District gives quarterly Franklin Forward update; schematic design and site logistics advance for high school project

District leaders and external partners provided a Franklin Forward quarterly briefing at the Jan. 15 meeting that walked the board through the project’s schematic-design phase, stakeholder engagement, site-survey work and an early budget model.

District staff said the work is in schematic design, a stage where program spaces and high-level adjacencies are defined and multiple layout options remain under study. Mike Hacker, the owner’s representative from Cadence Consulting, described an “Innovation Hub” at the high school used as a project war room and said the district is running a funneled design process (schematic design → design development → construction documents) with regular biweekly meetings.

Staff said project partners have conducted staff tours of peer districts’ CTE, culinary, athletic and vocational spaces and held listening sessions with high-school educators, athletic staff and CTE teachers. The district reported it will continue iterative design with an emphasis on flexible, multiuse spaces (examples: wide collaboration corridors, reconfigurable culinary and auto bays, and locker-room arrangements that flex by sport) and an eye toward long-term adaptability.

Site work: the team said a full-site survey and drone mapping are underway and that geotechnical soil borings will follow to assess load-bearing and stormwater needs for specific footprints. Staff also noted early site-logistics planning with the construction manager to prioritize student safety, fence and crane locations, construction traffic routing, and phasing so school operations can continue during construction.

Budget and schedule: staff presented two buckets — a capital-improvement program and a high-school addition/renovation package — and said the budget model is under development. The team cautioned that numerous decisions will carry budget impacts and that a substantial construction window will overlap school calendar activities; contractors and district leaders will coordinate to minimize operational disruption (for example, swim programming will need off-site partners while the pool is offline during phases of work). A construction-phase schedule summary was shared showing phased demolition, new construction and site work across multiple seasons.

Community engagement: staff described plans to collect video and written feedback from parents, students, alumni and board members to capture community aspirations and help guide design decisions; the communications team will provide periodic updates and public materials. No design decisions were approved at the board meeting; the presentation functioned as a status update and planning briefing.