New Construction

Indiana District Approves $80M for Two Construction Projects

• By Matt Jones
• 05/23/22

The Tippecanoe School Corporation in Lafayette, Ind., recently approved $80 million in bids for two district construction projects. The first is the construction of a new facility for Klondike Middle School, with comes with an estimated cost of $69 million from Kettelhut Construction. The second is an expansion project at Mayflower Mill Elementary School, according to local news.

The district plans to redistribute students among different facilities once construction is complete. The elementary school will serve students in grades K–2; students in grades 3–5, currently attending the elementary school, will move into the existing middle school building to be renamed Klondike Intermediate School; and students in grades 6–8 will move into the new Klondike Middle School building.

TSC Superintendent Dr. Scott Hanback said that the existing middle school was built during the 1970s and underwent renovations in the 1990s. The new Klondike Middle School building was originally approved in March and is set for completion by fall 2024.

The existing elementary school, meanwhile, was built in the 1950s and has seen numerous additions since then. The current expansion project is a result of rising population in the area.

“They’re exploding in population, and they need more classroom space,” said Brian DeFreese, TSC Board President. “So, we approved all the funding to add more classrooms; bigger spaces; and new, more modern spaces. So, it’s an expansion. There are two phases; we’ve approved the first phase. There’s a second phase to it that adds even more to the interior, and then we wanted to make a more secure entrance to the school, and that’ll be in the second phase.”

The elementary school expansion was originally budgeted at $15 million, but the board received a $10 million bid from the J. R. Kelly Company. Construction on both facilities will proceed while students are out of school for the summer, and the elementary school project has an estimated completion date of fall 2023.