South Harrison Community School Corporation strives to provide meaningful opportunities for students, equipping them with skills needed for the workforce or college. Throughout the years this has taken the form of stellar teaching as well as ongoing facility upgrades to support students’ learning: updating classroom technology, increasing security protocols, expanding the wood shop workrooms at both high schools, building a new health science lab and more.
The last corporation-wide facility upgrade SHCSC underwent was in 2001 with major renovations done at all eight school buildings. These projects consisted of infrastructure updates, redesigning public spaces, adding on complete wings, repurposing spaces and creating new athletic fields/training centers. These upgrades are now more than 20 years old! As South Harrison looks forward to the next twenty years, it is time for the corporation to undergo a comprehensive facility update to serve students better and do so as fiscally responsibly as possible. The primary goal of the Board is to address security issues and to make all upgrades in a manner that is tax-neutral, which means that future payments will not increase the tax rate above recent rates.
At March’s board meeting, the SHCSC Board of Trustees voted on a total project budget not to exceed $45,315,000. The Board also voted to hire Raymond James to oversee the allocation of financial resources, Barnes & Thornburg to handle legal logistics and VPS Architecture to manage and design all elements of this facility upgrade. Additional action was taken at April’s meeting to amend lease agreements and approve further project definitions. To view the amended agreements and public notices, click here.
Over the last few months, VPS has conducted independent facility reviews and met with students, principals, staff and community members to draft potential renovation plans. Based on those conversations, VPS has proposed several possible projects to the Board, who alongside Dr. Eastridge, are in the process of determining which renovations and additions are the best fit. To view a list of projects, click here.
All required documents pertaining to this project are available online or within the SHCSC mobile app. If you would like more details on any project, have questions or would like more information, please contact publiccomment@shcsc.k12.in.us.