By Sue Kiesewetter
Enquirer contributor

FRANKLIN - Supporters of Franklin Schools' master plan will gather at 4 p.m. today in board offices to decide whether to resubmit a bond issue to voters in November.

For the second time in three months, voters Tuesday rejected a 2.84-mill bond issue,1,443 to 1,182, that would have provided $16.7 millionto expand space in the Warren County district of 3,100 students.

"We're going to revisit what happened and see how we can convince the people this is absolutely necessary,'' said board member Jo Ann Feltner.

The money was earmarked to fund the first phase of the district's master plan that dealt with space for elementary and junior high school students.

Students now meet in hallways, on school stages and in what used to be storage space, said Assistant Superintendent Bill Wood.

Had it passed, the bond issue would have been used to add 12 classrooms to the junior high for sixth-graders, freeing up space at the elementary buildings. Two classrooms would have been added to each.

"None of our needs have changed,'' said Wood, who favors putting the issue back on the Nov. 4 ballot.

The deadline to do that is Aug. 21.

And while officials in Franklin ponder their next step, educators in the 650-pupil Lockland Schools are celebrating a victory.

Voters there approved a hefty 15-mill continuing levy that will bring $1.5 million annually to Hamilton County's smallest school district.

Passage of the levy means the district no longer faces a merger with neighboring school districts.

E-mail suek@infionline.net