If an expansion, significant maintenance or even a new school is ever needed, Franklin school officials want to be prepared for that now.
That’s why the school district is updating a study that was last done in the 1990s.
Every school building will be analyzed, with a grading scale of what will need to be done over the next 10 years, and the study will also look at future growth and whether any new facilities will be needed, Superintendent David Clendening said. Officials expect the study to take up to a year, with work beginning this summer, he said.
A similar study was done in the 1990s, and the school district’s growth had remained slow since then. But enrollment has grown by about 5 percent in the past decade, and the school district’s buildings are aging. A new study was needed to plan for the future, Clendening said.
Once that work is done, officials will have a picture of what could be needed over the next 10 years and can plan out what needs to be done, Clendening said.
That process will include talking with teachers and school staff, along with the community, he said.
Franklin school buildings are still in good shape, but some are decades old and will need maintenance in future years, Clendening said. Some of those projects can be costly, and officials want to be prepared and also keep up with the needs of those facilities.
At the time the previous study was done, the high school building on Cumberland Road had not been built, and the former high school building had not been modified to become the middle school. The school district now has five elementary schools, an intermediate school, middle school and high school.
The school district has grown in the last decade, though some of that growth has slowed in recent years. In the 2005-2006 school year, enrollment was 4,779 students, and this school year is 5,037 students — a growth of 5 percent, according to the Indiana Department of Education.
More growth could also come as new development comes to Franklin in future years.
