A manager for Skillman Corp. presented a preliminary planning schedule Thursday for the Valparaiso Community Schools referendum building projects and won points with the audience for bringing enough color-coded copies for anyone who wanted one.
Up first on the chart is the new elementary school south of U.S. 30, which will be located outside of the Valparaiso city limits in unincorporated Center Township on Heavlin Road. The main entrance will face east toward Heavlin Road.
Planning has already begun and will continue through November, with groundbreaking and construction slated to run from November through July 2017. Additions and renovations to Valparaiso High School are next on the list with planning already begun and extending through January 2017. Construction on the high school is expected to begin in May and run through November 2018.
Skillman Senior Vice President Scott Cherry said the project
schedule lays out 16 separate components to the plan.
The corporation plans to post the full chart, as well as minutes from Community Advisory Board meetings, under separate tabs on the corporation website as soon as they can be engineered.
Less popular with a few audience members reaction to a possible land deal for the new elementary school. Superintendent Ric Frataccia said he received a call six weeks ago from owners of land adjacent to the 15-acre elementary school site, who offered to sell 10 acres of farmland to the school corporation.
Assessments have the land valued at $17,133 per acre, Frataccia said before explaining that land deals are traditionally kept quiet to prevent price hikes.
“We’re talking about spending money on something that was not part of the referendum because the land owner wants to sell some land?” asked Valparaiso resident Christopher Pupillo.
Other audience members spoke in support of the purchase of the land, especially since the other elementary schools are landlocked.
“I understand what some of your concerns might be,” Frataccia said.
Rob Thorgren, of Friends for Valparaiso Schools Referendum Committee, presented the board with a check for just over $2,000, the amount left in the group’s bank account. The group, which was formed to pass the building projects referendum in May, raised $71,581 to aid in passage of the $150 million referendum, he said.
Shelley Jones is a freelancer reporter for the Post-Tribune.
