The Bluffs at Young’s Creek, pictured here, is the largest planned residential development in the Franklin school district. Developments like these are causing Franklin schools officials to consider possible building expansion projects to accommodate more students.
Indianapolis-based architecture and engineering firm Schmidt Associates will be Franklin Community Schools’ primary architect for future school projects.
The school board voted to approve the partnership during its Monday meeting, after seeing presentations from Schmidt and two other Indianapolis firms, Lancer + Beebe and CSO Architects, during its May meeting.
The three architecture firms were challenged to create renderings for an expansion of Union Elementary School. The three firms did their best at preserving the original façade and gymnasium of the school, while adding academic wings to increase the school’s capacity from its 2022-23 projected enrollment of 158 students to about 600 students. The challenge was a theoretical exercise and does not mean Franklin schools will pursue a project to expand Union Elementary School, school officials said in May.
The agreement means Schmidt will get the first offer on any major architecture projects moving forward. There is no specific term or monetary agreement with the contract, as Schmidt will be compensated based on which projects they take on. If the school district is satisfied with the firm’s performance, they will keep them as primary architects for a longer period of time, said Tina Gross, Franklin schools’ chief financial officer.
Although the firm hasn’t worked with Franklin schools before, the school board chose Schmidt Associates because of its experience in historical preservation, which would be key in preserving parts of an older school such as Union Elementary, she said.
The firm also has experience in a wide variety of engineering disciplines, such as construction, HVAC and environmental work, meaning the school district would be less likely to have to look externally for companies to accomplish those tasks, said Jeff Sewell, the school district’s operations director.
The district is preparing for at least 1,750 single-family homes and more than 525 multi-family apartment units to be built within Franklin’s school district boundaries in the coming years. The district includes students from the city of Franklin, town of Bargersville residents who live in Union Township, and Johnson County residents who live outside of city and town limits.
The school district has been preparing for population growth for the past two years. So far, that has included redrawing elementary school boundaries to make room at some of the schools expected to experience the most growth, such as Creekside Elementary School. While Franklin Community Middle School, Custer Baker Intermediate School and Franklin Community High School have room for a population boom, elementary schools in the district do not, Franklin schools Superintendent David Clendening said in May.
Any expansion projects will likely not start until at least 2027, when debt from construction of the high school comes off the books.
With the school district growing, it’s important to prepare for the future, Clendening said in May.
“At Union, one subdivision is planned for 600 homes and if you look at 0.4 students for every home, that’s 240 kids for Union Township in a building that can only hold 200 kids. Other spaces in elementary schools will need to be updated or renovated,” he said. “We’re not saying Union will get a new elementary school in the next two years, we just want to have an architecture firm we trust in the next seven, eight, nine, ten years we can expand with.”
