Study offers a few options

An architectural study of Jay Schools to be presented Monday outlines a series of consolidation options that could close as many as three elementary schools over the next few years in an effort to cut operational costs.
“It is my belief that we will continue to lose enrollment as we move forward in the district,” superintendent Tim Long told the Jay School Board and administrators in an email this week.
“My personal opinion is that we must become more cost effective,” said Long. “This is one way to do it. … I believe this does represent a new future for the Jay School Corporation. As times change, so must we.”
The study, which will be presented at Monday’s school board meeting, was developed by CSO Architects and Long. It assessed all school buildings based upon their age, overall condition, accessibility, mechanical systems and operational costs. Each building was rated by the architects on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest rating.
The board’s regular meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the administrative offices but will recess at 6:30 p.m. and reconvene at 7 p.m. in the library of Jay County High School for the presentation of the building study.
The study initially outlined four options for reducing annual operational expenses.
“I have put a cost on the options as I see them currently,” said Long.
Option one would close Pennville Elementary School and move those students in kindergarten through fifth grade to Redkey Elementary School. That could be accomplished as early as September 2016 and would result in an anticipated annual savings of $300,000.
Option two would add 12 classrooms at Jay County High School to accommodate eighth grade students who would be moved from West Jay and East Jay Middle Schools. It would also move sixth and seventh grade students from West Jay to East Jay Middle School and would move the current kindergarten through fifth grade students now attending Westlawn Elementary School into the West Jay Middle School building. The existing Westlawn building would be closed.
That could be accomplished, the study estimates, by September 2017. It would involve somewhere between $125,000 and $1.05 million in construction costs at the high school and would result in anticipated annual savings of $750,000 to $1 million.

Option three would reconfigure East Elementary School to add two classrooms, construct eight new classrooms at General Shanks Elementary School, then would move kindergarten through fifth grade students now attending Judge Haynes Elementary School to Shanks and East. Judge Haynes Elementary School would then be closed.
The architects estimate that construction costs would range between $2.5 and $3.03 million, with most of that involved in adding classroom space at General Shanks. Estimated annual savings in operational expense would be $300,000. That could be accomplished by September 2018.
The fourth option would add 12 classrooms at JCHS at a cost of $100,000 to $1 million, move eighth grade students from West Jay and East Jay to the high school building, move fifth grade students from all elementary schools to the middle schools, and construct an eight classroom addition to General Shanks Elementary School
It would then close Westlawn, Pennville and Judge Haynes elementary schools, and convert Bloomfield, Redkey, Shanks and East elementary schools into kindergarten through fourth grade facilities. The total construction estimate, when the JCHS and Shanks classrooms are combined, would be somewhere between $2.6 million and $4 million. The estimated annual savings would be $900,000, according to the study. Option four could be accomplished by September 2018.
A fifth option, Long said, would be to have a referendum on raising property taxes for the school corporation’s general fund.
“We have the ability to not only become more efficient, but also to unify the district’s middle school approach,” Long said in his email to the board. “The model we have used for many years has worked and our productivity shows it. In the current state fiscal environment, we must find a more efficient way to operate.”
Long said his hope was that any of the first four options could be done without the loss of current employees.
“We would simply try to absorb through attrition,” he said. “We have reduced over 40 positions in the last two years, and that is starting to have a positive effect. To keep pace with the current funding mechanism in Indiana, it will take more than that to set us on a solid base forward.”