From the Goshen News:
After months of research and community debate, voters within the Goshen Community School Corp. boundaries today approved a $17.15 million construction project that school officials say will provide “for quality programs for the next 20 years.”
Polls for the special referendum closed at 6 p.m. at 12 locations representing 21 precincts in Elkhart Township. The school construction project was the only question on today’s ballot. It read:
“Shall Goshen Community Schools issue bonds or enter into a lease to finance the renovation of and construction of improvements to Goshen Middle School and Goshen High School, which includes site improvements, which is estimated to cost not more than $17,150,000 and is estimated to increase the property tax rate for debt service by a maximum of $.1098 per $100 of assessed valuation over the 20-year life of the bonds?”
The measure passed though totals were still being determined early this evening.
The project, which GCS Superintendent Diane Woodworth expects to break ground on Aug. 4, 2014 and be completed by December 2015, will replace the corporation’s two existing swimming pools with a new competition pool. It will also re-purpose that pool space at the high school and middle school into classroom space, more cafeteria space and more physical education and music program space. Some small additions to both buildings are included in the project, which breaks down as such:
• At Goshen High School, there will be an addition for band/orchestra support spaces at $1.710 million and renovations will include $630,000 for remodeling of the music department; $270,000 to convert the pool to physical education/classroom areas; $510,000 to repair the brick-front of GHS; and $500,000 to replace the Phend Field baseball diamond, which is expected to be taken by the U.S. 33 relocation project.
• At Goshen Middle School there will be $540,000 for a physical education/fitness room and renovations, including $490,000 to remodel the pool and lockers areas for a band room; $130,000 to remodel the orchestra area for special education classrooms; and the addition and remodeling of the kitchen and cafe for $1.1 million.
• At either the high school or middle school location, a new competition swimming pool facility will be built at a cost of $10 million.
The site for the new pool has yet to be determined. School officials decided not to spend money on design or site studies until completion of the referendum. “Once the architects and contractors look at both sites, they will make recommendations and give us cost estimates for each site,” GCS Board President Jane Troup said last month. “This will also determine whether it will be a freestanding building or attached (to one of the schools).”
Woodworth estimates the new pool will save the corporation $125,000 annually on maintenance costs. The current pool at Goshen High School was completed in 1961 and the pool at the middle school was built in 1991.
Now that the referendum has passed, Woodworth said the school board will appoint a technical review committee and the design build work will begin.
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http://goshennews.com/local/x252045754/GCS-Voters-say-Yes
