Renovating and expanding Carroll High School to accommodate 500 additional students could cost $46.3 million under preliminary plans shared this week with district officials.
The Northwest Allen County Schools board - which is also considering projects to address overcrowding at the middle schools and central office - will likely dedicate time for public input at a February or March meeting, board President Kent Somers said Monday.
"This is obviously a major undertaking," he said. "It'd be important to get feedback. We can't wait until the strategic planning discussions are done."
A demographer last fall told the 8,200-student district to expect enrollment to increase by more than 800 students in the next decade and recommended NACS prioritize the middle and high schools.
The board hasn't decided anything yet, but it has requested formal bids for architectural services for a new, 20,000-square-foot central office.
An initial analysis by Baker Tilly Municipal Advisors showed NACS has financial flexibility. There would be no increase to the district's estimated debt service tax rate in scenarios involving a $95 million new middle school along with $40 million in improvements to the high school and construction of a new central office.
But that was before Barton-Coe-Vilamaa Architects & Engineers pitched an estimated $46.3 million high school renovation and addition project that would result in a net gain of 27 classrooms, a bigger dining area and a new, larger weight room. NACS has asked Baker Tilly for another report considering that information, Superintendent Wayne Barker said.
Brandon Bitting, the district's chief operations officer, has been working with architects on possible solutions for Carroll, where every classroom space has a teacher assigned to it.
Simply adding general classroom space would inadequately address the influx of students expected over the next decade, Bitting said. Specialty spaces, such as science labs and fitness areas, must be considered.
Under the proposal presented Monday, Carroll would expand by 63,900 square feet, and renovations would affect 21,400 square feet. The project would add classrooms for language arts, math, science, social studies, world languages, health, special education, art, computer science, digital design, and family and consumer sciences.
Barker underscored the preliminary nature of the schematic floor plans.
"We're not very far into this," he said. "As you can see, these are blocks of spaces, and we haven't done anything to incorporate other people's input into that."
Barker has said he expects the district will make decisions about the secondary schools this spring.
Net gain of 27 classrooms:
• 17 core classrooms
• Three science rooms
• Two applied skills double rooms
• One family and consumer sciences classroom
• One health classroom
• One computer science classroom
• One digital design classroom
• One art classroom
Renovate and reconfigure:
• One agriculture animals room
• One computer science room
• One Project Lead the Way engineering room
Other changes include additional small group areas; a new central media center and learning commons addition; expanded dining with 300 additional seats; and a new, 50% larger weight room.