New downtown Jeffersonville school will cost no more than $15 million, officials say

Less than two weeks after the petition drive came to an end, Clark County Clerk Susan Popp confirmed that her office verified 4,233 registered voters or property owners signed petitions in favor of the project, while 1,605 people put their names on signatures against.

According to Popp, there were nearly 1,000 who signed a petition despite not being a property owner or registered voter, making those signatures void. Still, the results show the school building project has widespread supporting, with the yeas topping the nays by a nearly 3-1 margin. 

The petition remonstrance process began nearly a year after the decision was made to close Maple and Spring Hill elementary schools. Last summer, the board voted to close the two schools and bus students to nearby buildings. School Superintendent Andrew Melin at the time cited shrinking enrollment and aging facilities as the cause for the closures.

Jeffersonville Mayor Mike Moore publicly asked the district to reconsider and Melin listened. In June, the two announced at a joint news conference a plan to pursue a new downtown school. Since then, the location of the school was chosen — the corner of Court and Meigs avenues won out over three other possible sites — by a committee whose membership had broad community representation. The new school’s design includes the portion of the original Jeffersonville High School, most recently (though not currently) used as alternative school Cordon Porter. The John H. Schnatter Fieldhouse will be connected to the school and used as a gym.

Melin said officials will start to finalize the plans and architect for project and pick up where they left off on the financing. 

“That process was put on hold when we had to go through this petition remonstrance process. Now it’s a matter of getting that back up and running,” he said.

Melin indicated the plan is to have the new school open and ready for students from Spring Hill and Maple elementary schools by January 2020.

“There’s a lot of work to be finished in a short period of time,” he said.

The school will cost no more than $15 million and the bond will raise the debt service to 94 cents per $100 assessed property value from 90 cents. Though some argue that the project will cost more, Melin said he is “confident” that they’ll keep expenses below that price tag. If change orders increase the cost, those funds would not be borrowed, but rather come out of the general fund, he said.