In the next two years, some Center Grove students will need to take classes in portable classrooms as their school buildings fill up, school officials said.
That will hopefully buy time to make room for the continued growing enrollment, especially in the southern portion of the school district, with a new elementary school.
The soonest the 110,000-square-foot building would open is in 2019, officials said.
The cost: $38 million to $42 million for the building, and about $1.1 million per year in operating costs, including staff and utilities.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallerySchool officials said that, until the building is finished, class sizes will increase and each elementary school could need to use portable classrooms, or trailers, outside their buildings.
“We need to work on this to make this happen sooner, rather than later,” Superintendent Richard Arkanoff said.
This week, the school board took the first steps in approving a new elementary school off of Morgantown Road in Bargersville, south of County Road 144, that would have room for up to 800 students. The building would have 45 classrooms, along with a gymnasium, cafeteria and kitchen, large group instruction room and space for offices and conference rooms for staff, according to the school district’s plans.
Center Grove already owns the land, which was acquired in a land swap with local developer Mike Duke previously. That site is the best fit for a new school since it is near where much of the district’s growth is happening, including three new neighborhoods planned near County Road 144, Arkanoff said.
Officials also considered the former West Grove Elementary School, which is currently used by a church, but it was too small, not connected to sewers and too close to Interstate 69. Land near Maple Grove Elementary was another option, but nearby property is set aside for a future middle school, and that would have too many schools — and too much traffic — in one area, Arkanoff said.
The process to approve the project and its financing, design the building and construct it will take at least two-and-a-half years, Arkanoff said.
In the past few years, Center Grove has been talking about the need for a new elementary school approaching, and that time is now with all five elementary schools nearing or at capacity, he said.
During the past 65 years, enrollment has grown at Center Grove schools every year except for two. In the last two years, the school district has hit a record size kindergarten class each year, and enrollment has grown by about 4 percent each year, according to the school district.
And school officials said they don’t expect that to slow down any time soon. For example, more than 700 new homes are planned to be built in one area of Bargersville over the next decade, Arkanoff said.
Last school year, the school district redistricted, which moved more than 700 students to other schools, pushing the growth from schools in the southern portion of the school district further north. Center Grove also added 17 teachers to help reduce class sizes, but this took up more classroom space, Arkanoff said.
This school year, enrollment hit 3,712, nearing a trigger point of 3,741 students that officials have said was when they would need to consider a new elementary school. Officials expect to go beyond that number, and bringing in portable classrooms will give them space for more than 4,000 students.
The new elementary school would be the first new school in Center Grove since Maple Grove Elementary opened in 2006. The debt for the new building would not impact the current tax rate of $1 per every $100 of assessed value significantly because debt for other projects will be coming off in the next few years, Center Grove chief financial officer Paul Gabriel said. If the school wasn’t built, the tax rate could go down.
School officials also are planning an expansion to Center Grove Middle School Central in the next several years, but that could be covered with smaller loans that the school district could also include within its current tax rate, Gabriel said.
How the new building will impact tax bills depends on whether the project goes to a public vote.
Under state law, the project can go to a public vote because the cost is more than $10 million. But it doesn’t have to because the school district can borrow the money needed for the building without going outside its tax levy or significantly increasing taxes.
If the project does not go to a public vote, the school district can approve it, starting construction sooner, and property tax bills won’t go above their tax caps in order to pay for it, school officials said.
If the project does go to a public vote, voters within the school district could either turn it down, meaning the project can’t be proposed again for at least a year, or it could be approved. And if approved, the debt for the project would be charged in addition to the tax caps. So if the owner of a $200,000 home hits their property tax cap, they would pay their $2,000 tax bill plus the cost of the debt for the new school, officials said.
School officials also said a public referendum would delay the project by about a year and cost Center Grove $50,000 to pay for a special election because 2017 is a year with no elections.
Whether the project goes to a public vote will depend on whether taxpayers want to send it to one.
Under state law, taxpayers have 30 days after the school district publishes notices of the determination to move ahead with the project to gather the signatures of the lesser of 500 property owners or registered voters or 5 percent of voters within the school district. If enough signatures are gathered, that will start the process to send the project to a public vote.
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Here is a look at what Center Grove is considering for a new elementary school:
When: 2019 is the soonest the new school could be opened
Cost: $38 million to $42 million
Length of loan: 20 years
Maximum payback: $73.5 million
Size: 110,000 square feet
Capacity: 800 students
Classrooms: 45
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A new Center Grove elementary school does not have to go to referendum, even though the cost is more than $10 million, unless taxpayers petition for it to go to a public vote. Here is a look at what that means:
Going to referendum
Requirement: The lesser of 500 voters or property owners or 5 percent of the school district’s registered voters would need to sign a petition to send the project to a public referendum, which Center Grove area residents would vote upon next year.
If it fails: The project cannot be proposed again for at least a year.
If it passes: The project moves forward, and the debt for the building would be outside of the tax caps. That means if the owner of a $200,000 home has hit their 1 percent property tax cap, they would pay the $2,000 tax bill, plus any debt for the new school building.
No referendum
If no one petitions for the project to go to a vote, it would require approves by the Center Grove school board and then could move forward.
The debt for the new school would be kept within the school district’s current tax levy. And school officials have said they want to keep their tax rate similar, around $1 per $100 of assessed valuation, after the project. That means taxpayers would pay for the debt of the new school within their tax caps. If the owner of a $200,000 home hits their tax caps, they would continue being capped at $2,000.
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