After public pushback, the Hammond School Board announced it will drop plans to consolidate Gavit High School as part of a $110.6 million capital referendum.
That plan, which will be put to voters on Nov. 7, originally called for Gavit students to be transfered to a new high school to be built at Harrison Park that will replace Hammond High School.
The School Board reconsidered the plan after multiple speakers argued in favor of keeping Gavit — just over 3 miles from Harrison Park — open during a public vote to advance the referendum on May 30.
“It was just apparent that the public that spoke felt strongly about keeping that segment of the community,” said Superintendent Walter Watkins after the meeting. “We understood what they were saying.”
Under the new proposal, students from Hammond High and Eggers Middle School would attend the new building that could house up to 1,800 students at Harrison Park, he said.
The district would close Columbia and Lafayette elementary schools and send those students to Eggers Middle School.
Watkins said during the meeting the district would build the new high school around Harrison Park’s iconic Man of Steel sculpture, Veterans’ Memorial and its lagoon.
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It is expected to take up 23.5 acres, he said. Harrison Park has 25 acres, according to the city’s parks department website.
During the meeting, board member Cindy Murphy briefly floated the idea of merging students from the aging Area Career Center into the new building. Watkins said the costs of such a plan would have to be examined.
On Nov. 7, the district is seeking a $110.6 million capital projects referendum in a bid to replace Hammond High School and fund other construction projects and upgrades at nearly all its other schools. It would levy $0.3598 or about 36 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
It is also seeking a separate $70 million operating referendum over 10 years that would pay for teachers, staff and educational programs. It would levy 44 cents per $100 of assessed valuation over seven years, starting in 2018.
The city is home to four public high schools: George Rogers Clark in the city’s Robertsdale section; Hammond, across from City Hall at Calumet Avenue and Highland Street; Gavit, 1670 175th St.; and Morton High School on 169th Street in the Hessville section.
Hammond is Northwest Indiana’s largest school district with an enrollment of about 13,100 students. It has 14 elementary schools, two middle schools and four high schools. Two of the high schools, Clark and Gavit, house grades six through 12.
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