Walnut Grove Elementary School
OVERVIEW
Construction on Walnut Grove Elementary, Center Grove's 6th elementary school, was completed in the Fall of 2019.
The process to plan, finance, design, and build the new school will take approximately 30 months. Because no remonstrance was filed against the project, it is moving forward. Walnut Grove opened to students in August 2019.
The school features 21st Century learning spaces designed to provide flexibility for instruction. A solar array was included in the project to help offset energy costs. The landscape around the school includes an environmentally friendly prairie grounds concept.
ENROLLMENT GROWTH
Center Grove has set a record high for the number kindergarten enrollments from 2016-2018. The district also saw an increase in the number of elementary students moving into existing neighborhoods. Elementary enrollment was projected to surpass 4,000 at the start of the 2019-2020 school year. That number is just 30 students below the maximum ideal capacity in each elementary school.
Center Grove has managed to keep average class sizes at the elementary schools within the Ideal Ranges identified by the Board by adding several new teachers. But we can only manage class sizes with additional room for those classrooms. Before Walnut Grove opened, portable classrooms were added to elementary schools to increase the number of students each building can accommodate.
ABOUT WALNUT GROVE
LOCATION: 4079 North Morgantown Road, Bargersville, IN
ACREAGE: 57.5 acres
CAPACITY: Approximately 800 students
GRADES: K-5
SQUARE FOOTAGE: 110,000
FLOORS: Two
CLASSROOMS: 38
FOCUS ON SUSTAINABILITY
Walnut Grove will be the first Center Grove school to utilize solar energy. An array of solar panels will be installed on the school grounds. This array will produce enough energy to offset a portion of the electricity being used by the building. Solar power will also be used to heat the building’s water.
The landscape around Walnut Grove will have a prairie theme. This will allow for the growth of natural grasses and plants, which reduces maintenance costs.
INSPIRED EXTERIOR DESIGN
The exterior canopy of Walnut Grove has structural columns which branch out very much like a grove of Walnut trees right at the front door. The exterior color palette will relate directly to Center Grove High School with two brick colors, red and a dark brown, and a buff-colored limestone.
21st CENTURY LEARNING SPACES
Walnut Grove’s classrooms will be separated into three groups. Grade K-1 and 2-3 will be on the first floor of the building. Grades 4-5 will be on the second floor. Each group of grades is a smaller community of classrooms with lots of flexibility and glass walls that open to shared ‘hearth rooms.’ These shared spaces encourage collaboration and are ideal for collaborative learning across the grade-level.
The interior finishes of the building theme around the Walnut tree. Each of the three communities of grades has a specific interior finish color and pattern. Grades K-1 have a green-themed corridor relating to the walnut seed and springtime. The grades 2-3 corridor is red, relating to roots and summer. The Grades 4-5 corridor has yellow finishes relating to leaves and fall. Shared learning spaces (Media, Art, Music, STEM, etc.) have a blue theme, relating to sky, water, and winter.
One of the unique features in the school is a learning staircase. This space will provide opportunities for larger-group instruction and additional access to the second floor.