MCS sitting on $9.5 million for repair/rehab
MUNCIE – Muncie Community Schools is sitting on $9.5 million in revenue from a bond issue last year for building repairs and rehabilitation, but that isn’t enough to address all of the concerns at the district’s schools.
While the school board last year earmarked where the funds would be spent, it is likely to change that in light of a recently issued in-depth report prepared by architectural, engineering, financial and educational consultants.
For example, a little more than $1 million is budgeted for heating/ventilating/air conditioning and mechanical-system upgrades at Sutton Elementary School, which the report recommends closing. And Sutton isn’t the only building on the spending list recommended for closure.
The report says that “as difficult as it may be, Muncie Community Schools must close more schools.” The school board already has closed Wilson Middle School, a 213,000-square-foot facility built on a 57-acre site at the edge of town just 20 years ago.
“If you look at the report and the rankings of the buildings, the board is going to have to be sure if they want to start with renovations this summer, it better be a building that doesn’t have a low score that eventually might close,” school CFO Mark Burkhart said in an interview.
Architects and engineers rated Sutton, which has “many critical needs,” “well below” all other school buildings. Conditions at Sutton, a high-poverty school built in 1951 and added onto in 1977, include a leaky roof throughout the building; stained, worn, bubbled and frayed carpet; no fire sprinkler; cracked, spalled and broken bricks on exterior walls; original boilers and steam heating; a rusted-out water heater; no natural light in the cafeteria whose floor tiling is cracked; poor car and bus traffic patterns; open concept classrooms that make lockdown impossible; no insulation in parts of the building; all chalk boards, no marker boards in classrooms; rusty and deformed fencing becoming overrun with vegetation; building code issues; insufficient or limited power receptacles in classrooms; and multiple extension cords draped across the floor in computer labs.
Here’s where the school board originally planned to spend the revenue from the debt incurred with the bond issue:
• Central High School, $2 million for renovations including but not limited to HVAC-mechanical systems.
• Grissom Elementary, $1.3 million for HVAC-mechanical system upgrades.
• Muncie Area Career Center, $1.2 million for HVAC-mechanical system upgrades.
• Sutton Elementary, $1 million for HVAC-mechanical system upgrades.
• East Washington Academy, $911,854 for HVAC-mechanical system upgrades.
• South View Elementary, $962,513 for HVAC-mechanical system upgrades.
• Northside Middle School, $1 million for HVAC-mechanical system upgrades and swimming pool cover.
• $1.5 million for district-wide renovations including roof repairs, security improvements, lighting replacement and concrete, pavement and ramp repairs.
The report says the school district “can’t hope to raise enough money to do costly renovations or new buildings without a referendum.” But a construction referendum would likely have the same result as a transportation referendum defeated by voters, the consultants say. The school corporation’s capital, debt and transportation funds have been hurt by property tax caps.
Each of the options recommended by the consultants recommends keeping Central High School and the Muncie Area Career Center open. Southside High School was merged into Central High this past year. For the most part, the community has accepted the merger well, the consultants found.
Because the report is “very complimentary” of Central High and the Career Center, it’s more likely the school board will proceed with upgrades to those buildings first while keeping upgrades to schools like Sutton “on the back burner,” Burkhart said.
If bond revenue isn’t spent as originally planned on schools because they eventually will be closed, that money can be re-allocated for repair and renovation of other schools, Burkhart said.
Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834.