Granville school enrollment growing, but not as quickly as once feared ahead of Intel plant
As Licking County grows, Granville Exempted Village Schools officials know the district's enrollment will rise too. But a new study shows the district isn't growing as quickly as once feared.
The district's latest enrollment study, shared with the Granville Board of Education during an April 15 meeting, shows that after an unexpected bump in kindergarten class size for two years, incoming classes have returned to their expected size. The report was done by Woolpert, which acquired the education facility and program planning firm Cooperative Strategies that Granville schools has partnered with since 2022.
In fall 2022, the district expected an incoming kindergarten class of 146 students but enrolled 183 students, leaving the district scrambling for classroom space and officials fearing the district would need additional facilities sooner than expected to handle growth.
But kindergarten class sizes have since returned to the 140s, and that has modified the enrollment projections, Superintendent Jeff Brown said.
"All this report does is say that we have a little bit more time. It's not as urgent as we initially maybe thought," he said during the meeting. "We're going to plan in the in between so that we have the plan ready for when the eventual students come."
In 2022, the first enrollment study indicated that Granville's student body would likely double to more than 5,000 students by 2050 because of Intel-related growth.
Even though the district won't see an immediate increase in students like it once expected, Brown said in an April 16 interview that the district's enrollment will probably still double in the coming decades.
"I think the development in certain areas is going to occur. It's just going to occur maybe at a slower rate," he said.
The slow down in growth means it will be about six to seven years before the district reaches capacity at Granville Intermediate School and another 10 years before it reaches capacity at its three other schools, said Karen Jackson, a representative of Woolpert, during the April 15 meeting.
Enrollment growth may be slower, Brown said during the meeting, because a potential housing development at the district's southern boundary has not developed as quickly as anticipated.
As previously reported, the city of Heath annexed and rezoned 235 acres along Canyon Road in Union Township in November. The majority falls within the Granville school district. Of the annexed properties, 187 acres were rezoned for potentially hundreds of single-family homes and multifamily dwellings. Another 48 acres was zoned for commercial development.
According to zoning Heath adopted, the minimum lot size for a single-family home would be 7,500 square feet, which would allow for nearly six lots per acre.
But there are no specific plans with the number of homes, and Brown said no plans have made it through the Heath Planning Commission.
"We know for a fact that that is going to drive significant enrollment in the future," he said, adding the site lacks water and sewer infrastructure, so development will likely be pushed out a few years.
Brown said having extra time before enrollment starts to increase is a gift that the district needs to fully use to its advantage. The district needs to plan effectively for when additional students do arrive. And Granville will do that through a facility master planning process. In March the board approved contracting with Fanning Howey, an architectural firm that specializes in schools, to provide master planning services.
Brown said April 16 that the district is sharing data and information with the firm now, and over the summer, firm staffers will review Granville's facilities and major systems, such as heating, ventilating and air conditioning. Based on the enrollment projections, the architectural firm will study what types of buildings the district will need in the future, such as if the district needs another elementary or middle school, Brown said.
A key part of the process will be community involvement, Brown said. Starting later this year, the district will hold six to seven in-person community meetings, likely at the Granville High School Commons, where people can learn about the process and provide feedback.
"It's all about preparing and building that understanding within the community so that they can feel comfortable that we have a plan no matter what happens in the community related to growth," Brown said.
mdevito@gannett.com
740-607-2175
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Granville schools enrollment not growing as fast as once feared
