Staff reports
HANCOCK COUNTY — Schools in three county districts will open their doors for the 2018-19 school year looking a bit different than when students left for summer vacation.
Millions of dollars have gone into making improvements to Greenfield Intermediate School, Mt. Vernon Middle School and the formerly shuttered Doe Creek Middle School, which will reopen as New Palestine Junior High.
The projects in Greenfield’s and New Palestine’s school districts were announced last year, and construction crews will have cleared out by the first day of school. Mt. Vernon kids will have to navigate through work zones when they head back to class next week; but district leaders say the 2-year-old project will wrap up soon.
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Here’s a look at the work done at each building:
Greenfield Intermediate School
Greenfield-Central School Corp. announced in early 2017 it would invest $1.8 million in renovations at Greenfield Intermediate School, with the hope of restructuring the building to better utilize space.
The 56-year-old building on Park Avenue served as a middle school for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students until 2010, when the district converted it into an intermediate school when the district moved to a four-tier system. Now, the building is home to fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students, and portions of the building needed to be reconfigured to better serve younger kids.
The majority of the work was done on the south side of the school, where the original front office was located, and the north side of the structure, which was a gymnasium with two locker rooms.
Contractors relocated the main office in the north end, making it closer to the school’s largest parking lot and nearer to where parents pick up their children.
The old front office converted into a special education suite, equipped with restrooms and changing areas for students who need them. The gymnasium was updated to better serve the community.
Improvements were also made to the school’s kitchen, which food service workers use to prepare meals for Greenfield Intermediate School student and those at the nearby Harris Elementary School.
Construction on the north side of the building wrapped up in the spring and students were able to use the new entrance and main office at the end of the school year.
Superintendent Harold Olin has given the school board monthly progress reports, and said the construction is would be complete before the first day of school Wednesday.
New Palestine Junior High School
Citing its growing student body, the Community School Corp. of Southern Hancock County school board approved at least $2.5 million to renovate and reopen the former Doe Creek Middle School.
It’ll welcome students for the first time in more than eight years when classes start Aug. 6, this time as junior high school.
District leaders voted in May 2017. Since then, they’ve been giving the building a facelift.
Old, dingy carpet has been ripped from the floors in the hallways. The lockers have been painted bright red to match the school’s colors. The chalkboards in the classrooms have been replaced with new dry-erase boards.
The building, located at 2200 S. County Road 600W in New Palestine, was closed in 2010 as a cost-cutting measure. Students were moved with a building along County Road 200S, which also went by the name Doe Creek.
Both buildings have now been given new names: New Palestine Intermediate will house fifth- and sixth-graders, and New Palestine Junior High will house seventh- and eighth-graders.
The changes come in response to student body growth, officials say.
Southern Hancock enrolls an average of 80 new students a year. The overall student body grew to about 3,700 students in the 2017-18 year; enrollment was about 3,300 in 2013-14, data shows.
Much of that growth is at the elementary level, which rose from 1,561 students in 2012 to 1,745 in 2016, records show.
Mt. Vernon Middle School
Great progress was made over the summer, but students at Mt. Vernon Middle School will still see construction crews on campus as they head back to class Tuesday.
The school corporation in 2016 revealed plans to move eighth-graders — currently housed at the high school — back into the middle school to accommodate anticipated growth.
The district grew from 3,500 students in 2013-14 school year to 4,100 students last year, according to data from the Indiana Department of Education.
And facility studies conducted by the district showed the high school, housing eighth- through 12th-graders, is cramped, and the additions at the middle school were the best option to alleviate some of the space crunch.
Project plans include adding nearly 30,000 square feet to the building, which was built in the 1970s, at a cost of $10 million.
Construction is now in its second phase. Last year, students were able to use a new, larger cafeteria that was built as part of the project.
Now, the school’s old cafeteria has been turned into a workspace. About 20 new classrooms are also be constructed.
District officials have said the renovations will wrap up in December.
