Project planning

Athletic practice space.

Electrical.

Food service.

HVAC.

Performing arts areas.

Pool equipment.

Stadium grandstand.

Water mains.

All of those areas and others will be among those Jay School Board will discuss Monday during a work session dedicated to looking at potential capital improvements for Jay County Junior-Senior High School.

Monday’s agenda includes a look at the timeline on the potential project both previously and moving forward, school needs, preliminary options, cost estimates, updated details about financing and information about the tax/fiscal impact of such a project. Objectives for the meeting are listed as gathering facts, evaluating long-term objectives, developing preliminary project options and creating a process and timeline.

In addition to the items listed above, other areas to be discussed include curbs and sidewalks, tennis courts, the track and water mains. The agenda also lists some exterior work for the junior-senior high building.

The work session — such sessions are intended for the board to focus on a specific topic with no action to be taken — is part of an ongoing process to make decisions regarding a capital project for the facility.

The board discussed opportunities for a capital improvement project during its Jan. 20 meeting, with Lindsay Simonetto of accounting and consulting firm Baker Tilly explaining that multiple debt payments are scheduled to end over the next few years. The school corporation’s annual debt service is expected to drop from $5.73 million in 2024 to $3.3 million in 2028. For that reason, the school corporation could take on additional capital projects — she estimated up to $6.6 million for a “non-controlled” project or up to $18.285 million for a project that would be subject to a remonstrance — without increasing the total debt service or tax rate.

The school corporation’s overall debt is currently at its lowest mark — $31.8 million — in the past 15 years. It was as high as $53.7 million in 2009 following another major renovation at what was then solely a high school. It involved a new pool, new heating ventilation and cooling systems, and updates to other areas. 

The building was renovated again in 2019 as part of an overall school consolidation project that saw it become a junior-senior high. (A $2.23 million project for repairs to the junior high wing of the building following the September tornado was approved at the board’s March 17 meeting. That work is being covered by insurance.)

At the same meeting, architecture and engineering firm Barton Coe Vilamaa presented an evaluation of all of the school corporation’s buildings. It broke down recommendations to items of high, medium and low importance, with cost estimates for each. Among high-importance needs for the junior-senior high were replacing wire glass with safety glass, updating handrails and guardrails that are not ADA compliant, upgrading kitchen equipment and resurfacing the north parking lot (also known as the driving range). The parking lot is the most expensive of those items, estimated at $1.39 million. (Carpet replacement, listed as medium importance, is estimated at $780,670.)

Jay Schools superintendent Jeremy Gulley noted the need for renovations in part to keep building — it is the largest in the corporation — viable for the long term and also to address the changing needs of junior-senior high students.

“Programs change, curriculum changes,” he said.

The board held a special meeting March 3 at the junior-senior high school to tour areas of the facility being considered for renovations. Those included the band and choir rooms, the TV studio that is currently housing the library, the wrestling practice area, the pool and the kitchen.

Gulley noted at the time that areas visited were not necessarily guaranteed to be part of a project and that other items could be added.

“There's a process to these things,” he said. “We're exploring, we're communicating, we're visiting.”

In addition to those meetings, a school facility and project committee has met multiple times over the last few months.

Gulley has previously said May would be the earliest date for which the board could make a decision on a potential project. That timeline will be discussed again Monday.