At the Franklin County Community School Corporation School Board meeting on March 10, a long-standing concern took center stage: the potential consolidation of the three elementary schools in Franklin County, resulting in the closure of Laurel and Mt. Carmel elementary schools.

While many community members have expressed a desire to keep Laurel and Mt. Carmel open, there was a notable presence of supporters for the consolidation during the meeting. Advocates for the merger cited significant disparities in staffing levels between Brookville Elementary School (BES) and its counterparts, Laurel (LES) and Mt. Carmel (MES). They raised alarms over the higher student-to-teacher ratio at BES, coupled with a shortage of teacher aides, which they believe is adversely affecting the quality of education for students. The community and some board members also noted that with the air of uncertainty regarding pending legislation, the decision shouldn’t be made around the Master Facility Plan until financials and attendance were confirmed.

Superintendent Dusting Gehring was set to address those concerns by presenting his recommendations regarding the Master Facility Plan, focusing on the future of elementary schools. Gehring prepared a detailed presentation aimed at outlining the reasoning behind his recommendation.

However, before the presentation could commence, board member Kim Simonson intervened, requesting the discussion and the accompanying presentation be tabled for the time being. 

“I wasn’t made aware of this until last Wednesday; in fact, there was a number of us,” board member Kim Simonson began. “Even though we had discussed it in an executive session and, obviously, I won’t get into that. My second reason for wanting to table it is that I had recommended to have a chance for the public to have a public meeting and ask questions about the master plan in general.”

Beth Foster seconded the motion to table the presentation, but the other five board members voted to proceed.

Superintendent 

Presentation

Gehring said since being approved for his position approximately six months ago, he has been aware of the community’s urgent request for clarity regarding the future of LES and MES. Gehring shared he had numerous discussions and identified key concerns raised by parents and community members, which include issues related to enrollment as a result of House Bill 270, the current condition of the elementary schools, financial stability, and most importantly, the need for decisive actions that will finally provide the staff and community with answers. Considering those concerns, Gehring said he took prompt action to address them and in December the team began to meet and discuss consolidation.

“Every option that we looked at was pursued, researched, vetted and we talked about risk and reward. My team, the central office team and the board started to work to narrow down those options; we can’t just sit at five all the time or ten. We had to narrow down what is feasible, what is not feasible, what is reality, what is not reality. What is even like in contention? What does this look like? We felt like it was important despite some state-level financial questions; we felt like it was important to provide transparency to our community about where we are now.” 

Current Situation

Gehring shared a pending debt cliff is on the horizon, with a significant portion of debt set to mature simultaneously. This scenario facilitates the repayment of past bonds, thereby enabling the possibility of additional debt issuance while keeping the existing tax rate stable—a primary objective of the board.

Current estimates suggest the debt capacity could reach as high as $45 million at most. However, that was a very loose estimate as final figures remain uncertain until further legislative developments are complete. Gehring said, “I’m telling you with absolute fact it is not going to be $45 million unless any pending legislation doesn’t become legislation. So, our financial advisors, who are an incredible team and typically know all the answers, actually said, ‘We’re not sure,’ and I think that is unprecedented words for them as they typically say we have a really good idea.”

Gehring then talked more about how HB270 legislation could have implications for FCCSC, particularly amidst changing enrollment trends. The legislation stipulates if a school corporation sees a drop in enrollment beyond a certain percentage compared to the highest figures from the past five years, it could face things like closures. FCCSC had a targeted enrollment of 1,900 students. The results of enrollment in October of 2024 showed a total of 1,911 students enrolled, just making the cutoff to remain off the watch list.

Regardless of the uncertainties, Gehring stressed the importance of having a plan, stating the community, kids, staff and himself need to know the plan. “I do have a recommendation, but that doesn’t mean that’s my only option I will do whatever it is and do it well, but for me to go do it, right, I got to have a plan.” 

Researched Options and Estimated 

Building Costs 

Gehring reached out to architectural firm Fanning Howey to explore preliminary cost estimates for various concepts. Gehring emphasized the figures provided by Fanning Howery are merely baseline ideas and not final numbers. The firm reiterated this point multiple times. Gehring acknowledged the figures are intended solely for conceptual purposes and will likely increase in the future.  

Fanning Howey 

Baseline Projections

•Three new elementary schools on current sites - $55.7 million 

•Two elementary schools on neutral sites - $61.4 million

•New Elementary on Brookville Campus for 850 students - $46.4 million

•Renovating Brookville Elementary for 850 students - $33.6 million

•Renovating existing three elementary schools to ensure viability and beyond for at least the next decade - $21-25 million

Gehring shared the assessment in 2024 stated the schools are viable for another decade. With all that in mind, Gehring made the following recommendation to the board:

“I recommend continuing our current five-school model for the foreseeable future,” Gehring said. “Our near future focus for funding the master plan will be upgrading all three elementary schools to ensure they are structurally sound, safe, secure, modern and future-ready.” 

Gehring did note depending on legislation, August may bring other conversations, and the plan may change to “What can we do to survive?” 

Before opening it up to public comment, Gehring said he recognized that BES needs some help, that he has only been here six months, asking BES staff for a chance to address the situation.

Public Comment

As mentioned in last week’s article in the Brookville American, Melissa Graf, who has three daughters at BES and is the Hounds Pack PTO  president, spoke passionately about the issues at BES, imploring the board for change (her entire statement can be read in last week’s edition of the Brookville American). 

Prior to Graf speaking,  former FCCSC President Francis Brumback also acknowledged the inequities amongst the elementary schools.

“There are inequities across our elementary schools, and we can turn a blind eye to it, but it’s still there, and it’s not fair to the kids,” Brumback stated. “So it is very important that we get this right and instead of having a vote on sentiment of I want to keep the school open we need to have it off statistics and understand why the decision was made and it needs to be brought to the public.” 

Brumback expressed other concerns, highlighting the impact of the 12 bills currently in legislation that would affect school funding and board operations, the decreasing student enrollment over the past 20 years and the resulting strain on education and operational funds causing concerns for how schools can maintain teacher salaries and retain staff given declining revenue sources, particularly from taxes that support capital projects. The potential for transferring up to 15% of the operational fund to the education fund, traditionally used for teacher raises, adds to the uncertainty. 

“I would suggest tabling this until a real discussion can be had with real numbers in August,” Brumback said. “The other part of this is to have transparency for us to show up and ask questions about where you got this, whether you have considered this, and what the repercussions of that are. Give community members a chance to really allow their concerns with what they see as problems because there is a problem.” 

Motion to Approve Gehring’s 

Recommendation 

After Graf and Brumback finished speaking, board president Kevin Kaiser asked if there was a motion on the floor regarding Gehring’s recommendation. Before a motion was made, Simonson asked Business manager Kendra Franks to respond on correspondence with the financial advisors before moving on. Kaiser asked if he had a specific question. Simonson responded, “Yeah, I’d like to know because some of the things reported tonight, from my perspective, were part of the discussion, but there’s some parts that were left out. So I would like to ask Miss Franks to fill in any gaps that there may have been.”

Franks responded stating, “All I can speak to is the, um, I’m going to speak to a conversation I had with our bond counsel and financial consultants regarding the pending legislation and their recommendation for us because of the unknowns that are coming and because the decision and more accurate numbers will be had in April and then our assessed value will come out in  August would be to not make any permanent plans until we had those accurate numbers.”

Kaiser interjected that Gehring’s recommendation is not a permanent plan but a recommendation to have a future plan and a starting point to expand upon. 

The other board member expressing opposition, Beth Foster, then spoke up, “Kevin, I have one thing to say, and I guess probably everybody knows how I feel about this, but I don’t know how you can build a house when you don’t know how much money you can put into that house and that’s what we’re doing right now is we are guessing guestimation on all these buildings. We do not have firm bids to fix any of these buildings. I disagree with Mr. Gehring, but that’s okay; we’ve disagreed before. Like Mr. Gehring said, we have no idea, and I don’t know how we can proceed to do anything if we don’t know how much money we have to do it.”

Board member Jessica Brennan responded to Foster by saying she understood her concerns but agreed with Kaiser that this is a very loose vision and a plan is needed to move forward, stating all sentiment has been taken out of the decision-making process, basing the next steps on statistical facts.

“As Mr. Gehring said, we have a lot of options,” Brennan stated. “Every other option, almost every other option, I think, is raising the tax bill, and we don’t even know where the property taxes are coming in and what those counts will be. So how much will it raise it? I mean, it’s just outrageous to guess, so I see that point, Beth; I see what you mean, um, we’re not willy nilly going out and building a brand new mansion of a house we literally have right now children that need education in schools. I really appreciate the speakers tonight and sharing very personal stories. We have to consider keeping that these children are taken care of right now. We can not continue to wait.” 

With those reasons in mind, Brennan motioned to approve Gehring’s recommendation. Wilson seconded the motion. 

Additional 

Discussion

Simonson again asked for the vote to pause so he could make a statement. 

“The same financial advisor that directed us to take the zero bond, okay, also directed us to make no large projects, okay. Same person,” Simonson explained. “The same person also said that we should have a full-blown financial study done before we do anything. This is our financial advisors.”

Enrollment numbers were discussed, with the demographic showing Franklin County Middle School and high school student enrollment numbers declining but elementary school numbers increasing over the next 10 years. The demographic study with enrollment projections can be found on the FCCSC website.

Board member Brandy Wilson shared that she wanted the teachers to know she supports them and that they are important, saying, “We’re asking you to give us and be open-minded and allow us to bring you the help that you need.”

Community members in the crowd responded, saying, we are not asking for smaller class sizes; we are asking for equality, and this is something that has been brought to light for years and not addressed.

Board member Gregg Burris said, “Just give us a chance. I am three months into this. You’re going to see my face over at Brookville Elementary a lot more. I was delighted to come meet with you all the other day. I didn’t have a clue what was going on over there until Brandy and I came out to see you, and it was obvious that first visit, there was a problem. I’d like to see you guys have some more aides and maybe one more teacher.”

Board member Kati Holman echoed the other board members’ sentiment. 

“Yes, I have been on the board for four years, and yes, we have tried to do several things, and there have been plans, and they were tabled, but we weren’t allowed to do anything. This is the first time in my four years that someone has actually come with a plan. As Gregg said, let us at least discuss it.”

After the discussion between the public and the board concluded, Gehring closed out the discussion, reiterating the board’s and his commitment to the future.

“Even if you don’t agree with this plan, that doesn’t mean we are going to stop striving and we will. That hasn’t changed. I’m very thankful that you showed up tonight. It means a lot. You’ve been here three hours, two hours. Some of you three hours because you came early. It means a lot to you, but I want you to know it means a lot to us, too, and I would ask everyone to chase facts, not rumors. I would ask everyone to show empathy towards your counterparts and keep talking about what you wish would happen so we can keep chasing the good stuff.”

The school board voted in favor of the superintendent’s recommendation, passing it with a 5-2 majority. Simonson and Foster were opposed.