Tuesday, November 6, 2007

No opposition to NACS elementary

District residents appear to be in full support of the new elementary building project, Northwest Allen County Schools Superintendent Steve Yager said Monday night.

As of 4:30 p.m. Monday, he said no one had filed a remonstrance attempting to halt the $19 million project.

“We’re happy about that,” Yager said.

The building, which will be on the south grounds of Carroll Middle School off Bethel Road, will have a design similar to the district’s Cedar Canyon Elementary School, said Kari Vilamaa, president of Barton-Coe-Vilamaa Architects-Engineers Inc., the architect for the project.

The elementary will house pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, with a wing for each grade and kindergarten and pre-k together. There will be one cafeteria, with an adjoining stage and one gymnasium.

The cost for the building is estimated at $19.06 million. Construction hard costs, such as building supplies, as well as contingency costs, will ta! ke up the bulk of the budget at nearly $14.9 million. Soft costs, such as paying for the architect firm and soil testing, will cost nearly $2.88 million. The rest of the budget includes financing at $237,944 and capitalized interest at $1.05 million.

The district plans to sell $13.8 million in bonds, with a 20-year maximum repayment period. Another $5 million will come from school contributions, with $276,000 coming from earnings on construction, such as interest gained on the project.

The bond issue is estimated to increase taxes 2.7 cents per $100 of assessed value, meaning taxes would increase $21.36 annually on a $150,000 home. On farmland, the annual tax increase would be 31 cents per acre.

The board does not plan to sell bonds until next year.

The board also approved bids for another project in the district Monday night. The Carroll High School expansion and renovation project now has six local firms and one Terre Haute company working to expan! d the school and bring the freshman and upper-classman campuse! s togeth er. Bids for the project came in under the $51 million construction budget at $49.9 million, which opened the way for the board to approve some upgrades that members didn’t believe could fit into the original order. These bids also brought the entire cost of the project under budget, which now stands at $60.4 million. The board plans to sell bonds for this project in the next two weeks.

In other business, the board eyed the prospect of year-round schooling. The board was presented the plan, along with the pros and cons, but no decision was made on the subject. It also briefly mentioned that the School Property Tax Control Board voted against allowing the district to raise more money for transportation.

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Source: http://www.fortwayne.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/SE/20071106/NEWS/711060316
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