Graphic provided This graphic shows the location planned for a new Excel Center in Columbus, to offer high school graduation preparation for adults.
A new tuition-free high school for adults will begin classes this year in a medical building on Marr Road after plans to house the school in the Roviar Building ran into complications.
The Columbus Board of Zoning Appeals on Tuesday night granted a conditional use request from Goodwill Education Initiatives (GEI) to allow their Excel Center to operate in Commercial: Office (CO) zoning at 940 N. Marr Road. The school, where adults can earn their high school degree, will use just under 10,000 square feet of the 43,920 square-foot building.
Goodwill has 40 Excel Center locations nationwide and 16 in Indiana. The Columbus location would have five classrooms and accommodate about 200 students per term. GEI’s Lakia Osborne previously told the commission that the average student would take about two classes per day, which last an hour-and-a-half each.
The school would offer wraparound supports as well, including free on-site childcare and free transportation assistance. Each student also gets a life coach focused on graduate planning, barrier removal and soft skill building.
Classes are to be taught by licensed teachers Monday through Thursday and on Friday there would be tutoring support, GEI officials have said. Hours of operation for the school will be 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
This was the third time the matter has come before a city board after the board of zoning appeals granted a conditional use request to allow the school in the Roviar Building site in late June and the plan commission took two votes on the site development plan and the amount of parking at the Roviar site in mid-July.
“The Roviar Building was not going to be available because the Perrs wanted to utilize that through the holiday season for booked events, which required Excel to try to find some temporary space, because they have students waiting to start classes (right now),” Jeff Rocker, an attorney representing GEI, told board members.
A report by planning staff said that 940 N. Marr Road is intended to be a temporary location until remodeling is completed at the Roviar Building, but Rocker said the new location may be better suited for the Excel Center. When Goodwill officials began looking at locations in Columbus, the space at 940 N. Marr Road was not available, according to Rocker.
“Once they decided that they needed to find a temporary space, they located this building and determined, when they went and saw it, that this was actually an even better fit for (the school) than the Roviar Building,” Rocker said.
The benefits of the building, Rocker said, is that it would include a single-floor, open-space layout, has room for expansion, easy access to the city’s east side through public transportation and includes more parking than the Roviar Building would.
The zoning ordinance requires that the school have 163 parking spaces, which is the exact number the site has, planning’s Melissa Begley told board members.
“The growing likelihood is that this will not be a temporary, but will be the permanent location for this school,” Rocker said.
After being asked by board member Zack Ellison if the plan would be to expand past the 9,850 square-feet included in Tuesday night’s conditional use request, GEI’s Jared Rains said yes and that they’re “currently working through loose negotiations with the owners” to do so.
Should Goodwill ultimately decide to expand, it would have to come before the board once again, planning staff said.
“They have 23 students that are ready to get going as of yesterday, and 23 more ready to sign up tomorrow,” Rains said. “So their classroom sizes and the headcount is expanding quickly, just showing the need of the services that we provide here in Bartholomew County,”
Orientation for the Excel Center is ongoing and classes formally begin in September.
