By KEVIN NEVERS

The “number one short-term need” of the Duneland School Corporation (DSC) is the addition of a new—and sixth—elementary school.

That’s the most significant of the four recommendations made by the Duneland Key Communicator Committee (DKCC), which presented its 48-page report to the Duneland School Board at its meeting Monday night.

The DKCC has been meeting since April, under the leadership of Robert Boyd, Ph.D., of Indiana State University, to conduct—as the title of the report puts it—“An Analysis of Community and Student Demographics, Educational Program, Education Space Utilization, and Capital Debt Leeway of the Duneland School Corporation.”

“Clearly,” the report states, “the lack of sufficient and appropriate educational and support facilities at the primary elementary school level in the DSC constitutes the major facility challenge to the future delivery of modern educational programs in the DSC.”

The report further states that a sixth elementary school “should be geographically located to accommodate a concept of the student population of three primary schools feeding into one intermediate elementary school.”

When President John Marshall asked Boyd whether re-districting would be necessary, Boyd said that it would be. He said, in fact, that re-districting cannot be avoided. “Nobody wants to move but somebody’s going to have to.” But, he added, “keep it at a minimum. Don’t go hog-wild.”

The DKCC based its recommendation for a sixth elementary school among other things on the current actual and functional capacity of the existing five elementary schools. According to the report, the total actual capacity of those five is 2,725 students, the total functional capacity is 2,117, and presently 2,141 students are enrolled, or 78.6 percent of actual capacity and 101.1 percent of functional capacity. At Liberty, actual capacity is presently as high as 87.1 percent and functional as high as 108.9 percent; at Jackson, at the lower end of the range, actual is at 70.1 percent and functional at 87.6 percent.

The other three recommendations made by the DKCC:

•The interior renovation and redesign of portions of Liberty Intermediate should be completed. That retrofit “would provide appropriate space for increasing intermediate student populations and a variety of support programs for the school corporation,” the latter including the reassignment of the Head Start Program from Westchester Intermediate School.

•Space needs at CMS should be “continually” assessed, since the “problem of space will become more acute . . . as the student population of the middle school increases beyond current levels,” the report states. “While the corporation has some time for the projected enrollment increases to actually materialize before facility decisions for the middle school need to be made, it is important that the remodeling and redesign needs at Liberty Intermediate School be addressed in the short term.”

•And, finally, “planning to update current technology and the infrastructure to support future technologies should be part of facilities improvement program at this time,” the report states.

Funding

After the presentation of the report, Boyd noted that the DSC “must now match needs with dollars.” Fortunately, the report states, the DSC “has a great deal of capital debt leeway that can accommodate planning for the future of educational facilities.”

The total assessed value of the DSC, according to the report, was $2,611,710,397 in 2007, and based on an acceptable debt leeway range in the State of Indiana of 10 percent to 15 percent the DSC has a net capital debt leeway of $164 million to $294 million. The current capital debt of the DSC totals $97,100,840, or roughly a third of the acceptable leeway.

Still, Boyd remarked, “what’s doable financially in your community may not be doable politically. Or it may be doable in both ways.”

The DKCC accordingly made the following calculations:

•Under the 2007 total assessed value of the DSC, a capital bond issue at 6 percent for 20 years would require around $0.018 cents per $5 million to service, “or less than 2 cents per $5 million of new capital investment.”

•For the owner of a home with the median Porter County value of $127,000—and without any property tax exemptions—each 1 cent on the property tax rate costs the taxpayer $12.70 per year.

•So each $5 million in additional capital debt accrued by the DSC would cost that property owner an additional $22.86 per year, “or $1.90 per month or less than 7 cents per day.”

Under Advisement

The board warmly praised the DKCC for its work—Member Janice Custer called it “very thorough”—but made it clear that at this time it was taking the recommendations under advisement and that no decisions of any kind have yet been made.

“This does bring to light some issues we need to think about and address,” Member Mike Trout said.

At the very end of the meeting, however, a somewhat disgruntled man from the floor indicated that he was under the impression that the board had intended on Monday to take public comment on the report. The man was probably referring mistakenly to a public hearing at the beginning of the meeting on an additional appropriation for the purchase of land by the DSC for the construction of new school facilities—technically a separate issue—but as he observed, “Don’t you feel its valuable to take the public pulse?”

Marshall said that the board has every intention of taking the public pulse on the issue of a sixth elementary school, should members agree to act on that recommendation.

The DKCC has already provided “some sense of the public pulse,” he remarked, but after digesting the report the board most definitely will seek “further input from many people.”

“You pretty well telegraphed your position,” the man replied from the floor. “I’m not sure that’s what I wanted to hear.”

At some point the DSC will post the DKCC’s report on its website at www.duneland.k12.in.us

The Additional Appropriation

In related business, the board voted 5-0 to approve an additional appropriation from the Rainy Day Fund of $1.3 million for the purchase of two parcels in Jackson Township for possible new school facilities and for a building project at Liberty Intermediate.

Of that amount, $756,000 is earmarked for the actual purchase price of the two parcels totaling 37.8 acres at the northeast corner of C.R. 1050N and C.R. 250E, from ATG Jackson Creek LLC, the same principles developing the 362-unit Sand Creek Farms located at 250E and East Porter Ave.

An additional $200,000 is earmarked for the Town of Chesterton to develop a new municipal park on a third parcel sandwiched between the other two.

Superintendent Dirk Baer said that the purchase of the property puts the DSC “in the position to do what it has to do when it has to do it.” But, he added, “simply the purchase of a piece of property . . . doesn’t mean that this time next year there will be a new school on it.”

Baer noted that the board “has been actively pursuing properties over the last two years,” like the previous acquisition of 26 acres located near the Liberty Elementary and Intermediate campus. “The board has been moving proactively,” he said.

The remaining $344,000 is for a building project at LI to replace wall covering and roofing. Later in the meeting the board voted 5-0 to award the roofing contract to E.C. Babilla Inc., which submitted the low bid of $245,769; and the wall covering contract to Classic Plastering LLC, which submitted the low bid of $122,000 (plus an alternate bid of $4,000 for a total contract price of $126,000).

The board had anticipated a total project cost of $498,000, so the actual total price of $371,769 came in well under budget.

Posted 6/3/2008