Initial estimate is $39 million

The ballpark numbers are a little scary.

Preliminary architect’s estimates on the cost of renovating Jay County High School, the East Jay and West Jay middle school buildings, and Redkey and Bloomfield elementary schools for a reconfigured Jay School Corporation total roughly $39 million.

“You’re going to see budgets and scopes of work all over the ballpark,” Dana Wanamaker of Barton-Coe-Vilamaa, the school corporation’s architectural firm, told the school board Monday night. “When you see some big numbers, don’t panic.”

“That’s the first number, not the last number,” said superintendent Jeremy Gulley. “I believe there are things in this we do not need to do, things we can do later, things we can do with other sources of funding and things we can do in-house. … I think that’s our challenge now. … I do want to see this number come down.”

Steadily — and in some cases sharply — declining enrollment has already forced the closing of Pennville and Judge Haynes elementary school buildings.

The board is expected to vote by the end of this year on further consolidation that would re-make Jay County High School as a junior-senior high school, close the Westlawn Elementary School building and move those students to the current West Jay building, transform the current East Jay building into a grade 3 through 6 elementary, and repurpose the General Shanks Elementary building for the central office and the pre-school program.

The current central office building, originally the Portland armory, would be sold, along with the Westlawn, Haynes and Pennville buildings.

Declining enrollment, said Gulley, is affecting all of the school corporations in east central Indiana.

“This is not a Jay County issue,” he said. “It’s everyone’s problem. … It’s not just Jay County’s challenge. It’s the whole region’s.”

East central Indiana saw its student population drop 13 percent from 2007 to 2017.

With state funding following the student, every enrollment decline translates into fewer dollars for classrooms. That has translated into consolidation throughout this part of Indiana.

“There is no way to solve your problem without being more efficient in how you use your buildings,” said Gulley, noting that the board has been grappling with the issue for the past 24 months.

Wanamaker outlined the projected cost for each of the buildings that will need to be renovated, including in those costs a number of items related to an increased emphasis on school security.

Two possible configurations of the JCHS building have been sketched out to accommodate seventh and eighth grade students while still maintaining as much separation as possible between junior high and high school students.

The projected cost: Between $23,179,637 and $24,328,002.

Renovation of the East Jay building and the creation of playgrounds and additional parking carry a projected cost of $6,384,444.

Renovation of the West Jay building and its grounds carries a projected cost of $5,497,199.

Renovation of the Bloomfield building to accommodate grades kindergarten through 6 carries a projected cost of $2,084,859.

Renovation of the Redkey building to relocate the office for security reasons carries a projected cost of $1,492,936.

Acknowledging that the numbers seem daunting, Gulley told the board they are in line with what other school corporations in this part of the state have faced in terms as they consolidate and reconfigure their buildings.

During the past five years, the three school corporations in Adams County have invested about $62 million in their buildings, Huntington County has invested $80 million, Madison County $60 million, Whitley County $85 million, Noble County $39 million and Randolph County $11 million so far.

“I want the board to think long-term,” said Gulley. “Think about what you want those buildings to do for years to come.”

District reorganization will continue to be on the board’s agenda for at least the rest of this year.

Further consolidation, Gulley noted, will result in the elimination of nearly 30 positions over a two-year period while at the same time preserving programs such as Reading Recovery at the elementary level, teaming at the middle school level and block scheduling at the high school. 

All of those programs received testimonials from administrators and staff at Monday’s meeting.

Block scheduling, JCHS principal Chad Dodd said, has allowed students to take more electives, more dual credit courses and more career technical education classes. It has boosted the graduation rate and the number of students achieving the honors diploma.

As to Reading Recovery — an intense early intervention program aimed at first graders — Westlawn principal Jeff Davis couldn’t say enough good things. 

“It changes lives,” said Davis. “It really does.” Board members learned later in the meeting that 100 percent of Westlawn students passed the 2018 IREAD 3 test, while Jay Schools as a whole had a passing rate of 92.6 percent.

In other business, board members Phil Ford, Ron Laux, Mike Shannon, Kristi Betts, Krista Muhlenkamp, Beth Krieg and Cory Gundrum:

•Approved a 2018-19 teacher contract that provides for a 2-percent increase in base salary for members of Jay Classroom Teachers Association.

•Reviewed the 2019-20 school calendar on first reading.

•Approved a lease agreement for use of West Jay Community Center by West Jay Middle School for basketball practice. Approval came on a 6-0 vote with board president Phil Ford, who is also president of the community center board, abstaining.

•Formally accepted a $100,000 donation from the county and NextEra Energy to be used for school security purposes.

•Accepted at Title I grant in the amount of $962,185.60, a Title II grant in the amount of $136,562.38, a formative assessment grant of $38,179.37 and a rural and low income grant of $67,225.

•Learned that Jay Schools outperformed the state average on the ISTEP test, which is being replaced this year by ILEARN.

•Hired Virginia Cline as a part-time instructional assistant at East Elementary School, Janel Jarrett as an instructional assistant at East, Tracey Morgan and Amanda Frontz as school bus drivers and Amanda May as a personal care nurse at JCHS.

•Approved the retirement of instructional assistant Colina Anderson.

•Accepted the resignation of food service cooks Juanita Harshman and Kris Cook, and bus driver Connie Malberg.

•Approved a leave of absence for special education teacher Kelly Riemesch.

•Approved extracurricular assignments for Diana Hill as intramural track and soccer coach at Westlawn, Holly Farr as intramural basketball coach at Westlawn, Giles Laux as intramural soccer and basketball coach at Bloomfield, Kari Brotherton as intramural track coach at Bloomfield, Zachary Pryor as freshman boys’ basketball coach at JCHS, Shelly Miskinis as student council sponsor at Redkey, Christy Shauver as intramural soccer coach at Redkey, Kendra Stouder as intramural basketball coach at Redkey, Lauren Runkle as intramural track coach at Redkey, Josh Gibson as intramural soccer coach at General Shanks, Bart Brandenburg as intramural soccer coach at General Shanks, Chelsee Brunswick as intramural soccer coach at General Shanks, Rebecca Cloud as assistant band director at JCHS, Renae Laux as seventh grade girls’ basketball coach at East Jay, Josh Gibson as yearbook sponsor at East, Caleb Hummel as robotics sponsor at JCHS and half-time at West Jay, Katy Sunderland as sixth grade girls’ basketball coach at West Jay, Amber Willoughby as seventh grade girls basketball coach at West Jay, Zach Johnson as eighth grade girls’ basketball coach at West Jay, Rodney Nichols as sixth grade boys’ basketball coach at West Jay, Leslie Schubert as drama club sponsor at West Jay, Larry Stultz as eighth grade boys’ basketball coach at West Jay and Doug Johnson as cross country coach at East Jay.

•Approved a supplemental pay agreement for speech and language pathologists.

•Approved field trips by JCHS FFA students and JCHS JAG students.