Warsaw Schools Study Building Options

Three main points came out during the three-hour Warsaw School Board public work session Monday on Warsaw School facilities.

The northern part and especially the southern part of the Warsaw Schools district need schools. Redistricting is necessary. And the concerns for building new schools are cost, overcrowding and what's best for the students.

Terry Sims, facilities committee co-chair, repeated the options the committee recommended previously to the school board.

Short-term options include addition of portable classrooms, renting classroom space, transporting classes from one school to another, and re-opening Claypool as a K-4 school while a southern school location is determined and a minimum of three-section school is built.

Three long-term options, also in no particular order, are: Option A) close Jefferson and build two new four-section schools; B) re-open Claypool as a three-section school and build one new four-section school in the northeast part of the district; and C) build two new four-section schools, one in the northeast part and one in the southern part of the district.

"Most options we generated will take some major redistricting," said Sims. Since the report was generated, Sims also said the committee learned someone is willing to donate land for the expansion of Claypool Elementary.

General recommendations included having a regularly scheduled study of demographic information, major renovations in existing schools, community input for future committees, and providing accurate information to the community.

Warsaw Chief Financial Officer Kevin Scott gave a financial report detailing his estimates on building new schools now and/or renovating Claypool.

For construction, borrowing rates currently are 4.25 percent for 20 years, but rates are trending upward. If the school board knew Monday they wanted to begin construction, the earliest construction could begin would be spring 2007. The cost of renovating Claypool to hold 500 students was estimated by Scott at $13 million. Building a brand new four-section school would cost $16 million. Renovation costs are running about $90 per square foot, while new construction is about $130 per square foot.

The assessed valuation of property in the Warsaw School District is more than $2 billion.

"The borrowing cap," said Scott, "is not a problem for us."

Scott said the biggest problem with building or renovating isn't the cost of construction itself, but operating costs. For a four-section school, costs per year for administration, support staff, utilities and supplies is estimated at $450,000. That doesn't include teachers.

Warsaw School's cash balance declined for seven years until 2004, which then was up $497,000. In 2005, it was up $383,000. Those upward trends occurred after Silver Lake, Atwood and Claypool were closed and some employees were let go.

Warsaw Schools' average enrollment growth from 1998 to today, Scott said, is 58.9 students. Assuming a growth of 100 students per year, the state funding formula will pay for 5.7 new teachers. Current requests received for special needs, math, English as a Second Language and support for new facilities is estimated at $375,000.

Ron Yeiter, school board president, gave a run-down of the planned subdivisions in Warsaw School District, as provided by Kosciusko County Area Plan Director Dan Richard. In the Leesburg school area, there are 273 single-family lots planned; 493 single-family and 20 duplexes in Harrison; 86 single-family in Jefferson; 357 single-family, 22 duplexes in Eisenhower; 86 single-family in Washington; and 40 single-family in Madison. Tammy Dalton, board member, said another 113-lot single-family subdivision is proposed in Harrison but has not received final approval.

The meeting then was opened for public comments and questions.

Jane Crim asked about Atwood Elementary School. She said nothing was said about it. Chuck Sauders, school board member, said he thought one of the options was a new school in the north, meaning in the Atwood area. Sims said the proposal for a new school in the northeast wasn't to ignore Atwood, but development is moving that way. Since Atwood borders the Tippecanoe Valley School District, it wasn't an ideal place for a new school.

Sixth-graders in Warsaw Schools are "woefully inadequate" in relation to the science benchmarks required by the state, Lakeview Middle School teacher Dan Wray said. Part of the problem is that while the state considers sixth-graders to be middle school students, Warsaw sixth-graders are elementary students. They don't have the facilities to compete with other schools in the state. Wray said Warsaw, with restructuring, has the potential to fix the overcrowding and align itself more with the state legislature's opinion of where they should be.

Sauders asked the middle school principals if there was enough room at the middle schools to take the sixth-graders. The two principals shook their heads no and said if they did, existing programs would be sacrificed.

The southern part of the school district, said Peg Shively, needs a school. Her comments drew the first applause of the night.

Asked if there was a timeline for a decision, board vice president Dan Robinson said, "I don't think we have a timeline."

"As soon as possible, once we get all the facts," said Sauders.

One consideration for getting the project done, said Yeiter, is that the longer Claypool is left empty, the more wear and tear it will have.

Ten years ago, Sauders told the crowd of more than 50 people that the school board paid $40,000 for a study. The study reported Warsaw's growth would be maxed out in 2000. "You can see what that $40,000 got us," he said. "I don't see a leveling out for Warsaw. I just don't see it's going to happen. I have no faith in studies."

Gordon Vanator questioned the projected costs Scott provided on renovating Claypool or building a new school. He said a new 500-student school should cost $11 million, not $15 million. Sterling Watkins also questioned the costs.

If Claypool becomes only a K-4 school, Angela Glass, Silver Lake, said Warsaw would have more busing plus some parents would have children in two different schools. Yeiter said that was only a temporary recommendation and if they did that, there would have to be a committment from the school board to renovate Claypool to add more classrooms. Sims said the short-term option was made because the committee didn't think there would be enough space for K-6 at Claypool. Another committee member, Bill Kovatch, said the option is to use Claypool now and expand on it.

Gene England, board secretary, said he doesn't like where Claypool School is at now, but he didn't know where else to put it. He said he is in favor of using Claypool as a K-4 school now and adding on to make it a three-section school. He was concerned with a new school being built in the northern part of the district. He said a school in the northwest had been discussed previously, but now the talk is about building on the northeast side.

Don Miller, Claypool, said everyone agrees that logically and logistically, a school is needed in the southern part of the district. With the soybean plant possibly being built in Claypool, he said he has a pretty good feeling the Indiana Department of Transportation will set aside funds for improving the Claypool overpass and adding lanes to Ind. 15. Seventy jobs will be added to the area if the soybean plant comes to Claypool and that will have an impact on the southern part of the county. The construction of the plant will bring 300 construction jobs for 18 months. When England asked Miller if the soybean plant was a sure thing, Miller said the state currently is ironing out an incentive package.

Mike Stetzel expressed concern that Warsaw Schools might overbuild and have the problem again of having too much space.

Asked by board member Deb Wiggins if there was a reason the committee recommended Claypool become a three-section school instead of a four-section school, Sims said there wasn't. Sims also addressed the idea of having empty rooms in an elementary school. He said empty rooms are needed for such things as tutoring special education students and other programs.

"There is no such thing as an empty room in an elementary school. You are going to use it," said Sauders.

Watkins asked when Warsaw was last redistricted. The response from the crowd was about 10 years ago, or about 1991.

Bruce Ferguson asked if the enrollment keeps growing at its current capacity, will the current capacity of the high school be enough?

A teacher at Claypool for 27 years, Paul Sibray encouraged Warsaw to have a school in the southern part of the school district.

Cathy Folk asked Sims if the committee looked at the option of renovating Leesburg to a four-section school. Sims replied that if they build a new school in the north, that would alleviate the overcrowding and Leesburg wouldn't need renovation.

The school board set another public meeting for March 27 at 7 p.m. at Edgewood Middle School. Until then, a task force of Scott, Sauders and England will compile more information for the board's review.