Elementary School Locations Decided
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Daniel [email protected]
The location for the new Leesburg Elementary School will be at the southeast corner of Baseline Road and Armstrong Road, across from the Plain Township Fire Department.[[In-content Ad]]The new Madison Elementary will be at the northeast corner of CR 150W and CR 300N, near Medtronic.
Jamie Lake from Kovert Hawkins said both locations allow for easy utilities hookup.
Lake also said the two schools offered more to students and faculty rather than renovating the currents schools.
Renovating the current schools also was not cost prohibitive said Lake.
"Leesburg and Madison have curricular needs that have outgrown their buildings."
Lake said that renovating Madison would cost more than 90 percent of the cost of a new building while renovating Leesburg would be more expensive than building a new school.
"We could get 20 to 30 acres of land for what we could get for a small parcel of land," said school board member Dan Robinson of the Leesburg school situation. "It was going to cost $1.5 million more to stay on that site."
Robinson said he hoped that the schools would stay at their same sites but that wasn't financially feasible.
"We've gone acre by acre, dollar by dollar and this is the best situation we have," said School Board President Ron Yeiter.
The building plans for both Leesburg and Madison are the same.
If the school corporation had decided to build Leesburg on its current site, they would have had to pay for another blueprint.
Haworth also pointed out that while the new location for Leesburg isn't inside the town, 425 students live east of the railroad tracks that run north-south through Leesburg while 153 live west of the railroad tracks.
There was also discussion of what would be done with the current Leesburg Elementary School once it's closed.
"I'm going to sound like a basketball coach for a minute," said WCS Superintendent Dr. Robert Haworth. "You can never have too many gyms."
Haworth, along with Lake, said the current Leesburg school could be used in some capacity for the community.
Haworth also spoke to his belief that Leesburg has a great potential for growth.
Leesburg is currently in the process of getting a sewer system.
Haworth said he believes that the population of the school district is going to grow faster in the areas where they are building Leesburg and Madison as opposed to Silver Lake and Claypool.
Both Leesburg and Madison are tenatively scheduled to open in August 2010. Bidding is scheduled to start in early September of this year and be awarded in October.
Construction of both schools is scheduled to begin Nov. 1.
The board heard from Todd Samuelson of Umbaugh and Associates concerning the financing of the schools.
Samuelson said the Department of Local Government Finance has set a cap on the duration of bond repayment, the amount of annual payment and the maximum of amount of bids.
"The rules were changed in the middle of the game for us," said Haworth. "The economy is really affecting this project. We're going to be cutting this project close. We have got to look at anywhere we can save money."
With that said, Samuelson told the board it would be advantageous to break up the sale of bonds and have one completed by the end of June with the other by November.
When Robinson asked Samuelson why they couldn't just do the bond sale all at once, Samuelson said the project would lose money doing it that way.
During staff recognition, Lorinda Kline of Edgewood was recognized as the school corporation's teacher of the year.
Joseph Peloza (Edgewood/Lakeview), Brenda Linky (Lakeview), Dawn Pickens (Alternative Learning Center), Michelle Rogers (Jefferson), Carla Milliman (Lincoln) and Kyle Carter (Jefferson) were recognized as nominees for teacher of the year.
Ben Barkey was recognized for winning the Hoosier Assocation of Science Teachers Middle School Teacher of the Year.
The board recognized Madison Elementary students James Wynn, Ian Sloan, Louis Bolduc and Corbin Sloan who finished second in the sixth grade and under division of the Scholastic Chess of Indiana 2008 State Team Championships.
Jay Bolduc is the team's sponsor.
Renee Troup and Daniel Beeson were recognized for being awarded Gold Keys in the 2008 Scholastic Art Awards competition. Both Troup and Beeson's work was displayed at the Lincoln Center in Washington D.C.
Ariel Bautista, Erin Bradshaw, Branden Cochran-Sutherlin, Latasha Goodwan, Andrew Klatt, Kingsley Reyes, Penda Sarr and Lizeth Silvestre were recognized for being finalists for the Beauchamp and McSpadden Self-Reliance awards.
Edgewood students Alek Jansen, Joe Erickson, Tyler Ostrom, Lucille Rich and sponsor Lorinda Kline were recognized for their placement in the Huntington University's Second Annual Middle Grades Math Competition.
The board also heard reports from the Steve Savage and the Ski Club along with Brenda Wright who gave a presentation on new hand held learning devices in the elementary schools.
School board member Deb Wiggins had to leave before the start of the meeting.
The location for the new Leesburg Elementary School will be at the southeast corner of Baseline Road and Armstrong Road, across from the Plain Township Fire Department.[[In-content Ad]]The new Madison Elementary will be at the northeast corner of CR 150W and CR 300N, near Medtronic.
Jamie Lake from Kovert Hawkins said both locations allow for easy utilities hookup.
Lake also said the two schools offered more to students and faculty rather than renovating the currents schools.
Renovating the current schools also was not cost prohibitive said Lake.
"Leesburg and Madison have curricular needs that have outgrown their buildings."
Lake said that renovating Madison would cost more than 90 percent of the cost of a new building while renovating Leesburg would be more expensive than building a new school.
"We could get 20 to 30 acres of land for what we could get for a small parcel of land," said school board member Dan Robinson of the Leesburg school situation. "It was going to cost $1.5 million more to stay on that site."
Robinson said he hoped that the schools would stay at their same sites but that wasn't financially feasible.
"We've gone acre by acre, dollar by dollar and this is the best situation we have," said School Board President Ron Yeiter.
The building plans for both Leesburg and Madison are the same.
If the school corporation had decided to build Leesburg on its current site, they would have had to pay for another blueprint.
Haworth also pointed out that while the new location for Leesburg isn't inside the town, 425 students live east of the railroad tracks that run north-south through Leesburg while 153 live west of the railroad tracks.
There was also discussion of what would be done with the current Leesburg Elementary School once it's closed.
"I'm going to sound like a basketball coach for a minute," said WCS Superintendent Dr. Robert Haworth. "You can never have too many gyms."
Haworth, along with Lake, said the current Leesburg school could be used in some capacity for the community.
Haworth also spoke to his belief that Leesburg has a great potential for growth.
Leesburg is currently in the process of getting a sewer system.
Haworth said he believes that the population of the school district is going to grow faster in the areas where they are building Leesburg and Madison as opposed to Silver Lake and Claypool.
Both Leesburg and Madison are tenatively scheduled to open in August 2010. Bidding is scheduled to start in early September of this year and be awarded in October.
Construction of both schools is scheduled to begin Nov. 1.
The board heard from Todd Samuelson of Umbaugh and Associates concerning the financing of the schools.
Samuelson said the Department of Local Government Finance has set a cap on the duration of bond repayment, the amount of annual payment and the maximum of amount of bids.
"The rules were changed in the middle of the game for us," said Haworth. "The economy is really affecting this project. We're going to be cutting this project close. We have got to look at anywhere we can save money."
With that said, Samuelson told the board it would be advantageous to break up the sale of bonds and have one completed by the end of June with the other by November.
When Robinson asked Samuelson why they couldn't just do the bond sale all at once, Samuelson said the project would lose money doing it that way.
During staff recognition, Lorinda Kline of Edgewood was recognized as the school corporation's teacher of the year.
Joseph Peloza (Edgewood/Lakeview), Brenda Linky (Lakeview), Dawn Pickens (Alternative Learning Center), Michelle Rogers (Jefferson), Carla Milliman (Lincoln) and Kyle Carter (Jefferson) were recognized as nominees for teacher of the year.
Ben Barkey was recognized for winning the Hoosier Assocation of Science Teachers Middle School Teacher of the Year.
The board recognized Madison Elementary students James Wynn, Ian Sloan, Louis Bolduc and Corbin Sloan who finished second in the sixth grade and under division of the Scholastic Chess of Indiana 2008 State Team Championships.
Jay Bolduc is the team's sponsor.
Renee Troup and Daniel Beeson were recognized for being awarded Gold Keys in the 2008 Scholastic Art Awards competition. Both Troup and Beeson's work was displayed at the Lincoln Center in Washington D.C.
Ariel Bautista, Erin Bradshaw, Branden Cochran-Sutherlin, Latasha Goodwan, Andrew Klatt, Kingsley Reyes, Penda Sarr and Lizeth Silvestre were recognized for being finalists for the Beauchamp and McSpadden Self-Reliance awards.
Edgewood students Alek Jansen, Joe Erickson, Tyler Ostrom, Lucille Rich and sponsor Lorinda Kline were recognized for their placement in the Huntington University's Second Annual Middle Grades Math Competition.
The board also heard reports from the Steve Savage and the Ski Club along with Brenda Wright who gave a presentation on new hand held learning devices in the elementary schools.
School board member Deb Wiggins had to leave before the start of the meeting.
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