Franklin schools consider what 'needs' to be done

Franklin - As he walked through the high school last week, Principal Mike Cady readily ticked off a facilities wish list ranging from upgraded classroom and athletic spaces to wider hallways and the addition of an auditorium.

"The school will be 50 years old next year," Cady said. "We have seen a growth in enrollment to where we are about at capacity and we have a number of needs. This has been a district that has been well-managed financially. We certainly hope the community will support that."

That support would need to come from a referendum that could be presented - if the Franklin School Board approves - as early as next fall.

After months of discussing the school district's future needs and seeing the results of a community survey, the board in mid-October approved the hiring of Milwaukee-based Eppstein Uhen Architects to develop specific preliminary solutions.

A critical first step

Superintendent Steve Patz, in a public announcement, said the board and his administration will "identify and carefully evaluate renovation and expansion options that are both practical and reasonable."

Patz said the information from recent surveys will be the foundation of the architectural review and that public input will begin in early 2012. He hopes effective planning will avoid the failure of recent referendums and acknowledged that asking for public financial support will be difficult in the current economy.

"We have been experiencing a little bit of growth in Franklin," Patz said. "We know that eventually the growth will increase once the economy continues to improve. We may have to do this in phases. We do know that our needs are mostly from the middle school level through the high school."

Patz noted that 3,000 of 12,000 mailed surveys last fall indicate several community desires, including prioritizing core academics, focusing on renovation and expansion instead of new construction and addressing capacity and technology while addressing aging building systems.

An architect viewpoint

Bob Vaigrt, who is coordinating the project for Eppstein Uhen, said his firm will use a master planning process to match solutions to the stated needs.

"The process will be going through the toolbox and seeing what works," Vaigrt said. "Not everything we can do will be a fit."

He noted that the key to successfully passing a referendum is communication.

"We know that communities will support only so much, but if they state a certain need, that will be what we will concentrate on," Vaigrt said. "We would most likely recommend segmenting projects so that we can get specific input and address each in an understandable way."

The socio-economic climate will be a factor, he added.

"It's kind of funny, because in the mid-2000s, when we were seeing referendums pass, it was understood that times were tough," Vaigrt said. "They are certainly at least as challenging now.

"There are positives," he said. "The way we see it is that interest rates are really low, there may be favorable government financing programs available and a lot of companies in the construction industry are looking for work. With all of those factors, this may not necessarily be a bad time to do these projects."

Tough track record

Over the past two decades, the district has failed to get public approval for such renovation and expansion plans.

Voters turned down a $9 million proposal in 1994, the third failed referendum within two years and, in 2007, voters defeated a $76.99 million referendum to build a new high school and renovated and convert the current one into a middle school.

During discussions earlier this year, administrators and board members said the 2007 failure was the product of ineffective communicating.

"I think we will be in a better position to answer questions," said Debbie Larson, board president, at that time.

According to the district, the 1962-built high school has been renovated or expanded five times from 1963 to 1999. The middle school, built in 1970, has been renovated in 1973 and 1990.