Westfield Washington to create 2 more elementaries, add 2nd middle school
WESTFIELD, Ind. (WISH) — Westfield Washington Schools will create two more elementaries and add a second middle school, the district announced Thursday in a newsletter.
Construction of a seventh elementary would start in the fall and take 18-24 months.
Westfield Intermediate School would be made into an eighth elementary.
Also, Shamrock Springs Elementary School will be renovated or rebuilt, and a renovation of Carey Ridge Elementary will begin in the spring to expand the building’s capacity.
Construction on the second middle school would start in the fall and be completed in two or three years.
The district would continue to have only one high school. The district would have no intermediate school once it becomes the eighth elementary.
The announcement said, “In the coming years, all of the elementary buildings that were built in the 90s and early 2000s will be approaching the point in their lifecycle where they will need minor renovations. We will use this time to appropriately expand the capacity and functionality of the buildings to keep pace with the expected growth.”
In addition, the district has decided to keep fifth graders in elementary schools and move sixth graders to middle schools.
Westfield has grown from an estimated population of 35,936 in 2015 to 50,630 in 2021, according to information from Stats Indiana, which is maintained by the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. The district now has 14,500 kids under age 18, according to the Census Bureau.
With a 7.7% population increase in 2021, Westfield ranked as Indiana’s fastest-growing place among those with at least 5,000 residents, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Westfield Washington’s announcement was accompanied by a YouTube video from Paul Kaiser, the Hamilton County district’s superintendent; Brian Tomamichel, assistant superintendent for business and operations; and Joshua Andrews, district director of communications.
Tomamichel said the growth will allow the district to add and fix up buildings without a referendum seeking additional tax dollars. Kasier said the district has already purchased land for expansion.
“It’s going to take a lot of planning in the next three-plus years, but that’s the consensus of the educators in the school district,” Kasier said in the video.
The next steps, Tomamichel says, will be to hire architects for the projects.
The district currently is upgrading its transportation center, which was build for 50 buses but now holds 100, Tomamichel says.
Athletic fields and the maintenance building also will need to be addressed soon, the assistant superintendent adds.
Kaiser welcomed feedback. He says parents and staff or community members can contact him on his cellphone at 317-385-4912 between 8 a.m.-8 p.m. to leave a message to return calls.