Greater Jasper School Board: Time to look at elementary school options
The Greater Jasper School Board will begin to take steps to address the need to facilitate a growing elementary school student population in its older elementary school facilities.
“As everyone knows over the last few years, we’ve been talking about some of the educational and physical needs of our elementary schools,” she said. “In an effort to be able to make an informed decision about moving forward with improvements, the first thing we really need to do is to take a look at our financial indebtedness and what the potential of moving forward in the future with capital projects in those buildings.”
A study completed in 2014 indicated none of the elementary schools were in compliance with current education guidelines regarding current student numbers.
- Fifth Street has 68,700 sqare feet, but is 14,000 square feet below what it needs given its student population.
- Tenth Street has 87,580 square feet, but is 8,000 square feet below what it needs.
- Ireland has 67,560 square feet, but is 13,300 square feet below what it needs.
The report completed by Gibraltar Designs indicated that although the student population was on a decline at Fifth and Tenth Street schools, Ireland was growing.
Additionally, the board heard that none of the three elementary schools provided the learning environments recommended by the Department of Education. According to the report, the learning areas are functionally challenged and are not up to current standards and most of the spaces are below Department of Education guidelines for schools in the State of Indiana.
Here is a story from 2013 regarding that report from Gibraltar Designs.
The current expansion at Ireland Elementary will address some of the issues indicated in the report but will only make a slight dent in the overcrowding issue. When the expansion is complete in January of 2017, the school will still be at or over student capacity.
Hence the desire to look at adding an elementary school.
As the board begins the process to determine the corporation’s next steps, a public meeting will be held on Monday, July 18th at 6:30 pm in the Greater Jasper School Administration building.
If the board decides to take on a large project like a new elementary school, the issue will likely require a referendum to approve the funding for that move.
The board also took the following actions:
-Heard from Clerk of the Works Scott Stenftenagel that the contractor installing the new air handlers in the high school auditorium will finish in July. The roof replacement is 40 percent complete on the high school. The Fifth Street roof project is completed. Construction at Ireland is moving along well with structural steel to be delivered in July. The project is slated to be done in and ready for use in January. The new lighting in high school auditorium is being worked on now. And repairs to fencing at the sports complex damaged by the wind is moving along with fence posts being replaced and remaining materials on order.
-Heard that a new Environmental Science AP course is being added to the curriculum. The board approved the addition and purchase of textbooks for the course.
-Approved milk, bread, and commodity prices for next school year. Jasper participates in the SIEC group that buys the items at a discounted price for school systems based on large quantities from member schools.
-Rescheduled two meetings due to scheduling conflicts. The September meeting will move from the 26th to the 19th. That change also affects the budget process and the budget for next fiscal year will be adopted at the meeting on September 19th. The December meeting will be held on the 19th at 7:00 p.m. instead of 1:00 p.m.
