Mike Wolanin | The Republic An exterior view of the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation administration building in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022.
Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation is set to start receiving bids for renovations at Taylorsville Elementary School.
The school board on Monday night will consider giving permission to the district to start receiving bids for work at Taylorsville, which will include an improved learning environment, safety upgrades and updates to HVAC, electrical and mechanical systems.
The anticipated construction cost of the work is around $13 million, with a total cost of around $16 million, according to a memo by Brett Boezeman, assistant superintendent for finance and operations. Construction on Taylorsville will start in January of 2027 and be finished the following December, per a project timeline.
The project is part of Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation’s (BCSC) ongoing Envision 2030 plan, which seeks to improve school facilities and learning environments across the school corporation.
During the school board meeting on Oct. 20, Emily Newton, a project manager and architect with CSO Architects, provided an update on planned renovations at Taylorsville. Meyer Najem Construction is working as construction manager as constructor on the project.
The renovations were informed by input design professionals received from a design team made up of teachers from the school, as is true for all the Envision 2030 work, Newton told school board members.
Focuses from Taylorsville teachers included safety and security, aligning spaces with current learning and teaching trends and improvements to classroom technology and furniture.
The design concept they landed on creates clusters of classrooms around supporting spaces. Clusters of three to four classrooms will each have their own common space, Newton said. Each classroom will have access to new small group rooms, a single user restroom and a sensory space.
As part of the renovations, Newton said they wanted to decrease the amount of the building used just for circulation, and increase the amount of usable space for instruction.
At the request of teachers, STEM rooms will grouped with arts rooms in the building, so classrooms will be situated just on the north and east side.
Like other Envision 2030 renovations, the school will be able to be compartmentalized by closing a series of cross-corridor doors in the event of an emergency situation, or just to restrict certain areas of the school after-hours, Newton said. Each classroom will have a second path of egress out as well.
The costs of the project is funded by the 2024-2025 lease rental and future bond funds.
In August the school board agreed to issue the second round of bonds as part of the district’s facility renovations initiative totaling $72 million.
The school corporation is issuing bonds every year at an amount that is tax-rate neutral, BCSC officials said, and comes after the school board agreed to issue the first $44.1 million in bonds last year.
