South Dearborn School Board Discusses Potential High School Improvements

Financials are expected to be discussed at next month's meeting.

(Aurora, Ind.) - The South Dearborn Community School Board held preliminary discussions last week about improvements to indoor and outdoor facilities at South Dearborn High School.  

Superintendent Eric Lows gave a rundown of potential facility upgrades at the June 15 school board meeting. 

The large ticket item is building new locker rooms and concession stands at the high school football field, in addition to installing new home and visitor bleachers. 

The potential project would include complete demolition of the current locker rooms and concession areas and removal of current bleachers. Lows said the school corporation is looking at various options for a new locker room area. Some of the ideas are a horseshoe type facility that would be located behind the home bleachers, or a building on the hillside, where the current scoreboard is located. A building in the end zone area would allow for an elevator to be included to help handicapped individuals get to the field level. Lows added that any and all improvements would make the football field ADA complaint. 

There is hope that any such facility would have separate coaches offices and locker rooms for football, soccer, and track. 

The school corporation is also looking into adding a new parking lot for the baseball and softball fields, and widening and paving the softball drive. Turf baseball and softball fields are not out of the question, and could be added if the board sees fit. 

Other potential outdoor improvements include signage and exterior improvements. 

Several indoor projects were pitched as well, including work in the high school gymnasium. The school currently has issues with the upper gym bleachers, which is pronounced due to the original flooring on the upper portion of the gym. Lows recommends both the upper and lower bleachers be replaced, in additional to the gym balcony flooring. 

Lows added that new backboards could be added. The high school gym currently features three different types of backboards between the main baskets and the side baskets. A game clock behind the main backboards is also being considered. 

Several ideas were brought up outside of athletics. Further improvements could include work to the auditorium sound room, and two drop down projector screens on the auditorium stage, industrial arts enhancements, LED lighting in corridors and academic wings, flexible seating in classrooms, replacement of boilers and chillers, and the creation of the South Dearborn High School Cafe. 

The idea is for the cafe to be student-operated, allowing a place for students to get a snack before or after school, and potentially during lunch hours. 

A financial presentation is expected at next month's school board meeting. 

It was mentioned at last week's meeting that a new state law allows for a school corporation to move forward with projects up to $10 million without taxpayer consent. The previous law limited projects to $5 million. 

The school board's October meeting will be a big checkpoint for any potential upgrades. If the board decides to move forward, that particular meeting would be an official kickoff to getting the projects started - which could come in August of 2022.