Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. officials will ask school board members to approve borrowing money to pay for safety upgrades to interior doors of schools and a major upgrade to the district’s transportation and maintenance facility.
BCSC Superintendent Jim Roberts said the request will go before the board sometime this fall, seeking $2.5 million for facility and security improvements in 15 buildings and $3 million for the transportation facility upgrade.
The proposal was discussed Friday during a school board strategic planning session at BCSC’s administrative offices.
Among the improvements planned to be funded with the $2.5 million bond are upgraded door locks on school interior doors, more security cameras and improved lighting in parking lots at several schools.
School officials hope to install a new type of door lock that allows staff members to lock doors from the inside, with the lock showing that the door is secured without having to check it by going to the door. One version shows the lock changing to a red “locked” designation on the handle after it is secured.
In addition to the safety improvements, the bond would also pay for new roofs at Taylorsville and Schmitt elementary schools.
The $3 million project for the transportation and maintenance facility will include reworking the original building plan, which has been pieced together over the years rather haphazardly, school officials said. The building, constructed in 1978, was never designed to hold the 139 buses that BCSC needs for its current transportation system, said Brett Boezeman, BCSC’s operations director.
In addition to a reconfigured entrance off of Marr Road, the transportation facility also needs a new roof, improved and reconfigured parking with new asphalt, repairs to the loading dock and new perimeter fencing around the entire facility, Boezeman said.
The facility’s bus repair bays are too small to be able to handle today’s larger buses, he said, and the repair area needs air conditioning since much of the maintenance work on the buses is done during the warm summer months.
In addition to the bus facility, the building also houses the corporation’s food service and catering staff, who would get more space with the building reconfiguration.
School officials want to improve the reception area for the transportation staff to provide space for parents and staff to interact, and also provide better loading space and more workspace for the catering staff, Boezeman said.
The reconfiguration for the entrances to the building will also move pedestrians out of the way of bus traffic that is entering and leaving the facility on school days, he said.
Bidding documents are to be prepared sometime between now and December, with construction work on the project being done between March and October 2019, Boezeman said.
