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 Happy Hollow question as twofold: remove portions of the building that architects and the board previously deemed unfit, and then collect community input on future uses of the retained spaces. “We are in a position where the board has requested a recommendation by December,” a staff member said when introducing the Happy Hollow timeline. The administration has contracted Skybound to draft survey questions and lead focus groups; staff said a public survey and focus groups are planned for late July or August with an administration recommendation by December.

On the Ground Floor, district architects and operations staff proposed starting with the girls’ locker room as Phase 1 and keeping disruption to the boys’ locker room minimal while work proceeds. “This would give us two fully independent locker rooms, each sized to accommodate current and projected school population,” a staff member explained, noting mechanical, plumbing and electrical constraints in the existing footprint.

The West Lafayette Education Foundation representative described the foundation’s role in a potential capital campaign: it will not set district priorities but said it can raise money for board- and administration-approved projects, pursue lead gifts and create naming opportunities. “The foundation exists to support school priorities,” the representative said, adding that the foundation currently focuses on scholarships, teacher grants and programmatic support but would run a capital campaign if the board and administration direct it to do so.

Board members pressed for clarity on assumptions behind Options A–C, and speakers repeatedly asked for scenarios that use the same baseline assumptions for apples-to-apples comparison. Several board members urged the district to prioritize work that protects habitability and avoids higher future costs, naming the high school roofing work and certain air-handler replacements as time-sensitive items. One board member asked whether Purdue University and the City of West Lafayette had been asked to partner on Happy Hollow; administrators said the Skybound process will solicit input from community partners, including Purdue.

Administrators and board members discussed timing for design and approvals. Staff said the board could be asked in August to approve an architect agreement to fully design the Ground Floor dash area (the entire red-boxed scope shown in presentation slides) while bidding and construction would follow later with alternates to match available funding. “The timeline would allow us to take it to the August board meeting,” an administrator said.

The group agreed there is no appetite to leave deteriorating parts of Happy Hollow standing; administrators said some two-story sections were previously identified for demolition while newer portions (including an LGI wing) may remain serviceable. Estimates discussed in the meeting included roughly $1.5 million for demolition plus a prior chiller quote of about $600,000 (a combined rough figure of about $2.1 million for demolition plus chiller work was mentioned), though staff emphasized these were rough estimates from studies performed about two years earlier and would need updated bids.

Next steps noted in the session: finalize Skybound survey questions and focus-group logistics; bring an architect agreement for Ground Floor schematic design to the August board meeting; allow the foundation to prepare a capital-campaign plan focused initially on the girls’ locker room if the board directs it to do so; and return to the board with updated cost estimates and a December recommendation on Happy Hollow.

Board members and staff emphasized trade-offs. Several members favored moving quickly on an initial Ground Floor phase that would improve student daily experience, while reserving the community-input process for determining long-term reuse of Happy Hollow. Administration cautioned that demolishing parts of Happy Hollow in multiple mobilizations could increase overall cost, and staff recommended assessing demolition scope and sequencing as part of further design work.

The work session produced no formal vote. Administrators said they would prepare materials for the August board meeting to seek direction on which initial projects to start and to authorize design work.