More than a year after Franklin Academy closed, Columbus Municipal School District trustees are looking to put a price tag on it and Fairview Elementary.
Board Attorney Chris Hemphill approached the board during its regular meeting Thursday, requesting approval for the district to hire Stewart Stafford to appraise the properties to determine the fair market value for leasing and/or selling.
“(Then) that’d be the board determining whether they’re interested in selling, leasing, neither or repurposing for school district purposes,” Hemphill told The Dispatch on Friday. “I think (the board wants) to get an idea, particularly with Fairview at this point because it’s not a 16th Section property, so they actually could sell the underlying land.”
Any future plans for Franklin, will have to account for its 16th Section status. Because the school sits on land owned by the state, held in a trust to benefit public education, the school district cannot sell the land outright.
Instead all uses of the land must be done through leases with the rent set at fair market value, prompting the school district’s need for an appraisal of the property, which has never been leased. In practice, that means a developer who buys the Franklin building would also be required to lease the land it sits on in addition to paying regular ad valorem taxes.
Franklin and Fairview – closed in May 2025 and May 2026, respectively – shuttered in line with the district’s shift from the magnet school model to grade-span learning. Since Franklin’s closure, little progress has been made in repurposing the property.
Hemphill said the Fairview appraisal, which will cover the lease and sale value, is quoted at $2,500 with a roughly three-week timeline for completion. The appraisal will cover the lease and sale value for both the school building and the land on which it sits.
For Franklin, however, the board is seeking two appraisals: one of the entire school and one excluding only the cafeteria and auditorium. The price and timeline for Franklin appraisals have yet to be determined, but Hemphill said he expects it will be similar to that for Fairview.
By excluding the cafeteria and auditorium, Robert Smith, president for the board of trustees, said the district can leave the door open for a possible joint venture to use the facilities as venues, potentially for arts-related events.
“We would like to hang on to the auditorium because we’ve had two or three people (who) want to do a joint venture with us, like from the city standpoint, people from the arts,” Smith said. “… With the auditorium as far as arts, you could do a lot of things.”
Bringing the cafeteria and auditorium into shape, however, will require significant investment as will the necessary renovations to other parts of the building. Studies from PryorMorrow architectural firm have estimated the total cost of renovations could run up to $23 million.
The idea of retaining portions of Franklin was first floated in March when trustees toured the school with representatives from Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The tour focused largely on the auditorium, which is in need of a full renovation, and the cafeteria.
Once the property is appraised, Smith said the board hopes to eventually pursue funding to renovate the cafeteria and auditorium.
“(MDAH) agreed that they would assist us,” he said. “Also with the local legislators, we talked to them, and they said once they got some schematics, which is (coming from) our architect, … we’ll have a figure (to ask for), and also we’ll have a design that we can show them.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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