School board makes first official request for new facility at Franklin High School

After years of debate and back and forth, the Macon County Board of Education voted Monday night to send a resolution to the Macon County Board of Commissioners to formally request a new facility at Franklin High School.

“With renovations at Macon Middle School underway, I think it’s time to shift focus to Franklin High School and the renovation needs there,” said Macon County Schools Superintendent Dr. Chris Baldwin. 

Monday night, members of the school board voted 5-0 to request for the construction of a new Franklin High School facility to be located at its current site.

According to Superintendent Dr. Chris Baldwin, the school system has delayed repairs at Franklin High School for over a decade, under the assumption that a new facility would be constructed in the near future.

Baldwin stated that Macon County Schools has explored options to relocate the high school, but he recommended building a new facility at the current location.

“We’ve gone so far in the past decade, as to look out into the community, to identify parcels of land that would be conducive for a new site for Franklin High School,” said Baldwin. “Unfortunately, none of those sites were found to be perfectly favorable, and we’ve moved on from those. But it may be time to consider a new Franklin High School facility at the current site.”

Citing the central location of the  Franklin High School building as well the sentimental value surrounding the current location, Dr. Baldwin proposed looking at various concepts and possibilities of constructing a new facility on the current grounds of Franklin High School. 

Macon County Commissioner Gary Shields, who is a former member of the board of education and former principal at Franklin High School said that finding a concept that was the least disruptive to students in order to build a facility on the current location of the high school would be the most favorable. Commissioner Shields gave his support to the board of education and said based on the two versions of building on the current site that he has already seen, he believes proposing concept two to the board of commissioners would be ideal. 

The Macon County Board of Education will now be submitting a request to Macon County Manager Derek Roland and the Board of Commissioners to consider a new facility at the current site of Franklin High School.