CARMEL, Ind. (WTHR) — The Carmel Clay School Board approved a proposal to close two elementary schools and rebuild them in a meeting Monday night.
Carmel Elementary School and Orchard Park Elementary School will close and be rebuilt.
The plan would keep students at the schools for the next three years. Construction on the new buildings wouldn't begin until February 2020. The new schools would open in the summer of 2021, which means students going into 2nd grade or higher this fall would not be impacted by the closings.
The district released the following statement following Monday night's meeting:
The CCS School Board made the difficult decision tonight to close Orchard Park Elementary and build a new elementary school at Clay Center Road which will open in July of 2021 along with a new Carmel Elementary facility built on its current site.
It was a difficult recommendation for CCS Administration to bring to the Board and for the Board to approve since Orchard Park Elementary has been a special school in our community and big part of many students, teachers, and community members lives over the years. We are fortunate to live in a community where people are passionate about their schools and education.
The recommendation was based on providing every student in our community, both now and in the future, a 21st century learning environment in the most efficient and fiscally responsible manner. It is now our task to design and build those special learning facilities and work hard over the next three years to make these transitions a positive experience for the students and families we serve.
Both schools are the two oldest in the district. Carmel Elementary has been open for 57 years. Because the buildings are so old, renovating them would be nearly as much as rebuilding them.
Renovating Orchard Park, which opened in 1986, would cost 85 percent of the cost to rebuild it. The renovation of Carmel Elementary would be 90 percent of the rebuilding cost. It would also be the school's second renovation.
The superintendent says renovating the buildings would hurt students and staff trying to use the buildings, and those downsides aren't worth the cost savings.
According to the district, there are no tax increases planned to pay for the new schools.
Still, many parents are not happy about their children's current schools potentially closing.
"I believe that Orchard Park Elementary students, parents, and staff deserve a true opportunity to voice our opinion before a final decision is made," said Orchard Park parent Christopher Moore at an April school board meeting.
"A lot of those people walk their kids to school from their neighborhoods and enjoy that ability, you know, so their kids aren't on buses for 45 minutes riding to, you know, some far away school," said parent Matt Milam after Monday's meeting.
Another issue is the district has to consider is the balance between the east and west sides of the district.
Both schools are in the eastern half of the district, where enrollment has been falling. The rebuild plan would move Orchard Park from Orchard Park Drive South on the east side of town to the faster growing west side of the city, off of Clay Center Road.