On Saturday afternoon, Principal Tim Donahue cut the ribbon on the new Franklin Heights High School on the West Side in front of scores of alumni and former staff members. Over the past three years, the district has rebuilt Franklin Heights and 13 elementary schools and renovated two other elementaries using $260 million in bonds and state construction money.

Two women searched table by table in the bright, modern school library for their senior class photo at Franklin Heights High School. They giggled and reminisced when they found it.

Friends since the fourth grade, Julia Lusignola Shepard was secretary and Nancy Schneider McClure was treasurer of the 161-member Class of 1960. Theirs was the first class to spend a full four years in what was then the brand-new high school on the West Side, part of South-Western City Schools.

That 1955 building wasn�t nearly as large or as slick as the one South-Western just built. Over the past three years, the district has rebuilt Franklin Heights and 13 elementary schools and renovated two other elementaries using $260 million in bonds and state construction money. With the final six building dedications that are taking place before the start of school Wednesday, the project is officially done.

On Saturday afternoon, Principal Tim Donahue cut the ribbon on the new Franklin Heights in front of scores of alumni and former staff members. Then alumni wandered the building, marveling at the amenities and finding artifacts from their high school years.

�It�s beautiful. These lucky kids better take good care of it,� Shepard said. �People from Franklin Heights have a bond � and I�m mad at the people I have a bond with who didn�t show up today.�

According to a spokesman, the South-Western building project is the largest undertaken by the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission outside of those for the six major urban districts: Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo and Akron. It stands to reason: South-Western, serving more than 20,000 students in 32 buildings over 119 square miles, is the state�s sixth-largest school district.

Back in 2011, South-Western officials said the buildings had $75 million in deferred maintenance. More than half of the 32 schools had been built in the 1960s or earlier. In March 2012, voters passed a $148 million, no-new-taxes bond issue. Construction began in 2013, and a few more buildings have opened every year since then.

�When you look at the facility, it is because of the community,� said Superintendent Bill Wise on Saturday, thanking the 1,200 community members he said played a role in the building project, from bond issue to design.

The buildings all came in on time and under budget.

Also new this year are Prairie Lincoln, Richard Avenue, Bolton Crossing, West Franklin and Highland Park elementary schools. Now, every district elementary student attends a new or like-new school building, said South-Western spokeswoman Sandra Nekoloff.

Actually, students began using the new Franklin Heights last school year, but detail work was being completed around them.

�Every night, we would come in in the morning, and it was as if elves had been working,� said Donahue. �They�d put the room numbers up, or the sign for the bookstore.�

sgilchrist@dispatch.com

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