By Hayleigh Gowans

Staff Writer

Residents in the Jamesville-DeWitt School District can expect to vote in October on a $12.1 million capital project that will bring improvements to all educational facilities.

During the past school year, the district’s facilities underwent an extensive building conditions report which showed renovation and updates needed in the buildings, including renovation of building exteriors, refurbishment of mechanical, electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems, and grading improvements of the sites, said J-D Superintendent Alice Kendrick during the July 11 school board meeting. The buildings included in this report are Tecumseh Elementary, Moses DeWitt Elementary, Jamesville Elementary, J-D Middle School, J-D High School and the district’s bus garage.

Of particular discussion at the meeting was the future of the high school auditorium. Kendrick said $3 million from this proposed $12.1 million will be used to upgrade the auditorium to accommodate the music and theater departments to give additional storage space and to replace carpeting.

Although the facilities committee had been meeting with the staff that uses the auditorium since the beginning of 2016, Kendrick said those staff members came to her last week and said they would like to see if increased instructional and performance space can be added to the auditorium project because the number of students involved in band, chorus and orchestra was increasing. 

A complete renovation of the auditorium to include the requests of the auditorium staff would cost somewhere around $8 million total, said Kendrick, which would greatly increase the cost of the facilities project. Before voting on the $12.1 million capital project, Kendrick asked the board of education to consider what they wanted to do about the auditorium and the staff’s recent requests.

“I think what happened was when we first met with them [the auditorium staff], they were going through the musical and their focus was on where to store stage sets and props. At the end of the year, the auditorium saw the year-end concerts and the awards nights, which are a stress on the facility,” said Kendrick.

The board held a discussion, noting the increase in the capital project cost and the burden it would put on the taxpayers.

“As a school board, we need to put the education of the students first and foremost. As much as I would love for the music staff to have a new auditorium, I don’t think it’s economically feasible at this point and we risk taking money away from areas of education,” said board member Virginia Murphy.

“Twelve million dollars is the project amount that works with the economic situation we’re in right now,” said board member and facilities committee member Dennis Resetarits.

The board agreed to leave the auditorium plans as originally proposed.

A community meeting on the project will be held on Sept. 26 and the referendum will occur for voters from 7 to 9 p.m. on Oct. 18.