HANCOCK COUNTY – Whether it’s a fresh coat of paint or notable progress on major improvement projects, Hancock County students and parents will have some new things to see when returning to school over the next two weeks.
Eastern Hancock and Greenfield-Central schools resume classes July 31 before New Palestine schools resume Aug. 1 and Mt. Vernon students return to class Aug. 8.
Each of the school systems has been busily preparing its buildings for students.
At Greenfield-Central, students can expect to follow the same parking and pedestrian procedures that were in place at the end of the last school year as construction of the new auditorium continues to take shape.
“We will have two entrance points — the main entrance on the east side and the bus entrance on the south side of the school. We have made some adjustments to our main office to allow us to better supervise students and create an even safer entry point,” said superintendent Harold Olin, who is happy to report that the auditorium project is progressing on schedule.
“Over the next two months the community will see the auditorium connected to the gym and pool areas with structural steel. Once that steel is put in place, all of the large equipment will be removed from the construction site,” he said.
The fencing outside the construction zone will stay in place for many more months, however, so the parking spaces that have been taken up by the construction project won’t be freed up until next spring.
In the New Palestine schools, the major focus is on the ongoing, multi-million dollar renovation of the high school that’s been underway the past several years.
“The focus is getting Phase 3 completed ASAP,” said Craig Smith, Director of Human Resources and Communication for the New Palestine Community Schools.
Smith said construction and school officials are meeting for walk-throughs on a regular basis, “just making sure all the final touches are complete.”
At Mt. Vernon schools, parents can expect to see a fully revamped system for dropping off and picking students up from the middle school.
“This is a really big deal for our community,” said Supt. Jack Parker.
“We used to get backups on (North CR 200W) because parents were wanting to drop of and/or pick up their children. We have now reconstructed the parking lot so that the parents can enter just south of Fortville Elementary School and enter a drop off zone for their kids, which gets all those cars off the road, and they won’t be clogging up the entrance to our schools,” said Parker.
Contractors spent the summer creating a new loop access road which encircles the perimeter of the district’s 200 campus, which includes the middle school, administration building, the new transportation center and the future Fortville Elementary School, which is now under construction.
“For the first time in many years, we are now going to be able to have all of our (middle school) parents who drop off and pick up students do so in one big long queue line, and they will be able to drop their kids directly off on a curb at the front of our building, which is the south side of our building,” said Parker, adding that only buses will be utilize the lot on the north side of the building.
“It should make things go much more smoothly and will take less monitoring on our end,” he continued. “Rather than a dozen staff it will only take a handful, and we don’t have to worry about kids crossing traffic, so we’re really excited about that.”
Parker said construction of the future Fortville Elementary School is coming right along, and should be finished sometime in 2025.
The current Fortville Elementary School, located just north of Mt. Vernon High School, will be converted to an intermediate school for fifth and sixth graders in the fall of 2025, when Mt. Vernon schools switch from a three-tier to four-tier school system.
While no major construction projects have taken place at Eastern Hancock schools, Supt. George Philhower said the schools have undergone some cosmetic improvements.
“We have painted the lockers in our high school and purchased some signage and decorative covers for our middle-high school doors, which are original to our school building. We have also purchased some classroom furniture,” he said.
