Seymour Community School Corp. plans to keep the public updated on its three major construction projects every step of the way.
This week, the corporation uploaded new information to its website that allows community members to view the architectural renderings and floor plans for the upcoming expansion and renovations of three school facilities.
Those plans can be viewed at www.scsc.k12.in.us/community/construction-projects-and-renovations.
"Once we start building, we're going to try to put pictures on there," Superintendent Brandon Harpe said.
School board members had the opportunity to view the drawings first during a presentation by VPS Architecture last week in the Seymour High School cafeteria.
It has been six months since Harpe announced the district would invest more than $52 million without raising taxes to address safety, growth and expand programming.
The projects will add classrooms and a greenhouse at the Ag-Science and Research Farm, expand and renovate the Seymour Middle School Sixth Grade Center into an intermediate school for both fifth and sixth grade students and expand and renovate the high school.
The projects are still in the design phase, so interior details are not available yet.
School board Vice President Nancy Franke praised the designs, calling them "remarkable."
"It is exciting to be a part of this project," she said. "It's something I have pushed for several years and now am able to see it come to fruition."
It is even more remarkable the improvements are coming at no additional cost to taxpayers, she added.
About 31 cents of SCSC's 76-cent tax impact will be eliminated soon as the 20-year bonds for the Seymour-Redding and Seymour-Jackson elementary construction projects are paid off. The new projects will replace around 28 cents of that debt.
"It took a lot of work to make sure our school corporation was financially sound as well as keep our tax levels steady over the years to get our schools to this point," Franke said.
The projects are just another reason the Seymour community should be proud of its schools, Franke added.
Each project must go through design and bid phases before construction can begin. Design of the high school project will take the longest at an estimated 10 months, wrapping up in July. The intermediate school design should be complete in April. Both got underway in October 2020.
Since the ag-science facility is a smaller and less complex project, the design phase is much shorter at three months. It will begin in May and wrap up the same time as the high school design period.
The next step in the process will be the bid and award phase with the intermediate school project going out to bid first in May, followed by the other two projects in July.
Construction of the intermediate school is set to begin in August and will take an estimated 17 months to complete, finishing up in December 2022. The first class of fifth-graders to attend the new school will be in fall 2023.
"This is a concept that has worked in a lot of communities throughout the state," Harpe said. "One of the advantages you get in this model is more opportunities for fifth-graders with clubs, sports, music than any single elementary can handle."
By removing fifth-graders from the five elementary buildings, it relieves congestion and gives those schools more room to grow, too.
With the additions and renovations, the entire building, which was once the old Jackson Elementary School, will be touched, he said.
"We're more than doubling the amount of classrooms," he said.
The facility will boast new band and choir rooms, a new gymnasium, a larger cafeteria with a new kitchen and more parking.
"The gym and cafeteria are just woefully undersized," Harpe said. "Now, we will be able to have convocations there, guest speakers and concerts."
Construction won't change the look of the building's exterior too much, he added.
"It's bigger, it's updated, more modern, but it's certainly not flashy," he said.
The high school project will take an estimated two years to complete with construction beginning in October 2021 and ending in September 2023.
"It's where the majority of the work is going to be," Harpe said. "There will be a lot going on."
At both the intermediate school and high school, new construction will happen first so those areas can be occupied while the existing areas are renovated.
"It's a good plan, but it's still going to be a hassle at times," Harpe said.
Additions at the high school include a new cafeteria and kitchen, large group instruction rooms, new classrooms, another corridor with more lockers, a new main entrance on West Second Street, new administrative offices, new band and choir rooms and an attached fieldhouse with a weight room and indoor track.
A small part of the high school project is one administrators are most excited about. It will enclose the breezeway that attaches the auditorium to the gym. By eliminating the need for students to walk outside during the school day, the project is increasing safety and security of students, Harpe said.
Located in Freeman Field Industrial Park, the ag-science facility is slated to take six months to complete with construction beginning in October and wrapping up in May 2022 after a two-month winter break.
Although the building is just a little over three years old, Harpe said by adding onto it now, the corporation can better meet the needs of students and the community for the future.
"There's just an increased interest in vocational and career technical education," Harpe said.
The facility already boasts a food lab, a welding lab, a classroom and a shop area for large farm machinery. New construction will add a 3,420-square-foot machine trades lab for robotics and manufacturing, three more classrooms and a 4,000-square-foot greenhouse.
Harpe said the vision is for the facility to become a career center similar to the C4 program in Columbus. It's already attracting students from Brownstown with a program that allows them to earn an associate degree in agriculture from Ivy Tech Community College.
"We're really proud of that, and a lot of that came about because of this facility," Harpe said.
But there always will be a need for C4, he added.
"We have singleton programs where only one or two students have interest," he said.
The expansion of the ag facility also gives the corporation the opportunity to move more agriculture and career tech classes off of the high school's main campus, freeing up more space there. There could be a time when some students are at the ag facility all day.
"Our high school campus is landlocked, and even though we're renovating some things and adding on, we're running out of space," Harpe said.
Growing enrollment throughout the corporation is the main impetus behind the expansions and renovations, a problem Harpe said Seymour is fortunate to have.
"If we get back on track where we were before the pandemic, our enrollment is going to start going up like it was, so we have to leave room to grow," he said. "I say this all the time, but we have 25% of the population in Seymour with us every day at Seymour Community Schools."
Administrators also have worked closely with local industry leaders to help develop and add vocational programs that will help produce the workers they need.
"We're really trying to help fill that skilled labor void in the community by adding targeted programs, and a lot of that is going to be out here at the ag facility," Harpe said.
In December, VPS Architecture in conjunction with The Skillman Corp., which is providing construction management, conducted a public meeting for contractors interested in working on the projects.
"We had quite a few show up, and since then, we've had several more reach out," Harpe said. "Our architect, George Link, thinks we're going to get a good number of bidders, and we hope we get a lot of local bidders on the project."
Harpe said the school board wants to use as many local businesses as possible.
"We identified that as something that is important for us," he said. "We want some local presence in this."
VPS also continues to meet with teachers, custodians, coaches and other users of the facilities to determine needs and iron out details.
"That was important for us, too, that we get as much input as we can," Harpe said.
On the Web
Updates for the Seymour Community School Corp. addition and renovation projects can be viewed at www.scsc.k12.in.us/community/construction-projects-and-renovations.
At a glance
Estimated timeline of Seymour Community School Corp. construction/renovation projects
(Subject to change)
Design phase
Fifth and Sixth Grade Center – October 2020 to April 2021
Seymour High School – October 2020 to July 2021
Ag-Science and Research Farm – May 2021 to July 2021
Bid/award phase
Fifth and Sixth Grade Center – May to June 2021
Seymour High School – August to September 2021
Ag-Science and Research Farm – August to September 2021
Construction phase
Fifth and Sixth Grade Center – August 2021 to December 2022
Seymour High School – October 2021 to September 2023
Ag-Science and Research Farm – October 2021 to May 2022 (with a two-month break in January and February)
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