9:30 p.m.: Pendleton school recommendation expected in June

May 15, 2008 09:26 pm

— By JASON MICHAEL WHITE

PENDLETON — In June, South Madison school administrators plan to recommend the best way to renovate Pendleton Heights Middle School, Superintendent Dr. Thomas Warmke said in a meeting Thursday.
The South Madison Community School Corp. board of trustees plans to renovate the middle school building into an elementary school, intermediate school or sixth-grade center. Each plan could cost more than the $8 million limit on what the board would like to spend, according to the highest preliminary cost estimates.
Three options could cost below $8 million, according to the lowest estimates.
School officials plan to fund the project by selling a bond, going into debt and using property tax dollars to pay back that debt.
Stair Associates provided the following preliminary cost estimates in order of least expensive to most expensive:
• A sixth-grade center, costing between $7.19 million and $9.02 million.
• An intermediate school without any additions or reconstruction to a three-floor tower next to the school, costing between $7.41 million and $9.29 million.
• An intermediate school with an addition constructed to the current building, costing between $7.58 million and $9.55 million.
• An intermediate school with reconstruction to the three-floor tower, costing between $10 million and $12 million.
• An elementary school costing between $10 million and $13 million. Seventh- and-eighth-graders will move out of the middle school and into a new building in 2009.
Students are moving out of the current middle school and into a new building in 2009.
After the move, school officials need to renovate the current middle school building to alleviate crowding in two of the district’s schools, Maple Ridge Elementary and Pendleton Elementary, which are at capacity, administrators said.
School officials would have to redistrict boundaries for every elementary school if they turned the building into a sixth-grade center. An intermediate school would require redistricting for the boundaries between Maple Ridge Elementary and Pendleton Elementary schools only.
Fourth through sixth grade from Pendleton Elementary only would move into the intermediate school. The district’s other two elementary schools would remain kindergarten through grade 6 buildings.