HOPE – An upgraded playground, transportation hub, new school buses, improved athletic facility and the latest technology are a few of the improvements being considered for Hope Elementary and Hauser Jr.-Sr. High schools.
Administrators have kept a running list of improvements they would like to see in recent years, Flat Rock-Hawcreek (FRHC) School Superintendent Shawn Price said. For the last six months, they have been prioritizing all the items on that list, he said.
High priority projects will be placed on a three-year plan, while non-pressing upgrades will be placed on a five-year plan, Price explained.
“Nothing has been approved,” the superintendent said. “These are just things we are looking at, but we want to secure the funds before we move ahead.
Up to $5 million in bonds will be issued to finance high priority projects, but only if the FRHC board of school trustees gives their approval, according to a public notice. If the board gives its permission, the bonds would be paid back over a period of 20 years.
It describes the bonds as a proposed amendment to an already existing lease agreement between the school corporation and the Flat Rock-Hawcreek Multi-School Building Corporation.
A public hearing regarding the necessity of issuing the bonds will be conducted by the school board at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 17 within the corporation’s administrative center. Between now and then, the public is invited to see preliminary drawings, plans and cost estimates of individual projects at the FRHC administrative center.
At the conclusion of the hearing, the school board may either authorize the execution of the bonds or make modifications. But Price says he doesn’t expect the board to take official action regarding the bonds until October.
With the board’s permission, a final list of projects is expected to be approved by Friday, Dec. 20, the superintendent said. But due to state bidding requirements, the first wave of upgrades probably won’t begin until sometime after the start of the new year.
As it stands now, work on the renovations and improvements will likely continue through 2025 and into 2026, Price said.
One proposal calls for renovating the preschool facilities. Due to its disruptive nature, Price said that project would have to wait until the summer break if approved.
Another calls for a new playground specifically for kids from kindergarten through second grade, the superintendent said.
“The one we have is very dated, and we’re ready to upgrade that,” Price said. “We will also move the new playground to a different location.”
For several months, administrators and school board members have talked about creating a transportation hub.
“Our current facility only has one bus bay,” Price said. “We’d like a facility that can service our whole fleet.
While the northeast Bartholomew County school district usually replaces buses at an rate of one per year, FRHC is considering purchasing at least two new buses with funds from the bonds, the superintendent says.
In Price’s opinion, the upgrading of Hauser’s tennis courts should be among the top priority projects because “they are in a pretty bad state of disrepair.”
Other upgrades to be considered include the installation of new student lockers and performing maintenance work on the parking lots, he said.
When asked if part of the funds will be invested into tech, Price said the school corporation already does a pretty nice job of sustaining technology and rolling it over as needed.
Much of that is made possible through the Indiana Department of Education’s Common School Loan advancements for construction and technology programs. Up to $100,000 is available to each school district, and Flat Rock-Hawcreek received $96,900 through the program in 2022.
“We are working with our technology team to identify larger scale needs, so I would say technology will be included in (the latest projects),” Price said.
For those concerned about the possibility of rising property taxes, the notice states debt service will be tailored to take into account the prior debt service for retired bonds to minimize the increase, if any, of the annual levy.
The last time that FRHC did a district-wide list of renovation projects was in 2018. That was when Hauser renovated its agriculture building; upgraded the press box for the baseball, soccer, track and cross-country and installed lighting upgrades, he said.
