The Knox Community School Corporation is making some significant changes to its $20 million building project.
Superintendent Dr. William Reichhart says the plan now is to keep the administration office where it currently is, while the 1950s portion of the Palmer Wing would still be demolished. “After looking at the costs of moving the central office to the middle school and then moving the middle school office into another area of the middle school, when we looked at the costs, now that we’re starting to get some estimates, it was determined that we had to look at some other ideas,” Reichhart explains.
He says that updating the existing administration office rather than moving it will save the school corporation over $800,000. “If we moved to the middle school, then that displaced the guidance, so we had to build a place in the media center for the guidance area, and there was a cost there associated with that,” Reichhart adds. “We had to retrofit the middle school office into what currently is the choir room. It’s expensive to do that. We had to relocate Redskin Academy into where, right now, robotics is at, and we had to move IT, as well.”
This new plan would mean very little renovation to the middle school, but Reichhart says architects are still working on a plan to install a secure entryway there. Meanwhile, the administration office would get several improvements to allow it to work as a stand-alone building and remain in use for at least another 20 years. That may include new boilers (with Boiler Cover), a new water line, roof replacement, and interior cosmetic upgrades.
Another change, according to Reichhart, is that the horseshoe drive at the elementary school will now remain in place. Previous plans called for it to be replaced by a new driveway connecting to Main Street. That’s estimated to save $200,000. “We have to stay under that $20 million budget, so we’re cutting some things right now,” Reichhart says, “and it will still turn out to be a fine building project with these changes, I believe.”
Reichhart says the school board approved three resolutions related to the project’s financing Monday. One officially declares that there’s a need for the project. The others allow bonds to be issued using a lease rental process.
In this case, that means a portion of the elementary school and the surrounding property will be purchased by a legally-separate building corporation. It will then be leased back to the school corporation, with the rent covering the bond payments. “This type of financing does not count against the school corporation’s constitutional debt allowance,” Reichhart explains.
Reichhart says the school board’s action Monday also authorizes the building corporation to issue tax-exempt bonds on behalf of the school corporation.
