Regardless of whether the $36 million bond for Columbus Municipal School District passes May 14, Franklin’s and Fairview’s days as elementary schools are numbered, Superintendent Stanley Ellis confirmed Wednesday.

A written statement Ellis provided to The Dispatch breaks down specifics for the costs and phases for facility upgrades CMSD will fund with the bond, as well as spells out the district’s intent to consolidate all of its elementary operations to three campuses — Cook, Sale and Stokes-Beard.

Franklin and Fairview would be repurposed.

“We do not take lightly the importance of Franklin Academy and Fairview Elementary to this district and this community,” Ellis wrote in his statement. “In our long-range plan, even though those schools would no longer house students, these buildings would still serve our community.”

The three remaining campuses would be converted to grade-span learning in the coming years, Ellis wrote, meaning each campus would house certain grades. The current magnet program houses pre-K through fifth grade at each of the five campuses, and most of those are at half capacity.

“Our enrollment has dropped, which necessitates fiscal responsibility,” Ellis wrote in the statement. “Downsizing due to enrollment declines and looking at capacity of what we do have must be a part of the conversation.”

The board in March approved a resolution calling for a May 14 special election for a $36 million bond to address facility concerns. Property tax collections would repay the bond over 15 years, and if approved it would essentially replace the 2009 bond that built the middle school, which rolled off in April.

As such, CMSD officials have campaigned on the promise the bond will not increase the current tax rate. The bond requires 60% voter approval.

If the bond passes, the elementary schools will see upgrades. If it fails, grade span and elementary consolidation still happens, Ellis said, but the upgrades won’t.

“Throughout the process of planning for the bond, the board has made it a point to focus on transparency and honesty,” Ellis wrote in the statement. “We have listened to the community’s questions, and we have addressed concerns that have been raised. We want every stakeholder to be thoroughly informed.”

Work phases

In town hall and civic club meetings so far in the campaign, Ellis and other district officials indicated the bond would build a gym at Stokes-Beard, improve fire safety and Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility at campuses across the district and make updates at the CHS athletic facility.

Last week, Ellis told Rotary Club of Columbus members the district would not invest much bond money in buildings that wouldn’t see the life of the debt, but he did not specify which campuses those were. He also said consolidation discussions were ongoing but offered no specifics.

His statement Wednesday specified work that would happen in three phases, if the bond passes.

The first will focus on Columbus High School and will include updating safety measures, adding a sprinkler system and repairing the school’s parking lot for a total of about $9 million.

Ellis told The Dispatch work on the first phase should start around September.

The second phase, estimated to cost $16.8 million, addresses issues at Sale, Stokes-Beard and Cook. Upgrades at the schools include adding life safety measures, like fire alarms and ADA-compliant doors, at Sale and Cook as well as other general repairs.

At Stokes-Beard, bond money will be used to construct a new external gymnasium. Currently, the school’s cafeteria doubles as a gym for students.

The third phase, estimated at $10 million, will include making additions and corrections at the CHS athletic complex, including renovating the field house, replacing the large parking lot and making additions compliant to Title IX standards.

The statement also delineates that any remaining funds will be used to address long-standing drainage problems at the track and football field, an issue that warrants $25,000 in repairs to the track annually.

The bond plan addresses a fraction of the $96 million in needed upgrades a PryorMorrow architecture firm study identified earlier this year.
Ellis told The Dispatch the plan for the bond money addresses the district’s most pressing needs.

“I think that we’ve really done a good job honing in on where we need to be,” he said. “We know this is what we’re going to use long term.”

That same PryorMorrow study showed needed repairs at Franklin and Fairview would cost a combined $24 million. Both schools operate at about half capacity.

With the district’s strategic plan calling for grade-span elementary campuses by 2027, Cook, Sale and Stokes-Beard were the best options, Ellis said.

“Those are places that we know — with the projected population we have now and what we’re looking at over the next several years — are going to help us go grade span and sustain the population that we currently have,” Ellis told The Dispatch.

The Dispatch reached out to all five CMSD trustees for comment. By press time, president Cynthia Brown and members Robert Smith did not return calls for comment. Members James Richardson, Josie Shumake and Telisa Young deferred to Brown, as president, to make comments on behalf of trustees, per board policy.

McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.

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