Dr. Brandon Penrod, right, finance officer for Wawasee Community Schools explains the slide behind him which shows the corporation’s outstanding debt payments during a public hearing held Tuesday night, Feb. 4, on a proposed student activity center and deferred maintenance projects. On the left is Dr. Stephen Troyer, superintendent of schools, looking at the slide on another screen. Photo by Lauren Zeugner

By Lauren Zeugner
InkFreeNews

SYRACUSE — The first of two state mandated public hearings on a new student activity center and deferred maintenance projects was approximately 15 minutes long with no public comments Tuesday night, Feb. 4.

Don Bokhart, president of the Wawasee Community School Board, explained the board would be taking no action, the purpose of the hearing was to hear objections and support for the projects.

Dr. Stephen Troyer, superintendent of Wawasee Community Schools, explained one of the priorities brought up in the community engagement meetings held a few years ago was a need for more space for student activities. He has also brought the matter up before the board the last few months.

Troyer outlined there is a need for more practice space and a place to hold events. There is also a need to address deferred maintenance issues such as a new generator and chiller, sidewalk and parking lot repair and HAVC work at various schools.

Troyer told the board the student activity center would have basketball courts, a track and space for other activities.

An architect and construction manager would need to be hired with construction hopefully beginning later this year. Deferred maintenance projects would be done as they are needed to be addressed. Asked how big the student activity center would be, Troyer said those details haven’t been ironed out yet.

Asked where it would be located, Troyer said a location had not been determined. There is some thought to shuffling around some things between Wawasee High School and Syracuse Elementary School to house the student activity center. Troyer did stress the school corporation owns land it can build on and would not need to purchase property for the project.

Dr. Brandon Penrod, finance officer for the school corporation, explained the school corporation has managed its debt so it has been able to do major projects while remaining tax rate neutral, meaning there will be no increase in the tax rate. Tax payers will not see an increase in the rate they pay the school for property taxes.

Penrod showed the tax rate for the school corporation has remained at $0.5399 since 2022 and could drop if no bonds are issued in 2026.

The legal parameters for the project would be to purchase $30,480,000 in bonds with an estimated $480,000 for issuance and underwriters discount. The estimated proceeds available for hard/soft project costs is $30,000,000 with estimated interest rates between 2-6%

The bonds would be issued for a maximum term of 20 years with an estimated interest cost of $26,330,400 and a maximum annual payment of $5,500,000. The maximum tax rate impact is estimated at $0.1356 while the net tax rate increase over 2025’s total tax rate is zero.

With this project the tax levy for the school corporation’s tax levy is estimated to remain at 0.5399 through 2027.

The next public hearing on the proposed projects will be held at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb.11, at the Professional Learning Center Building, 801 S. Sycamore St., Syracuse.