the building to the south that currently houses transportation operations and a clinic. To make enough room, that building would also be added onto to the east, where an existing bus barn would be demolished. A new transportation building would be constructed to the northeast of the campus, on land the school board recently approved the purchase of. Belyayev said it would have more room for parking as well as training grounds, fueling stations, maintenance bays, storage, offices, break rooms and conference rooms.
Belyayev also presented layouts addressing other expansion needs identified in Mt. Vernon’s future growth plan, including the middle school getting several classrooms added onto its northeast end. The Fortville Elementary School-turned intermediate school would get several classrooms added onto its south side. The high school would expand to its south as well, potentially get a new auditorium on its west end and grow its cafeteria space.
Lancer + Beebe has yet to prepare plans for a new elementary school, but representatives of the firm said it would have a similar focus as the idea for the redesigned administration building — groups of classrooms around collaboration areas.
Also part of Mt. Vernon’s growth plan team is Alyssa Prazeau of Indianapolis-based Context Design, who has a daughter attending Mt. Vernon High School and another who graduated from it. Prazeau has evaluated current bus, vehicle and pedestrian routes as well as areas of conflict on the Fortville campus, and has identified future circulation routes that would integrate with potential building changes.
“We need to understand what the options are,” Prazeau said at the school board meeting.
Hagerman, Inc., a construction firm, prepared budget estimations for three main tracks Mt. Vernon is considering — turning the administration building into an elementary school and preschool, building a new elementary school and preschool, and building a new elementary school without a preschool. Estimated cost totals for each come in at about $120.9 million, $125.5 million and $124.2 million, respectively. All of the tracks include building a new transportation center, demolishing the existing bus barn and creating new traffic flow along with additions to the intermediate, middle and high schools.
Luke Bruggeman of Stifel, Mt. Vernon’s bond underwriter, proposed paying for the projects by breaking them into three bond issues over the next several years. After accounting for when current Mt. Vernon debt obligations are slated to be fulfilled, and considering projected growth in the area providing more tax revenue, Bruggeman thinks the reimbursement for the bonds could be established with the same tax rate the district will have in 2021.
“Because of our expected growth, our assessed valuation, we believe we can take this debt on without raising the tax rate,” Parker added.
Mt. Vernon is asking the community to attend either of the upcoming public meetings on its growth plan through the free video-conferencing platform, Zoom, at 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 3 and 9. Attendees can access the link to the meeting at zoom.us/j/92945980133.
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Mt. Vernon enrollment projections
- 2021-2022: 4,560
- 2022-2023: 4,725
- 2023-2024: 4,960
- 2024-2025: 5,190
- 2025-2026: 5,425
- 2026-2027: 5,695
- 2027-2028: 6,010
- 2028-2029: 6,235
Source: Enrollment Forecast (2018), Susan Brudvig
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Mt. Vernon building project track pricing options
- Current administration building to elementary/preschool: $120,858,222
- New elementary school/preschool: $125,496,428
- New elementary school only: $124,226,941
All tracks include various other construction projects throughout the district.
Source: Hagerman, Inc.
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WHAT: Community Zoom meetings about Mt. Vernon’s dual track growth plan
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Dec. 3 and 9 (attend either)
WHERE: zoom.us/j/92945980133
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You can look over some of the plans being considered by Mt. Vernon officials with the online version of this story at www.greenfieldreporter.com
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