A small crowd showed up last night at the Monroe County Community School Corporation’s community forum on what it could do with the former Herald-Times building.
The corporation purchased the property in 2022 for $2.9 million. At the time, the former superintendent said potential uses could include a family welcome center, a health clinic, meeting space or bus parking. The building is currently being used for equipment storage and bus parking.
Jeffry Henderson, MCCSC assistant superintendent of human resources and operations, said the three options are selling the property, postponing future renovation or renovating it into something like a welcome center, a district wide event space or an employee health and wellness center.
Pam Bessler has helped mentor MCCSC’s Quadrangles Robotics team for the last 10 years and used to coach the middle school Science Olympiad team. She said it’s her dream for the corporation to use part of the building for a community STEM center. The robotics teams currently practice in an Indiana University building.
“Most important to me would be a workshop and practice field for the RoboBoosters teams, the Quadrangles, I.C.E. Robotics,” she said. “We have a new one, Bloom Bots, and we're expanding all the time.”
Jacqueline Adams, a student teacher at Summit Elementary School, said she has noticed a lot of families don’t know where to look for materials. She thinks a welcome center would help with that.
“That would be useful, just so that they can have easier access for students who are coming in,” she said, “and it also creates that welcoming environment to have them enroll into the MCCSC schools.”
Henderson said a welcome center could serve the approximately 10,000 students that attend MCCSC schools and their families.
If the corporation were to sell the building, it would want at least the purchase price of $2.9 million. That money would be required to go into the Operations Fund for assisting cash balances. Indiana code does not allow the corporation to spend that money on teacher wages and benefits. One parent was unhappy about this reality.
“I was going to say I think the best use of this money would be to sell the property, considering the fiscal state that the corporation is in, and use that money for teacher salaries and for staff salaries,” said parent Chris Sapp. “I know that's not an option anymore. But I do just want to express frustration that the corporation owns this property, which is probably quite valuable by now, and on the other hand, is saying that there is a financial crisis that prevents the corporation from giving teachers raises.”
The collective bargaining agreement for the next two years that the board approved does not increase base salary pay for teachers.
If renovations are postponed, Henderson said, the corporation would need to consider the costs for continuing to use the space short term for storage and bus parking space.
“Could those things be relocated to other facilities within the school corporation? If not, what would the cost be to ensure that those items are stored?” he said. “We could retain the property for future growth, innovation and expansion. A roof repair would be required to maintain building integrity, and there may be additional maintenance cost as the building continues to age.”
When considering potential renovations to the space, Henderson said a district-wide event space could accommodate up to 850 faculty and staff for meetings and events. As for large group meeting and offices spaces, about 2,000 employees and community members could utilize those spaces. There would also be 15 additional office spaces for Student Services, Early Learning, Special Education and other student and family support services.
Sara Laughlin, retired Monroe County Public Library director and current treasurer at the Teachers Warehouse, said she doesn’t think the corporation should sell the building.
“I think it would be a shame to sell the building, even though funding is tight in this community,” she said. “These ideas that people have expressed, and more, I'm sure, that are in the survey and will come in, are big and optimistic for our kids and for the future. So, we should not pass up the opportunity to have a space that we could design for what we need and will need in the future.”
