Photo provided The “petal-shaped” design of the new westside elementary school is shown along with plans for the overall site plan.
Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. board members will consider a recommendation Monday to name the district’s soon-to-be-under-construction westside elementary school.
BCSC officials are seeking permission for the name to be Maple Grove Elementary School, in part informed by a community-wide survey that went out in March.
Board members will consider approval of the name during their meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Columbus North High School cafeteria.
The school corporation’s 12th elementary school, the first since Clifty Creek in 1982, will cost an estimated $60 million and is to accommodate the city’s continued expansion to the west and south. In addition, BCSC officials have said the new school will provide requisite spaces in the other 11 elementary schools for high-quality STEM instruction, flexible learning areas including student common spaces and wellness support centers, as well as locations for specialized staff such as occupational, physical and speech therapists.
BCSC officials previously said approximately 650 students will attend the new school.
Maple Grove was one of 10 names included in a survey to seek input on what the new elementary would be called, generating 1,308 responses. The survey tasked participants with listing their top three from the list, but also asked for alternative ideas as well.
After a data analysis of the responses, there were conversations among BCSC’s districting and facilities committee members, made up of 23 people, to land on the final recommendation.
The name pays respect to one of Columbus’ original schools, built in 1896 by Charles Sparrell. Sparrell prolifically designed several notable buildings in Columbus during his approximately 20 years in the city during the late 19th century including the original Crump Theater, the former Columbus City Hall, First United Methodist Church and others.
The former Maple Grove Elementary is the current BCSC Administration building at 1200 Central Ave., and only operated under the name for 11 years. It was renamed as Garfield Elementary in 1907 before closing as a school in 1974. The building then served as Arvin Headquarters from 1989 to 2005 when it became the district’s administration building.
Redistricting efforts are set for late 2026 into 2027, and the new school is scheduled to open in August of 2027.
The process for deciding upon a name began last fall, when it was suggested at a districting and facilities committee meeting that students should be involved in naming the new elementary school.
All four of BCSC’s Columbus Signature Academy (CSA) schools— New Tech, Central, Lincoln and Fodrea— had a hand in the process. New Tech students took on a leadership role and guided students at the other three schools through project benchmarks.
New Tech students began by planning what the process would look like and asked their elementary counterparts to do a deep-dive into how BCSC schools were named in the past.
Students then produced a list of potential names beginning with 85 options. Through feedback and the development of a decision-making matrix, that number was paired down to 20 possible names. In turn, administrators and the districting and facilities committee whittled that down to the following 10 that were listed as survey options:
- Horizon Elementary
- Maple Grove Elementary
- Mt. Pleasant Elementary
- Red Bridge Elementary
- Sycamore Hills Elementary
- Tulip Ridge Elementary
- Twelve Points Elementary
- Westside Elementary
- Westside Hills
- Valley View Elementary
Boston-based Howeler+Yoon was selected to design the new westside elementary school and is working alongside architecture firm of record CSO Architects. Taylor Bros and Pepper Construction are working as construction manager/constructor on the project.
Howeler+Yoon will be sharing interior and exterior renderings of the new elementary school on Tuesday from 5 to 6 p.m. at Westside Community Church.
During a school board meeting in November, BCSC officials discussed the “petal design” chosen for the westside school after Howeler+Yoon presented eight different options. The architectural design was funded by The Cummins Architecture Program.
