Franklin Regional officials start repurposing stately Newlonsburg Elementary building

To say Newlonsburg Elementary School has quite a bit of history is probably an understatement.

“Our finance director’s grandmother graduated in this building, back when it was Franklin Township High School,” said Superintendent Gennaro Piraino, sitting in his office in the new administrative center, which has been relocated to the former elementary school.

And while it will no longer house student classrooms, Newlonsburg looks to remain a significant part of the school district moving forward.

“We have the FRobotics team using the old cafeteria, and our cheerleaders and youth lacrosse teams both use the building,” said district communications director Tina Gillen.

In addition, the districtwide facilities study undertaken in 2016 did not uncover the same large-scale maintenance issues that cropped up in other school buildings, despite Newlonsburg dating back to the late 1920s.

Built in 1928, the building opened as the Franklin Township High School.

In 1962, Franklin Township School District merged with its neighbors in Export, and the newly formed Franklin Area School District compromised to adopt Franklin’s colors (blue and gold) and Export’s mascot (panther).

By then, Newlonsburg had been converted to an elementary school for the better part of a decade. The building also underwent major renovations and additions in 1965 and 1998.

Over and above that, it is the most architecturally significant building in the district, with multiple brick archways inside and out and a classical look that is absent from Heritage Elementary and the junior and senior high school buildings.

“It holds a lot of sentimental value for us and for people in the district,” Gillen said. “And being that it’s in decent shape, it’s nice to be able to use it.”

Piraino said Newlonsburg also provided enough space to allow administrative staff to finally stretch their legs a little.

“We had some folks who were working basically in a basement without windows,” he said. “Our files were in an old locker room shower that we had to convert and bring dehumidifiers and air conditioning into.”

Piraino said the Newlonsburg building does still need some work, “but the size of the building is much smaller, and so are the costs compared to Heritage,” he said. “What really excites me is that kids will still be using the building for a variety of purposes.”