As the dust settles at the southwest corner of Center Grove High School, drivers traveling up and down Morgantown Road get a glimpse of the new exterior for the latest addition to Center Grove High School. Standing three stories tall, the new 50,000-square-foot Center Grove Academic Pavilion will be ready to welcome students next school year.
Center Grove Community School Corporation Superintendent, Dr. Bill Long, says the newest addition to the high school is an open, flexible space that allows the district to plan for the future of learning. The pavilion includes 18 academic classrooms, collaboration spaces, a secondary cafeteria and room for additional bus parking. The projected cost of the entire project is nearly $20 million, without raising taxes on homeowners or seeking additional funding sources.
“This first phase was built with the idea that we could add on, almost an identical wing just to the west of us, toward Morgantown Road, and replicate another 18 classrooms,” Long said. “When I was the high school principal two decades ago, the district conducted studies on whether it should build a second high school. The answer was a resounding no from a community and financial perspective. This should set us up for what our demographers tell us would be the maximum size the high school would need to accommodate.”
Future planning for CGCSC is no guessing game. The district works each year with a demographer, along with Johnson County, Greenwood and Bargersville officials, to project growth. This formula is determined by yearly enrollment, number of households, the number of students per household and future housing developments.
“When we talk about our enrollment, we know it’s going to peak at some time and then go down,” Long said. “Based on our projections, we figured that it was more economical and logical to add on to the one high school.”
The Academic Pavilion is the third major addition to Center Grove High School in recent years, following the Student Activity Center (2018) and Natatorium (2022).
“We built all three of those without raising the tax rate for our community,” Long said. “The board’s been awesome about trying to keep that steady.”
Long said each project has its own name, timeline and funding source. For the Academic Pavilion, the district sells bonds and pays them back over time. He added that the district built Walnut Grove Elementary, renovated and expanded Sugar Grove Elementary and made large safety investments without asking taxpayers for more money through a referendum.
“For me to sit here and say that we think this pavilion will last us for another 15 to 20 years without needing another one means we’ve put a lot of thought into this,” Long said.
The Academic Pavilion offers a campus-like feel with natural light pouring through large windows, open stairways and space for small group work. The new Junior ROTC classrooms are already in use this school year, and the district’s Early College program will move into several of the classrooms next semester.
An auxiliary cafeteria will serve 200-300 students each day, alleviating some of the strain on the high school’s primary cafeteria, which is nearing capacity.
“I think that’s what we do as a society,” Long said. “We pass on that great tradition of giving students an opportunity to learn and be ready for the future. Investing in our schools helps your property value, it makes people want to move here, and it helps our community grow.”
