PROGRESS: Southern Indiana schools prepare for growth

May 31—SOUTHERN INDIANA — As new residents move to Southern Indiana, local school districts are putting plans in motion to prepare for projected growth and update aging facilities.

Both Greater Clark County Schools and Silver Creek School Corp. are both moving forward with transformative facility projects.

In Greater Clark, a five-year facility plan is paving the way for district-wide updates and the replacement of some older schools. In Silver Creek, preparations are underway for significant building renovations that been in discussion for years in the community.

GREATER CLARK

In Greater Clark, families can expect to see a number of brand-new school buildings in upcoming years, as well as renovations such as classroom additions and athletic facility updates.

The district's five-year facility plan is the result of numerous studies, including demographics and facilities studies that reflected the need for renovations and new buildings.

Greater Clark Superintendent Mark Laughner said enrollment has gone increased in Greater Clark two out of the past three years, and although there was a slight decrease in the past year, enrollment growth is projected for the future.

About a year and a half ago, a demographics study showed projected enrollment growth over the next 10 years at each school, and an updated study will soon be completed with new census data.

Factors such as new housing developments and economic growth in Clark County play a major role in school enrollment.

"Since there's been even more developments that have come on board, we anticipate our growth to be even faster than what the demographics study said," Laughner said.

The district is already advancing with year two of the facility plans. This stage involves the merging of Wilson and Thomas Jefferson elementary schools into a new school at the Wilson Elementary site and the merging of Jonathan Jennings and Pleasant Ridge elementary schools at the Jonathan Jennings site.

Laughner expects construction of the two elementary schools to begin by next spring, and the goal is to open the schools in time for the 2024-25 school year.

"We're really excited about building these new elementary schools," he said. "We think they're going to be state-of-the-art elementary schools, and you won't see something like this in the area. They'll be great for both communities, and they're very much needed."

Increasing capacity for Greater Clark's PreK program is a key focus as the district builds and renovates elementary facilities. Within two years, Greater Clark has gone from 125 PreK seats to 260, and the goal is to reach 400 PreK seats across the district.

'We actually have more PreK students than anybody around us — we have the largest PreK enrollment just behind Marion County," Laughner said. "We want to increase that, and we're continuing to focus on that."

In year three, one of the projects includes either the renovation or replacement of Parkwood Elementary in Clarksville. The replacement of Parkview Middle School in Jeffersonville is another major building project in the facility plan, and the district will need to purchase land for the new school. The replacement of the middle school was actually moved to year four from year five due to the issues with the aging facility.

Even as the district moves forward with these facility projects, Greater Clark is committed to keeping the tax rate at $1.10, Laughner said. He emphasizes that Greater Clark's assessed value is expected to grow over the next decade as the area faces residential growth.

"So we have a well laid-out plan that we think we can accomplish, that will be great for our kids, our teachers and our community, and we'll be able to do it without raising the tax rate on anybody," he said.

In year four, Greater Clark is also planning to purchase land between Jeffersonville and Charlestown for future use. The district will need a new elementary school in that area at some point due to projected growth, which could be seven to nine years down the road, Laughner said.

"We want to go ahead and get the land now, because land prices are just going to keep going up," he said.

Laughner said he "hopes the community trusts what we're doing."

"I think in three, four, five years, they're going to see a transformation of our district in regards to facilities," he said. "The people who live here in Greater Clark, work here in Greater Clark are going to see something they haven't seen in a long, long time in this school district, and that's modern, updated, nice facilities for their kids to go to school in and for the teacher to teach in."

Many communities have waited to update facilities and build new schools, and "now it's reached a critical point where we have to do something," Laughner said.

"If you go to other areas of the state up around Indianapolis, all you see is new renovated buildings where their communities have invested in their schools, invested in their extracurricular facilities, and for some reason in Southern Indiana, a lot of districts haven't done that, including Greater Clark," he said. "It's time to do something, because we have some aging facilities that cost us a lot of extra money to operate."

SILVER CREEK

In Silver Creek, renovations at the high school will be the most sweeping of the district's facility projects. The school was built for 550 students but is now serving more than 900.

Renovations planned for the high school include new classrooms, new labs, a new student union, a new main entrance, an expanded cafeteria, a new auditorium and and more. Athletic facilities such as a new football stadium, new baseball field and new softball field are also included in the plan.

In addition to fixing current capacity issues at the high school, the district is also making sure facilities are prepared for future enrollment growth, which will be addressed with classroom additions at the middle school and primary school.

Silver Creek Superintendent Chad Briggs said the district saw enrollment growth of about 140 kids in the fall.

"If you just look around our district, there's new apartments, there's at least two subdivisions that haven't started building yet, but you can tell are going to be there in the future, so that alone tells you that you're probably going to grow..." he said. "We need to be able to accommodate those kids, and with our projects of expanding the high school, expanding the primary school and adding on a little bit to the middle school, we expect to be able to handle that growth."

To fund the facility projects, the Silver Creek school board approved a $55 million bond in 2021, and the board approved a measure in April that will allow the district to bond for another $42 million.

Silver Creek Board President Chris Rountree notes that the push for building renovations were at the core of the 2020 split of West Clark Community Schools, which involved the formation of the separate Silver Creek and Borden-Henryville school corporations. The divorce stemmed from a failed referendum that would have

Rountree said many people have "spent a lot of time trying to fight for this," and he is grateful to see the facility projects progress. He describes the projects as "past due."

"We're working hard to give our students the best learning environment," he said. "We want every kid to leave here with the best education they can have."

The renovations will play a major role in expanding educational opportunities, whether that is adding new science labs or creating space to bring in more performing arts programs, according to Rountree. For example, the performing arts additions at the high school could allow for an orchestra program that the school currently does not have the space to accommodate.

"Our kids deserve more classrooms so we can offer more classes," he said. "There are certain classes we can't offer now because we literally don't have the space. We have teachers that don't have their own classrooms."

Through the renovations, the district will make sure there are enough restrooms for students, and the cafeteria expansion will help students eat lunch at more reasonable times, Rountree said.

"We have some kids now that start school at 7:40 a.m. and they don't eat until 1 p.m., because we don't have the room to put 935 students in the cafeteria, so we have to spread it out," he said.

This summer, construction will begin on athletic facilities, and renovations on the high school are expected to begin in the fall. Rountree said as people "start seeing bulldozers and people in hard hats working, the buzz is just going to explode."

"In less than two years, we have — in my opinion — done more than most school boards face in 10 years," he said. "We have separated...we had to form a new school corporation in the midst of COVID, hire a new superintendent and start $100 million in facility upgrades."