West Lafayette school board weighs demolitions, locker-room renovations as funding options narrow

The West Lafayette Community School Corporation met in a work session to review competing facility priorities: partial demolition and future use for the long-vacant Happy Hollow building, and a phased renovation of the junior–senior high school ground-floor locker rooms. Administrators urged the board to give direction on which projects to advance now given limited geobond funds and uncertainty about future revenue.

The board discussed three finance-and-scope models: Option A assumes current cost estimates and would use available geobond funds to complete a limited set of projects; Option B assumes higher costs and adds lease financing to complete more items; Option C relies on value engineering to fit work to available funds. Administrators said Options A and C were shown at roughly $3.9 million and Option B at about $5.15 million, and that the corporation also expects about $1.8 million in support from the district’s education foundation to be applied to the Ground Floor project.

Why it matters: Happy Hollow has deteriorated over several years and houses several extracurricular groups; its ongoing condition has prompted repeated maintenance costs and safety concerns. The Ground Floor locker rooms serve the largest number of students during the school day, and administrators told the board a phased renovation would improve functionality, ADA compliance and student supervision.

Administrators described the…