No Plans in Place for New Royston Elementary School, Says School Superintendent

It’s too soon to know where the new Royston Elementary School will be built.

That’s according to Franklin County School Superintendent Dr. Ruth O’Dell.

“Contrary to any reports or comments that may have been made at the Royston City Council meeting and elsewhere, the Franklin County School Board has not decided to rebuild Royston Elementary School outside the City of Royston,” she said. “There is no decision about that.”

Dr. O’Dell responded Monday to a report we aired last week in which Royston Mayor David Jordan expressed concern that the proposed new elementary school would be outside of the Royston city limits.

Jordan said he and the City Council have repeatedly asked the Franklin County School Board where the new school would be built, but have not gotten a response.

Dr. O’Dell said yesterday, that’s because the final location will not be up to this board.

According to Dr. O’Dell, the new elementary school will not be built until at least 2021, which, at that time, will be under the direction of an entirely new school board.

“The problem is that the current school board can’t pre-determine the actions of a future, elected school board that will be responsible for the construction of the new school,” O’Dell said.

Plans and construction of a new Royston Elementary school will also be under a new educational special purpose local option sales tax or e-SPLOST.

Dr. O’Dell said feasibility studies will have to be done, engineers consulted and architects hired – all of which she said would not even begin for another three to four years.

“There’s no decision because nothing has been done to determine the feasibility of keeping the school where it is,” O’Dell said. “Nobody has made any kind of decision to move it. It has not happened and won’t happen on this e-SPLOST. Towards the end of this e-SPLOST will be some planning, but that will require another whole e-SPLOST.”

Under the current timeline for the e-SPLOST now on the ballot, the Franklin County School board will spend the next three years planning for and building a new career academy at the high school, if that e-SPLOST passes next month.

They will also take Carnesville Primary School off the State Department of Education’s books and begin plans to add a wing to the current Carnesville Intermediate School.

That wing will house the students at Carnesville Primary and all of the elementary school grades will again be in one building.

Then, beginning in the spring of 2018, Royston Elementary School will be taken offline to begin planning for a new Royston Elementary School.

“These schools will continue to be open, but will be taken offline as far as the State is concerned,” O’Dell said. “Once they’re off line, the State will then begin funneling funding to Franklin County to begin preliminary work on the new wing in Carnesville and the new school in Royston.”

One problem with Royston Elementary and Carnesville Primary, according to Dr. O’Dell, is that both schools are made up of separate small buildings.

“In Royston, we had to build metal fencing around the school buildings as a safety measure,” O’Dell said. “In this day and age we can’t have separate buildings anymore. Plus, the way students are taught now, that kind of structure doesn’t work.”

Mayor David Jordan noted the City has donated and already done the engineering work on eight acres adjacent to the current Royston Elementary for the building of a new school.

Dr. O’Dell said while she understands the importance of keeping the school inside the city limits, it will ultimately be up to the future school board to decide, after doing their studies and research, to determine where the best location will be for the new elementary school.

“We will also be getting public input on the location of the new Royston Elementary School before any decision is made,” she concluded.