Franklin County Schools Still Considering Moving Royston Elementary to Franklin Springs

Franklin County School Superintendent Chris Forrer says he has the information he needs from the Franklin Springs City Council to take back to the School Board Tuesday evening regarding whether to move Royston Elementary to property in Franklin Springs. 

That despite the Franklin Springs City Council and Mayor’s refusal to say definitely whether they want the new school to be built in their city.

At their meeting Thursday evening, the Franklin Springs City Council and Mayor Lee Moore heard from a dozen citizens who spoke against putting the new elementary school on property located off Highway 145. 

Three school board members have indicated they are in favor of the site because they say it’s safer and more centrally located.  However, every person who spoke to the City Council disputed that.

Most who spoke, including City Councilman Joe Bryant, said not only is that intersection on 145 and Bryant Park Road not safe, it’s dangerous because of the existing traffic issues that have plagued the area for decades and adding school buses and other traffic to the mix could make it deadly.

“The (School) Board had an engineering firm do a risk assessment done at that site. Based on the results that the Board had their engineers do, the proposed school site is located within the fatality and injury zone should a tanker truck explode at the BP station,” Bryant said. “That fatality zone extends over halfway across that property. The truck blows up, the kids die. It’s as easy as that. The Board summarily ignored that report and more money to mitigate the hazard. And by the way, they’ve already spent over $16,000 for that report and ignored it.”

County Commissioner Ryan Swails told the City Council, he would like to see the new school built on property behind the current elementary school and he urged the City Council and Mayor to say whether they want the school or not.  

Others who spoke cited the higher taxes all county citizens would incur to pay for the new school if it’s built in Franklin Springs.

During the public comment period, Forrer stated the school system had already made an offer on the Highway 145 property which had been countered and accepted by the school system, but clarified that the Board had 30-days to decide whether to move forward with the purchase.

After the public hearing, Forrer told the Council he needed a definitive decision from them to take back to the school board.

Forrer noted some school board members are waiting to hear one way or the other from the City Council before making their final decision.

That prompted a response from Mayor Lee Moore who questioned why Forrer needed the City Council to decide when an offer on the property had already been made and accepted. 

Forrer then asked again for the councilman to raise their hands if they want the new school in Franklin Springs and none of them did. 

Forrer said he would take that lack of a show of hands as a definitive answer from the Franklin Springs City Council that they are not in favor of the new school being built in their city.

And he said he would take that information back to the school board when they meet for their next work session. The School Board is expected to announce their site selection for the new elementary school at their regular meeting February 9th.