The school building behind Carmel Middle School will be demolished in a matter of months, Carmel Clays Schools said.
CCS owns the building near the intersection of Grand Boulevard and Guilford Avenue, which currently houses the Hamilton-Boone-Madison Special Services Cooperative and its small public school Mosaics. But the educational co-op has plans to move its offices to Noblesville, and CCS officials say the middle school campus is in need of additional property.
“This fall the district plans to demolish the building,” Asst. Supt. of Business Affairs Roger McMichael said in an e-mail. “The district does not need the building, but we do need the property. Carmel Middle School uses the parking lot and the additional green space will be an asset for the middle school.”
McMichael said the district commissioned a study nine years ago regarding the feasibility of completely renovating the building. CCS later opted to build a new school after the study concluded that a new structure would cost 20 percent more than a complete renovation, he said. He added CCS has no plans to sell or lease the building.
Carmel’s is one of multiple school districts withdrawing from the educational cooperative, which is made up of seven districts from Hamilton, Madison and Boone counties. HBM provides various special education services to the students of its member districts, but last year Supt. Jeff Swensson said CCS will withdraw its students from the co-op to educate them in-house.